JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings saga is one of those fiction properties that finds itself injected into just about every form of media. Sure, the film trilogy is absolutely hard to beat, but there are also quite a few video games based on the universe. One such property is The Lord of the Rings Online, a massively multiplayer online game running strong since 2007. But if you're a Mac user who has yet to jump on board, the game is finally receiving a native Mac client.
Speaking to TUAW, developer Turbine Entertainment had previously planned to bring Lord of the Rings Online to Mac some time ago, but ultimately decided to create its own Mac-compatible client, rather than outsource the work.
"It will all just work natively," said the game's executive producer, Kate Paiz."The Mac stuff will work through the same patcher."
While LOTRO was originally released back in 2007, Turbine decided to take the game free-to-play in 2010. The game has enjoyed substantial success, due in no small part to the popularity of the Lord of the Rings property, but dropping subscription requirements certainly helped, as well.
The game's most recent expansion, Riders of Rohan, just released earlier this month.
If you're interested in battling your way through Middle Earth, the Mac client is running as an open beta, at the moment. You can download the client by singing up through Turbine's site.
"We're very excited to welcome the Mac community firsthand," said Turbine's Craig Alexander. "We'd like to see what this IP and this game means to them personally."
The past couple of weeks have proven especially kind to Mac gamers. Recently, GOG.com announced Mac OS compatibility for a number of new and classic PC games.
Follow this article's author, Matt Clark on Twitter.
Comstrike
November 01, 2012 at 1:13pm
LOTRO as a game and a community offers exactly the kind of environment and experience Mac fans will enjoy. I hope folks will consider joining the Landroval server, which is known for its especially strong community of players, creativity, in-game events run by players, and more! Likewise, if you are looking to join a strong group of friendly, mature, creative, and active players, visit SonsOfNumenor.com and we'll be happy to help show you what the game has to offer!
Sean Kevin Gonzalez
October 31, 2012 at 9:54pm
Took them LONG enough to get it straightened out. No one wanted to tell us anything on the LOTRO Forums,and this just plain exasperates me that we get the info third hand rather than from them directly, as well as in a timely fashion.
Sheesh!
AS one of the many millions of Mac users who didn't want to play Warcraft anymore to save our sanity, we switched to LOTRO to be part of a smarter community in general. More Mac users int he game will AUTOMATICALLY improve the IQ of the average players on any given server.
If I may, if this interests you, please come to the Imladris server as we're nearly an empty server these days and I want more Mac friends around me. :)
