New social site for Lord of the Rings hinted
MMO evolution discussed
Turbine exec Jim Crowley has revealed that Lord of the Rings Online will be getting a new linked social networking site at the end of 2008.
Speaking this week at the Tokyo Game Show, Crowley said there would be character profiles includes, game data, media sharing and more.
Crowley said the new site is "a version of Facebook or MySpace that sits directly on top of the gaming world. This is a fully-featured, rich, robust social network. It has every single feature that you would find in the major commercial social networks such as Facebook and MySpace."
Speaking in an open forum, Crowley said MMOs are well positioned to tap into the social networking revolution - adding that more games will need to become 'open' in the future.
In-game advertising is also likely to add revenue to MMO coffers, especially as social network links become stronger. More on this soon.
