I recently had the opportunity to catch up with Standing Stone Games, the current steward of The Lord of the Rings Online, and learned some fascinating things about the trajectory of the game over the years.
One of the most interesting topics with any Tolkien-based property is how rights are handled; most creatives are beholden to either the Tolkien Estate directly or with Middle-earth Enterprises (who hold the rights to The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings books). Standing Stone Games works directly with the latter, but the lengths they’re willing to go to stretch those limitations can get pretty crazy at times.
Source: Destructoid What was The Lord of the Rings Online team’s riskiest pitch? ‘What if we killed Gandalf?’