We were very fortunate recently to catch up with Meghan "Patience" Rodberg over MSN - yes, she was actually at her desk! - and took that opportunity to ask her a few questions about the release of Lord of the Rings Online, the various Books, what's been and what will be over at Turbine in the coming year. Here's how it went:

AutumnKiss: Okay, so we're here today with Meghan Rodberg, to discuss the latest happenings with The Lords of the Rings Online... mainly a review of what's happened this last year, and what's coming up in the future. I am Maggie "AutumnKiss" Olsen, and with me is "Tomec", from Allakhazam's LotRO team. Thank you for taking time to sit with us!

Meghan Rodberg: It's my pleasure! Thanks to Allakhazam for all of their support, too!

Tomec: It's our pleasure, and thank you from me for taking some time out of what I'm sure is a very busy schedule

AutumnKiss: Okay, so first, a huge congratulations to the Turbine team for their 2007 accomplishments and may 2008 bring more pie and ale then ever before!

Meghan Rodberg: Thanks! We liked the tavern crawls too. 2007 was a fantastic, if completely crazy, year, and we?ll try to continue the pace in 2008!

AutumnKiss: We're focusing on this year and what it brought to the industry. Is there a change in focus for a community team switching from development status, to beta, to live?

Meghan Rodberg: Oh, most definitely! I remember when I first came to Turbine 3 years ago; LOTRO was in early development, and things were nice and quiet. As we moved into alpha, then beta, then open beta, and finally launch, it got increasingly crazy. I can?t say that things have slowed down much since then thanks to Books 9, 10, and 11, all of which were pretty huge deals (and of course we?re now ramping up for Book 12 ? no rest for the wicked!).

Our focus, before we went into alpha, was building a solid core community and, in a way, setting the tone for the months and years to come. As LOTRO went into alpha and beyond we began to place additional emphasis on gathering feedback from the players and trying to keep them informed of what was coming next.

Above all, we?ve tried to make sure that the quality of our communications were top notch ? downtimes are posted well ahead of time, our patch notes are of epic proportions (we have to give them a table of contents!), and we try to keep lotro.com supplied with a steady stream of updates.

AutumnKiss: How has the launch and subsequent changes in focus affected the community team and their responsibilities?

Meghan Rodberg: Our community team?s responsibilities haven?t changed very much; from the beginning, we?ve tried to maintain a tone in the community that?s positive and helpful ? I can point to Saffron?s signature as an example; it?s "Invest in your future...be nice to a newbie!" We?re very proud of the outstanding community that?s grown up around LOTRO, whether viewing the community as a whole or just taking a look at some of the incredible individuals that are part of it.

Obviously before you launch you?re trying to acquire players, and after launch you?re trying to keep the ones you have while still acquiring more, and (admittedly I?m biased here) a solid, welcoming community helps you achieve both.

AutumnKiss: In this busy and highly competitive industry, what have been some of your favorite moments?

Meghan Rodberg: It?s sometimes hard to lift your head above water and look around you, so I?ll just name a couple of things I really enjoyed this past year:

• Lighting up the servers for Open Beta. We were in ?Mission Control,? a large room with representatives from just about every Turbine team and server stats projected all the way across one wall. Watching the population graphs suddenly spike as the players flooded in was awesome ? it was a huge amount of effort, and teamwork, to get to that point and to have it go so smoothly was thrilling
  
• PAX! The Penny Arcade Expo is my favorite show out there, and it was a blast as always. We had a great time showing off LOTRO (and hosting a party for the players at a nearby Gameworks). Meeting our players face-to-face is one of my favorite parts of being a community manager.

AutumnKiss: What's been your favorite book expansion, and why?

Meghan Rodberg: All of them have had some great stuff, but I?d have to say it?s a tie between Book 10?s introduction of fun features like Critter Play, and Book 11?s introduction of housing. I can?t wait for the Windbottom neighborhood to finally open up in the Shire homestead.

AutumnKiss: If there was one thing that happened at your job this year that you could change, what would it be?

Meghan Rodberg: Not getting enough time to play LOTRO. Other than my decked-out admin ?showoff? character +Patience, none of my ?player? characters are very high level. Most of my focus is trying to offer the community more features outside of the game, and that takes so much time I rarely get to get *in* the game!

AutumnKiss: Haha!

Tomec: Are there are any talks about the next PAX, or some other meet and greet which you could tell us about?

Meghan Rodberg: We're planning on being at several shows in 2008, and there's some talk about doing a fan faire, though that hasn't been confirmed yet.

AutumnKiss:What's your most memorable occasion with the your community?

Meghan Rodberg: Most memorable occasion.. that's a tough one, since there have been several. I really love meeting our players in person and putting faces to the names, so I'd have to just say it's been player events like LOTROG I and II, PAX, and the Midnight Madness event in April. Pretty much any time I can see our players not dressed as a bunch of pixels is memorable.

AutumnKiss: Can you tell us about your favorite character (of your own)?

Meghan Rodberg: My favorite character is my hobbit minstrel, though she's still just a baby.

AutumnKiss: Awesome! I now have visions of dancing pixelated hobbits in my head!

Meghan Rodberg: (I started with a human lore-master, but I really relate to hobbits, being so short myself )

AutumnKiss: Well, thank you again for your time, Meghan. As always, it's a pleasure to talk with the people that keep this industry alive - and Turbine does such a fantastic job of that. We look forward to the next installment, and hope to sit and chat with you again soon!

Tomec: Hobbits are quite nice for sure, even to us tall people! Thank you again for taking time out of your schedule to sit down with us here at allakhazam.com, I?m sure I speak for all of us here when I say how much we enjoy the game and look forward to it?s success as it continues well into the future! You?ve been a great help and it?s very nice to sit down and chat with you. Here is hoping we can do it again soon, and maybe at one of those events you hinted at!

Meghan Rodberg: Thanks guys, and have a wonderful holiday season!

AutumnKiss: You too!

Tomec: Indeed, happy holidays to you, and everyone at Turbine!

Once again, thank you Meghan for taking time out of your very busy schedule to chat with us live. It was a great pleasure! And please... go play your Hobbit!