Rick “Sapience” Heaton, Online Community Specialist for Turbine, writes: Greetings once again and welcome to your LOTRO Update!

Release notes for Siege of Mirkwood, Patch 1 are now available! The servers will be unavailable on Tuesday January 19 from 7:00AM -11:00AM Eastern (-5 GMT) while we perform an update to the game. More..

Access the Lorebook In Game Did you know you can access the Lorebook from inside the game? Just click on the Lorebook icon on the upper right edge of the radar mini-map. More..

Reputation System Live on the Official LOTRO Forums We have introduced a Reputation system to the LOTRO forums. Using the Reputation system, you’ll be able to give your fellow players props for their contributions to the community! More..

NPC Spotlight Gadaric Munce is one of two brothers sent by the Eglain of Ost Guruth to the Forsaken Inn to trade with the Men of Bree, as well as to enlist the aid of the more adventurous to help defend them against the ever-growing Power in the swamps of Agamaur. More..

Featured Player Our most recent featured Player is Theresa aka Lunna the Burg. When she is not busy trying to pilfer your coins or steal your pies she creates awesome LOTRO-themed videos and comics. You can visit my.lotro.com to read our interview with her! (http://my.lotro.com/turbinecommunity/2010/01/08/featured-player-lunna/)

Featured Video This week’s video, “Goodbye LOTRO. Roads Go Ever On,” was created as a goodbye by Shuyinn, who has thankfully returned! This tribute to LOTRO is based on poetry by the talented Mr. Bilbo Baggins, and Shuyinn evokes strong feelings of nostalgia by tying Bilbo’s words to LOTRO’s stunning scenery. We’re glad to have such a talented filmmaker back among the community! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjAu9IzfxQA)

If you’d like nominate yourself (or someone else!) to be a featured player or our Spotlight video, send us a quick email at lotro@turbine.com.

Finally, it might be late, but…. Happy New Year! We’ve got some plans for 2010. We’re not going to share them with you just yet but you, our loyal Fansites, are definitely on our minds as we plan for the future. Watch this space for more info… Soon™!