This year the Lotro Fall Festival will start on October 19th 2010 and run until November 16th 2010. As you have probably assumed the main event will be a Haunted Hobbit Cellar. Since this new event has attracted much attention Turbine has decided to release additional information about this event. The latest developer diary has been devoted to the 2010 Fall Festival: The Haunted Burrow. In this Dev diary Lauren 'Budgeford' Salk has decided to tell us a little bit about this event, design-planning and realization.

During a panel at GDC Online 2010 Producer Kate Paiz announced that Lotro has doubled its revenue and created over a million new accounts since going F2P early last month.

Paiz also shared that 20% of LotRO's former players have returned to the game since the switchover, and that the game has seen a 300% increase in peak concurrency, with three times the number of players online simultaneously, and a 400% increase in active players total. 53% of players have used the in-game microtransaction store.

Spotted on joystiq.com

Dnote announced today that there are still no dates or concrete information about Lotro F2P launch in Europe.

Dear players,

Whilst we don’t have any dates or concrete information to share with you as yet, the good news is that it looks like the major challenges we were facing are nearly resolved and we will be moving forward with the next step of Free to Play implementation for the European service shortly.

At this stage we are optimistically looking to have plans finalised sometime next week at which stage we will be able to give you more solid dates of when we hope to proceed with the launch.

As always we thank you for your patience and do apologise for the continued delay of this launch.

[Dnote]

Codemasters urgently requires 100 additional Games Testers for their HQ in Warwickshire.

Codemasters has an exciting line up of brand new products currently in Development and due for launch in 2011. This includes DiRT 3, Operation Flashpoint Red River, Bodycount and other unannounced exciting titles.

This is a full-time role and you must be able to attend site Monday-Friday 38.75 hours per week with some overtime also possible. They are initially contract positions on a 12 week basis with a strong possibility of these being extended.

For more information visit official site.

One of the announcements that gained much attention lately is volunteer testing program. This time Lotro dev team is accepting applications for Palantir Private Preview Program, formerly known as Isengard. Although Turbine officially announced that

We want players who are new to the game, who are experts, who are hardcore, who are casual. Everyone has valid opinions we want to hear whether they are positive or negative

but there are several restrictions like:

1. Must have a valid and current US subscription to The Lord of the Rings Online (VIPs only)
2. Must be at least 18 years of age
3. Must have a clean forum and game history
4. Must be able to interact with the community in a mature and constructive manner
5. Must be able to communicate well through forum posts and bug reports
6. You must accept the terms of the Private Preview Program Non-Disclosure Agreement, the full contents of which will be provided during the registration process should you be accepted to the program.

See the list of qualifications on the official forums.

Today Turbine has announced an interesting contest - a pumpkin carving contest. If you want to participate pay attention to the following rulls:

Turbine will accept digital photographs of entries from October 4th through October 30th, 2010. Entries must be original creations, should be at least 1024x768 in resolution, and no larger than 6MB in file size. Photograph your pumpkin and enter it in one of the following categories:

• AC Pumpkins
• DDO Pumpkins
• LOTRO Pumpkins

You could win a custom forum title, 3000 Turbine Points and more. If you need some inspiration or just want to practice your skill click here for the official announcement. 

For those of you who are new to LOTRO, this will allow you to preview cosmetic items on your character prior to purchase. To access the Dressing Room, simply go to the LOTRO Store, click through the Cosmetics section until you see an item that you'd like to preview, then click on the item to bring up the detailed description. You will then see a "Try it on!" button that you can click which will automatically open the Dressing Room with your character wearing the chosen item.

The LOTRO Store team has implemented new lower prices on many items in the following categories. Prices have been lowered by 17-35%! Enjoy the permanent price breaks!

• Stats & Buffs >> Buffs, Equipment/Repair
• Stats & Buffs >> Enhancements >> Movement
• Travel >> Travel Maps & Skills
• Healing & Recovery >> Morale, Power, Dread

Today Sapience has announced that the LOTRO Game Servers will be brought down on Thursday, September 16 from 6:00AM - 10:00AM Eastern (-5 GMT) for a hotfix.