Well, its been a while since we had an update on the front page, so seeing as free to play is now just around the corner (Sept 8th!) lets talk a bit about it and what it means to CoE.

Aside from getting some sorley needed new content, expect to see an influx of new and old faces around. We have had quite a slow summer due to A) it being summer and B) no new content in forever + a day, and this is normal and to be expected. What is also to be expected is old friends returning to check out the new content and new friends brought about by the free to play model.

With the influx of new and returning members, it is important that we all remember our family friendly atmosphere needs to be preserved. Some people are going to have a million questions (a million and four of they are brand new to the game) so please do your best to help out answering questions and lending a hand as your time permits.

One of the highly anticipated (or dreaded in some cases) changes coming are the revamp of the classic instances. Places like the great barrows, CD, UrU and helegrod have been revamped and are now scalable. We will defenatly be organizing some kin outings to see the new changes, and with the addition of scaling to the instances as seen in the current skirmishes, this means we are no longer going to have to put together a group based around the origional level requirements for some of the instances.

Also of note, the new turbine store is going to be offering some items that have been highly debated in beta as going against the convenience over advantage model that was promised to us when the store was first announced. I want to make it clear that in no way shape or form are we going to require people to buy stuff from the store to participate in raiding once we get that ball rolling again. The only things that will be required for raiding are things that can be crafted in-game and the desire from you to tackle this dificult content

All in all, I'm pretty excited about all the changes coming, new skills, new landmass, new instances, fixes, changes, new and old friends returning. It all sounds like a pretty good deal for a free update. I hope you are all as excited as I am.

~Mal