We are delighted to welcome you to participate in The Lord of the Rings Online™: Shadows of Angmar™ (LOTRO) Beta Program.

In order to take part in the Beta Program you will need to:

• Be over 18 years of age
• Be able to download a 3.0GB+ client
• Have a broadband connection
• Agree to the terms and conditions of the Preview and Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) - By entering the Beta Program you are agreeing to the terms of the NDA which can be viewed at http://www.lotro-europe.com/nda
• Agree to participate in the stress test by logging in and playing the game on Saturday the 10th of February. Any player who does NOT play on Saturday the 10th of February will have their account deactivated and will no longer be able to participate in The Lord of the Rings Online™: Shadows of Angmar™ (LOTRO) Beta Program.

If you do meet all of these requirements then please read the following instructions to get started.

Instructions

1 - First you will need to set up a free Codemasters Online Gaming (COG) account. To do this, go to http://www.codemasters.com/cog and follow the on-screen instructions to create a new account.

Once you have completed this section, an activation e-mail will be sent to the e-mail address you provided. Check your e-mail and follow the link to activate your account.

2 - Next, you will need to set up a subscription in your COG account. Once your COG account is active, log into it to create a new subscription.

Click on the 'Click here to create a new subscription link'. From the drop down product list, select LOTRO Beta. Enter your stress test or beta registration key in the next field. You will have either received this key from an invitation from Codemasters or via one of our promotional partners' websites.

*Please note that you will NOT be able to activate the following key until Saturday the 10th of February, at 10.00 GMT.*

Finally, type the word you see in the box. After submitting this information you should see a message saying 'Your subscription to the LOTRO Beta has been created successfully.'

3 - Download and install the game client. If you haven't already done so, now download and install the LOTRO game client. You can download it from the following links:

http://www.fileplanet.com/169391/160000/fileinfo/Test-Client

http://www.computerandvideogames.com

Please note you will need to register with these sites to access the game client. No payment is necessary to obtain the file. THE FREE DOWNLOAD SERVERS MAY TAKE A FEW MINUTES TO LOAD INTO THE PAGE - PLEASE BE PATIENT.

The client is approximately 3.0GB in size so it might take some time to complete! Once download has completed, double-click the executable to begin installation. Follow the on-screen instructions throughout the installation process.

4 - To play LOTRO, you will need to open the following ports via your computer’s firewall/router:

TCP: 80, 8081, 5015, 9000, 2900, 2916

UDP: 2900-2909, 5015, 9001-9012

5 - Play away!

Once installed, run the LOTRO game client. A window will appear asking you to enter your login and password. Here you should input the COG username and password you chose in step 1. The game may patch itself at this point. Once complete, simply log into the game and you are ready to play!

Beta Support

To participate in discussions about the Beta with your fellow testers along with regular news updates, a special LOTRO Beta forum has been set up at http://community.codemasters.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=585

This Beta forum is private and is only for those currently testing the game. Remember that you are under NDA and are not to disclose that you are even in Beta, along with any details about the Beta Program or the game.

The Beta forums are now password-protected and so when prompted, please input the password you were given to access them.

Getting Started

Whilst you wait for your download to complete, please take the time to familiarise yourself with the following:

What can I expect?

- The first thing to remember is that this is beta. You are one of the lucky few, select people that have been given the privilege of playing LOTRO before anybody else. This also means that the game is still unfinished and is not at the final retail quality you may expect. You could encounter bugs, issues and different problems while playing!

What do I do if I find a bug?

- We'd really appreciate it if you would submit bug reports using the form we have provided here: http://www.lotro-europe.com/bug. Please be as concise and as detailed as you can. If you want tips on how to write top-notch bug reports, you can read the guide we have written for you, here: http://community.codemasters.com/forum/showthread.php?t=128462.

Will the servers be up 24/7?

- Whilst we will endeavour to keep the servers up as much as possible, there will be scheduled downtimes when we will update the game with new patches and updates. There will also be times when the servers come down unexpectedly perhaps due to an error. In those cases we will try to get them back up at the earliest possible convenience; however, do please bear in mind that if they go down in the early hours of the morning, it is unlikely that we will be able to reset them until the start of the next working day.

Will I keep my character through to launch?

- We're afraid not. During the course of the different beta phases it will be necessary to wipe the characters. This will happen fairly regularly at the beginning and will become less frequent as time moves on. We have to do this as the database becomes incompatible with the new versions of code that we install. We will try to limit doing this wherever possible.

Codemasters Online Gaming would like to thank you for your continued support and assistance. We look forward to seeing you in Middle-earth™!