Amazon's attempt to create a Lord of the Rings MMO fell through this week, not through the machinations of Sauron, but through the even greater evil of corporate contract negotiations. If so, what better time for Standing Stone Games to remind us that its free-to-play MMO, Lord of the Rings Online, is still alive and well?

LOTRO, which turns 14 this weekend, celebrated its anniversary with Further Adventures, a new mission series following Bilbo Baggins. The new missions, which normally cost 495 LOTRO points (about $7), are available for free through May 9 with the code "SAVEBILBO". In addition, Middle Earth will host festivities from April 21 to May 11, when the VIP-only Legendary server will also raise its level cap to 105 and open access to adventures in Minas Tirith and the Black Gates of Mordor.

While LOTRO may not be exciting, this all tells us that the game is still running stable, although Steam Charts indicate that the game is running with a stable player base of 1-2,000 concurrent players. but many players are probably not playing the game through Steam. The game is also planning a visual overhaul to coincide with Amazon's ironic "Lord of the Rings" series.

Tolkien's work is not being carried on only in MMOs. Lord of the Rings Lord of the Rings: Gollum will be released next year.