Both Tur­bine and Code­mas­ters have announced that appli­ca­tions to the Isen­gard Test Server are now open for Euro­pean and Amer­i­can play­ers alike.

As it says on the Offi­cial Lotro forums, to stand a chance at being one of the select few to take part in this pre­view pro­gram you need to:

1. Have a valid and active sub­scrip­tion to The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria
2. Be at least 18 years of age
3. Have a clean forum and game history
4. Be able to inter­act with the com­mu­nity in a mature and con­struc­tive manner
5. Be able to com­mu­ni­cate well through forum posts and bug reports
6. 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.

It is nice to see that they are mak­ing Isengard’s pur­pose clear. This is not just a cheap way of see­ing new con­tent before every­one else does, like for exam­ple World of Warcraft’s PTRs whose con­tent is avail­able for all to see within hours of it open­ing, but a gen­uine effort to get reli­able mem­bers of the com­mu­nity involved in mak­ing the game bet­ter. Appar­ently places are extremely lim­ited, so I would assume com­mu­nity mem­bers who have par­tic­i­pated in forum dis­cus­sions (read: not trolling) will be picked first.

Already sev­eral peo­ple on the forums have shown their inter­est in join­ing up, which only goes to prove how suc­cess­ful a test­ing strat­egy this is for Tur­bine. True, they may not get the num­bers a PTR open to all (like Bull­roarer but with deeper con­tent) would pull in, but instead they will get a small num­ber of elite testers who care about the direc­tion the game is tak­ing. I must say I would love to be one of them how­ever, I have not really played the game long enough to deserve such a place.

If you are inter­ested in apply­ing for a posi­tion, you need to send an e-mail to LotROIsengard@turbine.com or isengardeurope@codemasters.com depend­ing on the region you are from. In this e-mail you should include your real name, user name and forum name, the e-mail address you used to sign up to Lotro with, and cru­cially an expla­na­tion of why you want to par­tic­i­pate in the program.

Good luck to all those who attempt to set out on a trip to Isen­gard, and I hope you expe­ri­ence some excel­lent con­tent on the hori­zon!