Lord Of The Rings Online: Middle-earth Online Memories - Part 1

Over at RPG Vault they have an interview as Five core team members look back at the initial massively multiplayer project based on Tolkien's celebrated books:

In the first half of 1998, Yosemite Entertainment made what may have been the most exciting announcement yet within the young category of online world gaming. The company, part of leading publisher Sierra, revealed it had acquired the rights to create a massively multiplayer version of the domain made famous in J.R.R. Tolkien's celebrated The Hobbit and his seminal trilogy, The Lord of the Rings.

Head over to RPG Vault and read the whole interview.