If you're someone who has difficulties finding a store with available copies, or a person who can't access a store in person due to such factors as location, or transportation, Turbine, Inc has the deluxe package available for digital purchase/upgrade, which includes The Shadows of Angmar and the expansion, Mines of Moria.

Aside from the actual purchase of the game, a subscription fee is required to play Lord of the Rings Online. Turbine, Inc has made it clear that they wish to make the game equally affordable and equally worth the money as its competition. Therefore, there are 5 levels of subscription an account holder can choose from.

Monthly at a cost of $14.99
3 Months at a cost of $41.85 (Equates to $13.95 per month)
6 Months at a cost of $77.70 (Equates to $12.95 per month)
12 months at a cost of $143.40 (Equates to $11.95 per month)
Lifetime (Not YOUR lifetime, but the games lifetime), one time payment of $299.00
Whatever your choice in plans, all plans includes your first 30 days of play absolutely free. I, for one, chose the Monthly plan in the event I'd ever need to cancel my subscrption to fit my household budgets. Game Cards are also available at select store outlets. Check your local electronic and game stores to find out if they have them available. Game cards are a great way to enjoy the game without having to provide a Credit Card, or submitting yourself to a subscription contract tied to the Credit Card.

If you decide to purchase your copy of the game digitally, there are some notes that need to be made. First, your access game keys will be automatically added to your account. No punching in numbers everywhere, which saves some time. Also, there's no need to worry about not having those game keys. You will be sent copies of your game keys to your registered email. On a personal recommendation and should be common sense: KEEP YOUR KEYS. Save the emails, save copies of the email, write them down in a record book. They are your accounts identification in the event something happens and they are the only piece of information that verifies you are the rightful owner of the account.

The second thing to consider when purchasing the game digitally is obtaining the client itself. Turbine provided no links in the emails that lead to the client download. It's also not apparent on the games homepage as to where the client can be found. However, after searching Turbine's FAQ page, I found the tiny link to the client. It's my hope Turbine corrects the obscure position of downloading the client in the future. For now, if you do purchase the game online, check their support pages for the client download page. Once you have located it, take note: Even on high speed connections, the client is near five and a half GB and will take some time to download if Turbine servers are under high traffic hours. Purchasing a hard copy will save you the download time and move you right into installation.

The third issue is the initial patch. You will have a rather large significant patch process after installation. While this is the norm for MMO's, LotRO initial patch seemed much larger, and took much longer, than what seemed normal. While this can be annoying for those who have patience issues, it does provide a good time to pick up that game book and begin reading. It should also be noted that my patching process took place the day after the initial release of Mines of Moria. without much doubt a high number of users were also patching clients which added to the sluggish process at that time.

While time was an issue for me then, it wasn't exactly unexpected either and therefore I can't say it's an issue that hurts the game, or Turbine. It is however something you should be aware of when it comes to installing your copy of the game. Once you've installed your copy, patched it, and you've done all your registering, it's time to get started on your journey through Middle-Earth.