Turbine has released a dev diary for Lord of the Rings Online. Here’s a key snippet about instancing that I think Turbine ‘gets’ far more than other MMORPG creators:

… instanced spaces provide designers a ball of clay from which we can sculpt highly detailed encounters, making the world ever more alive for players. They pull from the behaviors of the quest system, world interaction, and skill focus or group interaction to provide a challenging situation for players. They do not introduce new game mechanics; instead, they utilize existing game mechanics outside of the traditional “quest system” to highlight class roles and class skills to provide these challenges. In essence, instances allow designers to create awe-inspiring moments and events that give players a feeling of accomplishment. To take advantage of this we are constructing different types of instances.

I’ve been playing the D&D Online (Turbine) for about a week now and I’m floored. Although the game does suffer from some lag problems, the instancing makes up for it multiple times over. Why? Because the instances are so well sculpted that they allow rouges to jump and climb their way through dungeons like Tomb Raider, while Fighters slash their way through masses like Diablo. Every class has a role in combat — which is far more fast, frenetic and positional than the EQ/WoW combat formula ever could be.

If Turbine can map these dynamics on to LOTR:O, and even potentially evolve them.. ! Holy crap, watch out.