This could have been a place where I showed you a bunch of cool screenshots of the stuff you're going to see in Moria in the upcoming Mines of Moria expansion pack for Lord of the Rings Online. But unfortunately for you, I'm one of those whiny guys who hates spoilers. I'd rather experience Moria as they intended it rather than as a press tour. So I begged off. "Is there anything else you can show me?" I asked during a hands-on demo.

That means this is instead a place where you read about how Mines of Moria will change massively multiplayer games as we know them.

Read how after the jump.

MMOs are sort of stuck. No matter how good they get, they tend to repeat the same sins over and over. For instance, aggro. Who came up with that? It's a silly concept that needs to go the way of the dodo, just as soon as someone can figure out a better way to make the games work.

Then there's "gear churn". I'm sure you're acquainted with "gear churn", even if you're a casual MMOer. Your sword that was awesome when you were level 8 sucks when you're level 10. So you get a new sword – after all, an MMO has to offer constant carrots! – and then you sell the old one to the vendor for a handful of silver. Two levels later, you're back at the vendor selling the new sword. You're like a pre-teen constantly growing out of his clothes.

This is strictly an MMO convention with no analog in real fantasy. Excalibur, Notung, Narsil, and Luke's lightsaber didn't have a level window. They were there from the beginning to the end, as steadfast as any sidekick and just as much a part of the mythology.

But the point of the new legendary item system in Mines of Moria is that your gear doesn't expire. Somewhere around level fifty, you'll start to come across legendary items. Take one of these mysterious doo-dads to the forgemaster in Eregion (fun fact: this is the place where the actual Rings of Power were forged!), who then reveals its basic property.

A legendary item has "legacies", which are special powers and bonuses specific to a particular class. As you use a legendary item, it earns the same experience points that you earn. But it levels up according to its own ranking system. When a legendary item levels up – ding! – you can "re-forge" it at Eregion. This gives you points to spend upgrading the item's legacies. Do you want more DPS, or perhaps a bigger bonus to its fire damage or maybe a higher critical hit change? Do you want to spread points among various legacies, or just emphasize your favorite? Re-forging can even reveal new legacies.

But that's just the start. You can affix relics onto any legendary item. There are three slots for relics, one for each type: gems, runes, and settings. As you find these, you can stick them onto your legendary item to give it additional powers. A relic economy makes all relics worth keeping. You can accumulate these gems, runes, and settings, which are stored separately from your regular economy (this is one of the new ways Turbine is decluttering the inventory). You can then cash in relics for an unknown upgraded relic, sort of like a gambling minigames. Put in five level one relics for a guaranteed level two relic, but you won't know what kind.

Part of what I really like about this new system is that it recaptures the frequency of leveling that makes the early stages of an MMO so enjoyable. As you hit the higher levels, the pleasure of dinging up becomes less and less frequent. But legendary items reintroduces that in long gaps between levels fifty and sixty. You can even level a legendary item that you don't plan on keeping in the long run, because the forge-master at Eregion can break down legendary items into a little bundle of "item xp" that can be transferred to another item.

Would I lose what little MMO cred I have if I say that this reminds me of the weapon system that makes the Ratchet & Clank games so addicting?

And would I gain some RPG cred back if I point out that one of the coolest things about legendary items is that you can name them yourself?