Lord of the Rings: Rise to War fans petition to save servers

If nothing changes, Lord of the Rings: Rise to War is going to cease as an online game. The hit fantasy game has developed a devoted community over the years. But as interest has waned, the developers are not planning to keep the servers running anymore. A petition has been started, though it remains to be seen what will come of that.

Lord of the Rings: Rise to War faces end of server upkeep

At the end of the year, Lord of the Rings: Rise to War is going to be shut down. From what many fans have gathered, it seems to be an issue of the license expiring, but with how expensive it is to renew licenses and keep up servers, the developers want to stop.

It’s been four years since this game arose, which lines up pretty well with the standard licensing agreements for these types of games. NetEase, which was hosting the game, has a lot of other things to host as well. So with some struggles, Rise to War is seemingly an easy choice to go.

However, fans aren’t happy with that. Though these things rarely ever work, they have launched a petition to keep the servers going. On Change.org, this petition has already generated almost 2,000 signatures.

“The best mobile gamer ever, The Lord Of The Rings: War, is going to have its servers shut down permanently. This can’t happen,” the details of the petition read. “This petition is to show Netease we still care about this game and won’t stand for it to be shut down!”

Fans on Reddit aren’t all that convinced anything will happen. Many posts on the two subreddits for the game are about the actual game or just looking for alternatives. u/Zequin1 asked about some similar games with “obvious impending doom lurking.”

Image via Reddit

These petitions don’t have a good track record. Recently, fans signed a petition begging Nintendo to stop suing Palworld. They haven’t. There have been several petitions to make Battlefront 3. To date, there is no plan for a third game there. It isn’t likely this one will change that trend. But fans are willing to try anyway.