Oh good grief. I just found out that FFG acquired that exact game from Hasbro a while back. My gosh I've been out of the scene longer than I thought! Still, that explains the parallels, yes?

MECCG (aka METW) not solo-friendly? I disagree. Not that I play it that way much (2-3 times at most so far), but it is easily doable. There are solitaire rules in the Companion book and some solitaire scenarios. IIRC, you build yourself a normal deck sans Hazard cards, then a separate Hazard deck (heavy on creatures, I believe) that you draw from based on how many regions you travel rather than keyed to the specific symbols of the regions/sites you travel through/to. You have to fight whatever is drawn before you can enter the Site. (my memory is a little hazy, but I think that's correct)

Sound familiar?

What I've heard about LotR LCG so far sounds VERY similar to this type of gameplay. It's possible that LotR LCG consists of just this aspect of the MECCG game. That'd be too bad, as MECCG is a game with such amazing depth, but I will not complain. I will happily be first in line to purchase LotR LCG as soon as it comes out and every month thereafter.

I hope this turns out to be a successful game for FFG and they're able to support it for a long time to come.

Deleted - wrong thread.