It looks like the only news we received about MEO online in the past few months were the occasional forum posts by Chris Taylor over at the official Middle Earth Online forums. Yet again Chris answers a few questions from a forum visitor, this time on topics as the importance of quests in the game and the role of Orcish armies. Here's a snippet:

Will this game become too quest-oriented?
If you ask some people, they would say that's impossible. In any case, no, we will have options for people that do not want to follow the quests. And, reading ahead to some of your other questions, battles are part of some/most quests (depends on the type of quest).