The old one does not possess the same artistic quality, but it is a point of connection for many who look at their original Rolemaster books as some of the most prized treasures - that being said, we could not return 100% to that as it would appear we were living strictly off the past and we're not. The new logo pays tribute to the concept of the Iron Crown, but does so with new flair. We keep both on the site as a tribute to the past and a proclamation of the future.
As for MERP - we don't turn our back on MERP, we praise it as a wonderful system and in a great setting... but due to licensing we can't use either the system or setting right now, so while we encourage use of the old MERP material we cannot commercially use it in any way.
Note - when you are on the forums on the main page you will see that the forum sections with no new posts use the old logo (old log = old posts) and those with new post use the new logo (new logo = new posts). Just reinforcing the same ideas.