Lord of the Rings

Farmers outside Staddle Bree-tard Shire shortie Rivendell rube Luin loser Dwarf Quick notes: Wolves can be found in the Midgewraith (sp?) Pass that drop the skins, tails, paws and so forth for various quests. They also are the only mobs I have killed that drop medium hides for tailoring! Based on chat, Hunters are the most popular class, followed by Champions. Burglars are the least-played class. Lore masters, captains and guardians are somewhere in the middle and probably in that order. I started a Burglar, but the class is just too boring. ...

And then I ran into Marcy down at the Inn and she was wearing this little padded number that I just knew she made to catch the eye of old Bounder Dono. And anyway we were talking about ‘you-know-who’ and who do you think walked in right then? Hey, are you even listening to me anymore? HELLO? When I was a lot younger and driving was still fun, I set off from Concord, NH to go downtown and get some lunch. That may have been the day I ended up fifty miles away in Keene. Or maybe that was the time I just pointed north and kept driving until I hit Quebec, where I bought dinner, turned around, and drove home. ...

Stand back, Lysistra! I shall bash this fell beast with this little flag! I didn’t want to discuss LotRO’s Captain class until I’d gotten to level 10 and earned the Herald pet. This little friend will help you in battle, cast little buffs or debuff the monster some, do a little damage and in general, act like your little brother. He doesn’t do a lot of damage but he sure can annoy the mobs. ...

I reached level 13 with my champion last night and finished the Ered Luin part of the elf epic quest series. The last step of which is to form a fellowship and go into an instance which, like every fellowship instance I’ve seen so far, is escorting some NPC through a mission on rails – entirely linear. At least for the 1-15 game, boss fights are very unspecial. But anyway. This was my first balanced fellowship; it had a guardian so I could go to Fervor mode (dps boost, defense nerf), and a minstrel so I wouldn’t die doing so. A lore master and a hunter rounded out the dps crew. ...

Whatcha reading? The Fellowship of the Ring? Dude, Gandalf isn’t really dead. Oh yeah, and Frodo like totally wants to keep the ring at the end but Gollum grabs it and falls into Mount Doom. Busy busy weekend but I found a little time to play in the Lord of the Rings Online Open Beta. I played a Hobbit minstrel in the stress test; time to check out the other classes to see what they were like. ...

After a weekend on LotRO, a game I wasn’t all that excited about, I wanted to play more. After a weekend playing Vanguard, a game I was very much looking forward to, I never wanted to play again. The difference? In Vanguard, I had an incredible sense that I had played this game before… many times… I found myself falling into the same patterns I had run in EQ, DAoC, WoW, FFXI and EQ2… kill stuff level kill stuff level kill stuff level. ...

Lord of the Rings Online is a casual MMO very much in the mold of World of Warcraft. After the stress test ended, I hoped I could play some more and will likely pre-order it. I don’t see this becoming my primary game, but I usually have a “serious” game and a “relax” game. My serious game at the moment is EverQuest 2. LotRO is well placed to be my “relax” game. ...

Returned to the game only to be put in a queue. The game initially said it would be fifteen minutes before I got in the game, but it was more like five. I hate queues. Not for the first time, I wonder what “Game Experience May Change During Online Play” really means. Night in Little Delving and I can’t help doing a little star watching before adventuring. Orion again, and Cassiopeia, the Seven Sisters and Taurus are all right in front of me. Strange what a little thing like putting a familiar sky in the game does for you. ...

Ah, Captain Brackenbrook wants me to kill stuff. FINALLY. Browsing through character window, come across a family tree. I wonder if this would let me form relationships among my characters? That would be cool. I can change my generation here but that doesn’t seem to affect anything. Loading window tells me that the first player or fellowship to hit a monster gets credit. Powerleveling technique? Amdir directs me to my trainer and gives me more copper. What a guy. Maybe he could just give me all his copper now so I could stop bugging him. ...

I’m writing these notes as I am playing the game. They may be a little scattered :P Character creation: No female dwarves? I suppose they could be male or female and you just don’t know. Hobbits look decent. The Hobbit movie makes hobbits look too long in the torso and short in the leg, but the character models in the selection screen look good. All the races look good in character selection. ...