LotRO: Top Five Insulting Ways To Refer To People Based On Where They Live

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. ...

April 13, 2007 · 2 min · 219 words · Tipa

LotRO: The Run to Rivendell

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. ...

April 11, 2007 · 6 min · 1067 words · Tipa

LotRO: The Captain

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. ...

April 11, 2007 · 2 min · 409 words · Tipa

LotrO: Of Champions and Crafting.

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. ...

April 4, 2007 · 3 min · 621 words · Tipa

LotRO: The Champion

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. ...

April 3, 2007 · 2 min · 389 words · Tipa

LotRO vs Vanguard

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. ...

February 26, 2007 · 2 min · 322 words · Tipa

LoTRO Post Mortem

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. ...

February 26, 2007 · 3 min · 608 words · Tipa

LotRO Stress Test: The Shire

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. ...

February 25, 2007 · 5 min · 1056 words · Tipa

LotRO Stress Test Notes: Intro Part 2

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. ...

February 24, 2007 · 5 min · 1037 words · Tipa

LotRO Stress Test Notes: Introduction

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. ...

February 24, 2007 · 11 min · 2323 words · Tipa