Tag: LotRO

I Feel Pretty, Oh So Pretty

The Lord of the Rings Online, and Vanguard, are two of the best looking games I’ve played (of course, always in my opinion). With LotRo going free to play I decided to poke my nose in lately. I picked up three 60 day cards for $15 each and decided to VIP my account until early next year, mostly so I could earn the ‘free’ turbine points while I’m a VIP. Pictured above is my level 29 hobbit minstrel, Lysthia. I play on the Landroval server, so if you happen to be around be sure to add me to friends.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Questing with 500 of your Closest Friends

One thing I really miss from my EQ days is that feeling of “wow, this is bigger then us”. Those raids that involved people from all over the server, joining together for a better cause. Yesterday, I briefly felt this again in WoW, and it was a lot of fun. There’s a new world event in game and while I typically praised only EQ2 for having live events, that has changed. In this event you’re sent to take down one very specific character, and take back the Echo Isles (for the horde at least). There’s a series of quests that lead up to an eventual attack and it was a LOT of fun. Especially since this is open to everyone on that same portion of the quest, as the screen shot depicts above (we’re all charging into battle). It was a great time even though I had to turn off channels because – well. Because.

I was slightly disappointed with the rewards only because one was a cloak and since WoW has no appearance slots it’s not something I’d ever wear. I’d much rather a tabard to add to my collection, or a shirt. It was still a good time, and I was glad to have gained yet another achievement.

Speaking of collections, I’ve been working on the pet achievement. I own 43/50 so far, and I’m quickly approaching the final rank. Of course that meant browsing through the broker and purchasing absolutely every pet I could afford, but it was worth it (to me of course, I’m sure others think I’m insane).

The warlock is 20 emblems away from purchasing her 75 emblem hat, and I’m excited about that. It’ll be nice to have a meta slot, and have a full ‘set’ of gear although I still need to work on my other slots like jewelery. That will come in time. I’ve also had a good time working on my factions, and simply enjoying the game.

On a completely unrelated note, LotRO has gone F2P, and you can find me on the Landroval server if any of you plan on checking it out. Let me know who you’re there as, so I can add to friends! Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

The Sky is Falling, the Sky is Falling!

Turbine announced today That The Lord of the Rings Online would be going Free to Play by this fall. Now, there’s a lot of posts out there about this news already, and you can read everyone else’ opinions on it for the next little while no doubt. There are good points, bad points, and all the ones in between. Personally here’s my stand on the matter.

I’m excited about it. Why? Well, for a few reasons. Number one would have to be: yes, I do have an active LotRO subscription but I very rarely ever get to play, and I really don’t feel as though I get my moneys worth of play time out of the $15 I spend every month. In fact once my billing cycle was up I had made plans to cancel the account until I felt that I had the time to dedicate to it. I own all of the expansions, and don’t even have a level 30 character yet. I love the game, but the amount of time I have just doesn’t match up.

Going free to play allows me to drop the subscription and pay when I have the time to play, and when I reach the content I want to access. I don’t even consider this model exactly ‘free’ to play, because there’s still a subscription for those who pay monthly, and you’ll have to pay to access content and other goodies (don’t know all of the details yet as this is still a ways off) and those who have life time accounts will also gain a bonus. You can read all the details on the lotRO web site. I enjoy tripple A titles going F2P – although I realize the name has a LOT of bad connotation along with it (lower game quality, etc) I have heard that the model has worked for DDO, and I am anxious to see how it pans out for LotRO. Obviously a decision like this was NOT made lightly, and I trust the company to do the right thing for them. Notice that I said for them, and not for me. Despite what we all like to think, companies have to look out for themselves first. It’s just the way they function.

I’m looking forward to being able to spending a few hours here and there in game instead of trying to think of a way to warrant spending $15 for an entire month. I think that in this gaming age with so many people all over the place and playing multiple games, having optional payment methods is a huge deal. How many of us actually play just one game any more? Moving to a free to play model is going to allow me to actually play the game more then I currently do, and that excites me without having to worry about stressing over the cost.

I realize this is not true for everyone, and I know everyone else has their own views, but for now, I’m happy. Whether or not this actually works for turbine will still have to be seen, but until it goes live I don’t quite understand why there are some out there hoping it fails before it even gets off the ground.

Exploring Esteldin

This weekend was another welcome back weekend for the Lord of the Rings Online, and while I don’t write about the game all that much – I do still have an active subscription, and every so often manage to find the time to log into game and play. I teamed up with a friend who plays a Champion (in both class and personality of course!) and we were off. My minstrel managed to nudge into level 29 and I started getting all excited about the fact that I may actually reach level 30 some day. Leveling has been slow for me, understandable since I play so rarely.

We both also headed back to Bree to pick up our level 20 mounts that we had never purchased. These cost 200 silver, which is not an issue any more. The mounts may be termed “slow” but anything that is faster then walking is pretty fast in my books. We had a blast running around chasing random mobs while mounted, and of course the ability to name them is neat. One more little thing to make the game feel more personal, which is something I always really enjoy.

We have been neglecting our chapter quests lately in order to quest down the smaller chains which is great for gear and money. I am sure we’ll get back to it before too long but it’s really nice to have an option of what to do.

Crafting. There were so many ore nodes to mine around Esteldin it was fantastic. Of course now my bags are full of the stuff and I need to actually work on the next step which is using all of it. Not to mention the spring festival is going on right now and I haven’t even looked into it yet. There’s just so much to do, it’s great.