Tag: LotRO

Who you calling shorty?!

I love gaming. I never seem to have enough time to play everything I want (especially when I’m restricted by work) but I do try to get a few hours in here and there when I can. I’ve been debating picking up the $200 life time subscription to Lord of the Rings Online, I enjoy the game a great deal and I don’t think it’s going anywhere. Would I play it enough to justify $200? I think over time, yes. Short term maybe not but a life time is a long time especially if you look at how much money I’ve spent on my EQ and EQ2 subscriptions over the last 7 years. It’s something I’m still thinking about in any case. While I think about it, I have the account active for a month at least and a friend who had wanted to try the game out decided to pick it up too. As we all know games are wonderful but the one thing that makes them even better is having friends to play with and if not to play with then at least to talk to. I don’t always want to group up, but I do always enjoy a good conversation.

So it was that I found myself with little hobbit Lysthia, a minstrel, exploring around open fields and taking in the comments from someone who has never played the game before. Their main comments were about how beautiful the game was, and how it would take a little getting used to in order to maneuver around.  The game is very similar in play style to EQ2 (so far at least) so they shouldn’t have too much trouble as that was their game of choice for the past few years.

Today is turkey day here in Canada, so a happy thanksgiving to you all! I’m going to enjoy the day by gaming, gaming, and more gaming – with a little laundry tossed in there just so I feel productive. I hope everyone else has an amazing day, and I’m looking forward to doing more exploring in Norrath, Telon, Wizard City, and Middle Earth. Now, does someone have a few extra hours they can lend me?

Late Summer Festivities

Lord of the Rings Online is free to play (for those who have inactive accounts) from the week of August 18th to the 24th (or so my email told me yesterday morning). I decided to patch it up and take a peek, as one of the (many) games I love to play but simply don’t have enough time to warrant paying monthly for only two or three sessions. Plus it’s very similar to games that I’m already playing and paying for monthly. Anyhow!

I patched, logged in, and received in game mail telling me that there was a summer festival going on, and I should rush right there and take advantage of it. Which of course I did. I forgot how to actually get anywhere in game, so I decided to walk. It was a long walk. I did some harvesting along the way (and completely forgot what tier I was on, or what any of it was used for) and checked through my quest journal to see if I recognized anything at all about my level 17 rune keeper any more. Which I didn’t. It’s been a little while.

I did make it to the festival, picked up all of the quests in the area, one involving a whole lot of drinking. Wobbled around the dance area, found lost objects for one of the hobbit, and then decided to call it an evening.

I enjoy the free weeks that Turbine constantly throws my way, even though none of them have enticed me to re-subscribe to the game. It’s nice to be able to dive in for a short while without a cost – if I had of thought about it at the time I’d have signed up for the lifetime membership way back at release. Ah well. There’s still just not enough time to play everything I want.

WTB Some Time

I love my job, I really do. Being able to write about something I enjoy as well as something I’m passionate about is a great gift that I try to make sure I’m aware of constantly. On my web site, I write for me and I love talking about my adventures, thoughts, friends and anything else that happens to cross my mind. The only time any of this is difficult is when it all seems to happen at once. These days there are so many games out there, that I simply don’t have enough time to play everything I want. It’s a shame, because I’d really love to.

EQ2 is my ‘steady’ game even though I’m barely playing it these days (it’s due to being crunch week and no other reason) it’s the comfort game that I know inside and out, and I like that comfort factor. However. It’s not the only game I want to play and certainly not the only game I am playing.

I’ve been having an incredible urge to continue playing EQ, which I have waded in and out of for quite some time now. Problem is I don’t enjoy playing EQ alone (where as in EQ2 I have no problem wandering around on my own) and it’s difficult for me to make friends (especially when I waver to and from games). I have my 81 necromancer that I’m considering leveling a little, she’s fairly close to level 82. I’ve always wanted to hit “end game” in everquest, and with the expansion NOT raising the level cap in November, it may very well be a possibility.

Vanguard is another one of those “if I only had more time” games. I seem to be in a rut with my blood mage, and I’m slowly running out of areas where I can just dip in for an hour or two before calling it quits and feel as though I have gotten anything acomplished.

Last month I won a free copy of Age of Conan, I think I found the time to play once during the month that came with the game, and then it sat neglected. For some reason it just does not appeal to me as much as I wish it had. It may be because I’m not really a melee person, and it felt uncomfortable. Either way, it’s one of those “I wish I had more time” games – along with many others.

Lord of the rings online – I really enjoy this game, a lot. It’s familiar, it’s beautiful. I want to continue playing but for now my account lays dormant because once again the greedy time monster has taken all of my time away, and I just don’t have any to spare or to warent spending a monthly subscription for it.

So what AM I playing? Well, my current play list includes EverQuest II, Vanguard (barely), Free Realms (barely), World of Warcraft (please don’t shoot me, it’s easy to dive into for an hour and feel like I actually acomplished something), Wizard 101, Aion Beta, and some DDO.  I want to be able to devote more time to EVE, but that learning curve is so far over my head I may as well actually be playing from another planet. I’ve been having fun in Aion, but again – not enough time to play everything I want to play, and to get work done as well as real life things (plus I can’t actually sit at my desk for too long before I start to get sore from health issues).

While I am excited that there are so many games out there (don’t even get me started on console games and finding time to play those too!) there are certainly moments where I wish the selection were smaller. Am I the only one?

Happy Birthday LotRO

Turbine has another promotion going on right now in celebration of LotRO turning 2 years old. Old players will find their accounts active for a week, there’s 25% bonus experience in game, you can purchase a subscription at a discount price of $9.99/m (if you purchase one of their plans, 3 months or more) and there are also gifts to be found in game by means of ‘tokens’ that drop from mobs. I love promotions like these, and Landroval was bustling yesterday during the day with all sorts of players. On one side it was great to see, on another side, the lag was not great to see. I can only assume Landroval is far more populated then the server Nostalgia moved from, since I don’t remember having lag before. It’s short, and in spurts. It doesn’t hamper my game play any more then being slightly annoying as I run through Bree, and it seems to be limited to the big cities.

I played the rune-keeper for a bit yesterday along with Kasul who is still waiting for his character to transfer over. Word reached that Tipa’s characters made the trip successfully, so his should be up very soon. It’ll be nice to have everyone on the same server again.

We completed a few chapters of book one, volume one, inching ever so closer to where we were at before in the series, which was book one volume one chapter 11, the portion where we’d need a group to complete it. Tipa and Malfi will no doubt be dragged into that one to help out.

After it was decided that we’d do our level 15 class quests, mine was already starting to lighten up in colours as I was level 17 by then, but it made me trek out to the Lone Lands and I didn’t want to walk way out there when I’d not yet received the quests that had me adventure that way.

The quest was fantastic, I had so much fun doing it on my rune-keeper. You speak to an NPC outside the Forsaken Inn (I believe that’s the name, if it’s not dead on please forgive me) and get ported to the top of Weathertop. This is a HUGE mountain just North of the lone lands, and when I got there a thunderstorm was raging. I had to take my rune-keeper around and select a number of stones and then watch them each get hit by lightning. Mother nature at her best or some such story. After I’d carefully selected my three stones, orcs began attacking me. The atmosphere was intense, the sky would be pitch black as rain came pouring down and then suddenly everything would be illuminated bright as day time as the storm grew in height and then BAM an orc would charge me from the darkness.

After a time I received the messages that my three stones had been hit by lightning and I should go back to each one and see what remained. Back to the npc who ported me to the Inn and I received my weapon as well as a new class trait that lets me focus on my lightning skills with crits.

I headed back to Bree and turned in 5 iron tokens I’d gathered while adventuring and received a scroll for a weapon smith that allows a one time creation of a purple (not sure what the classification is actually called, heroic legendary etc) weapon! Neat. Most people were talking about how they’d received food from the gift-giver and naught more.

It was starting to get close to dinner after that, so I decided to break there. The rune-keeper is almost 18 and then it’s just one more level to catch up to Hamal once he moves over. Hopefully I can squeeze that in before our next game day the following week. We’ll see!

Rule of the day – Avoid the Kinship Keg

Yesterday I had some time to play with Kasul on my little rune-keeper. He managed to get an invite to Casualties of War (Thank you Ethic) and with that came a visit to the Kinship house in the shire. I learned something very important. Don’t drink from the Kinship Keg.

I took a sip, innocently enough. Just one sip. Before I knew it, I was passed out on the floor with a blurry image of Kasul hovering over me shaking my shoulders – and when I woke up I was in Tyrn Lhuig – Angman. This is a high level zone, at least higher then me. I was laying in a field surround by mosquito and when I managed to get my feet under me one of them came along and easily bonked me on the head. Of course my recall was down because I’d just used it, and guild recall was down.

Needless to say Kasul had an easier time of it and when he revived at least he was not too far away. Even though he was also unceremoniously dumped in a field some place. I guess that will teach both of us.

I paid the repair bill and we continued questing. The rune-keeper inched her way through 15 and most of 16 before I decided to call it a day. I didn’t get any crafting done, but I am sure I’ll manage to find a little time to work up the cooking and jewelcrafting.

I’ve already done all of the quests before on the other server with my minstrel, but I’m having a lot of fun with the rune-keeper. It’s interesting to make sure I align myself properly for either healing or dps depending on what I’m doing and who I am with.

The goal is to reach level 19 and be able to play with the Nostalgia who are still waiting to transfer, and work on my crafting. It’s a slow process but it’s been a lot of fun. Once we’re all there and settled it will be great to see some new sights, as I’m getting a little bit tired of running the same quests that I just did last week when I leveled the other character.

I was also happy to learn that I must have miss read the cost of housing. While it is still expensive, it’s not something that’s going to be completely out of my price range later on. I do want to purchase a home (seeing as housing is one of those things that I just enjoy doing) and I’ve been collecting a few house items to use once I get one. I’m not sure which area I’ll move to yet, but I’m thinking of avoiding the shire – since the Kinship home is there and my elf is constantly hitting her head on the low ceilings.