I’ll make this brief. I’ve seen this happen so often in the last 5 years or so of playing MMOs, and before that with various forum RPs, MUDs and MUSHs. Sometimes I’m the one vanishing, but more often, I’m the one left hanging by the vanish-er.

Burnout happens. We all know it’s true. These games and the stories we tell tend to be addictive. This is especially true if we’re trying to find a way to deal with some not-great stuff happening in our real life, and the easiest way for us to cope is just to make a new one. But inevitably, that falls down because your real life is out there stacking up while you hide. Or maybe you just get tired of the obligations of logging in every day, posting your turn, playing your part. Or maybe the game just stops being more interesting than other things you can be doing.

That’s fine. It really, honestly is. And some people may be upset at you taking time off - especially if it’s the indeterminate “I don’t know if I’m ever coming back” breed of time off - but most people will understand that real-life comes first and you need to take care of you. Honestly, they will.

If you’re a soloer with no ties to anyone; good for you! Take all the time you like!

However, if you’re a roleplayer, a kin member, or worse yet a kinleader, you have to let people know you’re going! Even if it’s just a note that they can’t really follow up on posted on your kinship’s forum: “Sorry, real life calls and I have to heed the call. I’ll be back if I can.” Preferably, you should give people notice and some time to work around you.

You have to let people know so that people who are involved in RP with your character can disentangle themselves from any current plot threads that closely involve your character. Or so that people who are counting on your raid slot being present can find a replacement. Or so that the second in command can make a transition of power without everyone wondering why they’re taking over and bucking for position on their own.

Just let people know. Don’t just vanish for weeks at a time. People will understand a LOT more being told than when you just hare off into the stratosphere and then expect to waltz back. Bad feelings are pretty much inevitable if you’ve dropped the ball on a bunch of people and left them to unexpectedly fend for themselves (yeah, I’m looking at you, JT)

Hopefully, this is paranoia speaking, but it’s good advice all the same.

I mentioned this in my Elf post, and I’ll mention is again because I find it similarly (if not quite AS) important on my Hobbit.

As RPers, there’s a certain amount of canon that we sacrifice in the name of playing a game with a mess of other people. Things like mailboxes and horses and swift-travel. Not to mention things like Hobbits all over Rivendell and Elves hanging out in taverns!

However, there’s a certain saturation point at which it just becomes too much. It’s just something you CAN’T accept into your character’s world view. People on their mounts at the top of the Boar Fountain in Bree? People smiting wolves with lightning and summoning ents to stomp on them? Elves making out with Men in the Forsaken Inn? No, no way. Just can’t do it.

Here’s some of the stuff that I “filter” when I play - which means that I simply pretend not to see it, and do not in any way react to it in-character (unless forced to do so… I’ll get to that later:)

1. Most of the other players. Sorry, guys, but there’s too many of you around. Anyone who’s running around, who doesn’t have an RP tag, who jumps up and down on RP for no reason or builds a campfire on RPers (that’s a holdover from WoW, where it was rife - I’ve only seen it a couple times here) and just generally people who don’t seem to be RPing. There’s nothing wrong with those people, per se (except the griefers) and I want to make that clear. But I thinkthey would be as uncomfortable being pulled into a heavy RP session as I would be acknowledging them running back and forth through one as they turn in their quests. Not everyone wants to RP, so I filter most people who are simply PvEing right out of my eyes.

2. Rune-Keepers. Sorry. And yes, I have one. If I ever meet another one that’s well-roleplayed, I certainly won’t ignore them. But in general, Elves and Dwarves swarming all over the landscape throwing molotovs and calling down lightning aren’t there as far as I’m concerned.

3. Heavily armored Hobbits. “OMG, what about Londi!” I hear you cry. Well, Londi is a Roleplayer, and wants to be acknowledged. He’s in-character. But for the most part, the idea of a Hobbit in heavy armor is so OUTLANDISH to the setting, I just don’t see it. Remember the huge deal that got made of that corselet Bilbo and Frodo wore? And how everyone just stopped and stared when Pippen got outfitted? Yeah. Most Hobbits aren’t walking about in plate!

4. Elves doing lore-indefensible things. Please stop flirting and making out in public. Please stop being evil and possessed by Morgoth (I’m not making this up!) Please stop being a murderer in Bree. Etc. I will not see you, lalala.

As promised, it is “later” - I will not ignore people who make an effort to RP at me, even if I have previously filter them. If someone WANTS me to acknowledge them, I will. My filter is to try and preserve a world-view that everyone is in-character, by taking people who aren’t in-character away. If someone reveals to me that they are in-character, then poof! There they are!

Conversely, if you walk up to me and ask me a/s/l, ask me if I’m “questing,” mock my RP, or reference RL (”hey u guys see lost last nite??”) then the filter blast shields come down and you go bye-bye. If I’m clearly RPing, have the same respect for me that I have for you, and please filter me out. You leave me alone and I’ll leave you alone!

I’m curious how other RPers handle filtering: who, how and why?

What a fabulous night of RP! I really REALLY missed RP like this - long conversations, long walking RP, characters connecting, sharing their stories, meshing. Loved it! *hugs*

Otherwise titled: why the hell did I do this to myself… again? 6 of my 7 characters are Elves.

The roleplaying of Elves is a difficult matter, it isn’t just one of your holiday games…

Well-documented, very detailed, extremely fleshed out: playing Tolkien’s Elves has quite a few advantages. They even have their own language, not a theoretical one but an actual written language that you can learn (most of.) I’ve always felt that the Elves were Tolkien’s favorite children, gifted with scads of history and favors and then written out when it became clear they would have to become corrupted by the Fourth Age if they didn’t go.

However, that enormous amount of source material can act as an anchor as well, a giant weight you drag with you from encounter to encounter. The Sorrow of the Firstborn. The Light of the Eldar. The weight of immortality, and formality, and being so far “above it all” compared to the rest of Middle-Earth that even in the Third Age the Elves exist in insular, insulated enclaves protected by the remaining Rings of Power and can’t even be bothered to come out and fight Sauron for the most part. They’re too busy packing.

And how do you play a character like that? How do you give proper respect to all that backstory and the way Tolkien clearly felt about the Elves and at the same time exist in the game-world and interact with other PCs? How do you become part of the roleplaying community while playing a proper Elf?

It’s hard. It’s a very fine line to walk.

First off, I believe we have to pattern ourselves much more after Legolas than any other Elf. And no, I don’t mean be one of the 10,000 Elf Hunters named Lleggollas (seriously, people, have some dignity!) Legolas is given to us as one of the only Elves during LOTR who:

1. Adventures outside of his protected Enclave. Sure, he was sent to deliver a message, but he could have gone right back home. He chose to join the Fellowship instead.

2. Forms friendships with other Free People.

3. Is a combat-oriented character, while most of the other Elves alive in the Third Age seem to fall either into the “merry/singing/feasting Woodland Elves” model of the Hobbit or the “calm, scholarly, contemplative Elves who know the End Approacheth” model of LOTR.

Our characters have to be all three of those things in order to interact fully with both the game world and the other characters. And while in canon there was just the one of Legolas, there are hundred of Eldar running around from the Shire to Moria, and we have to take that into account when we make our characters.

I want to say that again: we have to take into account that we’re not playing in the books. We’re not playing in canon. We’re playing in as close an approximation as we can manage, and we should do all we can to maintain that, to respect the lore, and to respect other players’ efforts to stay within the lore. However, there are some things we just can’t get around. Mailboxes. Hundreds of Elves and Hobbits all over the landscape. Tons of Men in Imladris.

That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to stay as close as we can. But we should also attempt to “filter” our view a little. When my Elf is in Rivendell, unless another character is walking, talking or acting in character - I don’t see them. Literally, my eyes just filter them out. I don’t see the tons of Hobbits and Men in Imladris. They’re not there to me, unless they’ve got an IC reason to be there.

I don’t go to Bree. Ever. If I’m in Bree, it’s for a brief instant to swift-travel elsewhere. The only time I spend any appreciable time in Bree is to finish Book 1 on my character, then I bail. I never quest there. I most certainly do not hang out in the Pony RPing. I don’t think that’s an appropriate place for an Elf to be - far moreso, in fact, than Men being in Rivendell. In the books, Men and Hobbits both visit Rivendell, for varying lengths of time. You never see an Elf in the Pony downing beers with Barliman.

The agony of playing an Elf comes with interacting with other players. Most other RPers who know their stuff aren’t comfortable with Elves, in character. They’re strange and distant immortals, not buddies. They can be your sheild-brother, but being your friend is a little different. There are instances of elf-friends in the books, but they are few and far between. Most other RPers are going to hesitate before getting into an intimate relationship (I don’t mean romance, I mean close friendship where you can disclose secrets and whatnot) with an Elf, and you as an Elf will be equally wary of them.

That gets pretty lonely.

I’ve personally solved for this in different ways for my different characters.

Nenuvyiel is a hostess. She’s gracious in that way, and she likes making other people feel welcome. She hosts my Hall of Fire events, because of that. In that way, she can gently encourage tales from other people while making them feel comfortable around her. It doesn’t encourage intimacy outside of the HoF, sadly, and when she’s got her armor on she’s all business, but it gives me an outlet with her.

The twins, Silana and Sileirien, are very young. Just over 100, they’re at the canon age to be out on their own, getting married, and trying things out. They’re not going to act aloof or proper, because they’re still basically adolescent to their people, so they have that teenage carte blanch to make questionable friends, break curfew, hang out on the wrong side of town, be emotional and generally shake up the stereotype.

Lonare is an Avari and did not grow up in any of the established Elven enclaves. In addition, he’s very young, and so he has even more reason than the twins do to buck the mold.

Olchen is a scholar and very curious. She’s also very gentle, maternal, and has a gift of healing. Her foresight comes and goes. All of those give her good reasons available to interact with most characters.

Galuvae is an innocent. She’s not young, but she has never left Lorien before and she’s eager to learn about and embrace Middle-Earth before the Elves sail to the West. Her determination to write a book about the lives of Men and who they are so that she can send it West, so the Elves will never forget, drives her to question and listen to almost any Men she comes across. And most people love the opportunity to talk about themselves.

Okay, here’s the deal.

I hate Moria.

Now, I don’t hate it to the point that I hated TBC, but I’m starting to wonder if MMO publishers have any idea how to put out an expansion without destroying the basic game. WoW didn’t become the horrifying hamsterwheel grindfest it is now until TBC came out and all they added was rep grinds to get into dungeons to get gear to get into dungeons to grind more rep to get into raids to grind rep and gear for the next grind… etc.

But the fact that I’m having to compare LOTRO to WoW in any way? That’s a BAD thing. I quit after three and a half years of playing because of how TBC ruined the game.

Moria is eyecandy. So were the Outlands. I’m not denying for one moment that Moria is awesome to look at. It’s really fun to go into the new “zones” and look around and see all the hard work the graphic designers put in. It’s very good looking.

It’s a nightmare to get around in. And it’s a dark cave with bottomless pits all over the place and mobs every 5 feet, where you can’t use your horse. You could use a llama. If you bought one with the rep grind that all the quests and drops point you toward. It’s not a gating rep grind (yet) since you don’t need to be Kindred with either faction to get to a raid… but it’s still a pretty disturbing shout-out. Especially since you DO have to grind the other instances to get the drops that allow you to survive the Watcher Raid. THAT is gear-gating content. And people don’t like rep grinds. Why do MMO devs keep putting them in? Timesinks, fine, but you know what? Players don’t want timesinks. Devs do, so they don’t have to put as much real content in.

90% of Moria gives the feeling that the devs are putting as many obstacles in front of you as they can. They want to slow you down. They want to make the content TAKE A LONG TIME. Not necessarily make you savor it. They want it to be SLOW. That’s why there are so many deadfalls and dead ends. That’s why there’s mobs every 5 feet. That’s why they take away the horse you earned back at level 35 and make you grind if you want a new one (and by the time you’ve grinded that mount you’re probably 60 and can leave Moria if you want to.) That’s why the combat system got completely reworked so that a level 50 character isn’t as powerful as they were and you have to get to 60 just to feel somewhat powerful again (you don’t have to nerf the lower levels to make the higher levels feel strong, you know.) That’s why there’s no real progression to 60 - you get “improved” versions of old skills, the gear isn’t much of an upgrade, the crafting gear is garbage, and if you’re lucky you’re almost as strong as you were at 50 when you finish gearing your 60. This isn’t an expansion, folks. It’s a shrinkage - it’s a roadblock. They’re counting on the addictive nature of most MMOers, and the fact we live in hope that the devs will “do right by us” to hold us here for a while.

And yeah, it’s working. I hate the expansion and what it did to the game, and I’m staying. But I’m very unhappy. I’ve never felt this burnt out and unhappy since I left WoW - and WoW lasted a hell of a lot longer. LOTRO was going to be my game. I LOVED this game. Now I’m honestly considering looking for a new one. That sucks.

Moria feels like a Sword of Damocles. I had 3 50s going into MoM, and 2 30s. I dread playing the 50s because they are stuck in the Cave of Doom and there is no alternative leveling path. This is like the horrible Lone Lands doldrums, except it’s the entire endgame at this point. You have to level up in Moria from 55 on, and you have to instance/raid in Moria if you want something to do once you hit 60. There’s no choice.

I’ve got two mid-20s new alts now, Warden and Runekeeper (and do I need to say how much I, as a roleplayer and a giant Tolkien fan LOATHE the implementation of the Runekeeper? We’ll save that for another post, but suffice it to say I play with all the fx turned off when I play her, and when I’m in groups with my kin I only heal because I’m ashamed of the god-awful magey fx when I do DPS.) It was hard to get them through their 20s because of how much I can’t stand the Lone Lands. It’s a funnel. You have to go there. For at least a couple of levels, you have to. And it’s an ugly zone with tedious quests and I can’t stand the place. I much prefer the North Downs, even though it’s just as much of a funnel, just because at least it’s not ugly and not (imo) so freaking tedious. It’s better designed.

Moria is like the Lone Lands for 50s. You have to go there, and you have to level there. Only unlike the Lone Lands, you can’t just grab a couple of levels and go on to the more aethetically pleasing zones. Nope, you’re stuck there. In the dark, dank, claustrophobic, tedious cave. It’s like being sub-30 again, because you don’t have a horse, and most of the quests are “kill 10 X mob, then come back” and “deliver my letter to X guy in the next town” and you have to run there through crowds of annoying mobs.

We tried to skip it. We got to 55 in Eregion by squeezing out EVERY quest there, and then hit Moria until 56, then ran to Lorien. There is ONE quest hub and FOUR orc camps there. The camps are all full of people farming orcs for LIs. And ALL the quests there don’t add up to a single level. We had to go back into the cave. I cried.

LIs are also a giant disappointment, as is what they’ve done to Minstrels and Guardians (2 of my 3 50s.) I’ve heard LRMs and Burgs got the shaft as well, but mine are only 30 and they feel fine, so I haven’t found it yet. I’m sure it’s there though. The itemization in this expansion is beyond crap. The legacies on LIs make LIs a lot less “building a weapon that will grow and level with you to your playstyle” that we were promised and a lot more like a crappy lottery. There are very few legacies that most people want, and several that people absolutely DO NOT WANT, and if you’re very lucky you get ones you want along with some mediocre ones. But you’re a lot more likely to get the ones that are absolute trash clogging up spots. Not to mention if you DO find a good LI, it’s likely to be a lower level, so you’ll have to replace it. I absolutely ADORE the mace my Minstrel got out of Vol 2. It’s awesome. And I’ve maxed it out, the DPS is crap, and I’ll have to find for a level 60 one because having a level 45 one is stupid at this point. But finding a level 60 one that has all the great legacies I managed to get on my first one? Not likely to happen.

And none of this goes into the bugs and server issues that have been plaguing us since MoM released. I think most of the players would be THRILLED if the next update had NO new content, just bug fixes and class balancing. Seriously.

This is a long and angry post. There will be others that aren’t so much. But I’m so veyr disappointed in this expansion and what it’s done to the game and how unfun it is.

I used to keep a journal about playing other MMOs, as well as IC journals on another website. We’ll see if I can do this.

The problem with an ooc journal kept on a blog site run by the game is that you don’t want to say too much when you’re in a b*tchy mood, since it’s going to be easily findable and readable

So. Onward! With internal censor on full throttle!