Annest outside my old Thorin’s Hall small house

Jadiel is enjoying her exploration through Moria very much right now.  Through this, she is also making some nice pocket change, believe it or not, simply from selling her boodle to venders.  So when I told my fiance that she had 14 gold, he said, “We should buy a deluxe home or two!”

I thought about it a moment.  We had two very cozy small houses in Thorin’s Hall Homestead.  My fiance and I lived right across the street from each other, the two wee stone houses nearest the exit out.  We did this very much on purpose.  Thorin’s Hall is the closest city to it’s homestead.  It has Master Workbenches and Master Forges, along with the Metalsmith’s Guild, AH, banking and the Stable Master is a short run from the gates of the homestead.  It was the most convenient, in our opinions, of all the homesteads.   But……..

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In Moria, never have a cliff, dark hole and anything remotely bottomless at your back…and then pull a Deep Claw Hunter, Digger, Pirate…(fill in blank).  Just don’t do it.  You have been warned….

The first thing I noticed when I entered Moria was how massive it felt, massive, beautiful and dark.  Did I mention dark?  I mean, really really dark.  I kept clicking alt/f10 for my personal light but it was like I was standing in a permanent shadow that didn’t recognize the personal light command.  I thought to myself, “This is amazing but how on earth can I play if I cannot see??”

It was at this point that my clever fiance came up and pointed out that I really should turn up my gamma setting.  I had it on the lowest setting.  I like the game to look as realistic as possible and anything beyond the lowest setting made things look too washed out.  I was like an awed child when I bumped the settings up just a tiny bit.  “I CAN SEE!”

Now…to explore…

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So far I have really enjoyed the summer festival this year.  I think the Hobbit and Doft races are entertaining (at first) and then an easy way to get those tokens and go off and check your email while they race.  I immersed myself the first handful of times and even now I make sure I cheer my pick to win on but I don’t always follow and watch them, not after doing this a dozen times, I think I earned my right to check email and read the forums while the races run in the background.

I have to say, I didn’t like the old horse races.  I know some people loved them but I just didn’t enjoy trying all day and losing.  It was frustrating.  I do miss the zone wide announcement (or was it server wide?) of who won.  That was kinda cool but…it was rarely me.  I had to login at 5 am to run the race alone, what fun is that?

ALTHOUGH, I was SO disappointed when the 2009 Spring horse races broke.  My hobbit wanted that Spring horse SO badly.  She was determined to collect enough tokens to turn in after winning the race.  She ran that darn fense in the Shire at least 5 dozen times completely knockered before finally winning.  (Translation: My 13 year old daughter finally played for me and did it easily.  What is my problem??)  The saddle blanket with green shamrocks is perfect for my hobbit’s quirky, loving character and they never gave us any oppurtunity to win that horse!  I am hoping 2010 they bring the Spring Horse back and I can bet on a race or 20 and earn it that way, at long last.

Let’s just hope I am still playing by then.

….Who am I kidding…you know I will be here.