A few days ago, a very interesting article full of images, videos and details about Siege of Mirkwood has been written at lotro.jeuxonline.info In order to bridge the language barrier, seekingerin has written up some of the relevant details in...

One of the things that Turbine team knows how to do is making great cosmetic outfits. New Skirmish cosmetic cloak - Feathered Cloak Of The North Men is breathtaking. Screenshots by ObiWan07 Cloak Of The...

Codemasters Online invites you to join us for an amazing Welcome Back Week from the 23rd until 30th November, 2009. The doors of Middle-earth will be open for former players to enter for a week of FREE game play. All you have to do is...

I started playing the free trial of this game nearly one year ago after learning about it from a Salon article.  I decided I wanted to be a hunter because I thought it fit in with how I would like to play.  This was and is my only MMO, so I had no idea that everyone else had decided to be a hunter as well.  I went with an elf because it seemed the most appealing race, not knowing that the race didn’t really offer too many benefits.  And I choose my name because the first 8 I tried were either not available or not appropriate, and it was the first combination that they suggested that worked out.  Lorien offered blondes, and for some reason I wanted my character to look a bit like me.  A little narcissistic, perhaps, but at least I didn’t name her something obnoxious so I can’t feel too bad about it.  Thus Lalaraen was born.

Lothlorien always fascinated me in the books and subsequent films.  Really the entire race of elves.  No, I never had a thing for Legolas (I’m more partial to Faramir, actually), but I thought that the elf lands were so beautifully realised.  And I knew when my character first stepped into Celondim that I had chosen well.  The Shire and Bree weren’t a let down, but I hated leaving Ered Luin, or at least the elf parts of Ered Luin, because I knew I would miss those lovely buildings.  Celondim and Duillond blew me away.  The Shire was very nice, of course, and I loved every minute there.  But visually, it just didn’t grab me the same way.  I didn’t have the same experience until the first time I stepped into Rivendell.

Rivendell was one of those places I was very anxious to see.  I happened to wrap up Book 3 with a level 50 hunter in my group, and he kindly ported us there to finish the book and give us the stable route when we certainly too low level to have gotten there on our own.  What a sight to see!  I wandered every inch of it, fell off the bridge once or twice, and marveled at the sheer beauty of another elf city.  These experiences definitely set me up with great anticipation for Lothlorien to be revealed.

I’ve slowly made my way through Moria for real world reasons, and didn’t rush to look around.  I’ve been working on the books, though, and as any of you who have worked on Volume 2 know there is a bit of travel involved.  When I went to Nud-Melek I saw that two deeds would be finished if I looked around for the bridge of Khazad-dum and the first hall, including one that I had equipped.  So I figured that since I was out there, this was the time to get my little glimpse at Lothlorien, even knowing that there would not be much to see.  For some reason, it excited me to think that this was my character’s homecoming.   That did not occur to me until I got out there.  I’m not particularly a role-player by any stretch, but I suppose I felt a special connection to my character at that point.

I took a ton of screenshots while I was out there because this little glimpse did not disappoint.  I truly look forward to seeing this zone fleshed out in the next book, and spending more time in my elf’s place of origin.   I hope you enjoy the pictures–I love the add media function on here.  I’ve included some history of Mirrormere as well to provide context.  Click on the pictures to get the fullscreen versions.

According to the Dwarves of Durin’s folk, after Durin the Deathless had awoken at Mount Gundabad in the north of the Misty Mountains, he travelled south until he came upon Mirrormere. He looked down in it and saw a crown above his head. This crown was the reflection of stars above, despite the fact it was day and the stars should not have been visible. Taking the crown as a sign, he founded the great city of Khazad-dûm beneath the mountains that fed the lake. A pillar was placed along the banks of the lake to mark the event.

I somehow decided to do something that I’ve never done on a social networking site before-randomly add interesting people to my friend list.  So if I added you, perhaps you should feel honored?  Or maybe instead you’ll feel you’re being stalked and will go anonymous.  If that is the case, I truly apologize.  If it is the former, I hope that you continue to write interesting posts at least as long as I keep reading them.  I’m hoping to find more interesting people on Firefoot, but right now the issue is finding anyone on my server who is actually linked to an account.

As for myself, I’m taking a bit of a break from being active in lotro, at least until things calm down in the real world.  I was a very active crafting officer in a kin that I loved, but I found that my real life concerns were not as well balanced with being the kind of officer I made myself into as I would have hoped.  So right now I am sans kin.  I miss the comraderie, and I hope to return to a kin (not sure yet if it will be that one or another) sometime soon.  But for now, I don’t feel any obligations to log on and level my characters with great speed.  I plan on logging on for a short time, playing in a very leisurely manner, and logging off without getting sucked in.  At least until I truly get addicted again.

I had some extra time to play around and do nothing because Monday Night Football wasn’t holding my attention (and god forbid I actually do any real work), so I decided I’d play around with mylotro.  I haven’t been able to play very much of late because the real world keeps stepping in, but I have spent more time than I should on those horrid festival quests.  I’ll admit that I’m amongst those who are none too pleased right now.  

Out of 22 turn-ins, I’ve gotten 10 lumps of coal, 4 taters, 6 cosmetic items that I either already had or never wanted, 1 wall paper, and 1 table.  2/22 is not the kind of ratio I was hoping for, especially because I have not done anything in the game but these quests since the festival came out.  I like the random nature, and I don’t even mind having coal and taters in the loot table.   The barter system they previously had was preferable, but if it is going to be random at least let the turn-in rate be a little better.  I’ve never had a problem with any festival before, but this one has certainly been stripped of all its joy for me.  

That being said, I love the Lobelia as party planner quest.  I was not here last year so this one is new to me.  I’d love to have more quests like it.  It reminds me of why I fell in love with this game in the first place.  This was my first MMO of any type, and I didn’t know that you didn’t really need to do every quest.  So I did all of the Shire after completing all of Ered Luin.  I wasn’t getting much xp, of course, but I just enjoyed running around “helping” these hobbits and reading about their troubles.  This quest involved a lot of that running around part, but I really enjoyed the story and having a part with one of the infamous characters from the Tolkien lore.

A few days ago, a very interesting article full of images, videos and details about Siege of Mirkwood has been written at lotro.jeuxonline.info In order to bridge the language barrier, seekingerin has written up some of the relevant details in...

One of the things that Turbine team knows how to do is making great cosmetic outfits. New Skirmish cosmetic cloak - Feathered Cloak Of The North Men is breathtaking. Screenshots by ObiWan07 Cloak Of The...

Codemasters Online invites you to join us for an amazing Welcome Back Week from the 23rd until 30th November, 2009. The doors of Middle-earth will be open for former players to enter for a week of FREE game play. All you have to do is...