Brandywine
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Daily Update for February 23, 2012
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The Road to Mordor: The Professor
This past week on January 3rd, J.R.R. Tolkien celebrated his 118th birthday -- or rather, we celebrated it for him. Tolkien was born in South Africa in 1892 and lived a rich and full life, from fighting in the first World War to working on the Oxford English Dictionary to taking a position at several universities that would earn him the nickname "The Professor." He is, of course, most well-remembered for his seminal works of fantasy -- The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion -- although his writings didn't end there. Due to Tolkien's love of nature, linguistics, and mythology, his creations were born out of comprehensive backgrounds and rich histories, which he seemed to love making up just as much as the stories themselves. For years now, Tolkien fans around the world have remembered his birthday by raising a glass on his birthday and giving a simple toast, "The Professor," at 9:00 p.m. wherever they lived. Likewise, in Lord of the Rings Online, many players gathered at their tavern of choice to do the same. Today I thought I'd remember the Professor in a slightly different way by exploring the quest chain "Missing the Meeting." While it's not completely overt if you happened to come across it, "Missing the Meeting" is a tribute to J.R.R. Tolkien and his life, and it's worth going through at least once if you want to pay homage and get a nifty token by which to remember him.
Lord of the Rings Online weekend server difficulties
Some of Turbine's servers for Lord of the Rings Online Online have been undergoing issues, apparently stemming from unduly high loads on Saturday evening. At least that's when everything seemed to start going wrong. Initially, it was just the usual lag effects, then zones began to freeze on some servers, and the game suffered some minor rollbacks of as much as ten or fifteen minutes after an unexpected crash or emergency reboot. Several servers were affected (the busiest ones, we're guessing), but the worst affected is Brandywine. Brandywine's South Bree zone broke entirely -- no doors could be traversed, and parts of the town were just plain missing -- necessitating an emergency shutdown of the server. Turbine has been laboring to restore systems, and Brandywine should be coming up around about now. Elendilmir and Landroval servers will be down for an hour from 11AM US ET for emergency maintenance. Be warned, that it might be a rocky day in Eriador and Rhovanion -- and it isn't all the work of the Witch King and Sauron this time.
LotRO servers busy after Book 11 rolls out
While server populations remained relatively normal in the first hour or so after Book 11: Defenders of Eriador, rolled out today, this evening is painting quite a different picture. All of the servers are busy this-evening, and the Brandywine, Elendilmir, Silverlode and Landroval servers are particularly busy, with logon queues for would-be adventurers. The OOC and Advice channels are full of chatter and questions about the new Player housing. Where it is, how to get it, what it's all about. Comparatively few players seem to have checked out the Lorebook's Housing category, particularly there are helpful maps identifying the location of the four housing zones: Bree-lands Homesteads, The Shire Homesteads, Falathlorn Homesteads, and Thorin's Hall Homesteads. Each entry links to details about the features of each property in the Homestead group. Check out our Book 11 tips and Known issues, and take up arms against the Witch King!
