Anti-Aliased: LotRO will only go down in flames if you let it pt. 2

The only people who stop RP is... well... you.

The other notion -- the one that all RP is going to die in a fire thanks to this move -- is just as silly. Why? Well, the only people who can truly stop the RP are the RPers.

I'm not saying this frivolously -- I know exactly how frustrating it is when some jerk attempts to troll your RP events. I've dealt with my share across many, many games. But, I know that my guild and I just hit the ignore button on the jerk, and we kept on going. We didn't stop because someone was jumping around, and that actually drove him off faster than engaging him.

Jerks are like pop icons. They flare up out of nowhere, attempt to troll you for 15 minutes of fame, and then are found lying in a hotel room in a pool of their own vomit. If you keep on doing what you do best -- be a good community -- you stifle them. You snuff them out because it's really hard to be a troll when everyone around you is acting differently. If a large portion of the community keeps on being great people, those trolls will end up wandering away.

Plus, when newcomers walk into the LotRO community and see awesome people, they're most likely going to be encouraged to stay just as respectful. Communities attract like-minded individuals, so keep on keepin' on.

So if you want to follow Keen's advice and abandon ship, here's what I can tell you. If you abandon the game and the community, then there's a 100% chance that what's there now will end. Why? Because everyone left. You can't keep a great community together if everyone leaves. But if you stay there and brave through any mishaps that this change is going to bring, then there's going to be a chance that everything stays strong.

Personally, the 100% failure rate sounds pretty bad, no?

I'm not saying it's going to be an easy time, or that the community is going to overcome this in a night. Everything's going to have to be remolded slowly, over a period of months or perhaps even a year. The community is going to have to stay strong over a long amount of time, but it's not like the LotRO community never did that before. You guys survived launch pretty well.

The synopsis is in the title

You've most likely guessed where I'm going with this by now. Lord of the Rings Online will only explode into ashes if you let it explode into ashes. The thing that controls the community isn't Turbine or the business model of the game -- it's you, the community members. You control what the community is like.

It's you guys who made Landroval such a great server to be on. It's you guys who keep players like me coming back and paying 15 bucks a month. It's being with you guys that's making me super-excited about LotRO going free-to-play.

I really can't wait to rejoin you all in the Fall, and I know I'm not alone.

Seraphina Brennan is the weekly writer of Anti-Aliased who loves walking around Bree on the Landroval server. When she's not writing here for Massively, she's rambling on her personal blog,The Experience Curve. If you want to message her, send her an e-mail at seraphina AT massively DOT com. You can also follow her on Twitter through Massively, or through her personal feed, @sera_brennan.