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The Road to Mordor: Wish lists, past and future
Hobbits love making lists, don't they? In The Fellowship of the Ring, Bilbo had a lengthy list of friends and relatives to invite to his eleventy-first birthday party, and he didn't have the luxury of Facebook to help him out. I love lists as well, although I try to save most of that for my Perfect Ten column. At the beginning of the year, I sat down and drafted up a "wish list" for Lord of the Rings Online's 2011 year, populating it with 11 changes and additions I was hoping to see by now. To my surprise, Turbine actually pulled off quite a few items on the list, and I thought it'd be a good idea to go back and examine which of my goals the team met and which remain elusive. Also, since 2012 kicks off tomorrow, I'll look forward as well and draft up a dozen -- yes, one more over the year before -- wish list items that I'd love to see come true in the new year. It's my column; I can cry if I want to, after all. Let's get this party started!
The Road to Mordor: Baggins of Bag End
It's hard to believe that it's been 10 years to the month since The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring came out in movie theaters. It's even harder to process that Peter Jackson will be bringing us back to Middle-earth with the two Hobbit films starting a year from now. The Jackson trilogy, while beloved by many (including, I assume, gamers), hasn't gotten a lot of space in this column to date. The general consensus from the community is that the films and the MMO are separate interpretations of the same source material, and never the twain shall meet -- nevermind all the other LotR games, like War in the North. While that may be true, they do meet in the hearts of those who simply love this franchise. I adore the movies, am a huge fan of the game, and like (yes, just "like") the books. But I think that it's worthwhile to go to the films for LotRO players because they do give a different perspective and perhaps clarify a few plot points that shoot over our heads in-game. If nothing else, if the movies can revitalize our excitement about exploring the lands of Lord of the Rings Online, then they've done well by us. I mention all this because this past week saw the release of the first Hobbit trailer, which I must have watched a good dozen times, and it got me pumped up once more for this game world. In today's column, I want to use this trailer to springboard a discussion of how LotRO and the films share a common bond and how the Hobbit movies use many elements that Turbine's been working on for years now. Plus, a bonus Hobbit Tribute Tour!
The Road to Mordor: My love-hate relationship with Legendary Items
Second to perhaps radiance, Legendary Items have become one of the most controversial, most debated, and most divisive game features in Lord of the Rings Online since their implementation in Mines of Moria. Since their inclusion, players have discussed -- loudly -- how the system could be fixed and improved, and Turbine's made a couple of attempts at refining the feature into something we can all enjoy. And yet Legendary Items remain in that category that I like to call "love-hate," where there's almost as much to love about them as there is to loathe. I've waited a long time to write this article because the timing never felt right; either I was too new to the system to speak with any authority on it or changes were "right around the corner" or I was lazy. Take your pick. Perhaps talking about this today is beating somewhat of a dead horse in the LotRO community, but I wanted to get my thoughts out why LIs haven't quite gotten to where they need to, how they've failed, where they've succeeded, and why I pray every evening for cosmetic weapons so I can get rid of that ugly glow effect.
The Road to Mordor: 10 things to do in the Shire before you die
A couple of weeks ago I decided to embark on a long-planned project to play through the entirety of Lord of the Rings Online -- or at least a whole heck of a lot more than I ever have previously. My thought was that in the rush to level and progress, I had been skipping much of the content that makes LotRO so unique, and I wanted to force myself to slow down, take it all in, and get over the desire to hit endgame as quickly as possible. Thus, I created Slyppi, a brand-new level 1 Hobbit Burglar with the intention of experiencing the game in full. My rules with Slyppi are thus: She will clear out every solo quest in a zone (including the epic storyline but excluding tasks) before moving elsewhere. She will go through all three newbie zones and ignore the fact that the quests aren't giving her much XP. She will take detailed notes, package them up, and send them back to me for the purposes of turning them into a guide to the interesting out-of-the-way quests and places in Middle-earth. If you're anything like me, you probably die a lot, usually in very embarrassing ways (hey, that cliff wasn't there a minute ago...). Since we all have a death warrant on our heads, we might as well get the most out of our journeys, which is why I've come up with 10 things that you should do in the Shire before the inevitable occurs. Why 10? Because it's two in computer-speak!
The Road to Mordor: Finding the Fellowship
It's not uncommon for new players to come to Lord of the Rings Online with the full expectation that they'll be treated to a front-row seat of the Fellowship's adventures. The movies, the books and even other Lord of the Rings video games certainly feature Aragorn, Legolas and Gandalf practically non-stop, which is why LotRO's approach to showing these famous characters takes some getting used to. Instead of bending the lore so hard it breaks by shoehorning players into the Fellowship itself, Turbine decided to have the players go on their own epic quests that sometimes parallel the main story of the books. In effect, we the players are on the periphery of the Fellowship, and the Fellowship is on the periphery of us. Sometimes we cross paths, sometimes our actions influence each other, and sometimes we simply go our separate ways. Still, players may get frustrated when they spend a lot of time in the game without seeing any of these major characters, wondering whether some of them even exist at all. This is complicated by the fact that these characters appear in different places relative to the player's own journey through the story. So if you've ever been curious where your favorite character is and how you can go on adventures with him or her, hit the jump and I'll hook you up!
The Road to Mordor: You're the best around, nothing's gonna ever keep you down!
Two semi-stunning thoughts hit me this week. The first is that March 5th marks the debut of my very first column on Massively a year ago, and I still have my life and sanity intact. The second is that even with the release of RIFT, which I'm playing, I still feel compelled to play Lord of the Rings Online just as much -- if not more -- than the new shiny on the block. These thoughts are related after a fashion, so just hang in there with me. When I first came on board Massively and chose the game I'd be following for a presumably lengthy stretch of time, only LotRO seemed as though it would fit the bill. I knew it was a great game from experience and that I had a lot to do, see and learn about it, and I'd hoped that it had a lot in store to keep me from getting bored. Still, I was worried that I would lose interest after six months or so, as I'm a habitual MMO sampler. Could I settle down and form a serious relationship with an MMO like this? It turns out that yes, yes I could -- and quite easily at that. While I had liked LotRO before last year, these past 12 months have helped me form a deep appreciation and connection with this version of Middle-earth. This relationship has held firm even as I've dabbled -- or dived in deep -- with other MMOs, because there's something LotRO has that I've never experienced in another MMORPG. So what is it about this world that sets it apart and has endeared itself to me?
The Road to Mordor: A year in Middle-earth
What a difference a year makes, eh? One year ago, and you didn't have to put up with me yammering at you every Friday like a hyperactive badger with a personality disorder. One year ago, and we weren't free-to-play-anything, Turbine was its own company, the festivals were nowhere near as cool as they are today, and shrews freely roamed the land without fear of reprisal. So in my last Road to Mordor (of the year, stop rejoicing over there!), I thought it'd be great to look back at the wild rollercoaster that was 2010 in Lord of the Rings Online. I also thought I'd get an easy column out of all this, but that was before I had to read through 1,337 posts and my eyeballs began to lose pressure. January Stuff happened. Let's move on.
LotRO's Yule Festival Theatre transforms players into actors
It started as a simple idea: To include an interactive theater experience with Lord of the Rings Online's revamped Yule Festival. However, as Turbine's "Rhidden" writes in a new dev diary, the simple idea became fiendishly complex in application. With the advent of next week's festival, players will be invited to Frostbluff Theatre in Winter-home to watch "The Curious Disappearance of Mad Baggins," the story of Bilbo's vanishing at the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring told from the Hobbits' point of view. What's interesting is that Turbine wants players to be involved, both as audience members (throwing flower petals or rotten fruit, based on the performances) and as potential actors (who may "choose their own adventure" with emotes to complete the story). Because the LotRO team wanted this to be more than just a "Simon Says" game, they created an intricate script and whipped up a powerful, yet invisible, NPC called "The Audience" that handles the interaction and score-keeping. Based on performances, actors can be rewarded with titles for stellar performances as well as horrible ones. Rhidden promises that no two performances should play out the same. Read more about this truly unique festival event over at LotRO's site!
The Road to Mordor: Will our journey take us back to The Hobbit?
The next few years promise to be exciting ones for fans of Middle-earth. Ever since The Return of the King debuted in theaters in 2003, audiences have clamored for more of Tolkien on the big screen -- specifically, The Hobbit. After nearly a decade of back-and-forth negotiating and legal entanglements, it appears that this The Hobbit movies are finally going to happen, with Sir Peter Jackson once again in the director's chair and Martin Freeman taking on the lead role as Bilbo. That's smashing news for movie buffs, but what does this have to do with Lord of the Rings Online -- y'know, that MMO we sometimes talk about in this column? It could be "very little," with Turbine proceeding on its merry way and perhaps enjoying the free boost to playership as movie buffs hunt around for a game to extend the experience. However, if the company were smart, it would be laying out the groundwork right now to synergize the heck out of the movie with a similar in-game experience. For a while now, I've been chewing on the notion that Turbine could incorporate the events, locations and characters of The Hobbit into LotRO -- in fact, several of the key pieces are already in place. Could our journey in LotRO eventually take us back to the era of Bilbo's grand adventure? How would such a thing even work? Hit the jump and I will smack your brain so hard with ideas that you'll forget all of your piano lessons. It's OK -- you didn't really need them.
The Road to Mordor: Hallowed be thy burrow
One of my all-time favorite amusement park rides is Disney World's Haunted Mansion. More than anything else, the Haunted Mansion encapsulates the Halloween experience for my life -- a combination of goofy gloom, maudlin macabre and spooky spirits. I've never been into the gory side of Halloween, nor the freaky scares, but there's nothing I love more than traveling through a haunted house that's completely into crafting a perfect Halloween atmosphere. This is why I feel like a kid again as I spent the last couple days exploring the new Haunted Burrow in Lord of the Rings Online. While some see the notion of a haunted hobbit hole silly, lore-breaking or a frivolous waste of time, I think it's one of the best virtual haunted houses I've ever seen. As one person Tweeted, "It's like Scooby Doo, but with Hobbits and no Velma Dinkley!" The only complaint I have is that I truly wish there was more of it, and more to do in it. Instead of handing you a guide to the Haunted Burrow -- A Casual Stroll to Mordor covers all the bases, and TheREALify has a great map on the forums -- today I thought I'd just share my thoughts on each of the wings of the house and the little details that truly make this place shine. Take my hand and don't be scared... ...oh mercy me, what WAS that noise!?!
Harvestmath, Hobbits and hauntings: LotRO's fall festival starts tomorrow
Middle-earth may be a naturally horrifying place at times, but the Free Peoples have a talent for making the best of a bad situation with an abundance of festivals, parties and general merry-making. Tomorrow kicks off the annual fall festival in Lord of the Rings Online, and with it a number of upgrades and additions to an already-popular event. The festival -- also called Harvestmath -- is featuring for the first time Bilbo's cellar, which the locals have renovated into a "Haunted Burrow" of sorts. Here, players can explore the twists and turns of a not-too-scary funhouse, discover secret passages and complete quests for prizes and cool new cosmetic items. Harvestmath also features plenty of other activities for a Hobbit looking to have a good time -- apple-bobbing, reputation quests, new deeds, pie-eating contests, dancing and feasts out the wazoo are ripe for the taking. Read Massively's 2008 guide to this festival, and brush up on the new Haunted Burrow with a recent LotRO dev diary!
LotRO dev diary explores the heart of Bilbo's darkness
When we first got a peek at the new Haunted Burrow that is coming with next week's fall festival in Lord of the Rings Online, we knew our purpose in Middle-earth: to abandon our quest for Mordor and spend the rest of our days zipping around Bilbo's cellar in a sheet going "WOOOO!" to everyone else. And we bet we're not the only ones. "That old Mad Baggins has done it again..." begins the most recent LotRO dev diary by Lauren Salk. The concept is that while installing another oven at the Party Tree in the Shire, hobbits found a secret entrance to Bilbo's legendary cellar -- a place where, according to rumors, his vast fortune was stashed. The idea for a hobbit-themed haunted house started last April and progressed steadily since then, as brand-new art, clever challenges, and a whole lot of love for the Halloween season were implemented. If you like the silly-slash-spooky decorations, Salk is the bearer of good news indeed: "You'll probably be happy to know that you can get a good portion of it as deco for your house!" For shrieks and giggles, head on over to read the LotRO dev diary and whet your appetite for the fun to come.
LotRO Europe celebrates Bilbo's birthday week with free account keys
Last year on Bilbo Baggins' birthday (the 22nd of September), a special quest involving Bilbo and Frodo was made available to Lord of the Rings Online players. This year the birthday celebration has started early, almost a week before the actual date. LotRO Europe is giving away a very specific number of full game account keys: 111, or eleventy-one as Bilbo himself might say. They will be given away on the game's community forums, the LOTRO_Europe and Codies Twitter feeds, as well as the Codemasters blog May Contain Gamers. The way they are given out at these locations may differ, but we do know that in the case of Twitter, it's first come first served -- if you can plug the key into a Codemasters account quicker than the next punter, it's yours. An additional 111 keys will be given away by some German and French community sites. Past the account key giveaway, there will also be in-game festivities starting on the 21st of September and continuing until the 25th. We'll keep our eyes peeled for more news regarding the birthday fun.
Lorebook spotlights Gamgee handiwork at Bag End
Most of us love Hobbits. Really, how could we not? These are people for whom pie-eating is a cornerstone of society. It's hard not to be envious of that laid-back lifestyle.And few Hobbits have lived more comfortably and extravagantly than Bilbo Baggins, the old proprietor of Bag End. His adventures with Gandalf and the Dwarves netted him a personal fortune, and he spent no small part of that fortune on his gardens.Those gardens -- maintained by Ham Gamgee and his son Samwise -- are the subject of the most recent featured article in LotRO's Lorebook. Sneak up to Turbine's window and start droppin' eaves to learn more!
