However, in Middle Earth, I had a very good day.  I worked on my Burglar for a good part of my day.  I am having him become my solo toon due to the challenge he presents.  Finally got him to level 15.  His class quest was a bit of an issue though.  Every time I would attack a mob, that mob would get a bunch of question marks over their head and it would freeze up.  Through trial and error I found if I went to a certain location, all frozen mobs would unfreeze and come to shave my little hobbit feet, and then kill me (In that order).

A Random, Unrelated Screen Shot

According to my guild, this is one of the bugs in game.  Yikes!  (Hopefully today’s patch will fix it?)  After 4 deaths, and much trial and error, I finally finished my class quest.  Kind of a bummer because I’m fairly certain without that glitch I could have kept my nearly perfect non-death status on my toon.

Last night, my wife (on her hunter) and I (on my minstrel) joined the guild for Book Night Sunday.  Apparently, they do Book Quests on Sunday (and parties on Wednesday).  The Book 1 final dungeon was much fun.  We kind of cheated due to not having a full group (1 person shy) but, 1 of the members was in his upper 30′s.  So, it wasn’t as challenging as it should have been but, we still had a good time.

The end of Book 1 quests involved us getting to talk to Gandolf for the first time.  I felt this was a good place to end our gaming for the night.  Dinging, finishing major quests and questlines AND cake?  What more could you ask out of your Father’s Day?

Yesterday, there was a guild fair was held at the Bree Fair Ground and was sponsered by one of the RP Guilds on my server.  I had to go check it out.  I know it’s hard to tell from this screenshot but, every single tent had at least 1 guild hanging out under the tent and a few guilds in open area.

I had a good time with it, talked to some intresting people.  I ended up joining the Shire Shrooms.  They seem like a nice bunch so far.

Personally, I am still taking the game at a fairly leisure pace.  My minstrel is still level 16 and I have a 13 burglar.  I have been spending my time crafting, harvesting, and fishing.  Also, much time has been spent listening to the bards at the Prancing Pony.  I am still enjoying this change of pace and I hope to see it continue.

If you’re looking for the ins and outs of the game, this isn’t that article.  On top of that, I would hardly call myself a stickler for details.  Just by reading the poor grammar and misspelled words in  my blogs,  you should know that already.  But, I would say, I know what I like, and LotRo seems like it is full of things I like, at least within the first week of play.  Here’s part of what I’m liking so far (in no particular order):

Music: 
The in game music is fantastic and it really sets the mood.  But, what I am referring to is the player made music you’ll find.  If you aren’t familiar with this, a bard can purchase an instrument (lute, flute, clarinet, etc) and use his keyboard for actual notes. 

 I spent at least 30 minutes tonight, in an Inn listening to people playing.  I heard people playing “I’m Yours” ~ Jason Mraz, “Cat’s in the Cradle” ~ Harry Chapin and “What is Love” ~ Haddaway(I was upset I couldn’t do the head bob that Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan did in Night at the Roxbury).  This girl in the screenshot was playing an excellent version of Rolling Stones, “Paint It Black”.

Generations:

See the screenshot above.  I don’t know if you can read that but, it says Son of…, yes, that’s my son in real life, and that’s my son in game.  How cool is that.  He loved it.

Fishing:
I know, I know.  I’m just a goof when it comes to fishing.  I did it quite a bit in EQ2, I do it even more in LotRo.  Why?  I think it’s two fold.  A)  I can take some fish to the taxidermist and have them stuffed to hang on my wall.  B)  The scenery is like stepping into a Thomas Kincade painting.  This is really the same reason I harvest so much.  I just like spending time in Middle Earth, just for the view.

Role Playing/Player Ran Events:
I don’t even know how to Role Play but, I enjoy reading it.  I enjoy watching it.  And Landroval is a GREAT place to watch it.  A guild called The Common Folk have hosted both a RP Farmer’s Market and an Apple Festival in the Shire.  Tonight, a guild called the Shire Shrooms had story telling in Bree.

Story:
I am not a huge fan of LotR, the books.  I understand why they are considered a masterpiece and I can agree, that they are.  But, I feel that you can only read about so much walking, and there are times where I felt beat over the head with the description.  The books just aren’t my cup of tea.  But, the story line and the approach the quest writers took with the opening quests, I thought are really good.  You’re character’s, so far, are running parallel with Gandolf, Frodo, Samwise and Strider.  The part I am at in the story, I just met Strider and hopefully Frodo and Samwise have just left the Shire.  Now I feel compelled, after I finish reading the book I am currently reading (Head’s) to reread Fellowship of the Rings, so I can compare the descriptions in the book with how Turbine made the Shire look.  So I can say, “Hobbiton?  I’ve been there.” or “Those Took are a rascally bunch.”

Those are just a few of the things I am enjoying about LotRo.  Once I hit a certain level am I going to start hating the grind?  Probably, but, I can’t say predicting the future was ever my strong suite. 

Relax, that's my wife

I will say, that after I hit 20 (so I can get my appearance slots) I play to put a break on my leveling and start enjoying the player made events even more than I am now.  LotRo doesn’t seem like one to try to rush to end game, it seems like a game to take slowly and savor, and that is what I intend to do.

Happy Hunting.

At level 12 when I’m roaming around Bree, I see this little Hobbit floating around the crafting area and he looked TOTALLY AWESOME! He had some stubby toes and a bear face looking hood and two cool looking pot-sticker weapons.  I inspected him to find he was a hunter.  I need a Hunter.  Thus my hunter was born.

I am really digging my hunter.  He’s awesome and most things are dying at my feet without hitting me at all.  He doesn’t look super cool yet but I know he will with a bit of time.  At this point in the game I’m selling most of my harvested items for some decent coin.  Trying to work up to a house before I start my crafting.  I’m soloing everything pretty decent with my hunter but, groups are providing a challenge.  It kind of stinks that I can’t really heal myself.  It would be good if I could do some damage and heal myself.

Hello Lore-Master, how are you today.  I’m not too far into my lore master.  He’s still in the brand, new, noob area.  But, he’s got his crow and a heal and a real good nuke.  But while my bird was peckin’ away at some wolf some Hobbit next to me keeps screaming.  I’ll be fighting a mob and from out of no where I hear a “AAAAAAAAAGGHHHH!”  So, I stop to check out this Minstrel.  Now he looks pretty cool.

My Minstrel is pretty awesome.  He’s got a cool little lute he’ll break out and play at mobs.  “Hey mob!  Gonna kill you, wrote alittle song about it.  Wanna hear it?  Here it go.”  So far I really enjoy him.

And of course, I’ve also made a Warden (didn’t care for him by at level 3) and am about to make a Burglar.

I do want to make a few points about LotRo: 

First was my download time.  From Turbine I was hitting 700 – 900 kbps.  That is some awesome speed from a game company to my house.  Here at work, I’m downloading the High Res version and holding steady at 2.3 Mbps.  Very nice!

Second.  Lag in game…or lack of lag in game.  I’m in a fairly populated server, with my settings at a decent level.  I as of yet have hit any thing that resembles lag.

Last.  This is my second favorite starter area’s from any MMO (first being EQ2′s RoK noob section TD).  If you start reading the quests, you can’t stop.  If you are familiar with LotR you’ll know exactly where you are in the plot.  It gives you enough leash for you not to realize you’re being led around the zone while totally being lead around the zone.

So far, my experiences have all been positive and I am feeling very emerged.  I’ll keep you posted.