More dead hunters.

Here I go again. I restarted the damn hunter AGAIN. I think it's three times since the last time I've posted here. Each time I figure out how to get pass the thing that killed me before, just to make new mistakes. This is going to be the last time, I swear.

I'm probably lying though.

Dead hunters

It is inevitable. I start I project, such as a blog, that requires a regular time commitment and life jumps in and starts sucking all of my time away. Between car troubles, work and what-not, I've had very little free time. I spent most of it playing LOTRO rather than writing about it. The sad part is I haven't accomplished anything in game. I keep getting Ulael killed and re-rolling her. I may have to give up the idea of earning "The Undying".

But not yet. Off to run through Archet. Again.

On LOTRO

I've been playing LOTRO about four months and it is my first MMO, so there has been a duel learning curve for me. First I've had to figure out the mechanics of the game, while at the same time figuring out the conventions of MMOs. For example, I kept seeing player characters standing around marked "AFK", found myself marked AFK during bathroom breaks. I realized that "AFK" meant "inactive, but logged in", but it took seeing it defined on "The Big Bang Theory" to realize figure out that it means "away from keyboard". I'm sure that there is a lot I don't understand about both still.

I'm playing as a premium player right now, and probably will be forever. I dislike the idea of an ongoing cost involved in the VIP membership and prefer to be able to time my expenditures. I also prefer the idea that once I buy content, it's mine forever and not dependent on continually paying more. So far I have shelled out Turbine Points for the Lone Lands, the North Downs, Evendim, and the Trollshaws. combined with the three starter areas, this gives me plenty of content for the present, although I am excited about exploring the other areas eventually.

I'm playing on the Landroval server. I run three characters, a 33rd level Human Champion, a 7th level Elven Minstrel and a 1st level Human female Hunter. I created a few other characters and discarded them before I settled down to leveling up the Champion. I only recently started to play alternate characters. I started the minstrel as a means of getting easier access to all of the instruments for the music system. (More on music in a later post), and the hunter as a means of getting access to other crafting goods. I also have decided that I'm going to get the Hunter to level 20 without dying so that I can have the "Undying" title. Accordingly, this is my fourth creation of the hunter. First time she died at level 17 and the second time about half way through level 19 (Arghh!!!), and tonight she died at level 13. I'm going to give a couple more tries and then decide to live without the Undying title.

So that's me. If you happen to see Falleleb the Champion, Ringon the Minstrel  or Ulael the Hunter, running around give a me a wave.

To Begin

"I desired dragons with a profound desire. Of course, I in my timid body did not wish to have them in the neighbourhood. But the world that contained even the imagination of Fafnir was richer and beautiful at whatever cost of peril."

Although, it may at first look like it, it is not my intention that this be a LOTRO blog, rather it's going to be a blog on my reactions to and interactions with the world created by Tolkien in all of its manifestations, including movies, books, art, and games, and also with wider realms of speculative and fantasy literature, films and art.

That said, I've been spending a huge amount of time recently playing Lord of the Rings Online, and have been thinking a fair bit how it fits into the Middle-Earth, as created by Tolkien, so I will be sharing my adventures in LOTRO and thoughts on the game quite a bit.

I first read the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings in early Junior High. I've since read the Hobbit a half dozen times or more, and the Lord of the Rings at least once a year (call it somewhere between 30-40 times). I've made it through the Silmarillion 4 or 5 times and read much of the published Tolkien's shorter works. (I think that Mr. Bliss and Roverandom are the only things I've missed.) I've read, at least once, all of Christopher Tolkien's History of Middle Earth and Unfinished Tales, and the The History of the Hobbit. I feel like I have a decent grasp on Middle Earth.

At the same time I read a lot other fantasy, Narnia, Earthsea, Conan, Elric, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, and others. As time went on, though I read less and less fantasy. Eventually I was down to my occasional reading of Tolkien. Having kids started to turn it around for me. Reading the Hobbit and LotR to my daughters led to readings of Harry Potter and Narnia and Lloyd Alexander and rekindled my enthusiasm for the genre.


Chancing upon the Tolkien Professor was another big step, his podcast opened up Tolkien to me in a way that my many readings had not, helping to me to understand the deeper literary implications of the work. This is turn has helped me look upon other works with a new understanding.  Dr. Olsen's sporadic posting of episodes forced to me look for other podcasts which I found Father Roderick's "Secrets of Middle Earth" and eventually Merric and Goldenstar's "Casual Stroll to Mordor". These LOTRO-centric podcasts made me curious about the game and upon finding that LOTRO was free to play, I decided to give it a try, and became hooked.


So here I am. I'm beginning to re-explore fantasy literature while looking at it from a more scholarly perspective and playing lots of video games.