LOTRO - Anniversary Celebration and Music

I'm SO ready for a weekend. Work today should be minimal - everyone is outside enjoying the beautiful weather, working on their gardens (even though it's a bit too early and the soil is still too wet for doing much), and maybe grabbing up the kiddies for a trip to the zoo. Wouldn't that be a lovely thing to do for the day? A visit to the zoo and the botanical gardens and Conservatory really does sound wonderful. Instead, I'll be indoors working with customers, doing inventory, and hopefully doing a bit more of the 11th Anniversary Celebration on Lord of the Rings Online. 

Setting fireworks off on the hill in Bree is one of the
best things to do during Anniversary. 

I've mentioned before that DH and I are long-time players of LOTRO. In fact, we were playing another on-line game put out by the same developer at the time the Beta became available, so we bounced between Dungeons & Dragons Online and LOTRO for a bit before the game was officially released. When I posted in the LOTRO forums last week to wish the game a happy 11th Anniversary, my post tage confirmed that we have been playing since April, 2007. That's a LONG time. 

In the southern part of Ered Luin is the elven enclave of Celondim.
The northern part of Ered Luin contains Thorin's Hall, a large
dwarven city under the Blue Mountains. 

Why would I bother with any computer game for more than ten years? Probably because it's beautiful. It is Middle Earth, and the good and the bad come through clearly. It can be played for a lark, or characters can work through the Epic story - following Frodo's quest to destroy the One Ring. Most people do both, the Epic and the standard leveling quests. 

The town of Bree is usually a focal point for a lot of
Festival activities. It's amusing to compare the
population of the town during Festivals vs during
standard play times. 

The other aspect of the game is the social aspect. I'm not a very social being, nor is DH, but on occasion we do join with other players to accomplish goals that cannot be done by one or two characters without more help. There are kinships, tavern runs, and even professional musical groups. In fact, music plays a large part of LOTRO and all of my girls can play at least one instrument. The developers, after years of requests, finally introduced a fiddle. That got me pulled into the musical aspects of the game. 

Most of us practice in out-of-the way private places with
our instruments,at least until we feel comfortable
with them. I have a spot in the Misty Mountains. This
player has chosen his house in the southern housing
enclave. 

So now I have something to do in the wilderness of the Misty Mountains or the fields of the Shire. I can take out my fiddle, and play some Bach or some Metallica. Life is good! LOL 

Musical groups in LOTRO are generally quite serious about
their music. They perform regularly, they have specific
outfits that match, and they are using software that allow
their instruments to be synched to each other. A good
group puts in a lot of practice and it shows. 

DH and I are planning a laid-back weekend, enjoying the Anniversary events and advancing our scavenger hunt cards for some of our characters. If you're in-game on Crickhollow, give me a shout-out - maybe we'll cross paths. Meanwhile, have a wonderful weekend and I'll be back on Monday.