mellicious | The pleasures of the Shire

Anybody who is a Tolkien geek at all should go play LOTRO for a while. Seriously, just make a hobbit and run around the Shire and geek away. It has been a pleasure to me just to get the map of the Shire straight in my head. My copy of Fellowship of the Ring has gone AWOL (it's here someplace, I had it a month or so ago) so I can't verify exactly how accurate it is, but it all tallies with what I remember. The only thing not "canon" is that they've shrunk the distances quite a bit, presumably because if they were accurate nobody would want to play. MMOs get too frustrating if the monsters you have to kill (or, in the case of the Shire, the pies you have to carry to Holly Hornblower) are miles away from you. So the twenty miles from Buckleberry Ferry to Brandywine Bridge becomes about 500 feet. Which I can't say bothers me a great deal. It's just so fun to see all the minor characters: Farmer Maggot in front of his farm, with Grip and Fang (Fang is always asleep). Gaffer Gamgee, and Lobelia, and Shirriff Robin Smallburrow holding down the bar at the pub. And the pubs! The Green Dragon, the Golden Perch in Stock - that's the one Frodo wouldn't let them go to, to Pippin's dismay - and if you get to Bree (which isn't difficult) there's the Prancing Pony, too, complete with Butterbur, and Strider lurking in a back room. (The foursome of Frodo, Pippin, Merry and Sam has not been seen so far - although I hear rumors we may catch up with them later. I think at the point we're currently at in the story, they're still lost in the forest.) If you haven't figured this out already, I seriously recommend it. Go get a free 10-day trial and take a tour. (I'm really not trying to get you to come play with us or anything, I just think more people should see this thing.)

And a note to

columbina : the game is all downloaded and installed on the laptop and seems to be working fine, so I should be able to play tonight with or without the recalcitrant monitor. Which is good because I may not make it to Best Buy this afternoon. I am about to go take a long nap.