Exploring Eberron: Of crafting, guild runs, and Crystal Cove

We have had several thrilling pieces of news in Dungeons and Dragons Online this week! New details on Update 9 came from PAX East, and an encore of our most recent game event is here. I have got the details on those and my thoughts on what they will bring to the player community, but before they get to that, I require to take a speedy look at what OnedAwesome has been up to.

The adventure was such fun, and not for the great company — although that was definitely the highlight! It is a great illustration of the replayability of DDO content. It is a level 8 adventure that we have all been through before, and all of our characters last night were in the 10-11 level range. They basically pushed it up to elite difficulty and still found a challenge.

The guild has moved to a more casual schedule over the past few months, still maintaining casual Wednesday night adventures but usually playing at any day and time that works for members in various time zones. Wednesday night, six members of OnedAwesome revisited Stormcleave Outpost, a House Deneith fortress that is been overrun by enemy giants (and other ill-tempered creatures).

We have still got room in Massively’s official DDO guild, so if you have got questions about joining us on the Cannith server, feel free to send a tell or in-game mail to my character Rubialina, or basically shoot me an e-mail at rubi@massively.com.

Now, on to the updates!

DDO has been hinting at a true crafting method for  a year now, and we have even gotten a small taste of it in the coursework of special events, but Update 9 will finally make it a reality. They don’t have all the details yet, but six bits of information stood out. Fernando Paiz had a chat with Lore Hound and had some fascinating things to say.

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Crafting ahoy!

“We currently have crafting in DDO, but most players get in to it in the higher levels of the game. [...] What they desired to do was get players in to the idea of crafting and give them a method where they can learn to do it and have useful things to do even if you are a level 4 character in lieu of a level 16 character.”

Fernando Paiz was clear in his desire to open this part of the game to everyone. While DDO maintains a respectable amount of content for all level ranges, the adventure packs that come with each update are limited by their nature. It is impossible to release an adventure pack with a full level range, and that is not a bad thing, but it means that the addition of content designed for every single character in the game is thrilling.

“In the crafting method, you can deconstruct [an item] down to its parts. So you’ll take the essence of paralyzing [for example] and you’ll get a paralyzing shard that then you can re-forge in to a new weapon depending on your character. Perhaps you are a fighter, you put it on your +5 Bastard Sword and now it is a Paralyzer Bastard sword, and that is sounding nice for your character.”

This has been a immense point of interest with the DDO community and is going to be the core of crafting in my eyes. In plenty of cases — at lower levels, players must depend on the luck of the loot drop or the auction house to get nice gear. When this method is introduced, we’ll finally be able to take matters in to our own hands and generate the ideal item like they can in so plenty of other MMOs. We are expecting full patch notes on Update 9 sometime next week — I will be watching for those closely!

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Yes, girls can game!

Morgan Romine is the manager of the Frag Dolls. She got her start while in college, playing EverQuest. She was immediately hooked, particularly on the social aspect of games. She was a member of many different guilds and was a presence in the community. Eventually, she also got into FPS games and joined up with some clans.

She became interested in Shadowbane and brought her guild there for a while. Even though they didn’t stay, she was such a presence on the forums and in the community that she was hired as a community manager for Ubisoft. While there, someone suggested that she start up a group of female FPS gamers, because at the time, there weren’t many out there.

What’s unique about online gaming, she said, is the fact that we all start with a blank slate, and from that anonymity, are defined by whatever commonalities we all share. Everyone initially starts off with something in common — gaming. It’s actually a “selective community” — people become part of it by the interest that they have. Over time, people build your personality and who they want to be, but everyone has the power to choose what to reveal and when to reveal it. Online, no one knows your gender, economic background, or ethnic background, unless you announce it.

Trolling is one result of that. But on the flip side, you can form very deep bonds because you can share whatever you want. You can connect with someone without any other judgments getting in the way, people whom you wouldn’t normally talk to because they’re older than you or live across the country — that problem doesn’t exist in online communities. You can build a relationship on the most intimate things, and that can last for a long time.

From depressed to living the dream

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Hamza Aziz is the Community Director of Destructoid. He shared a very poignant story of his growing up and the importance of online communities in his personal life. When he was young, he struggled with obesity and depression and even contemplated suicide. Through pure luck, his best friend got him into gaming, and he considers the day he joined Destructoid as the day his life was saved. He and the other founders wanted to get to E3, and that was their original inspiration for founding the site. But over time, it grew to the point that it’s the largest independently owned gaming site. They have three million readers a month, and his job as Community Director keeps him very busy, but he considers himself to be living the dream. Being part of Destructoid has given him confidence, and he’s amazed at how much more social he has become, both online and in real life. He is thankful for the opportunity he’s had at Destructoid, and he appreciates how much it’s changed his life. Destructoid has worked hard to pay it forward, raising thousands of dollars both for individual members who have needed help and for larger charity organizations.

Pros only

Stan Press is the Community Marketing Manager for Astro Gaming, and he shared a much different story about how he came to run an online gaming community. He got his start in FPS games and eventually met up with some friends who introduced him to the professional gaming scene. As he explained it, the competition was intense, but the prizes they were winning were as high as $60,000. As he gained valuable experience from being part of the team, he decided to use his marketing background to take it to another level. He eventually joined up with Astro Gaming and has turned his gaming background into a great career.

He pointed out that it’s easy to not consider other players as real people, but over time, you start to make friendships that last a long time. He said that when you find a community, it can help you find roommates, best friends, love, even a job. Most importantly, online games can point you in a direction that you never thought possible. He said that despite the ups and downs of the professional gaming scene, he thanks each one of the players he’s met, because they all helped him get to where he is today.

What’s interesting is that each of these people is a pioneer in a way, trying to create some organization and give a sense of order to the Wild West of the online world. They also all took on risks — they weren’t sure exactly what they were getting into as they started up their communities, and many of them expressed surprise at how large their communities had grown. Their stories also reflect that desire to find a common link to fellow gamers, whether it’s based on age, gender, location or even playstyle. Given the fact that, as Morgan put it, we all start off with a blank slate, it seems to make sense that people would want to find a common bond with others that goes beyond just a love of gaming.

There’s no doubt that online communities, and the friendships that come from them, are growing in size and popularity. But the real question is whether these relationships will ever be accepted into mainstream culture. As real and as valid as they are, there’s still a lot of skepticism from many over the fact that they don’t involve face to face contact. Only time will tell, but as these panelists all explained, there’s something uniquely special about the bonds that we form from online games.

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Angry Birds Developer Suggests Console Games are Dying
Peter Vesterbacka of Rovio, the company behind the wildly popular initially mobile game Enraged Birds, spoke at SXSW this past weekend. In a series of statements connected to cost and positioning, Vesterbacka suggested that mobile games are on the way up while console games are  dying.

Where I disagree with Vesterbacka comes next. He argues that the process and model of console games are dying. He cites the cost tags and support difficulties as the leading cause of console gaming s supposed demise. Vesterbacka claims that games with $40   $50 prices and a lack of simple support is ridiculous.

According to Vesterbacka, and here s where I tend to agree, mobile game companies are in a great position right now because they are so nimble. The marketplaces, and the context of the program itself, makes it simple to create mobile games. Moreover, the simple nature of releasing updates makes it simple to continue to support titles. That extended support, some might argue, is at the heart of what makes mobile games so popular for so long. Games like Enraged Birds constantly roll out new content.

But, what Vesterbacka seems to ignore here is the nature of console gambling as compared to mobile gambling. I m willing to concede that some console games are overpriced. It s hard for me to rush out to the store and pay $60 for a game that lasts around 8 hours, lacks longterm support and delivers no multiplayer experience. In that aspect, mobile games are perfectly priced. For a buck or two, players get simple diversions from life that can last from minutes to hours at a time. The depth of the experience may not be overwhelming, but the variety of play is over worth the cost of admission. When you get developers like Rovio that are willing to support the title well after release, it s all gravy.

However, when you start speaking about the quality and bigger characteristics of the titles themselves, that s when console gambling becomes my preferred process of play, irrespective of cost. These games can feel huge. They leave a giant, epic impact on you when you re done. The deliver wonderful story lines, characters, dialogue, music, gameplay, voice acting and graphics. Think about titles like Red Dead Redemption, Mass Effect, BioShock, LittleBigPlanet, Uncharted, Mario Galaxy and the like ¦ are those games worth their full cost points?
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Valentine’s Day is   here, that special time of year when you try to distill the essence of a romantic relationship in to chocolate form. & in the event you were hoping to escape from the day within Vana’diel, your efforts are  misdirected — Valentione’s Day coincides nicely with the holiday in the actual world, with just as much saccharine summation of liaisons in Final Fantasy XI. This year’s celebration will run from February 1st until the 15th, giving players plenty of time to show their in-game companions how much they care (enough to try & receive a special even reward, at least).

Time for love in Final Fantasy XI

LotRO weblog interviews content developer Lauren “Budgeford” Salk
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As with earlier holidays, the event announcement is accompanied with a piece of in-game fiction, something that reminds us all of an important truism — seldom make your healer angry. Final Fantasy XI fans ought to take a glance at the full piece, as it’s worth a chuckle or three. No definite information on what the rewards will be is included, but it’s a fair bet that the event will be similar to that of years past. So in the event you still aren’t rocking a heart-shaped wand, it’s time to get up to speed — although it is advisable to lay off the chocolates a small, since there’s another lesson about that in the fictional accompaniment…

LotRO weblog “A Casual Stroll to Mordor” published an insightful interview with Lauren today on what exactly goes in to the content development technique. The interview asks what it’s like to be the only female content developer at Turbine & goes in to detail on the challenges they faces in her everyday work. Often when we’re enjoying the content in our favourite MMOs, they don’t see all of the technical expertise that goes in to generating it & the problems that can crop up in development. Head over to A Casual Stroll to Mordor to give the interview a read.

When it comes to MMO development studios, Turbine has always been on the ball. Using a hybrid subscription model, Turbine has managed to triple revenues from its popular fantasy MMO Lord of the Rings Online. With the possibility of playing LotRO free, more players than ever have been gracing this Tolkien wonderland with their presence & enjoying the game’s new seasonal festivals. Content developer Lauren “Budgeford” Salk is responsible for these popular festival events, which have proven to be a giant hit with players.

Anyway, I had to ask a few people around the Howling Mountains zone chat before I finally found anyone who could inform me what to look for in the item shop. After I’d obtained this information, I launched some global questions.

You might be wondering how I managed to ask this query in global, or why I would need to ask it all. Well, in what has to be a first in my long MMORPG experience, I couldn’t talk in global chat at first because Runes of Magic makes you pay for the privilege. I had to spend a little bit of money in the game’s item shop to procure some megaphones (each one set me back 69 diamonds — RoM’s item shop money — and came with 25 charges, one of which was subtracted every time I typed in /y). For purposes of this column (which usually features a heavy amount of chatting over global channels), I needed to get several stacks of the megaphones in order to conduct my polling.

The answers to this query were fairly stock (i.e., I used to be directed to the item shop and the game’s wiki), and people were usually helpful irrespective of the time of day or day of the week.

For the second query, I went with the tried-and-true discussion-friendly soloing query:

Answers varied  a bit on this one as they always do, and a couple of lengthy discussions were spawned in the weeknight and weekend play periods.

The Artemis community was pretty friendly overall, and I didn’t run in to a single troll or heckler in the coursework of all of my polling periods (and that’s a first in the history of this column). The global and zone chats are usually filled with WTB/WTS adverts, and there’s also  a little bit of guild recruitment going on around the clock, but people were kind  to respond to my questions around all of the commerce-related chatter.

Interestingly, Runes of Magic seems somewhat immune to the growing troll epidemic that I’ve noticed in my regular titles. Age of Conan and Global Agenda have gotten  bad of late, as you can’t go three minutes without some jackhole firing off the “WoW was the first MMO” or “why do they call it the Xbox 360″ memes in global chat.

I didn’t see a single occurrence of either of these juvenile amusements (or any others) in the coursework of my 10-plus days in Taborea. I’d like to say that’s because the community is more mature than other MMO destinations. The reality probably has more to do with the fact that you need to pay real-world money to spam global chat, though, which is the only positive thing I can say about such a mechanic. Getting back to RoM’s Artemis community, I’m hard-pressed to document anything bad about it. On the whole, it was  friendly, polite, and helpful.

The in-game submission procedure is standard MMO fare and  simple to figure out, and Frogster also sends you an immediate confirmation mail and a mail offering a link and directions for logging in to its third-party help table website. Runes of Magic uses Kayako to track support tickets, and while the software is simple  to understand, it doesn’t do you much lovely if your ticket goes unread for days on finish.

**[UPDATE]: Frogster GM Tenmei responded to my help ticket about an hour prior to this article’s publication. There was no resolution forthcoming, and the following message was accompanied by a link to a customer satisfaction survey:

“Thank you for your feedback on this issue. The information has been sent to the developers and they’re working on a solution.”

Compared to my World of Warcraft customer support experience (WoW being an MMO that Runes of Magic is clearly inspired by on multiple fronts), this is  a adapt for the worse. Blizzard’s community team responded to my ticket in-game and in  short order, whereas the Frogster folks have gone seven days now with nothing but an automated acknowledgement and no resolution in sight.

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I’ll admit that part of my frustration may have had to do with the fact that i have little patience for obscure interfaces, and I used to be also a bit put off by the fact that I had to spend money to speak in the game’s global chat. So had I been in a better mood, the item shop transactions might have gone more smoothly. The other side of that coin, though, is that if you’ve got an ecommerce interface that ends in even a little little bit of confusion for a possible customer, you’re doing it wrong.

Another facet of Runes of Magic that bears mentioning is the item shop. While this isn’t directly related to customer support, I’m throwing it in here because it does relate to the general user experience and could stand to be improved. In a nutshell, the item shop and the purchasing process is bizarrely unintuitive. I spent many time googling and looking over the RoM forums because it wasn’t readily apparent where I ought to go about purchasing diamonds (or why I had to make use of my cellphone to do so). one time I finally finished a transaction, the procedure for getting the diamonds to show up in my in-game item shop window was equally mysterious.

Ultimately, a couple of relogs made my diamonds show up, and I used to be able to make use of my megaphones. The whole experience was something of a hassle, though, and I’ve never before used an online transaction system that forced me to enter my cellphone number and reply to a text message  than basically inputting a credit card number.

and that’s about all I’ve got for you with regard to Runes of Magic. The community was great, and it might challenge some of the pre-conceptions some people have as to the “quality” of a F2P playerbase. The same cannot be said of Frogster’s customer support equipment, though, and due to the shortage of a response over a lengthy time period, I can’t recommend it.

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Alter-Ego: Let’s get this character started

This week, I’m going to start off with a bit of controversy. Are you ready? Here goes: I actually think the DC Universe Online character creator makes sense in terms of its costume limitations. Now, before you come at me armed with pitchforks and hateful comments, hear me out. Looking at DC Universe Online as part of the greater DC Universe, I note that not all heroes are welcomed by the public — and villains even less so. There are no “Costumes R Us” on every street corner, and there aren’t copies of “Superpowers for Dummies” one can snag from the shelves of the local bookstore. As much as we may know as players ahead of time, our characters are assumed to not have the same level of knowledge from a story standpoint. In short, new characters are not going to roll out of the creator as a fully realized Captain Badass or Madame Awesome.

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Instead, new heroes and villains would probably be highly confused about any powers that showed up out of the blue. Once they’ve come to grips with the basics, only then would they likely be trying to piece together a new secret identity with all the gusto that someone with a glue gun, duct-tape, and half-remembered sewing lessons from 7th grade home economics classes could muster. To a character starting out with basic knowledge, character costumes would probably look like someone threw a goth and a cosplayer in a blender and then added a dash of drag queen for extra fierceness. Call it an edge of realism. Thankfully, SOE has saved our characters from their first embarrassing steps involving costume malfunctions by offering a number of cool-looking yet basic options in the character creator. As you level, so do your powers — and your gear.

Now that I’ve gotten your blood boiling (or hopefully a chuckle or two), it’s time to dive into the first days of being a hero or villain in DC Universe Online. For those of you who have already jumped in and are well on your way, don’t worry — I haven’t forgotten you. I’ll also be adding in some tips and tricks I’ve picked up from playing as well as telling you how you can join up with us in-game as part of a heroic new League: Massively Overpowered!

It’s not the size, it’s what you do with it

Characters come in two genders and three sizes: small (think Teen Titans), medium, and large. None of these options actually does anything in terms of gameplay, so feel free to pick whichever ones fit your concept best. The differences between medium and large for females is primarily one of height, whereas males go from muscular and tall at medium to enormous and losing their neck in all the muscles as large characters. There are no size customization sliders for fine-grained control.

What’s your frame of mind?

Assuming you didn’t opt for an inspired by path, you’re presented with another cosmetic option, this time for personality. Players can choose between powerful, serious, primal, flirty, and comical. As with the earlier cosmetic options of size and gender, these choices don’t affect your combat skills, so pick whichever one suits you best.

Choose your own Powers

There are six power types in DC Universe Online with two different forks per powerset. If you’re out to stand toe-to-toe with your adversary and soak up damage, then Fire and Ice are the two that you’ll want to look toward. If dealing devastating damage with some crowd-control elements is more your speed, then you’ll want to look into the Gadgets or Mental abilities. Finally, for those who relish being able to heal themselves and others as well as doing damage, there’s Nature or Sorcery. However, I’d caution that there’s a lot of leeway even with those roles largely assigned. You can skew your powers however you’d like, offering a customization that’s ultimately going to take tweaking to get used to. (Thankfully, you can can use in-game cash to change your power loadout in case you find your initial direction doesn’t suit what you were after.)
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StarCraft II Patch Adds Editor Improvements, BNet Channels

It’s not as giant as the a number of the other StarCraft II patches we’ve seen, but it does look to fix up a bunch of bugs to the game. Patch 1.2.0 also makes substantial changes to the StarCraft II Editor, both improvements & bug fixes.

StarCraft II’s custom map-making community appears to be massive & very creative, so these changes are a fairly massive deal.

you are able to get the full rundown of what’s in the patch on the StarCraft II development blog. Meantime, here’s a whole list of the new Editor improvements.

Map locale management has been added.
Further editor tips & hints have been added.
New trigger functions, actions, & events have been added:
New trigger functions:
Verify Bank -  used to confirm that a bank’s signature is intact.
New trigger actions:
Bank Option – used to change options for banks including adding a signature.
Remove stock Item – used to instantly remove a requested item from an stock.
Set Visibility Type Of Text Tag – used to control whether fog or black mask hides the tag.
New trigger events:
Mouse Moved – sent in response to the mouse being moved in the game world.
New Effect Used event property has been added:  Life, Shields, & Energy changed.
New unit properties have been added:
Carried Minerals, Carried Vespene, Carried Terrazine, & Carried Custom Resource.
Bounty (XP) – used to grant experience when a unit is killed.
Copy/paste support has been added to the upgrade editor.
Behaviors can now get replaced by either the shortest duration (the original method) or by farthest distance.
Behavior abilities can now properly charge the player using the ability in lieu of always charging the owner.
Right clicking an item in an stock will now have the icon appear immediately next to the cursor.
Font Style Files can now be added to Mods & Maps using the FontStyleFileArray field in GameUIData. Existing styles can have their individual attributes overridden or entirely new styles can be added.
UI Layout files can now be added to Mods & Maps using the CustomLayoutFileArray filed in GameUIData. Most existing frames can be modified or overridden & entirely new templates can be added which can be created from the Dialog method within the Editor.
Attributes & values can now be hidden in the game lobby & can be configured through Game Variants.
Attribute & Veterancy behaviors now normalize vitals when new levels are applied.
The mouse wheel now scrolls the control under the cursor.
Copied doodads now retain their height offset
Mouse clicks & highlights are now allowed while in relative camera mode.
Edit boxes are now available for trigger dialogs.
The game will now properly find custom imported files within mods.
Maps can now depend on even more mods.
Dialog Items can now be connected from already existing frames within a created Panel.
Change Focus commands are now available in the Trigger module View menu for switching input focus directly to different areas.
The water editor layout has been improved.
Effect offsets can now optionally contain a Z part.
Added a brand new type of Dialog Item called Panel. Panels are containers for other dialog items to help with grouping & hierarchy.
Added new UI to insert text tags for information references, unit info, & hotkeys.
Added an effect range to the effect ability to confine how far away the effect can be placed. This will permit effects to behave like the Stalker Blink effect.
Added a behavior flag to suppress fidgeting.
Added a brand new stalemate melee option to choose whether the stalemate detection checking is enforced.
Added a brand new “Creator” player to effects. It will be set to the player issuing an order if available.
Added a brand new type of item that can use an effect ability.
Added a validator that checks to see if a unit can path to a point.
Added a validator that checks if there is a cliff between one points.
Added MinimapRenderPriority to CActorUnit & MinimapRenderPriorityList to CActorGlobalConfig. this enables custom map makers to define the render priorities of units on the minimap.
Added a Locale sub-menu in the Mod menu for changing the active text locale for the current report.
Added a Mod Info dialog in the Mod menu for more basically changing mod name & description text.
Added a alter Locales dialog (also in Locale sub-menu) for adding or removing text locales.
Added an Editor Tips dialog in the Help menu (and optionally on start up) with tips for using the editor effectively.

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Choose My Adventure: Beginning my Wizard101 adventure

Well, it was an epic battle. small did I know that, in an hard work to promote a random assortment of high-quality free-to-play & indie games, I would come up with the formula for the destruction of the whole universe. Over the last few days, readers cast their votes (and their disagreeable comments) in the hopes that I would take a glance at their favourite game for well over a month. After all, it would expose everything that is nice (and bad!) about their game & might draw in lots of more new players. Not to brag, but loads of eyes are drawn to our lovely small site here.

In the finish, Wizard101 pulled it off. While I knew the game had the numbers, I wasn’t sure that it could herd all of the felines together in time. It did teach me one thing, though: Don’t mess with the tweens.

Each game I chose was nestled alongside a mortal enemy. Wizard101 had MapleStory to tackle. Puzzle Pirates had Zentia. My planning only lead to mass chaos as the sizable of the bunch, MapleStory, barely opened an eyelid. Then, out of nowhere, Anarchy Online swooped in & punched everyone in the eye. It looked like the 10-year-old masterpiece of sandboxy goodness would win for the oldies in the bunch! (The AO community’s passion for the game inspired me to cover it in my other column, Rise & Shiny, for the week of January 16th.) Where was Shadowtale? At the time of this writing, the game boasted literally thousands of players on at two times. Yet they barely pulled in a handful of votes. Pirates of the Burning Sea appeared to give up early, as evidenced by forum posts. (I was following all the games’ forums.)

Join me past the cut for the next vote & for some information about Wizard101.

Kingsisle Entertainment started out with one simple objective in mind: make a game for more youthful players, & make it work on any setup. The company knew that Harry Potter & collectible card games were all the anger at the time so it decided to make a magic-school-inspired turn-based MMORPG. I admit that when I first heard the name & saw the screenshots I was one time not a lot impressed as I was one time intrigued. I liked the fact that the game could run on an elderly machine, & I  desired to get my hands on a brand spanking new turn-based adventure. Josef Hall, V.P. of Development, & J. Todd Coleman, V.P. & Creative Director, were two of the people behind Shadowbane, a game that always stuck out — so that was a bonus. But no one guessed what success would truly mean to the company. It has claimed millions & millions of registrations, thousands of in-game items, & as can be seen in the voting from last week, a  passionate audience made up of gamers from all age groups. If you look at what has happened to Kingsisle, you will require no further proof that the “kid’s” market can lead to loads of success.

In the finish, though, there can be just one. Wizard101 took the vote to town, easily. It should be no surprise that the next few installments of this series will over likely be jam-packed with comments, votes & passionate debate. If you’ve never seen hundreds or thousands of more youthful players all screaming at the top of their lungs, get ready. I might be wrong, of coursework, but I think things would have gone down a much quieter path if Anarchy Online had won. what’ve I gotten myself into?

Of coursework, kids are not the only players of Wizard101. The game boasts grandmothers, uncles, aunts, parents who play with their kids, & peculiar staff writers at Massively. Yes, I’ve played the game before & have always kept up with it. regrettably, the maximum level I achieved was around 12 or 13, & that was  a while ago. It should be noted that i have played every game mentioned in the vote, a quantity of them residing in a special place on my desktop. My idea was to list off several games that Massively readers might not be familiar with, irrespective of size, & take them into a game they had never even considered playing. Every game I picked was unique & brilliant.

there’s some rules, however. First, you must behave in the comments section. No name-calling, hair-pulling, or spamming comments. If they don’t play lovely, I will turn this editorial around right now & they can speak about Anarchy Online in lieu. Second, tell your Wizard101 relatives & friends to come vote. I don’t require to mess this up, & I require everyone’s help!

So here they are with the next vote. I decided to start with the basics: boy or girl, which school of magic, & which mount to get around on. Later on I will be asking for your help in determining what strategic roads to go down, what quest lines to explore, & what sorts of items to go after. I will even be streaming a quantity of my gameplay one time per week, so readers can give me advice, watch me fail, & know when to join me in the game!

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The Road to Mordor: The Professor

This past week on January 3rd, J.R.R. Tolkien celebrated his 118th birthday — or , they celebrated it for him. Tolkien was born in South Africa in 1892 and lived a rich and full life, from fighting in the first World War to working on the Oxford English Dictionary to taking a position at several universities that would earn him the nickname “The Professor.”

he is, of course, most well-remembered for his seminal works of fantasy — The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion — although his writings didn’t finish there. Due to Tolkien’s love of nature, linguistics, and mythology, his creations were born out of comprehensive backgrounds and rich histories, which he appeared to love making up just as much as the stories themselves.

For years now, Tolkien fans around the world have recalled his birthday by raising a glass on his birthday and giving a simple toast, “The Professor,” at 9:00 p.m. wherever they lived. Likewise, in Lord of the Rings Online, many players gathered at their tavern of choice to do the same.

Lost Dog

Today I thought I’d keep in mind the Professor in a slightly different way by exploring the quest chain “Missing the Meeting.” While it’s not  overt in case you happened to come across it, “Missing the Meeting” is a tribute to J.R.R. Tolkien and his life, and it’s worth going through at least one time in case you require to pay homage and get a nifty token by which to keep in mind him.

Here they encounter Ronald Dwale, a hobbit who is, for all intents and purposes, a J.R.R. Tolkien stand-in (Dwale was also in the back of Frostbluff theater in the course of the Yule Festival). “Ronald” is the first “R” in J.R.R., you see. Dwale looks a bit Tolkien-ish, with that natty vest and pipe, and he’s definitely pleased to meet you.

The first cease on our LotRO Magical Mystery Tolkien Tour is to head up to Bullroarer’s Sward (I always, always require to type “Sword” instead) in southern Evendim. Near a brigand-occupied town is a lone Hobbit house — a glassblower’s hut — where a few NPCs are standing worriedly outside. It’s  easy to miss this location when travelling north (it’s at the top of “D” in “Sward” on the map).

It’s not that far away, and seeing as how the local variety of neeker-beekers find lead canines tasty and not at all poisonous, one has swallowed the toy. Time for some unrehearsed surgical procedure! Slash-slash, cut-cut, crawl in and stay warm for the night. and you thought they smelled bad on the outside.

Dwale hands you a level-30ish quest called “Lost canine,” in which he charges you to discover a small toy canine that he lost while he and his son were by the banks of the Brandywine. where is the son? Where, for that matter, are any Hobbit children in this game? Shut up, is the answer.

According to Lotro-Wiki, this quest is referencing a story that Tolkien wrote called “Roverandom” to comfort his son when the boy lost his toy canine. “Roverandom” was post-humously published in 1998 and tells the story of a canine who’s turned in to a toy by a grouchy wizard and goes on a search to get his doggyness back.

Recovering the Lost Leaf

Onward and upward! With the lost toy returned, Dwale graduates you to “Paper Finder” as a reward. “Go away, sonny. Find me… a piece of paper! Yeah, that’s it!”

Fortunately, this is not  difficult a task, as the paper in query is a stone’s throw away in the middle of a few bandits. Dead bandits, slash-slash, cut-cut, crawl in and stay warm for the night.

This paper, which contains the beginning of a children’s story that Dwale is writing, is most likely a reference to Tolkien’s history writing The Hobbit. “On a blank leaf I scrawled: ‘In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.’ I did not and have no idea why,” Tolkien wrote in 1955.

It’s only when you hand the paper back to Dwale that the last, and most fascinating, part of this quest chain occurs.

Apparently Dwale is part of a writer’s club, but his rekindled excitement for his story means that he’s going to miss an upcoming meeting — and he wishes you to deliver the message. It’s times like this that you wish Middle-earth had text messaging or a postal service (oh, wait…), but I guess this is why they all became adventurers: to be the awkward go-between of NPCs who have their feet nailed to the ground.

Missing the Meeting

Other than Tolkien, the Inklings was a who’s-who of accomplished authors: C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia), Owen Barfield (Saving the Appearances: A Study in Idolatry) and Charles Williams (All Hallows’ Eve) were just some of the members who went on to be well-known in academic and literary circles. Another Inkling I’m personally keen on is Hugo Dyson, who was recorded as saying, “Oh God, not another elf!” when Tolkien would read LOTR to the group.

Let’s take a speedy break to speak about one of the things that’s always fascinated me about Tolkien. Tolkien was part of a literary discussion group club called the Inklings (Best. Name. Ever.) who met in the Eagle and Child Pub near the University of Oxford. For the better part of one decades, the Inklings got together on Tuesdays to drink beer in a lounge and speak about what they’d been reading and writing. Fantasy was a common theme, and it’s here that Tolkien shared The Lord of the Rings while he was writing it.

Talk to Lewisdown and the group grumbles about various books they were hoping Dwale would critique. After that short exchange, you require to travel aaaaall the way back to Dwale to document “Mission accomplished!” Apart from the satisfaction of seeing this small slice of Tolkienna, Dwale bestows on you his old pipe, which can be used to blow a very fascinating smoke ring.

The reason I raise the Inklings is that this final quest and the Bird and infant Inn (which was the casual name for the Eagle and Child Pub) is a thinly veiled reference to the group — Dwale even says the word “inkling” in the quest text. This writers’ group is located behind the bar in a small side room decorated with lots of books also a roaring hearth. six Hobbits are attending: Jack Lewisdown (Lewis), Carlo Williams (Williams) and Owen Farfield (Barfield).

This quest chain isn’t that important in the grand technique of things, but I applaud Turbine’s efforts to include it for those of us who always desired to interact with Tolkien in some way.

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