Author Archives: Foton

LOTRO Lorebook

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Lorebook home - LOTRO LorebookWhile I love the idea of the newly beta’d Lord of the Rings Online Lorebook — basically, a LOTRO wiki with game info of all flavors — and I love the idea that the lorebook will be editable by players in the future, (though I KNOW that will be a nightmare to manage and police), but, … isn’t the home page a little too WoWish?

I realize that aged parchment has to be yellowed or weathered in some way, but I would have steered clear of Bright! Gold! parchment and maybe gone for browner aging or the palest of yellows. The metal borders add to the Warcraft feel too, although they’re using something similar on the LOTRO main page and I’m not getting the same vibe.

If it was me, I’d be a little sensitive to the WoW-clone wisecracks and I’d make sure the look was unique enough so I could say, “what in the hell are you people talking about?”

Banished from Middle Earth

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This is possibly Lord of the Rings Online’s first big controversy: Turbine is handing out unfounded bans. How fun! (cuz it’s not me.)

Sheeba of the Gladden server wrote:

A member of my kinship was just banned for an unfounded accusation of powerleveling because he is 49. I myself am 48, as are many others at this point. This is a person I play with on ventrilo and know that he isn’t powerleveling or a gold farmer etc. Many people are getting handed these perma bans for no reason.

… and several other banned players climb aboard and relate their stories.

There’s no official word yet on what’s up, just speculation at this point, but wouldn’t it be great if Turbine was banning high level players because they were concerned about the players’ health? Something like, “We’re worried that you’re exhibiting an unhealthy fascination with our game. Also, you’re overusing our resources. $10 or $15 a month for 24/7 play is unreasonable. Thanks for playing! Have a good life.”

Financially speaking, a game house’s profit margin on a casual player subscription is many times that of a hardcore player, maybe the gaming companies should start booting people for playing too much. All I’d ask is that they’re honest, and entertaining, about it.

“Dear Former Subscriber,

Go outside for heaven’s sake. Also, personal hygiene is a requirement of modern society. This is not optional, as you seem to believe.

Loser.

Regards,
Soon-to-be-even-more-profitable Gaming Company”

UPDATE: Darn. Looks like Turbine is looking into this and will provide customer service, which isn’t very entertaining at all.

Meeting New Game Friends

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I am making friends FAST in Lord of the Rings Online:

Making Friends Already

Admittedly, my new friend has anger issues, but who doesn’t?

(I had range-pulled a trash mob — one of DOZENS available — while my new burglar friend was still setting up his stealth and opening moves.)

From the World of Warcraft forums, I spotted this soon-to-be-deleted thread (and it was):

WoW Forums - I am not Orig Owner (redacted)

(click for full-size redacted image)

I just wanted to let the realm know that i am not the original owner of this account. as many of you know the original owner of this character died a few months back several days after he was hit by a drunk driver. i am one of his brothers friends and the account was recently given to me. i do not know the he had on this server but i wanted to let the server know that its not him playing.

Riiiiiiight.

Doesn’t it seem like the first thing a deceased gamer’s family does is sell off his/her game accounts? So many (reportedly) dead gamers over the years — without fail, their accounts are up on the auction block almost immediately, sometimes within days of the death.

Damn disrespectful if you ask me.