Kill Ten Rats

In another attempt to keep me from reaching the level cap in any MMO, Turbine has done their part by introducing fishing to Lord of the Rings Online. I spent much of my recent game time on the shore of any lake or river I could find, doing battle with another form of monster, the fish of Middle-earth.

Some of my prize catches have already been stuck on the walls of my house. First trophy was the Giant Goldfish, yes that’s correct. Later on I caught a Magnificent Minnow. Hard work paid off with some bigger fish. Eventually I caught a Colourful Charr and then a 4-pound Salmon.

Not all was fish guts and glory. I also pulled in piles of weeds, more rusty daggers than I can count, and several of these tasty items. All and all, Turbine did a fine job of adding the first of many hobbies to the game. At this rate I’ll never get to level 50.

– Ethic

I am sorry, you are not high enough level to eat pork chops. Note that you can crit when cooking pork chops.

: Zubon

I have made several brief comments about The Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢: Shadows of Angmarâ„¢’s session play, so I thought I would make a more coherent statement.

As gameplay, the chickens are disappointing. It is a set of “go talk to x” quests, with poor directions to x. Despite being just outside the hobbit starting area, this is not newbie content. You must know where things are and be able to find them with a blank map while playing a level one character. Taking a chicken through the higher level areas is presumably an interesting challenge, although having a babysitter makes it much easier. The greatest annoyance is uninteresting running. If your quest is “talk to animals in Bree,” your first step is a five-minute run across the Shire to Bree, an almost perfectly safe run with just enough twists to keep you from going AFK with autorun on. Bottom line: not fun once the novelty of “lol chicken” wears off.

As a story, it is without value as far as I have seen. Chickens are scared, you talk to other animals, they say they will not help. Every time. As a tech demo, I suppose it is okay. There must be some technical issues in moving from a PC to a connected one-shot puppet. It is a shame that everything is flushed between sessions, including your map. Building up a chicken could be amusing.

In many ways, chicken play is the logical extreme of The Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢: Shadows of Angmarâ„¢. If you read The Lord of the Rings and thought, “I wish I could be a secondary character doing sidequests while Frodo carries The One Ring,” The Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢: Shadows of Angmarâ„¢ is designed for you. Taking it one step further, what if you were a hobbit in The Shire, and you could level by delivering mail or gathering eggs? Taking it one step further, what if you were a chicken in The Shire, laying those eggs? Just $15/month, baby!

I have not tried a troll or ranger in session play. From what I hear in /ooc as a monster, the freeps use rangers as mobile artillery platforms at the center of groups, while the creeps avoid using the trolls for fear that the human players will give up and leave. Your server may vary.

: Zubon

Taking a whirl around Middle Earth, I remade my hobbit hunter from beta and am almost back to where I was, looking forward to seeing new things. There have already been several new things, what with the updates since beta, but I don’t think I cleared level 20, so there is a lot of game ahead.

Hobbits start in The Shire, which is a wonderfully executed zone. It comes across as a part of the world, rather than a convenient place to stock bandits and goblins. There are bandits and goblins, but those are not the center of The Shire. The focus is on farms, rolling hills, and peaceful people. It is not high adventure, but it is setting-appropriate.

This is the place that feels like Middle Earth online, rather than Yet Another Fantasy MMORPG. Two major concerns are improving the postal service and delivering pies. Your early fights are against wolves that are eating chickens. You fight bears because of concerns about honey, and you get a title for slaying giant flies that would otherwise eat the crops. If there were somewhere in The Lord of the Rings Onlineâ„¢: Shadows of Angmarâ„¢ where you would go and just be, it would probably be The Shire.

And then it is The Lord of the Rings. Dwarf and human bandits are in the opposing zone corners, connected to those lands’ foes. Goblins and spiders infest the north. A black rider is looking for a certain Baggins. Mordor casts a long shadow.

: Zubon