The start of something beautiful?
This past weekend my teen daughter and I started playing Lord of the Rings Online together. I’ve played LotRO on and off since it’s release, and the community is more mature and pleasant than in any other game I’ve played, so I felt completely comfortable allowing her to play. She’s also a card-carrying member of the grammar and spelling police and HATES chatspeak, so I know she’d go absolutely nuts playing on nearly any other MMO.
We did some reading and decided to create a Loremaster (her) and Hunter (me) duo on the Landroval server, which is LotRO’s roleplaying server. I *think* that’s an unofficial designation, but there is certainly a very strong RP community on Landroval. I haven’t seen so much public RP since my MUD and MUSH days.
We venture into Middle Earth together...
We’re aiming to level these two up together, but we each have solo characters, for when the other can’t play. I rolled a minstrel and made him a guy, just for fun. I even pugged a group for one of the Chetwood group quests, and pug healing for me is so outside my comfort zone it’s crazy. Just as he hit level 13, I saw an announcement about a musical event going on in Staddle… so off I trotted.
Listening to some music...
I was pretty nervous about engaging in RP in LotRO, because I don’t know anyone and I’m not confident in my knowledge of the lore. In the past, I’ve only RPed with people that I already know, but I’m determined to make some social connections in LotRO this time around, so I went out of my comfort zone and attended this event. It was great, because there were no expectations. Some people sat and listened to music, while some people chatted and RPed more.
At first, all I had the nerve to do was /clap and /cheer, but then someone came over and greeted me. I chatted with a couple of people and by the end of the event, I’d turned my RP flag on.
My daughter was jealous because she came home at the very end of the event. She wants to accompany me to next week’s event, and she’s been working on learning the music system! Between having someone else to play with, and feeling pretty welcomed by the Landroval community, I’m hopeful that I’ll feel at home at LotRO for a long time to come.
