Virtual Companionship

Hello again, folks. Welcome back to my cozy little hovel, pull up a chair.

I’ve been a half-busy, half-lazy beaver lately. Gaming-wise at least, so I apologize for the lack of updates in the last few days. Darn wedding planning.

Anyways, you’ve come to find out what’s new in my LotRO world. The biggest change up is my new focus on my little Loremaster. A good friend of mine has been pestering me at work to roll a character on his server (Meneldor). After little contemplation, I decided that it’d be good to reconnect with him again and share my gaming time with an RL friend again – my others are still devoutly following WoW.

My Guardian has been waiting patiently for me at the ranger city in Trestlebridge. Poor guy. I think I even left him outside a spider’s den. As a rabid arachnophobic, it probably wasn’t the nicest thing for me to do. On the plus side, he’s earning up rested exp. awaiting my return.

After playing a tanking class for so long, it’s an interesting experience to take a step back into the DPS/CC role. The loremaster is a fun class to play, though, so I’m really enjoying. Another little perk that I love is that I can name my animals. Associating a name with them somehow seems to create more of a tie. It’s odd but I find myself wanting my pet raven out (I just got the bear) because he’s become more of a companion, instead of a tool.

When the NPC soldiers get introduced to the game, I’m really hoping we’ll be able to name them and have some options to use them in the open world, even if not in combat. It’s nice to feel like you’re not alone without actually having to group with people, even if it is artificial. I’d gladly keep my soldiers out and about for the essence of group NPC companions bring.

Sometimes, it’s the little things that make up something really great. That’s what I find with LotRO. The fluff, the little things that don’t matter but that bring the game to life, is what I find to be really fantastic. For that reason, I don’t understand the “no fluff” approach of games like WAR. Why? Why limit yourself when, obviously, it can make the game more than what’s it’d be otherwise. That’s what fluff is.

I won’t go down that route, though. We’ve shared that discussion before.

My little loremaster has just found his way into the bustling city of Bree and completed the first four chapters of Book I. I’m level 16 at the moment and am having to slow myself down so I don’t out level the friend I’m playing with. It’s a challenging thing, at times.

So, that’s our report for the day. If you haven’t yet, try out a loremaster. Get your raven, name him something obscene, and go to town. It makes for a fun time.