Tuesday, February 19, 2008

The devil wears mithril

Remind me never to bitch about anything here on the blog again, because it seems as soon as I do, things just get worse. We just had the coldest weekend yet - I don’t think it ever got above freezing. Somehow we managed to miss all the snow the rest of the country endured, which is a miracle, because it seems we always have snow up here when no one else does. But the cold was bad enough, and the one time we ventured out every swear word known to man involuntarily poured out of my mouth as some kind of defense against the sub-freezing wind (it didn't work).

Just as well, though, because it gave us the perfect excuse to stay inside all weekend and finally try Lord of the Rings Online, which we got for Christmas but couldn’t play because dialup and MMORPGs just don’t mix. My husband and I are both quite fond of computer games of all types, but we have a weakness for the role playing variety. We both beta-tested Everquest way back in the day, and continued to play for quite a few years, until World of Warcraft took all its players away. We eventually caved in and played WoW ourselves, but it didn’t last, and so we continued our search for the perfect MMORPG. We beta-tested Everquest 2 and Vanguard, and while both had some strong points, they just didn’t have that lasting quality we were looking for. So we finally decided that, as fans of Tolkien and MMORPGs, we should try out LOTRO.

So far, I think we’re hooked. Now, we’ll never give as much time to a game as we did in our peak EQ days, but LOTRO is fun, easy to play, and has beautiful graphics. I’m not sure how strong the community is, which was one of the best things about EQ, but we’ll see. The quest storyline seems to lead down a Tolkienesque road, and the world is filled with lots of places in Middle Earth we know and love. What more can a geek ask for?

So if I disappear for long periods of time, it is probably because I am in Middle Earth, doing my best to protect the world from the evil Sauron. Or something like that.

4 comments:

Rositta said...

Funny, I could never get into LOR game. Maybe the new online version is better? We also didn't like Warcraft much but still play Diablo fairly regularly. Sometimes I play on line with what I'm sure are 12 year olds, but what the heck. The most fun we had with that game was when my 3 grandsons, my husband and myself were all in the same game online, what a riot...ciao

My Name is Iosifina said...

Have you tried the vocabulary quiz on freerice.com? For each correct answer, 20 grains of rice are donated to the United Nations. More is explained on their website. I enjoy reading your blogs about life in Thessaloniki!

melusina said...

Rositta, I never played the other version, so I'm assuming the online game is better (it is even made by a different company I think). We are hooked, at least.

Diablo is so fun every year or so we reinstall and play it again! It is a lot of fun to play online with family and friends. I wish others in our families were into computer games.

Iosifina, I haven't tried it yet, but I love vocabulary quizzes! I'm glad you enjoy reading the blog, and will be interested in hearing more about your house as it is coming up!

MMORPG said...

Good stuff. I loved these mmorpgs