A Question of Legitimacy

As some of you may know, I decided to play through one Sims 3 family for 20 generations as part of my Day Zero Project. Generation 5 was just born to my gen4 girl, Lily, but I have a bit of a long story to preface my ... moral conundrum.

This is Lily. Lily had the start of a fantastic life. She had a great family, lots of opportunity, and a handsome boyfriend. She was determined to be a master of all the instruments in the Sims 3, and was making great progress, playing for hours each day.

Her boyfriend, Rashad, while handsome and sensitive and fabulously artistic (he painted and sculpted), wanted more than what she was giving. She wanted to get married, but he never asked her. Instead, he finally convinced her to scoodlypoo with him, and she did, in the hopes that it would satisfy him and then they would have a beautiful wedding. Instead, right after it was done, the totally cliche and very unfortunate happened: they had a fight and broke up. It was like he went crazy - implying her mother was a llama and other such nasty things. She was heartbroken, and she never saw him again. Last she heard, he was a writer for a tabloid magazine.

And then, surprise! You know what they say - it only takes once. She was pregnant! Her parents and grandmother were not thrilled, but they welcomed the child into the world, and Lily stood tall despite the rumors flying about town about how her son was conceived out of wedlock. For a while it was so bad Lily couldn't leave the house without people stopping and pointing and gasping and shaking their heads at her. One restaurant even refused to serve 'her type!' Despite all this, she persevered, and soon enough little Aegon was born.

 Surprisingly, he carries the genetic marker I put in Duncan at the start of the whole thing (bright yellow eyes. No, it has no purpose or meaning, other than I wanted something easily identifiable for a marker, as an experiment). So far it has shown up every other generation (Gens 1, 3, and 5), exactly.

All seemed well with the world, and eventually the rumors died down. People are fickle, and they will always have something new to gossip about. Hopefully it will be a while before poor Lily finds herself in the spotlight again.

Aegon was growing up quickly, learning new things every day about talking and walking and how to properly chew on toy cars. Lily continued to practice her instruments, and eventually she was able to leave the house without being ridiculed or shunned. They moved on with their lives.




 And by 'went on with their lives' I mean Lily really, truly, moved on. She went out and met people, determined to overcome the bad name people had put on her, and one of the people she met was Davon Lassiter. This time, she'd found a great guy. They got along great, he was a hard worker and, most of all, he respected her. He didn't seem to mind (or maybe he didn't know) about the rumors that occasionally still cropped up about Lily, and he was great with Aegon. He was sweet, funny, and even though he was overweight, he was a hard worker. They got married in an incredibly private ceremony (you don't get more private than the bathroom), he moved into the family estate, and soon after she was pregnant again. Things were looking up. Davon got in shape and really slimmed up, then he got a job as an inventor. The new baby turned out to be another son, and now Lily had two children, Aegon Morel (her maiden name) and Aemon Lassiter (her married name). Lily continued with her music, but it was harder now with two children.



And now the question stands: which one of her children will be the heir for the legacy game? Are there rules against bastards? Is it which ever child comes first? Does Aegon have to stand aside for his step-brother Aemon, simply because of a wedding ring? Does Aegon get precedence because he has the genetic marker? Answer in the comments below and tell me! I will go with whoever you decide, so vote!

Death Dances Tonight: Guest Submission!

Today we have a guest submission from a reader, doodlebrain, who is an avid Sims fan. Here's the screenshot she submitted and the story that goes with it:

Here's the story: My character Issabelle Montgomery, is a celebrated 5 star chef. She lives in Bridgeport and owns several businesses and night spots, one of which is The Grind. As a master mixologist, she was given the task to moonlight at the Grind. The bartender on duty happened to be very elderly and as she walked out to the dance floor while my girl tended the bar, she died--on the dance floor. Death comes, and sends her away to the hereafter, however, Death did not leave, but decided to have a little fun and dance. On the table. Weird. Very weird.

Even Death needs a little fun every now and again! Thanks for the submission, and happy Simming! 

Have a funny gaming story of your own? Want to submit a screenshot? Tell me everything at elfingamer@gmail.com

More Meta-deed Completion

For a long time, I assumed Indy was forever doomed to be casual. I was never going to see the inside of anything tougher than Sword-halls. Then I started raiding, and I saw the insides of some very cool places. Progress was beginning to be had all around on meta-deeds of all sorts.

 Then I stopped raiding, for the most part, due to dropping my sub and getting out of the game for a couple months while I tested out SW:TOR, and in the process of leaving the game I got behind and all the rest of my kinmates are far ahead of me in content and raiding experience. Trying to get in runs now, being behind the curve, it's kind of hard sometimes to imagine ever having all of the meta-deeds finished. If they keep adding content fast enough, then perhaps I will never be finished and I will always have some sort of goal. Of course, as long as I have alts, I will have goals, but that is a tangent we don't want to go down just yet.

Tonight, with the dedicated help of my favorite tank, I managed to finish one of them, the Tempest of Dol Guldur. This one, while less intensive than say, the Moria or Angmar meta-deeds, still took a long time and a lot of work.

Now it's all paid off, and I finally have it finished. The default name was Moonlight, but I changed it to Ananlend, Sindarin for a very long journey. Indy decided to show off on the banks of the Great River Anduin in the new area of Thinglad just after sunrise. I know this sounds silly to all the non-gamers out there, but it was rewarding to finally see it, to ride it around. Felt like I'd accomplished something. Even if it was all pixely and not really worthwhile in the long run, I guess.

My only problem now is to decide what deeds to tackle next. I have pretty much run out of things to do duo or solo, and I'm getting into deeds that will take a goodly number of people to run. The more people something takes to run, though, the longer it will take me to complete the deed, especially when the deeds are ten levels old. No one wants to run that old stuff. For example, I have the Ost Dunhoth meta-deeds to do now. But no one runs Ost Dunhoth anymore, because it isn't cap anymore, and no one wants to waste time on getting raid gear when they're going to blow through those levels on their way to 75 anyways.

/sigh. Back to being casually anonymous, I guess.

Forced Labor

So Squid and I finally managed to push a little bit farther in the epic line, and wouldn't you know it, those stupid Dunlendings, who we'd helped and helped and helped, they sold us out to Saruman. Now we're prisoners, forced to work in his dungeons. Squid had the worst of it, as I think I was too busy being a photographer to actually help her with her tasks. She manages to carry a barrel full of weapons magnificently though. Sashays like a boss. Her taskmaster is staring like a creeper over the top of the barrel. Try as we might, we couldn't get rid of him. Kept stalking her. Course, she is gorgeous. I only wish it wasn't so dark underneath Orthanc, because it makes for dim, hard to see pictures.

And she has some awesome moves. Like this one, to the left, where she douses a rat in holy light. We actually had a quest called "Kill Ten Rats." I don't know if that was just lazy story-writing on the part of the devs, or pure genius. Also, my eagle, can't remember his name, looks fantastic in this picture. All swoopy. Ahem. Even though we were prisoners, our wardens were kind enough to let us keep our weaponry. And our nanimals. What kind of prison is slavery in Orthanc, anyways? Other than the hard labor and disgusting living conditions, it wasn't that bad.

So a short post, because I am out of sudafed.

Deed-mongerer

Yes, I know he's not emoting in this shot.

So if any of you have been reading this for a long time, and I pity you if you have, you may remember a post about the new meta-deed mounts. There were three deeds, and the other day, I finally finished all three of them. I have my Angmar meta-deed done, my Moria one, and just now, my Lothlorien one. So now, I has a shiny white goat as a reward. Oh, and I treated myself and bought one of the mounted emotes from the store.

Of course, it took me so long to finish all three that by now they have other meta-deeds out. One for a Mirkwood horse, one for an Ost Dunhoth horse, and I think there's an Isengard one as well. Oh well. Something else to keep me on the perpetual grind, I suppose.

SHFT: Super Rare

Short post today, just wanted to brag.

So today, I was exploring a random hole in the ground and came across someone odd. Mr. Tim. No, Squid, not Mr. Timn. Just Tim. He wasn't hard to kill, and he dropped a spiffy hat.

And the best part?  Apparently he's super rare and killing him is the only way to get that hat. Now I feel special, cause Indy has a pointy hat.

This almost makes up for me deleting my spectre boots.

SHFT: Mistakes

All this time I've been playing Terraria, I've been playing as a character named Garbledytesting or somesuch nonsense. Well, I finally got her gear up to snuff and decided to shove everything in chests and then delete her, and use Indrabar, whom I created a long time ago while I first played Terraria with my husband. So I shoved everything in chests, and then, I shoved all her gold and armor in the piggy bank. I saved and exited the world, and deleted her. Then I loaded in Indrabar. Then I noticed something odd.  Chests will carry over between characters. Piggy Banks do not. All that gear, my Spectre boots, my feral claws, my mining helmet, my 56 gold. It's all gone. At least I put the weaponry in a chest, so I still have that. Oh well. Back to the drawing board. Time for Indy to earn her stripes, and to find some more Hermes/Rocket/Spectre Boots.

Spritely Happy Fun TIme: Making Something of Myself

So today in Terraria I decided I was going to kill a boss. I had already killed the eye of Cthulhu about six times, and he was getting boring quickly. So I went off in search of my dungeon.

I found it, and the dungeon guardian got me. Funny, no one mentioned him. After some research I learned I needed to defeat Skeletron before I could safely get into the dungeon. Only one problem - I couldn't defeat Skeletron. I tried several times before I decided I was undergeared.

I went after the Eater of Worlds instead, at my husband's advice. I killed the Eater of Worlds after a couple botched attempts, and then, just to see if I could, I killed him again. By then  I was feeling pretty spunky, so I went off to attempt Skeletron again.

It was rough at first, but once I got rid of his hands, he was almost as boring as the Eye of Cthulhu. So he is dead, and my new favorite thing to do is die in the dungeons, mobbed by lots of angry skeletons. I am on a hunt for enough golden keys to open all the locked golden chests in the dungeon in the hopes that I will find a shadow key for the few shadow chests I've seen scattered about in the hell regions of my Terraria world. No luck yet - three golden keys and no shadow one :(

Even though I haven't found my shadow key yet, I exited Terraria feeling pretty good about myself and my accomplishments - that is, if it's okay to feel good about achievements in a pixelated world. Oh, and I have Spectre Boots now. Very happy face.

It's good to have goals, right?

Thing 75: Genetic Musings of the Desultory Kind.

As part of the Day Zero Project, one of the things on my list is to play through a family on Sims 3 ... but through 20 generations. Most of my progress with the DZP will be tracked through my other blog,  The Desultory Housewife, but as this was a goal concerning games I felt it was more fitting to post about it here.

But back to the goal. 20 generations. That is a lot of game time in the Sims 3. My record is only eight generations, and even that was trying my patience. For the record, I am keeping their lifespans set to normal, with only slight extensions on the sliders for adulthood. I am not a point keeper for legacy challenges, and I am not using any cheats. The family I've chosen for the challenge, so far, hasn't reached that boring point, but that's probably only because everyone is diverse enough that I'm able to keep my interest up and not get bored.

 The founder, Duncan Polk, started with a big empty lot, no money, a nothing but a dream. His temporary wife (who broke his heart and left him with two small children) almost broke that dream, but he pulled through, becoming a great scientist and thinker, and has now passed the torch on to his son and heir so that he can rest peacefully in that great neighborhood in the sky.

Meebo, gen2

His son Meebo is a fantastic gardener, and most of the family's income is derived from the sale of his produce. I realized while playing this sim that the gardener career becomes exponentially more and more difficult to level, because each level requires you to pretty much reach what you've made cumulatively in sales already.  50k worth of vegetables is a lot of times spent in the dirt.

Lana, gen2

Here is Meebo's sister, Lana. She's a writer and a painter, and I'm debating moving her out of the house as it's getting a bit full. Turns out royalties from books are a great way to make money, so between the seven or so books she's written and the occasional painting, she proves to be a good asset to the family's bank account, which in a house as large as theirs, is a very very good thing. There's always something broken or something that needs remodeling. Yes, I said it. NEEDS remodeling. Because, you know, that wall just has to go.

Kesha, gen2; and Pascal, gen3

Next are Meebo's wife and son-in-law, Kesha and Pascal. Kesha was Meebo's highschool sweetheart, and I was thrilled when I was able to get them to agree to marriage. Pascal came over from France, and while he's in the military now, his dream is to one day have a thriving nectary. They both enjoy pursuits of the mind, so they often play chess together on fine summer days (which, coincidentally enough, it is always a fine summer day in Appaloosa).

Mio, gen3

Meebo has two daughters. The eldest, Mio, is married to Pascal, and is a great equestrian. Her two horses, Cameo, and Cascade's First Cameo, are both prize winners, and she spends every day training them to be better racers and jumpers. Here we see her with Cascade's First when she was just a little filly.  It's actually kind of a good thing that the house is full right now and Mio can't have any children with Pascal, because the horses are a handful! One of the interesting things I noticed with Mio is that genetic traits in the Sims 3 can skip a generation. I gave Duncan yellow eyes as a genetic marker, just to see how it was passed down, and while it skipped Meebo, Mio has them. It looks like my Sims are doomed to be blondes though, as Meebo got his mother's blonde hair, and Kesha is blonde, and Mio and Satele are both blonde as well. Pascal is a brunette, so maybe there is hope yet for some darker hair, but I'm pretty sure Duncan's spitfire red hair, which only Lana seems to have inherited, will be lost forever. Mio will be the next heir, and the family name also changed to Morel with her marriage to Pascal. No more Polk :(

Satele, gen3

Meebo's younger daughter is Satele. She's only in grade school right now, but one day she hopes to be a great martial artist and athlete. Here we see her doing her homework under the watchful gaze of her grandfather's portrait. She is a dedicated student, and if I'm able to keep her in the house and not move her out to make room for heirs I'll probably send her on adventures overseas to participate in martial arts tournaments and collect rare treasures. Maybe. Don't know. She's kind of whiny right now, so she's getting on my nerves.

They also have a dog and a cat, Tiffany the beagle and Gilbert the cat. Gilbert is getting pretty up there in age, and I think he might go to be with Duncan soon. Tiffany is a proud hunter, and brings home jewels and bones and rare stones every day.

I will probably post an update once I get to generation 6 or something like that. Hopefully my save won't corrupt or anything.

Spritely Happy Fun Time: Rebooted

  On Squid's Boyfriend's urging, I started a new game and a new character on Terraria, just to get the hang of the game and figure it out, just as I had to when I first started playing, well, any other game.  So I started a new character (I named her Testinggobbedlygook for those of you slightly less disinterested than the rest of you) and put her in a world named Sudoku & Nanograms.

Testing in her new world.

The world was charming, full of trees and sunshine. So I started digging around, and eventually I fell down into a deep hole. I managed to grab some blinkroot on the way down, so it got even darker as I fell. I was also being chased by zombies and slimes and eyeballs at this point. I was kind of panicked, being a nooblet to the game and all that. Until I reached the bottom of that great hole, and, with the silence of safety, pulled out a torch.

Beauty is a nice piece of storage-ware.

Oh happiness! I fell down a lucky hole! Right before me was a beautiful golden chest! My first one ever! I don't even remember what was in it, I was so excited just to find one. I think there was a magical ring, some potions, and a few iron ingots. Nothing super amazing, but enough to be excited about, anyway. Except for the fact that it existed. I pried the chest off the ground and took it with me.

I was also hoping that that would be part of a larger dungeon, but no, it was just an isolated room. Just one room, with one gold chest, and one pot. I broke the pot too.

All my joy at finding the golden chest soon turned to despair though. After I had climbed out of the hole and made my way back to my derpy little house, I talked to Garret, the guide/crafting helper, and asked him how many fallen stars I would need to increase my mana. I had six. I needed ten. Thank you, Garrett! I finished talking to him, then watched in horror as he threw my six fallen stars on the ground. No! Don't! It's daytime, they'll - poof.  They poofed. Fallen stars disappear in the daytime.

Later, Garrett, I'm out.

Maybe next time I can find a way to lock Garret in a tiny room.

Spritely Happy Fun Time!

So I bought Terraria a while back on Steam when it was on sale for 4 bucks or something like that, but I didn't play it much because shortly after setting up a multiplayer server so my husband and I could play together, we exceeded our bandwith for the month and had no internet for about three weeks.

Terraria being on Steam, which requires the internet, I didn't play much again for fear of running up our bandwith. Until today, I decided to try it out. I started up a new world, and found with glee that all of the items my husband (who is a Terraria veteran) had thrown at me during our brief multiplayer stint stuck with me. So I had great weapons and armor.... but I had no idea how to play. So I'm working my way through a world save named Cherry Chapstick and I don't know what this thing is that I found under my house. And it's not very far under my house, either. Yes, I know I could look it up. But I am lazy in a strange way, and instead of taking 30 seconds to look it up on Google, I'm going to take five minutes + however long it takes you, my mythical readers, to respond, and ask if you know what this thing under my house is and how I get rid of it.

Yes, I know it's dark and hard to see. Please tell me what this thing is though.

Also, if you know of any reliable, easy to navigate Terraria guides, I'd be greatly grateful. (......?)

Greatly grateful????

Does This Mean I Have No Life?

So I finally did it.

I cancelled my lotro sub.

And yes, I shed a couple tears before I hit that green button. Does that mean I take the game too seriously? Does that mean I have no life? Probably.

Do I care? Yes.

We can't justify paying for three mmo subs right now, and with SW:TOR still pretty fresh on our plates, lotro, being the old, worn out, flataslastweek'snewspaper game, it had to go.

So why was it so hard for me to cancel? I've waited weeks to do this. I've wanted to find a way around it. I considered using Christmas money to pay for another year's sub. I considered all sorts of things to scrounge up the money to pay for another year's sub. In the exit survey, one of the questions asked was "what can we (Turbine) do to bring you back to Lotro?" I put in that they could give me a free lifetime sub if they wanted, because honestly, there is nothing wrong with their game (or wrong enough to drive me away).

I just don't have the time (or, more importantly, the money) to keep paying for it.

I guess it is all the time I have put into the game over the years that is killing me. All the fun memories I have of running things with Squid. The friends I've made - who thankfully, have moved around with me to other games (I'm looking at you, Minecraft and SW:TOR, and yes, even you, stupid Tanks).

I think my biggest fear in hitting that green button was that this felt like a betrayal to Indrabar. She's been with me for so long, and hey, it is an rpg, after a while it does begin to feel like that pixelated thing on the screen is a part of you, and that you really did defeat Mordirith or clear out Sammath Gul or down a dragon or two.

It feels like a betrayal because there was no Indrabar in SW:TOR yet, and there probably won't be, because, as my husband once said when I was creating my character for that short stint in SWG,  - "It's not a very Star Warsy name. It just sounds, well, elvish." So, for SWG, I went with Tsuka, and Tsuka is now in SW:TOR.


Tsuka was also in Skyrim, instead of Indrabar. A psychologist might say that two personalities are fighting for control.

Yes, I know it is just a game.

Yes, I am a sane, mature adult. If I wasn't, I wouldn't have cancelled.

Just because I am an adult though doesn't mean I have to be happy about the choices we are sometimes forced to make.

 Well, here's to the 20th, and whatever changes that will bring to Indrabar and the rest of my lotro characters. Hopefully they won't all just poof into thin air. Hopefully I won't cry like an idiot again.

Maybe now I can have a real life, you know, in the real world.


If I was able, I would give Indrabar permission to punch me in the face for just metaphorically indefinitely locking her in a dark cell with no chance of sunlight or ever seeing her forty-nine horses and three goats again..

You mean I actually have to work for it?

I'd forgotten how much work a festival in lotro can be, if you are as obsessive about collecting everything as I am.

Wait, let me back up.

A year or so ago, I decided to get both my Inn League and Ale Association standings to kindred. Getting both to kindred takes a good deal more work than just doing one or the other, as doing one will give you negative rep with the other. It was only through a delicate balancing act and several weeks of grinding dedication that I managed it.

By the time I was there, I had a couple stacks of the barter tokens for each faction. At first they seemed useless, but as Indy is unable to throw anything away, I shoved them in the vault and forgot about them. Until, that is, at the next festival, when I saw that these tokens could be traded on a 1:3 ratio for any festival token of your choice.

Suddenly, acquiring all those festival cosmetics and mounts was a piece of cake. I no longer had to grind out the quests and deeds to get tokens. Festival's started today? Okay, go to the vault, pull out a few Inn League or Ale Association tokens, turn them in for the appropriate festival tokens, aquire goods, done. That was it. I could usually accomplish all my festing in the space of five minutes, unless there was a new deed I wanted to finish.

Well, the Yulefest started last week, but due to the release of SW:TOR, I've been distracted. I just decided to log onto lotro today, and what would you know, but I'm all out of those IL and AA tokens.

So now, to acquire my new Yulehorse, I had to actually run quests, which isn't all bad since I still hadn't finished my Feast-beast title from last year, and there is a new snowman building quest/deed thingie. Thank goodness the festival will run until Jan 30th, because it'll probably take several days for me to get all the other cosmetics.

At least the new Yulehorse isn't that bad looking. Don't know what's on his head, but the rest of it looks good.

Sneak Attack for x3.0 damage!

 I am posting this on both my blogs because I felt it overlapped between gaming and being a wifey. You can check out my other blog here.

Yesterday, I stumbled across something on the internet that gave me an idea. So I went to the store, gathered the necessary surprise, and then called my husband at work to let him know I had a little 'surprise' planned for him. He tried to weasel it out of me, but I told him sweetly that I would be waiting for him when he got home.

"This is all highly suspect," he said, sounding moderately intrigued. I smiled as I hung up.


I set everything up, then waited in a dark, quiet house for him to get home from work. I heard the garage open. I heard him unlock the door. I could see the light in the kitchen flick on from my hiding place on the opposite side of the house. Then I could almost hear the wheels turning in his head, even from the other side of the house as he examined the surprise I'd left for him. I had left a nerf gun, loaded, with some extra ammo, on the small island in our kitchen, where he'd be sure to see it.

Also, I left a note. In case you can't read my horrible purple sharpie handwriting, it reads: "Oh hai. This is your gun. It's loaded. I have one too. Prepare to defend yourself." Then I drew a heart, because hearts make the threat of imminent attack so much more bearable. I was smiling uncontrollably at this point, almost giggling, even though I knew that my 'life' depended on my staying quiet and going through with my sneak attack. For a long time, silence reigned. Did he not think it was a good idea? Was he going to think I'd wasted money on children's toys? Despair began to flood through my womanly wifey mind, and my joy turned to despair. I was stupid. I'd picked a bad surprise. I should have gone for the lingerie.

Then, I heard a noise. Was that the kitchen drawer? The one with the... the flashlight? OH. Oh ho hahahaha. My smile came back, and I cocked my gun, then checked my pockets to make sure my extra ammo was still there. This was going to be fun.

Now in my head, I was expecting to be all cool and awesome, like I am in video games. The truth is - I am a girl. I was also a girl in the dark, wearing socks on a wooden floor. That  attempt to run behind the couch and duck down? Yeah, it ended in me slipping and falling on my behind, but I was laughing the whole time. As my mother told me my whole life, my secret middle name is Grace. About this time is when the cats ran for cover. I don't think they knew quite what was about to happen, but they knew it was going to be scary. I got back up and peeked up over the edge of the sofa to see if my husband had come out from cover yet.

This is not my husband. This is, however, how he came around the corner.

My husband, as I had thought from the sound, had gone for the flashlight, and came peering out from around the corner like a cop or something. My elation turned to fear as I suddenly realized he was going to be much better at this game than I was. Especially when not a shot had been fired yet and I'd already done nothing but fall down. I guess in the end, girls play fps games and are still just girls. Guys play fps games, and well, they become comfortable with guns. He handled that thing like it was real. I was kind of awestruck, if being awestruck with how your husband handles a nerf gun and a flashlight is ... a good thing. I guess it was one of those little moments where it hits you, for the umptybillionth time, that you married an amazingly cool man.

In the end, the shots flew thick and fast, and we both scored good 'hits' on each other. He even said, in a perfect Aussie accent "Boom, headshot," after landing a particularly good shot on my face, that ended with me making a temporary tactical retreat while laughing hysterically. I rebounded with a dirty shot to his nethers, which missed. I hit his knee and made an "arrow to the knee" joke in my head. We ended laughing, and he declared that it was a good surprise. The next morning, in between creating his characters on SW:TOR, he was playing with the gun and seeing how fast he could fire off six rounds, since these pistols are in no way automatic (I went for the cheap guns, in case this was a bad surprise. Now I wish I'd gone for the bigger, fancier guns).

He even took the note with him to work today to show his friend and is going to look up videos on youtube on how to mod the gun to remove the air restrictors.... whatever that means.

I guess that's one point for wifey? Or is it one point for husband, for being awesome?

Dunedain Outfittery and the Prince of Rohan

Let me start out by saying I am really enjoying what Turbine is doing with their new book content. Either they've got some new tech or they're showing off some new trick, but either way, some of the things I've seen in the Rise of Isengard expac and the new update 5, which just launched today, are making me bouncy happy.

Preparing for battle

Mounted npc's? Yes please. Now, when do we get mounted combat? Would that even be possible, Turbine? Also, looks like they are getting more comfortable with putting lots of npcs in one spot - some of the epic solo chapters are, well, epic. Between Wulf's Cleft and this new chapter, the Prince of Rohan, I am finding the story to be much more immersive, and superbly written. I suppose with the launch of SW:TOR looming on the horizon, it makes sense for any mmo other than WoW, and maybe even that one too, to throw everything they have at their player base in an attempt to retain subscribers. I have come to the sad decision to cut off my lotro subscription in the coming months, but that is the beauty of the game being free to play, I suppose. I can keep playing, and only pay for what I want. How a la carte of Turbine.





I haven't finished the new book in Volume III yet, but I'm loving what I have seen so far. Especially the fact that Indy finally has Dunedain clothing. I have wanted that since she first stumbled into Esteldin, over three years ago.Back then, the rangers were cool. And now, Indy is about 20% cooler. I'm just wondering how it will hold dye. My wardrobe is drooling, waiting for both sets to be put in it. That is, assuming I can afford the extra wardrobe space. I might just pick certain pieces for everyone else, and reserve the complete set for Indy. She gets all the shiny things. Boot knife!!! It's only fair, you know. Okay, now I'm just rambling. I'll stop.

I can't wait to get into some of the new Isengard instances. It will probably be a while, and Indy is kind of behind on her gear, but I'll catch up eventually. It just might take me a while.

Since Squid hasn't made much of an appearance lately, here she is in her sultry new duds, beating an old goat about the brainpan with a stick.

I miss my free time.