I Remember When...

[Swanee]

... it took forever to reach 20, and rarely without dying.
... my 1st character died and I learned that walking of a cliff was a bad idea. (lvl 6 just west of thorins hall)
... I left Ered Luin at lvl 12 to go in search of Bag End. Took a bunch of screenshots when I got there.
... I 1st discovered the cave drawings inside goblin town showing "the Hobbit" and Gollum
... I 1st did the Inn League drinking relay through the shire. Ran with some Kin and was one of the best times I ever had in this game.

[Soggienachos]

One of my greatest memories of all time in this game that my friends and I still laugh about happened during one of the stress test betas.

There were four of us in a fellowship (the four of us lived together at college). We were in the Old Forrest and two of us (including me) decided to run ahead of the other two. we rounded a corner and behold a tree came to life and we ran like hell! We started yelling RUNNNN!! TREEEEEEEE! (The other guys could hear this on the other side of the house!) Then as we ran back around the corner we bumped into my two other friends and we proceeded to run away laughing and yelling as a group!

[Dharken]

I remember when in beta I found a way to go behind the ruins between weathertop and Ost Guruth and at first found myself on a nice lil plain of green with a strange grey cube floating stationary. I sat there for literally hours trying to figure out what the cube was there for, and still to this day think it was some secret dev tool that would give me unlimited power over the game world. I miss my cube, I spent many days visiting with him, and I wish someday we could be reunited, but unfortunatley it seems that Turbine has removed my cubic friend from the game and I fear he is never to return.

Afterward I proceeded further back and fell thru some invisible hole that brought me to the area of bree beyond what is now know as the extended area north of the horsefields (remember when the map edge of bree didnt go beyond the horsefields, thats where i was acording to my map) It was a mighty desert with cliffs on either side, quite intimidating. This also required a GM interaction to get me out of this area for there was no way for me to die and /stuck wasn't working. I still remember the Gm asking me "How did you get back here?" and further questions as to exactley how i did it. After a while of me reaching the unreachable on multiple occasions, often times i would get familiar GMs who would simply ask things like "Alright, were did you get stuck this time?" or "Really, again?".

And then there were of course all the times testing Evendim where i found ways to go off map, usually to my death. I really wish I still had the screenshots and they are prolly floating around the net somewhere, but alas I've reformatted and rebuilt my rig a few times since then.

[Layanor]

I remeber all of that

[jhaerlyn]

... I remember when I first entered, during those last days of Beta, and just setting out to explore ... exploring everything I could ...

... before that, i remember countless posts, arguing different points about how to shape the vision we all had of what this game looks like-- my focus being the armour .. I wanted armour that reflected the story in the books .. and not Fantastical Plate armour that really had no place in what tolkien describes in his books ... but there weren't many of us defending that point .... so I was happy when I saw outfits and the chain hauberks that Turbine provided ... I thought it was a cool concession to what we'd argued for ....

Like Carysta I miss going into the game and feeling like it was a fun place to be... and not a race to get things done first ...whether to brag or at least not have some jerks trying to put you down or belittle you because of not having done such-such already ...

I noticed that the game has changed for me ....Neither Joshi nor Hoswy has ventured into Enedwaith ... despite usually being an early explorer of new areas ... I just haven't been motivated to do so ...


we'll see how things go

[Ashrellion]

Remember doing my first Thorog raid about three years ago. During one of his "flying around" cycles, I lost a bit too much situational awareness, and got off my position on the dais.

He flew back.

He landed on me.

I died.

[Deathbix]

I remember when you had to either grind to level 44 from 40 or get groups for Aughaire quests.

I remember when you had to farm specific mobs in specific locations for legendary pages.

I remember when Etched Beryl Jewels went for 50g.

I remember when this game had hope and potential and wasn't just a cash cow.

[Xhiu]

I remember when I first came up with personal quests, as in running into Bree and putting a gold spammer on ignore before he finished the last channel spam. You had to be quick.

I remember taking my level 14 mini from ost guruth (and I have NO IDEA how I got there in the first place) to Rivendell. I died 3 times on the way. That was when if your little puny butt died close to a rez circle in a zone too big for you, you didnt revive somewhere in a starter zone. I was able to run the last bit from the rez circle above the Ford.

I remember drinking from the Inn League Keg and ending up on an ice floe in Forochell. I did that a couple of times to get the res circle near by so I could carefully run up to the stable. But the most interesting time was on my hunter with Find the Path, running just right and leaping almost to the shore so I was only half dead when I got to the other side. /cheer survival.

I remember making my hunter because I wanted to name her after the guy in Bree (during beta) who kept asking for Wood of Rohan in ooc.

I remember all the channels in Bree and Bree land being filled with "LFF for 1.11" constantly. (before being taken over by gold spammers)

I remember standing in front of Bag End at sunset looking over the Party Tree and having a smoke.

I remember playing music with a couple of kinnies for 3 hrs in the middle of the night @ the fountain outside the Prancing Pony or in front of the Bard in MD. We kept switching instruments to see which combo's sounded best for different songs.

I remember getting lost in the Old Forest as well... before the map was introduced... before the aggro was nerfed... before I had a better computer and the trees weren't moved/thinned and lagging out running from the train.

I remember Frostmantle needing 2 at least, and the same with Bloodtusk. Neither of which are in the game anymore. (RIP tutorial) I also remember all the mobs in the tutorial zones being aggro. As well, I remember when the Mine above Frerin's court was a real adventure as you had to make your way up the mountain through fast spawning goblins around your level and one goblin outside the entrance that was ready to eat you before you got to the door.

I remember being sent to Radaghast at level 14~ and thinking "Is he out of his mind?"

I remember doing pie/post quests on 2 hobbit toons and after finishing both on one, deciding that I need to kill hobbits somehow. I rolled up a BA and spent the next couple months in Hoardale and flipping TA/TR with the raid. I also remember thinking, "I have to make a LM" when my Troll was made useless by power drain.

I also remember when becoming a Troll wasn't that big a deal. Of course they were mostly for pve (boggle) since it was hard to avoid LM and Hunters, who could DF at the drop of a hat. (not the lm of course)

Every time I port a noob to Rivendell I remember the first time I looked into the Valley for the first time. @Riv builder: how awesome is your job that you can see that people look at your work and reverently whisper the name of the job you did? Maybe I should go out to my mail box and wait for the mail carrier and whisper lovingly "Mail."

I remember being dragged through book 2 because I got a quest from Goldberry that sent me there and my kinnies wanted to 'help'. I remember getting separated from the fellowship and getting horribly lost (level 18) and running from EVERYTHING, until I died. That was in the day before I knew that some gold rings over an NPC's head were not something I wanted to do without backup.

The first time I crossed Trestlebridge I died to the aggro. I thought the area was too big for me so I went back to LL.

I remember in open beta becoming a farmer the day before they nerfed farming. Ok, so I thought making a scholar was a good match for a hobbit burg. :P He was one of my 3 beta toons that still isn't 65. My hobbit guard is 62 though... and she prolly has STILL not done the OF quests.

I remember having to walk back and forth from Candaith's camp in LL... before you were high enough level to buy a horse, supposing you had the 4g+. Yeah I remember thinking that I was never going to get any toon to 35 and even if I did I'd never have 4g altogether on one toon. THEN when my hunter finally did get to 35 I was given 2g to help get a horse, by my kinleader... who only makes guest appearances these days.

I remember wearing the first founder's reward, the wayfarer's cloak, in the tutorial, along with the ring of agility. I remember ppl asking me where I got that cloak. Speaking of... when you used to get asked how you got a horse at level 20.

I haven't been as successful as other people in this game. I HAVE had lots of good times. Life is a series of Moments. I've had some moments in Lord of the Rings Online.

[JBGronin]

My first character...guardian Beligrihm/dwarf made it into the 40's in Nov of 07. I'd started towards the end of Sept and knew I would be level cap by Christmas. I was so excited and now I have three in their forties working to make 65...soon to be 75..~sigh.

[Arjevus]

I remember, when I saw the halls of Moria for the first time in November, 2008. It was a damn amazing moment for me, when the music changed to the dwarf's melodies und I was surrounded by the mines ... Never forget it!

[Zeelander]

I remember when I logged in with my new hobbit burglar and saw a dark rider passing by in the corner of my eye during the intro. The whole atmosphere around it was perfect. The quality of the graphics, the storyline in the intro, the music and the dark rider just morphed into a real life shiver . I loved imagining that situation.

[Eteri]

Cant remember how many times i got lost in the old forest, we didn't have a map back in the early days.

Can remember me grinding for pages, with every kill hoping this would be the one.

Can remember crafting beryl shard jewelery, and the crit % seemed unfair. Think you could get like 20% back then but in real life seemed more like 5%.

Can remember being on my minnie leveling in Angmar, must have been aug/sept 2007. Every pull was exciting, mobs were tougher and war speech wasn’t invented yet. Fight, fear, heal, fight, fear, heal... specially those big morrovals near Garth Forthnir, long but rewarding fights.

Can remember grouping up almost every Friday & Saturday evening for the Rift. Trying to figure out the tactics and crossing your fingers for /roll 100 to get a part off the rift set.

Can remember the noise we made after finally downing the Balrog for the first time, think we were shouting, cheering, screaming, …. for 15 min

Can remember war speech being introduced for minnies, no more hard solo fights, just shout, scream dead mobs.

Can remember when i stopped playing my minnie in the moors, killed 4 creeps at once with 1 skill all +1,5k damage. That’s when i felt sorry for the creeps and swapped sides. Never played my minnie in the moors again.

Can remember a new server being introduced, time to retire my minnie for good and start again.

Can remember.... time to make some new ones

[auximenes]

I remember when there was an effect icon that looked like a pepperoni pizza.

[TheAC]

I remember when I first saw the ad for free-to-play, and decided give it a try.

I remember when I almost gave up, sitting through the 4-hour download.

I remember when I first saw the incredible graphics.

I remember when I came into the intro and spending five minutes trying to talk to Gandalf via the say channel.

I remember when I played from seven o'clock PM to four in the morning the first time I got on.

I remember when I first found out that falling kills you.

I remember when I freaked out the first time I saw a elite troll.

I remember when I died fifteen times trying to get to GB by land before I figured out instance join.

I remember when I got killed by a shrew during a lag.

I remember when I saw the sunset on Lake Evendim. To this day, it's the most beautiful thing I've seen in LOTRO.

I remember when I came to Rivendell for the first time.

I remember when I entered Goblintown to explore and got lost while running away from ~50 purple goblins.

I remember when I got my first legendary item, a rune-satchel, in Eregion at level 47.

I remember when I cut across the guard room of the Crossroads and found myself in the Waterworks.

I remember how the atmosphere of the landing in Mirkwood really felt like an actual military operation.

I remember the exitement I felt when I reached level 65 by defeating an elite master solo.

I remember the joy of discovering the Warden.

I remember finding that I loved to RP.

I remember nights spent in the endless battle of PvMP.

I remember meeting one of my best in-game friends, Lossenelenwen while getting my butt kicked by the mobs in Annuminas.

I remember when I was accepted into Daro a Maetho.

I remember laughing about the "Secret Cow Level".

I remember going over all of these memories while writing this, and hoping to make many more in the future.

Here's to memories; new, old, and yet to come.

[Praeses]

I Remenber when I first entered The Old Forest and found the house of Tom Bombadil.
I spent a half hour there just listening to the beautiful music and watching the quotes of the old Tom.
Good memories.

[Smiling_Bandit]

I remember seeing the Dark Rider bolting off in front of me and stopping dead in my tracks with more than simple shock.

... and not knowing what the heck those circles of stones were for and why nobody said anything when I asked them why they were standing there... "Am I supposed to do something now that I am inside one? Is it a magic thing? Die? that is kind of rude."

I remember a love affair starting with Turbine for bringing me to the most amazing world... in the world.

All those hours spent just exploring, going waaaay past where I was supposed to be going using my free pass to anywhere... stealth.

Copious amounts of Free expansions! Evendim, Misty Mountains... Eastern Misty Mountains, Forochel, Eregion ...

Month of the Burg

The first server war between Brandywine and Landroval. Popul vs Chinchilla

The First Annual Brandywine Server Party. Patience and Sapience came to the party that year and proceeded to get mobbed by tells and laggy photo ops.

Good Times.
SB

[McFarlane]

I remember when I first entered the Shire. I was on lower resolution settings so the mushrooms on the ground virtually sprouted in front of me as I ran about, and I kept trying to pick them, thinking SURELY in this game, in the SHIRE, you could pick mushrooms! It wasn't the same just growing them later lol.

[podgie_bear]

I remember when I first built a Warden, I had only ever played the Shire and Bree. My friend told me that Wardens were so uber that my level 14 Warden could easily defend his Lore Master to reach Esteldin. I especially remember how much my friend laughed as my warden ran for his life across half the North Downs pursued by what seemed to be every Orc, Goblin and Warg in the game. My friend still laughs at me and asks when am I going to "Lead another Parade" for him!

I remember my first views of the Shire and how beautiful it looked. I still stroll through the Shire, especially at night, just to admire the scenery.

I remember my friend and I sitting on opposite sides of a beautiful stream fishing and chatting companionably. And then having to whip a bear to death with the fishing rod, because it pounced on me and I forgot to re-equip my weapon.

I remember doing the Inn League initiation and then staggering off towards Rivendell from Michel Delving while I was as drunk as my character, because it seemed like a good idea at the time. I was level 13 and made it to the Last Bridge before dying horribly.

I remember taking my Hobbit Guardian Troll hunting in the Lone Lands, wandering through an unexplored swamp and nearly having a heart attack when I wandered into a camp of about 12 War Trolls in armour!

[PervinciaMusso]

I remember when I first joined (Only a bit over a year. :P) and I was stuck in the Elf intro (The one that is now Skorgrim.) for a week or so and I was so angry because I wanted to go to Bree. xD
That was back when they had more than three quest lines (The Barghest quest, The black stones quest, and of course Intro quests.) of course, so I was level 9 or something by the time I finally figured out how to LEAVE. (AKA, finish the beginning intro.)
I remember when I didn't use a Bard until I was around or nearing 30.
I remember when I thought I could name my elf Arwen if I wanted too.
I remember endless grinding in my early 30s so I could skip The Red Pass in LL and still do the Epic quests without buying QPs.
I remember when I was level 19 or so and decided I was going to protect my sister's LM (Me being my hunter) and take us to Rivendell. We had a 'big' trail of enemies on our tail until we hit the Ford of Bruinen. Needless to say, we did not know big trails until we hit those BEARS when you're climbing up the mountain in front of the Ford. I died and she jumped off the cliff and managed to survive.
I remember when I convinced someone in Elrond's Aid (My hunter's kin on Imladris.) to port me to Rivendell because I was obviously to lazy to attempt to get there. xD The view was breathtakingly gorgeous. I felt like I did when I first found the Shire.

[Lizzi123]

I remember running around when the game was young and so was my very first toon. I saw a player riding a HORSE. An actual HORSE! He was RIDING it!! It wasn't paid travel. He had his VERY OWN HORSE. He was a really high level too. He was 35! Wow! How'd he get to be that high of a level? I wanted to be just like him. I asked him all the important questions because I KNEW this was someone I could learn from. HOW? WHERE? WHEN? He very nicely answered all of them. Come to find out he had just gotten his new Blonde Sorrell that very day. He was so proud of it and with good reason. And I was very jealous.

Many moons later I got my first horse....a Blonde Sorrell. :-)

Now my toons all have multiple horsies and I tend to take them for granted. But, it wasn't always that way.

[LotrVella]

Oh, I like this thread I actually started playing last spring, but have some good memories anyway ^^


- When I completed the elf intro and got ported to Celondim. Oh, my god. Oh my god! Beautiful!

- When I had no idea of the difference between Fellowship and Kinship x) Now I don't really understand how I didn't get it... But of course I've got some experience since then x)

- When I was terrified of all foes. Now I know more how the game works, and how close I can get one foe without being attacked. But when I didn't know, it was terrifying. For example Limaels Vineyard. Full with goblins...

- When I had no idea how to get 300s for a horse...

- When I needed 95 TP for riding skill. Thought it was much. That was before I started saving for quest packs...

- When I thought the servers was different places in Middle-Earth, so that when I was done with Nimrodel I could go to for example Landroval xD Yes, my first online game...

- When I found Barrow Downs. Loved the area (still do). Leveled so fast...

- When I actually was pretty afraid of talking to people...

- When I first saw The Forsaken Inn ( it's a good memory now when all the mobs there are grey... Just the thought that they were really, really hard before.)

[Gilgalade]

Basically my memories are the same as those mentioned from the SOA days, reading through them fills me with countless and cherished happy memories and yet sadness at the time. I miss the SOA days even more, especially since this game has gone down hill so fast, and became WB/turbines cash cow. That great special feeling is now gone I only wonder what Tolkien would have to say about what they did to the beautiful world and atmosphere that was LOTR. So much potential, and so much lost.

[MirkwoodTraveller]

...when I never thought I'd be able to afford 4.2g for a horse.
...then getting it (blonde sorrell).
...picking an orc's pocketses.
...then pickpocketing a 'purple' item.
...when the festival first occurred to plant the rare mushroom crop.
...and waiting for the festival when I'd actually SEE my reward (I still love my black mushroom pot).
...seeing Imladris.
...and Moria.
...and Lothlorien.
...adding abc music.
...the impromptu concerts that were a result.

...and the sadness at seeing some old, but dear friends move on.

The MMO may have seen some of the dew fade from the rose, but the world, the wonder of the mythology... that will always be mine.

[Miz_Sparrow]

I remember having to walk back and forth from Candaith's camp in LL... before you were high enough level to buy a horse, supposing you had the 4g+. Yeah I remember thinking that I was never going to get any toon to 35 and even if I did I'd never have 4g altogether on one toon. THEN when my hunter finally did get to 35 I was given 2g to help get a horse, by my kinleader... who only makes guest appearances these days.

That really struck a chord for me. My husband and I had a weekly group and we were still running everywhere at level 40. They would get SO impatient with me, and I remember thinking "what is the big DEAL, it's only a 60% increase in speed anyway" and thinking, like you, that there was no way. I barely had 2G and I still had to pay for new skills, right?
Just this week, I paid back my good buddy for that horse, with interest - he got a Cracked Rhi Helvarch Sigil for Christmas. (Considering that I just went over 15G for the first time EVER just two weeks ago, that was an extreme gift on my part. And his response? "Oh thanks, I have tons of those things. Let me know if you want me to craft you something." Sigh.)

The first time we grouped with those guys, making a group of 5 and doing something epic (all of Garth Agarwen), and then deciding we should do it regularly. We were amazing together. Eventually we added a 6th, because she was fun, but we really kicked butt even just the five of us. It was about a year after the group broke up (people moving to other games, and I had two kids in two years) that I tried grouping with some of our other trusted kinmates, and suggested performing the "straight" fellowship maneuvers (eg red-yellow-green-blue-red-yellow). Our little Tuesday Night Group never had any problem doing them, but I got shot down by other experienced players because they didn't think we'd ever succeed at completing them. Instead of annoying me, it made me feel so proud of the things we accomplished in that little group.

I remember the first time I walked into the Shire.

Worrying about (and posting all over the forums about) getting nodes ninja'ed out from under me, and the issue of kill-stealing.

I remember seeing key locations and meeting characters and being a little thrown off that they didn't match my New Line Cinema visual baseline of how Middle Earth is supposed to look... but now whenever I see the movie version, I am casting my mental LOTRO map onto whatever it is they're doing. I have to say, my favorite thing in the game is how familiar I am with the map of Middle Earth (although, heh, picked up Book of Unfinished Tales the other day and was going "but wait, Fornost is a bit farther over than that"... oops.). I even made my mom sit through a recital of "and then you remember when they did XYZ in the book/movie (she read the books once and then watched the movies once)? they were going all the way from here to way over here! and you can see the.... [drone on into the distance]" This is my favorite part of the game.

I remember going into the Old Forest and gawking at trees that had, like, OVER A THOUSAND HIT POINTS OMG (or some such response.) and reading somewhere that there were raid bosses that had 100k hit points and wondering how even a full raid could ever beat a boss like that.

I remember the first time I saw the name Aggie Digweed. I remember laughing my fanny off at that one, and also Harry Goatleaf. Oh wait, I STILL do that EVERY SINGLE TIME I SEE THEIR NAMES, even if it means multiple times in a single day. I am giggling right now. (I do realize that Harry Goatleaf is actually in the books, and so JRRT gets credit for making me laugh, but props to whoever ensured that he got included.)

I remember when riding certain stablemaster horses was paying for your own death because they were known to run you off a cliff.

In the last day or two of beta, our kinship began a tradition of doing a walk (toggle run off) to Rivendell. We still do it once or twice a year.

This thread makes me happy.

[lutemaster]

I remember trying to steal another farmers onions since I didn't understand I could plant them myself.

I remember the day when I tried to kill a Barrow-down wight with a sauce-pan.

I remember when we have the Fog of War on the map and actually had to adventure the lands of Middle-Earth to discover it.