In Celebration of 10 Years of LOTRO - Post your old beta/launch pics!

[ChromiteSwiftpaw]

Let's celebrate our favorite MMO by showing all new and old players pics from LOTRO Beta or the very early months of its life back in 2006/2007.

It's neat to look at how things were back in the day


I'll start:


Level 1 Chromite in the newbie instance during Stress Test Beta. (December 1st, 2006)



The GMs decide to attack Thorin's Gate as Orcs! I made a dwarf really quick for the event because I don't remember me knowing of a fast way to get from the Bree lands to Thorin's Hall. (December 16, 2006)



+Saffron was the evil culprit leading the attack as an orc! (December 16, 2006)



Battling an Elite Spider at level 15 with my friend. (December 22nd, 2006)

[Nettlewood]

How do you attach pics? Or do you upload them and use a certain forum tag?

Cheers

[ChromiteSwiftpaw]

How do you attach pics? Or do you upload them and use a certain forum tag?

Cheers

1) Go to http://www.imgur.com/
2) Click New Post button, drag/drop/enter URL/use file browser/etc.
3) Hover over image, click on the Down arrow that pops up and select Get Share Links
4) Click on the copy by the lower left hand corner BBCode one. Paste that in your post here.

[asimon]

Not an in-game screenshot, but MyAccount snapshot:



Been there since the very beginning.

*Also, click on my signature "pop a token" link to see what Hitler thpught about Siege of Mirkwood release ^_^

[Palenen]

*cry*

My HDD died and I lost so so so many pics.

[ShireDweller]

Not an in-game screenshot, but MyAccount snapshot:



Been there since the very beginning.

*Also, click on my signature "pop a token" link to see what Hitler thpught about Siege of Mirkwood release ^_^

For a second I thought that said "Shadows of Angmar Pie-Order".

[Nymphonic]

*cry*

My HDD died and I lost so so so many pics.

Oh man, you and me both. I have maybe one or two or pics in Imageshack, but that's about it.

[JustBoo]

Yeah, I remember (I think) running this quest so, so many times in High School (I think). Careening about, and the colors were hot and the girls were pretty (^.^), so we didn't mind the 'grind' at all - I think. Ah, those were the daze.

[Sito_Origami]

Nice idea for a thread. Will be interesting to see how many people were running square monitors then. I know I was and looks like the OP was. Now all you can get is widescreens. Not a complaint. I just remember trying to replace a square monitor I dropped during a house move and not being able to find one.

I wish there was some kind of sorting method - the naming convention is such that if you move images out of the default folder (for example, I sort mine by character name), the filenames - consecutive numbers - start over from the beginning. So trying to sort them by filename into chronological order doesn't work. Maybe I'll drop by the suggestions forum and mention it...

[Cordovan]

Neat thread idea. Let's see 'em!

[gareth422]

[Fenix43]

Really elves in beta were so ?! omg were too strange

[djheydt]

I haven't any old screenshots, alas (gone through a couple of computers since then).

Memories, though.

* From the alpha forums, before I even got into alpha three, when Turbine posted a picture of the doors of Thorin's Hall. We oh-wowed about that for a week.

* Getting a quest that I had to go to Duillond to complete, and couldn't because Duillond wasn't open yet -- really early days, when every race did the newbie instance in Archet. These were also the days of server and character wipes about every two weeks, everybody start over from scratch.

* The time when rent-a-horses were first introduced, and the horse from Duillond to Celondim INVARIABLY turned off at the bridge and plunged into the ravine to its (and the rider's) death.

* Looking at Trestlebridge before it was open; we could get as far into the town as (approximately) a line drawn east-to-west through where the Stablemaster now is. We could see further in, but not go there.

* And the beta tests! The defence of Trestlebridge, for example: us versus a lot of Orcs played by the devs, where the lag was so intense that it was measured not in frames per second, but in seconds per frame. We'd fire off attacks and never know if they landed. And after an hour or so of this, suddenly the screen would go black with the message, "Your connection to the servers has been lost," and cries of joy would go up all over North America: "WE BROKE THE SERVER! WE BROKE THE SERVER!" Because that was what we were supposed to do, to give Turbine an idea of just how much overload the servers could take.

[Brandon_Blackbird]

My first couple of screenshots. My second screenshot was a bug report, and then the next ten or so were pictures of Weathertop because I was so taken away by the fact that I was LOOKING AT WEATHERTOP.

[Herwegur]

That's a surprisingly well-defined face sculpting for a beta version, reminds a little of current NPCs with near-photographic facial features. Something tells me that the upcoming avatar revamps and/or High Elf race might revisit some of these graphic assets - very interesting to see this posted screenshot, as it shows that some of these different avatar face options have been around since the very start.

[elianidd2]

Around May 27th, 2007 at the Inn of the Forsaken with my sister and Gadaric Munce, I'm the one in the center. Hard to believe it's been 10 years

[gareth422]

[AMDG93]

Love these pics! Makes me wish i was around back then, hearing so many friends tell me about how much fun they used to have in the game and the hours spent in the rift/moria runs makes it sound like you guys had such an amazing time back then!

[ChromiteSwiftpaw]

Around May 27th, 2007 at the Inn of the Forsaken with my sister and Gadaric Munce, I'm the one in the center. Hard to believe it's been 10 years

You have to share the image in Google Photos first to make it public.

[Solien]

I believe this was during Alpha 3, but I can't remember if the North Downs were ever open during alpha. When I first started, it was just the Shire, Bree, and Lone-Lands. The level cap was 30 or 35.



This next one was what is now the Weather Hills. Back then it was just an inaccessible area, but I found a land seam and spent some time checking it out. Note the gloriously ugly cloaks.



This was a day that all of the mobs in Lone Lands and North Downs bugged. They just stood there and did nothing. At the time, there was a /rest emote where you kind of half-sat as a way to regain morale and power.



Finally, this is what crafting mats looked like in Beta/ launch days.

[amandakay]

I have...a lot, so here's a link to my Facebook album of some of my more interesting ones from pre-Moria days. I might add newer ones later one, though:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...1&l=787dd78fe1

[ShireDweller]

That's a surprisingly well-defined face sculpting for a beta version, reminds a little of current NPCs with near-photographic facial features. Something tells me that the upcoming avatar revamps and/or High Elf race might revisit some of these graphic assets - very interesting to see this posted screenshot, as it shows that some of these different avatar face options have been around since the very start.

I agree, that's a really nice elf face and the eyes look especially life-like.

[djheydt]

Love these pics! Makes me wish i was around back then, hearing so many friends tell me about how much fun they used to have in the game and the hours spent in the rift/moria runs makes it sound like you guys had such an amazing time back then!

It's been ten years of amazing. If I could go back ten (plus) years and start all over, I'd do it all over again from then to now.

I think when people get nostalgic about "the old days," it's because those days are far enough away that we see them through a rosy mist that obscures any annoyances we may have had at the time. I mentioned upthread the frustration of getting a quest in beta that I had to turn in at Duillond -- which wasn't in-game yet.

But frustrations aside, it's all been good. If the game lasts another ten years (and I do), I'll be here.

[elianidd2]

You have to share the image in Google Photos first to make it public.

Ah thanks, I thought it'd show. Let's see if this works..

Around May 27th, 2007 at the Inn of the Forsaken with my sister and Gadaric Munce, I'm the one in the center. Hard to believe it's been 10 years.

[Jeffor]

I have a few.

From SoA days when hobbits could carry full-sized great swords:


End of SoA beta party at Bag End (no one told us to gather there. We just thought it was the place to be apparently):




More SoA end of beta (Hakai punting people in celebration):