Somehow I can’t think of a better phrase to sum up my recent conundrum with Lord of the Rings Online. What type of conundrum? Well, this might be one of those long stories so you might want to make yourself comfortable, get something to drink, etc.
I’ve been thinking for a little while about giving Lord of the Rings Online another go for some reasons. The first one is since I’ve left Everquest 2, I’ve been having a severe case of decoration withdrawal. So much in fact that even a limited housing system like the one in the LotRO sounds better than any. The second reason is because I’ve been checking some blogs like Lotro Fashion, Landroval Style and Brazokie’s Blog Space and I’ve been pretty much drooling over the outfits. Now, like a former wise clannie in Lineage 2 would say “In real life I don’t care about my appearance but in game I am a metrosexual.” LotRO to me is one of the best games for that kind of… uh… I dunno, philosophy, I guess? Anyway, the thing is the game has a ton of cool looking outfits and a pretty good system to show them off while still wearing your mismatched gear with uber stats. And if I am going to be killing X orcs for their middle toe nails I might as well do it with style damnit!
What finally pushed me to do it was a promotion on GameStop/Impulse that I found out at the Frugal Gamer. It was the Mithril Edition for 50% off and considering its contents it just seemed one of those bargains that you can’t resist. That discount is already gone but you can still get it for about $20.