Everything must change

Where to start?  How about at the end and make our way back to the start…that type of journey is always easier to remember for me…

This morning I took Tryggr my level 30 hunter out to defend the shire against wargs attacking, it took me two tries to intercept the beasts before they laid waste upon the poor shirefolk, so I got a nice shiny new bow to slay beasts with now, yea!

I met a real nice person last night while messing around outside fornost, a level 50 hunter who helped me finish some quests and took me to rivendell and helped me quest there as well…it is always nice when you meet friendly folks who don’t want anything more than to help others…charming.

I got my last pages for my final book for Rekkr, my level 48 captain, grinding on Morrovals for the past week has gotten old, and I am so glad that is completed.

All Hallows is merging with Strength In Numbers, we began the process Sunday and slowly all the members of AH are joining SiN, it is an excellent move because we are at the point where we need more people around to help grow and when you reach the end of the leveling game, all that is left is grinding, reputation, gear, deeds, etc…

My real life friend, Dagfinnr and I spoke about the possibility and I thought it would be for the best, like my last post said I have found myself over-tasked with kinship duties, which isn’t anyone’s fault, but it takes away from the enjoyment of the game for me, so merging with my old kinship only makes sense.  It will help out everyone in the end.

The life and times of a guild or kinship leader

I don’t post much here about the extra duties I do in order to keep my kinship alive and growing.  Lately I have found myself spending more time trying to manage the kin, which means I post a lot of information and questions in our forums trying to get ideas and feedback on different things in the game.  The foundation of our kinship is basically me, founded on the simple thought that I could create a group for players to join that would be casual yet at the same time functional in the sense that people wanted to stick around, creating the kinship was simple, but making it work isn’t.  Just getting members who actually play the game on a somewhat steady schedule has been one of the biggest obstacles, now that we are at around 50 players who login it has evolved and I am setting up events for our members to participate in that will at the same time finish some objectives for them and also help us start working as a team in fellowships.  Overall I really enjoy the whole experience and I have made some good friends in the process.
While trying to keep in mind that it is a game we are playing and something that is a hobby for fun, I sometimes get caught up in the whole leadership mentality and back off before I start getting upset about issues or things people do or don’t do…It is a fine line between fun and work when it comes to keeping a kinship intact and at the same time fun for everyone.  I learned a long time ago that you can’t please everyone so I do my best to try to keep things going.  Getting members active in our forums is something I have striven for, without actually making it a rule, I try to send out messages to the kinship telling them about things that are going on and always put in there check out the site for more information…I think it probably the most effective means of communication.  I have tried to have meetings in the past, but either people don’t show or don’t care enough to come out.  Once again keeping in mind this is a game and people will do what they want, I don’t let it upset me.

I figure slowly but surely we will get to a point in time where more members will realize the importance of being a part of something bigger than just one person, the achievements of the kinship will reflect upon the actions of each person working as a team.  The team concept has been something I have learned by being a member of the military and I am grateful for having the opportunity to learn all the tools and techniques to be effective as a leader.  I try to use whatever skills I can but sometimes I just have to relax and have fun, the social aspects of all MMO’s are pretty amazing and I am still learning something new everyday.

I guess I try to remember that what I put in is what I will get back, like all things in life, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, bad, good or ugly, you can’t deny it.  The many months of seeking new members and managing a group of people with the same interests and ideas has been a lot of fun and hard-work.  I wouldn’t trade it for anything, I have learned a lot about myself and others.  Thinking of the kinship as a weapon made of the highest quality metals only needing to be honed and sharpened the perfection is how I see All Hallows, each member is part of the strength of the metal, each of us is only a part of something greater, something better.

Whenever we reach the stage of our kinship life where we are raiding the end bosses, I hope I can look back at all the accomplishments in satisfaction knowing I did my best and I brought the best out of each player I made contact with.

Rekkr rockin the casbah

I managed to reach level 35 with my captain of Rohan, and of course I had to scrape up the funds for his mount, I mean come on, he is of the Riddermark, what would people say if he didn’t have a horse?  It would be like batman without the batmobile or something…anyway, my adventures in Evendim have been very enjoyable thus far.  My first taste of the area was with Abellio of course, being a caster, tight pants wearing whiny boy made it a difficult area, well not until those bogarts came running at me with their red shiny eyes filled with some kind of voodoo enhanced madness…even my bear had doubts during some of those battles.  But, I was surprised when I tackled the 35 elite named guys without even a shred of fear.  Now that I do have my horse I remember how delicate they can be, sometimes I get hit one time and there I am left running with a limp screaming obscenities into the night.  So far I have been without a death since I took my break, perhaps I have a new found sense of awareness or it could be because I am a bit more relaxed.

We have our first gathering scheduled for this coming Sunday in the game and I am curious how many people will make it out to the Green Dragon Inn.  I don’t have my hopes set too high, but at the same time it would be great to get a dozen kinfolk all together to share war stories and do some trading and perhaps some roleplaying.

Since I am the host of the party I feel I have a responsibility to organize a few party games or whatever…any ideas would be welcome, since we can’t play pin the tail on the donkey, are there any donkeys in Middle Earth?

LotRO Log – 16 Jul 07

Weekends are great.

 That statement would get the Captain Obvious award if I were talking to simple-minded kids…but of course those of you who happen to come across my website are anything but simple-minded.  I know, I am no better than anyone else, let me get back to purpose of my post.

Sean spent some time in The Shire and is now a Grand Master Farmer, because of the Summer Green-weed pipeweed recipe he got from the scavenger hunt quest, he was able to level up Master farmer with ease.  He has reached a roadblock for cooking because of the quest to go get giant boar meat from the Giant Valley in the Trollshaws, this dreaded valley is filled with level 40 elite dragonkin and giants, which makes it impossible to sneak into at level 19, even as a burglar this would pose a challenge, so his crafting will be put to rest until a later time.

Rekkr Crio, our captain, reached level 31 and is armed with a neat 2-handed sword courtesy of the auction hall for 10 silver.  Seems that level 31 weapons, swords at least are not in high demand.  The level 30 captain class quest was quite a treat.  Just had to take on some dourhand dwarves inside of an instance in the northern north downs and plant some banners or standards as they are called in the game.  The hardest part was figuring out how to get to these banners, which are on top of the walls of the area.  Jumping from one wall to the next was simple enough to do.  It could have been very ugly if I had ran around corners LEEROY JENKINS style, but I have too much experience to be a victim of my own stupidity.

All of my other characters are enjoying a must needed rest at their respective retreats, Floss is still contemplating the possibility of being a test tube baby gone bad, his feet are hairier than most hobbits and he has a terrible odor about him, which is why he smokes to much pipeweed to try to mask the smell.  Abellio is out in Rivendell occasionally showing his face to tinker a bit with some jewelry for those in the kinship.  Tryggr Headshot has been hanging out in Thorins Hall getting to know the locals, he mastered journeyman woodworking along with becoming quite a consumer of ales.

As far as the All Hallows is concerned, we are still growing everyday and group quests are becoming more common, especially ventures into the Great Barrows, the majority of our kin are anywhere from level 15 to 25.  Look forward to reaching rank 5 in a couple of days, giving us the kinship mail ability.

We are planning a gathering for 12 Aug at the Green Dragon Inn, feel free to stop by for some trading, drinking and all-around tom-foolery.

LotRO Log – 13 Jul 07

Friday the 13th and all is well…

 Middle Earth is full of a lot of shouting people, dwarves, elves, and hobbits these days.  I am so happy Rekkr has come back from his vacation in the Shire and put down his pen and picked up his sword again taking on the evil in Evendim.  The last patch brought back the SHOUTS! and added some new sounds as well, I think it is great, when in a fellowship you really feel like you are in the middle of some hardcore hand to hand combat with everyone yelling and shouting out with blades swinging and heads rolling.

On another note our farmer, Sean has reach the level of Grand Master and is now perfecting his culinary skills, about time eh?  Yes, I thought the same thing. 

 We are looking for a motto for our kinship, something simple, but catchy, any marketing gurus out there?  Along the same lines our numbers have been steadily increasing and the quality of members has been rising as well.

 I have been having some problems when the game shuts down on my PC.  If I click exit straight from the game my computer seems to lock up with a black screen and the mouse pointer sitting there.  It will stay like that until an error reporting message shows up eventually asking me whether I want to send it to Microsoft or not…I have read a little on this problem and I don’t know if it is a driver issue with my VC or another problem, but one solution that seems to help is to logoff to the character selection screen then exit from there without a hitch.  Has anyone else seen or heard about this at all?  Other than that I have no problems running the game at all.