Seriously, has it REALLY been 12 years since Lord of the Rings Online first released? I’d only been married two years and didn’t even have a single kid or a house when that took place. I remember being won over to the idea through a game magazine that sold the idea of a “low magic fantasy MMO” that accentuated a more realistic feel than the current high fantasy titles on the market. One beta test later, and I was hooked.
And now here we are, 12 years later, and I’m still very much infatuated with this virtual Middle-earth. I’ve been looking forward to the anniversary celebration quite a lot, mostly to go back through the scavenger hunt on my progression server toon and grab some cosmetics/pets that way. But first — my Lore-master.
I guess I failed somehow to complete the Year 11 quest (I really don’t remember what happened), so I grabbed a ruins hunting scavenger card and went to work, skipping all about the game and finding the run-down places of the world. It’s not a fast activity, these scavenger hunt cards, but rather a great excuse to go sight-seeing and revisit old lands and make new discoveries.
In a break from the last two years’ tradition of adding new scavenger cards (the first 10 plus last year’s 11th entry), the 12th year eschewed the trio of cards for a smaller scavenger hunt located entirely within the Shire itself. There were vague clues that led to certain locations, which was all fine and fun, but I couldn’t help but feel like this was a cop-out and the fastest possible entry into the anniversary series. I really was looking forward to a 12th series of worldwide hunts, but oh well. Got me some scrolls for my house as a reward.
And it was nice to see my Lore-master again — it had been many months since I last logged on to her, and chances are that it will be the summer content update before I do it again.
With that out of the way, it was time to buckle down and start working my way through the scavenger hunts on my Minstrel. While I knew I was going to lose a week to vacation, I thought that completing at least one per year was pretty doable before the celebration ended. Plus, with the new “Eriador only” cards, it’s much more possible than before. That was a terrific move on the part of the studio. Of course, you get lesser rewards with these quests, but it’s still better than nothing!
These proved to be far quicker, and in short order I wracked up several fun goodies: Farmer Maggot’s dog (pet), Dwarf well (housing), Little Old Man Willow (housing), orc shield (cosmetic), fishing backpack (cosmetic), a deer (pet), Legolas’ cloak (cosmetic), happy pig (pet), Radagast’s cloak (cosmetic), sand castle (housing), coat rack (housing), a Gollum face mask (cosmetic), and several scrolls (housing). Not the worst haul, for sure.
With the anniversary content more or less done (what I wanted to do, at least), I went over to the vendor and spent my 90 coins on two star-lit crystals for my First Ager and a woodland robe with an interesting design. Following that, I took a detour to my house, added all my new items (my hunting lodge room is coming along nicely with all my taxidermy statues), and called it a day.
Bio Break 
I spent thousands of hours in Lotro and I even have a life time sub. It is still my favourite MMO and I am very glad the game is still alive. I haven’t played for several years however and I don’t think I will ever go back but who knows?
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