The Kindness of Strangers

I’ve only been playing Lord of the Rings Online a few days since I renewed my account and already I’ve been impressed with Meneldor’s player community. My first day out, Lukenbach was grinding worms in that narrow mountain passageway north of North Downs. Even with War Speech, minstrels are not dps powerhouses. Nevertheless, I was cutting a bloody swath through the mountain trails, Lukenbach’s one-handed axe dripping the blood and guts of feral worm-drakes.

Not long into my worm deed grind, a group of three champions ran passed me, nuking everything in sight. Champions are second only to hunters in raw dps and the heavy armor they wear allows them to stand toe-to-toe with their foes. This particular group was led by a level 50 champion, the other two Lukenbach’s level. The two lower level champions blew right past me but the 50 paused in front of me. Seconds later, he ninja invited me. In fellowship chat, he said they were off to kill Mother, an elite master drake for the quest Mother of the Valley. Along the way, we killed four of the elite drakes I needed for another quest. After taking care of Mother, we ground out regular worms for the deed.

A few days later I found myself once again grinding my worm deed. The last stage requires you kill 240 of the beasts. Rather than try and knock all those out in a day, I elected to spread them out to better ease the grind. Once again, I stumbled upon a captain who ninja invited me. She asked if I needed drakes. I didn’t, so we joined forces to deed grind. She left not long after, but with her help I killed twice as many drakes in a fraction of the time.

Last night, I made my way to the mountains east of Buckland. I needed to kill the giant Svarlfang. Right as I got there, a 50 aided a 20ish and slew the giant. Disappointed, I settled in for the respawn. To my surprise, the 50 asked if I wanted help! I replied that I did. They both sat and waited more than five minutes for Svarlfang to repsawn. When he reappeared, we nuked him down in seconds.

I have to admit, I find these kinds of interactions an unexpected, pleasant surprise. Everywhere I turn, anonymous toons go out of their way to help complete strangers. In the three years I played WoW, I witnessed only trash talk in Barrens chat and outright contempt for other players. People went out of their way to screw over fellow players, not help thme. WoW PUGS that I attended almost always degenerated into ninja looting and shrill criticism of how to play a particular class. It’s worth noting that I long forgo pugging in WoW but frequently pug in LotRO. It’s a night and day difference between the two games.

I can’t explain the difference between the experiences. More than likely, it’s pure happenstance. Or it might well be genuine difference in players. LotRO is not the most popular, innovative MMO out there. Bullet point by bullet point, WoW is the technically better game. And millions flock to it. But LotRO has a rare quality that appeals to a minority of gamers. I have a feeling that the bulk of that minority eschews “leetist” play in favor of a more relaxed approach to MMO gameplay. Whatever the explanation, my return to the game has been most welcoming, from a group of people that don’t know me and whom I’ll likely never meet again