Quite an unusual color for a carrot.

Recently, this blog has been markedly un-MMOish. First I played Oblivion, then Mass Effect. Then I went of vacation, then there was Christmas, then I played mass Effect 2. I really enjoyed those games, and I realized what I missed from many MMOs. However, recently, my MMO itch has come back. I’ve been killing a lot of rats in LotRO this week (the rats in question in this case being dwarves, but evil dwarves, so that’s fine, and the killing also increased my reputation with the not-so evil dwarves, although, as a hobbit I must say their beer is quite queer, but that doesn’t qualify as outright evil).

So I logged back in earlier this week (for the first time in more than 6 weeks) and realized that the Christmas event, or “Yule” how it is called in LotRO, is still going. That at first was a letdown for me. I’m not a big fan of events in MMOs that mirror real-life events with a weak tacked-on in-game explanation. I did notice though that for the most part, the celebrations were delightfully void of Christmas shenanigans, so I went and tried out a few. Then I realized that there was, like with all those events in all MMOs, many rewards. One of them was a pony.

I think I still prefer the Mathom Society's pony.

I don’t know why; I don’t even think the pony is all that beautiful. Yes, it’s nice, with its grey fur and white/blue tack, but I think I really prefer my Mathom pony. But still, I decided that this carrot should be mine, or maybe I just realized that the stick was sufficiently short, and I would be able to afford the pony after two or three nights of Yule dailies. So off I went, collected marks, did the race (is this really any more than a formality? It seems I could still earn my racing mark riding on my asthmatic grandmother’s back), and paid the usual 200 silver.

Anyway, the plan for the near future is clear: now that I got the one Yule pony, I have to decide whether I also want to get the second one that is available. I’ll also work on Thorin’s Hall reputation. That has two advantages: I don’t need a subscription if I just go in circles killing dwarves and don’t do quest. I also can prepare for Moria, because I heard the goat you get instead of a horse or pony at kindred reputation is also usable inside Moria. I’d hate to have to walk in there. After that, I can collect the remaining pages for my Warden’s legendary traits. And by that time, I’ll be close to 50, and can go to Eregion and Moria.

Looking at that checklist, it seems like I might be back in MMO business for the time being.