bringing back dead posts...mwahahaha.
But I wanted to share my reason for playing. I started playing lotro someone soon after it came out. Through the years I have moved onto new games, only to come back to lotro.
As the land that we call Middle-Earth was created from the woven music of the Ainur, such was my prior time spent in lotro. I was heavily immersed in the lore, music, poetry, and light-medium rp.
I met many muses that would give me inspiration to write poetry and songs. One day at lunch I was particularily inspiried and wrote a whole song based on Nethin's experiences of living at One Chestnut Lane. That night I recorded myself singing the song and the great Astleigh and Harperella worked with me to turn my tune into an actual written work. Perhaps sometime I'll play it for you :)
Later, as my ex-wife divorced me I met my now partnered girlfriend ingame. We now live together, with her (now) 9 year old girl and my (now) 7 year old boy, we are all but married. Sometime after I met her I wrote my largest poem. Thinking on it I find it a interesting mishmash of feelings both ingame and RL at the time
Eventually, I left the lonely mountain band and my gf and I and some of our in-life friends started our own kinship. Eventually they left the game to other games and it was really just me and another.
And then, as new shinier games come out I was finally tempted away to the elder scrolls online. I played that since its release until last october/november. And I came back to lotro, probably for a long long time.
No matter how much better the game mechanics or graphics, no active game can hold a candle to Lord of the Rings online. We participate behind the scenes in the epic storyline that we know and love, and there are many things to do in lotro: creeping, saving middle earth, fishing contests if you wish, music, poetry, dancing, rp.