An Epic Adventure Begins

By Shayalyn

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You’ve more than likely heard the trite phrase, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” Well, as corny as it is, the cliché is true. I woke up this morning, stepped out of bed, and set off on an adventure. One blister and a plate of crappy airline food later, and I’m here in Los Angeles to join 12 other Ten Ton Hammer editors in covering this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3).

Just as Samwise trudged dutifully by Frodo’s side in the quest to bear the One Ring to Mount Doom, it’s my lot to trudge the show floor at the Los Angeles convention center in order to bring you the latest happenings from the Turbine LOTRO team. Although, bearing this news won’t exactly be a burden for me (unless you count the aching back from lugging a laptop, and the inevitable blisters on top of blisters). I don’t have to worry about Sauron’s gaze; I just have to worry about not angering the Ten Ton Hammer gods. It’s my job to bring you the best coverage I can.

My interview with Turbine comes later this week, but I promise to bring forth whatever news I can as soon as I have it. I expect the news from the Lord of the Rings Online camp will be big. After all, today the LOTRO forums are coming online with a new look, and with all the previous forum posts wiped. Community manager Meghan “Patience” Rodberg tells us that the forum revamp is for a good cause.

Some of the LOTRO community are mourning the loss of their old forums. After all, those who’ve been following LOTRO for a long time have come to think of the forum, and the people there, as a sort of family. It may be difficult to see some of the classic posts disappear into the fires of Mordor (well, electronic fires of a sort, at least), but the people who’ve made the community what it is are still there. And in light of the “big” news that’s coming this week, it’s really not such an awful sacrifice to make.

What’s the big news? It’s not hard to speculate—beta. Perhaps we’ll finally see something happening with the game we’ve been following, in one form or another, for a good long time.  And so with high hopes and expectations, I’ll set out for the media preview on Tuesday with an eye toward bringing all of you a bit of hope…something to look forward to while things are unsettled. Change can certainly be a positive thing.

Perhaps, for LOTRO, the journey toward launch begins with one forum revamp and a major announcement at E3.