Ah yes... The Lord of the Rings Online. Back when I was playing Rift and WoW very seriously and only caring about grinding I tried to play LOTRO way back in 2013/2014 days. I found it much too clunky to my taste and the map, oh god the map interface made me want to uninstall right then.

Until 2022, where I a young man, who is usually out and about, hiking and running found myself with the debilitating illness we all have been hearing about, "long covid". I was completely bed ridden with crippling fatigue, heart palpitations, horrible panic attacks, and a myriad of other issues.

In desperation I turned to this game for I had heard about its atmosphere and wanted somewhere to escape to. Logging in again it took me a while to overlook the combat system. But once I had made it out of Archet and was wandering around the Chetwood Forest I couldn't help but wonder at how good the zone designs and graphics were for a game of 2007. Within another couple hours I was hooked.

It was the perfect escape I needed. The slow style of questing and wide open zones really fitted my current mood and condition. Where I could gently make my way through the story, doing things at my pace. And the max level seeming so ridiculously far off I wasn't even thinking about trying to get there as fast as possible.

It was nice to get lost in an MMO world for the first time ever. As someone who's played a lot of them over the years, the only one that's come close to matching that style of relaxtion was the early days of Archeage in 2014.

As someone from New Zealand and a big LOTR fan I have travelled to a lot of the film locations myself and seen the movies countless times. So it was really nice to see a different depiction from the Peter Jackson movies. The world here also feels equally lived in as did the films.

I think the moment I fell in love properly was reaching Tom Bombadil's house in the forest at night after being chased by spiders. The music in this game is seriously top notch.

I am only now level 62 after just finishing Moria and have been blessed by the golden woods of Lothlorien. I have so much more to see that I am so excited and yet have no rush to get to.

Thank you Turbine Studios for creating a world for me when I was shut out from the real world.

PS - My health is much better now and I have hopefully left Long Covid long dead.