Greetings New Kin

[Uhtread]

Hello all, thank you for the warm greetings the other night. Sorry it has taken me a couple of days to get to my intro post. Deadline at work and all that entails.

A little information about myself. I turned 40 this year and thankfully still have enough kid in me to enjoy gaming. I live in Northern Wisconsin deep in the north woods on Lake Superior. Somehow I'm luck enough to live close to a hwy that actually has fiber optic running down it, which keeps me in my guilty pleasure of broadband. I miss the speeds of cable but am still able to game and do the netflix thing without a hitch. So I'm happy. For work I am a web developer, specifically LAMP/WAMP with most of the emphasis being on mysql/php, most of the sites I work with are remotely hosted, I almost never have to mess with the admin side of things. (Insert diety here) help me if I ever have to. I do both consultation on the side and have been lucky enough to find the only webmaster job that exists in this part of the northwoods. If I'm not working or in middle earth my passion is being outdoors. I hike, backpack, canoe and am slowly coming off the grid piece by piece into a homesteading lifestyle. I know homesteading and computers. I live in a weird state of duality.
My love of scifi/fantasy love comes from the big three. Reading Tolkien as a kid, watching Star Trek with my father, and of course Star Wars. I was actually at each opening night for all three of the original movies. However growing up in the woods has always made Tolkien the top of the tier. It was easy to put down the book or early audio tape, that's right TAPE, strap on the wooden sword and walk out the door into mirkwood, lorien or the like.

A little of my gaming history, which I'll start in the MMO genre. I've been through the entire progression that I'm sure reads as standard with most older gamers. Atari 2600, nintendo, Sega the early days of computer gaming Doom II, Quake, Diablo, Baldur's Gate series, All the darkforces, Jedi Outcast, etc. In 2000 I discovered my first MMO Anarchy Online and was hooked. The idea was outstanding, hundreds of us running around in an open world. Star Wars Galaxies came out and well, holy crap this had to be the end all be all of my gaming life. Then that little Blizzard game came out which sucked me in for years. LOTRO coming online was the final trump. I greatly, greatly enjoy my games when I have some attachment to the world I'm running in. It was the one problem I had with WoW. I never gave a crap about the "lore". It was all based around a game that was kind of generalized and honestly not that good. It had no rich environments to draw upon. Still my guild was a major guild, and I just couldn't drop it. Finally LOTRO changed that. Both a great game and a universe I was deeply involved with already outside of the computer world. My progression was slow as I had returned to school at the time to finish a bachelors degree and it took me years to reach 50. Finally when I hit Moria, TOR dropped, and well no way I was exploring that game. I commited about 8 months running a character to 50 and that was really that. I missed the complexity and the lore of Middle-Earth. So I unsubbed, reactivated my VIP status, and here I am......after a quick transfer in Landroval.

As you may have noticed my main is a 56 oops 57 forgot I hit that last night, yay for me, hunter and I'm hauling a$$ to hit endgame. I've never been on time for an expansion release so really wanting to be there for the release of Rohan. Yes I was one of the weird who actually cheered when I heard of the delay so I could be more relaxed about getting there. So if I'm a little quiet in chat it's only because I'm questing hard and focused. I look forward to getting to know the kin better. I'm encouraged in the amount of activity that I've already seen. I give a lot of loyatly to a good stable, active, actually into the game guild and this seems like the right place. It's actually nice to come back to an "older" game as this has to be more of the norm, instead of the short attention span, oh bright and shiny turn-around of a new release. My guild on TOR went from a hundred members to maaaaybe 10 regulars in the space of 6 months. From the guild's forums I could tell that once GW2 dropped even those ten would become non-existent. It's frustrating so wonderful to see a core of people doing what they love, because they love it.

Cheers,
Shawn

[Theozen]

Welcome to the Kin, Uhtread! Excellent intro, thanks for the details. Look forward to seeing you in the game!
Theo

[Tyraleth]

Now that is a great story, and some parts are very familiar. I am nearing the 42 mark in real life, and went through many of the same transitions that you mention. So a big welcome.

My current main just turned 58 last night so if you need anything for a group let me know. We have a handful of people leveling in the same range, but not a lot.

At first I was like whooooo when RoR was delayed since I could be near level cap, but I know I will burn myself out if I start going into leveling mode. I was at level cap for Mirkwood and Cataclysm so I've already suffered the pain of being at cap for an expansion.

[Nikkya151]

Welcome Uhtread! I am newish to LOTRO and Shadowbane Kin but LOVING it. I too am in the early 40's (41) and yes still have enough kid in me to really enjoy this game - I am a dedicated lord of the rings fan! Just love middleearth.

xx Ayodele.

[Gwinren]

Welcome! What a fascinating intro.

I seem to be the exact opposite in some aspects, since I'm 'only' 24 and, also, LOTRO happens to be my first MMO ever

Nevertheless, I do think our kin is amazing and while I might not reach endgame at any time soon, I'm sure we'll encounter each other now and then. Cheers!