I love Middle-Earth and I've freely admitted my geekery to everyone who's ever asked me about it. It was a world I escaped into during my childhood when other (cooler) kids were out chasing trains or sneaking about in graveyards. The world, the manner of speech, the languages, the whole atmosphere and detail of another world was so addictive they were times my parents thought I would never grow up.
Well I got a bit older, left school, left college and got a job. I had a few wild years of drinking, a few casual drugs, had some crappy relationships (man some really crappy ones), basically doing what everyone else does in their lives. All the time a kept one eye on Middle-Earth Online, caught between being really excited and really frightened of what would happen when it came out. Would it be any good? Would it crap all over the source material like so many films, tv shows, video games have done to other works? Would I ever go to work, shower or eat if it was so good that I never wanted to stop playing it?

Well MEO changed into LOTRO and by the time the beta came around I had shockingly found myself in a serious and stable relationship, with a baby on the way and less time than ever to devote to escapism. Despite all that I grabbed a beta key and dropped right into the world as an Elf. 5 hours in - Didn't like it. Oh Turbine had done wonders re-creating the world and the gameplay was fine. It just didn't feel right.
So I rolled again as a Champion Man of Bree. This was much better but it still lacked that connection I'd been expecting through years of expectation. By this time the beta was nearly at an end I think I already knew why I hadn't chosen to be Hobbit yet - it was going to be the real test to see if they could reproduce the Shire to anything close to what Tolkien had done.
I ponied up for a lifetime subscription three weeks before my son was due to be born (it's still £150 that my partner knows nothing about, erk!), hopping on the moment the servers went live.
I want to say that the moment I went in as a Hobbit was life-changing or uber-incredible - but that would be silly. It WAS good but it's only through the course of time, maybe even a year, that I can say they nailed it perfectly. And I've come to realise that I really don't like MMO's in general. I hate this levelling up nonsense and the way you have to play certain classes certain ways in a group to reach the highest levels. It makes me feel excluded from the majority of the game because I don't have the time to devote to it.

But whilst I hate all those things I still love Lotro for the Shire and the Breeland area. To see and feel the atmosphere of those places that came so alive in my mind on the screen is incredible. I've never been to Angmar, or to the Ettenmoors and not even to Weathertop, and I don't know if I ever will. I'm quite happy frolicking around with my fat Hobbit in the Shire with the occasional adventure or two to Bree or the Old Forest. That to me is what Lotro is all about - not the game, but the world that's been in my life since I read the books and is now on the screen, and is something I can experience in a way I never thought would happen.