Mirkwood Guilt

Turbine has announced the next expansion for Lord of the Rings Online, the Siege of Mirkwood.

Being something of a partisan of the game, I ought to be happy to see a new installment coming out for the game.

And yet I feel a little guilty that this expansion is coming along this fall.

You see, I set myself four gaming goals this year.  I was going to do a post about them back in January, but I never got around to it.

None the less, I have had them in my mind and have tried to achieve them.  My goals were:

• Hit 80 in World of Warcraft
• Buy a freighter in EVE Online and make back the money I spent on it
• Play no SOE games
• See Moria in Lord of the Rings Online

The first was easy enough.  The instance group may have taken its time getting to 80, but we’re all there.

The second I managed and I have made back the money spent a couple times over now.

The third is tough to explain, which is part of the reason why my goals never made it to a post.  Too much EverQuest nostalgia I think.  Anyway, SOE games suddenly became unpalatable so I am taking a year off from them.  And I have stuck to that one despite the fact that Gaff was hit with the Norrath bug a few weeks back.

And then there is Moria.

I am nowhere close to seeing any of Moria.  I have level 30 characters on two servers, but the furthest I have been is Rivendell.  And that was back in February.

And now there is more Middle-earth coming out this fall.

I like the game.

I enjoy the game when I play.

And of course I am in love with the lore and the mere idea of walking free in Middle-earth.

But more than one fantasy MMO at a time seems to be beyond my capabilities right now.

So now that Mirkwood has been announce, I will probably go patch the game and take a peek.  Maybe even get a level.  But I doubt that Moria is in the cards this year.