Once you have loaded Isengard, please disable all plug-ins, irrespective of source, as these are now known to cause crashes. No doubt the main plug-in designers will post the necessary updates soon.

Summer is over, the days grow shorter, time for new TWA elections.

As of right now members may nominate themselves for the positions of Leader, Deputy and Officer.

The first round of voting will start on September 29th and the last round of voting will end on October 7th.

Please read the constitution for further information and use the 3 official election threads for nominations and voting.

Leader Elections
Deputy Elections
Officer Elections


On behalf of the current council I thank you and wish all the candidates the best of luck.

"Leet Noobs: Expertise and Collaboration in a World of Warcraft Player Group as Distributed Sociomaterial Practice" is the title of a doctoral dissertation by Mark Chen for the University of Washington; it can be downloaded from the link at the bottom of this post. Now, I fully appreciate that the title sounds like somebody's parody of academic research; nevertheless, I would recommend it unreservedly for anybody interested in gaming and gaming theory, and, above all, in the way social gaming groups (including kinships and raiding alliances) operate - or sometimes cease operating.

The academic jargon is limited mostly to the opening chapters; what follows is the author's account of ten months spent actively raiding in WoW with the same group, including actual in-game chat logs, and his analysis of the group's social dynamics. Personally, I found it both fascinating and illuminating.

Link: https://digital.lib.washington.edu/resea...sequence=1

I'm taking a break from organising and leading raids for the next couple of weeks at least; maybe longer. The council will no doubt make whatever arrangements it considers necessary and appropriate.

For the time being and until further notice, the official kinship raid on Tuesdays will be directed against either the Fear Wing or the Poison Wing in Ost Dunhoth. The final decision will be made on the evening, and will depend on signups: to do the Fear Wing, we will need to have the core Durin's Bane team signed up, including two fully equipped and traited RKs. If we do not have the right signups for the Fear Wing, we will go on to attempt the Poison Wing in T2 Challenge Mode instead.

Following the update this Monday, the Forsaken Inn instance is bugged to buggery; in challenge mode, after the halfway point in the boss fight, two out of three members of the group get ported off the deck. Then the instance resets. So avoid till it gets fixed.

Members may be interested to hear that a lot of the people who were active on the now defunct Codies forum have joined a new European Community Forum. Some doubts were raised when it started up over whether it would attract enough players to be viable, but it currently has 707 signed-up members, and rising. Apart from harbouring many of the usual suspects you may remember from CM, the new forum is also designed to function as a censorship-free zone for discussions of the game which our new masters may not be in sympathy with - something that seems exceedingly likely. You can sign up on http://lotrocommunity.com/forum/.

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

The European LOTRO Account Migration page is up: European LOTRO Account Migration

The page will be updated with news during the mitigation process

Quote:European LOTRO Account Migration Begins May31st

        Migrate your Codemasters Account to the Turbine Global Service to continue playing LOTRO
        Keep all of your characters, kinships, friends, pre-paid subscription time and turbine points
        Take advantage of special limited time VIP subscription offers!
        Experience the new instances and skirmishes!


    Starting May 31st the LOTRO European servers will temporarily go down for service migration. After a short period (2-3 days) service will be restored and you can begin playing your existing characters once again. Begin your account migration before the worlds come up by visiting http://transfer.lotro.com and following the easy instructions. After May 31st you will no longer be able to play LOTRO in Europe until this process is complete.

    See http://transfer.lotro.com and follow us on Facebook and Twitter for the latest news on the migration and downtime.

    Welcome to Turbine! We look forward to seeing you in Middle-earth soon!