LOTRO Players News Episode 63: Pine Meld

This week we talk about Update 14.2 Beta build 2 and a developer’s hints on our stroll to Mordor.

Game News

14.2 Beta 2

Polish changes to Dead Marshes, Preloader feature

A Walk Into Mordor

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LOTRO Players News

Poll: How many books by Tolkien have you read?

CSTM LOTRO Farmer’s Festival Guide 2014

ZAM LOTRO Starter Pack Giveaway

LOTRO Players Adventures Episode 30: The Pebble Milestone

The Family Line Part 8 – The Ethengels

LOTRO Video Highlights: Weapons and Armor of Middle-earth

Where’s Tinki – Harndirion

Lilikate’s Screen Shot – Balewood Ents

Small LOTRO Adventures Epsidoe 20

LOTRO Poems #8

Brax’s pick(s) of the week: TSUHELM Implodes Then Turns Into An Angry Bird by Tsuhelm at Tsuhelm

News Beyond LOTRO

Sauron’s Deadly Servant – Part Three

Lord of the Rings Films Featuring 250-person Orchestra

Donations

This week we did not receive any donations but would love your support!

To help support LOTRO Players simply go to the donation page where you can help support the podcasts on LOTRO Players and also help support the site.  We have $5 and $10 mentions where you can donate and get a mention on one or all of our active podcasts for an episode depending on the amount.

Feedback

Reviews

This week we did not receive any reviews but would love your support!

Featured Comments

Tim left a comment on last week’s episode:

“Andang, thank you so much for reading my origin story to the millions of unseen people. It was great hearing it voiced by somebody other than myself and you just made it funnier in my opinion. Ethelros, thanks for being a great sport. Hopefully you liked it and not have the feeling of send a devastating blow my way. Oh, no you can’t, your captain isn’t leveled.

I liked that everybody laughed and had a good time. It’s a nice feeling of validation because you don’t know how well your jokes will be received.

Again, thanks for reading it 🙂

Tim”

Emails

“This is a bit of a long one and it is a mash up.  However it explains a lot in the LOTRO Players universe.

Enjoy,

Barnabras

 

The Origin of Ethelros

Many years ago there lived an elf named Ethelros.  He was the wisest Loremaster of the Isles.  He wore wisdom on his brow and his knowledge was deep.  He traveled from Cardiff to Wrexham, sharing his knowledge and wisdom freely to all he meet.  Quick to laugh and philanthropic he soon became world renown.  In the end that would be his downfall.  One fine morning he was sitting on the beach by the Sea.  His most trusted pet, the battle cat, curled up at his feet.  He was reading from the Encyclopedia of Arda and he noticed someone approaching him.  Walking toward him on the sand was a hobbit.  But he was no ordinary hobbit.  He was muscular and tan and the wind blew his long curly locks.  “Hail and well meet” said the hobbit.  “You are Ethelros the most intelligent being in the know world aren’t you?”  “I am” replied Ethelros, “Do I know you?”  “No” replied the hobbit.  “I am called Needles, Pineleaf Needles”.

Pineleaf put Ethelros at ease with his easy going manner and superior podcast demeanor.  After some time, when Ethelros was completely relaxed, Pineleaf raised his hand. He placed it upon Ethelros’ face.  He was immediately paralyzed, and could only watch what would transpire.  The Battle cat stirred and growled, sensing something was wrong. Pineleaf cast his gaze at the cat, it trembled and ran down the beach.  As the world started to darken to black, Ethelros watched the cat run and murmured “Useless cat” as he fell into unconsciousness.  Pineleaf gloated over the prone Loremaster.  It was over, he used the infamous Pineleaf mind meld.  Ethelros’ mind was now an empty vessel.  All of his knowledge passed on to the ravenous hobbit.  He let out a long loud cackle of triumph.  At the noise, something stirred in the surf.  Pineleaf’s War Dolphin had arrived.  He ran into the water and hopped upon it’s back and was not seen in those parts again.  When Ethelros awoke, he could remember nothing.  Not even the movie he watched last night.  At first he could only speak in one word sentences and two word paragraphs.  His mind cleared a little and he plodded back to his home and tried to put the shattered pieces of his life back together.  Try as he might, he could recall none of the vast knowledge he had once possessed.    People asked for his advice, he had nothing to give.  They thought he was refusing to share his knowledge and was soon shunned.  He started to get down, then he had a thought “I’ll create a fantastic weapon, a Legendary Weapon, and track down that detestable Pineleaf”.  Alas the system was too complex and broken for him to master in his present state.  So now he walks from town to town depressed, a Loremaster with no Lore.”

Contact Us

Email us!

podcast@lotroplayers.com

Follow us on Twitter!

The Players Alliance @PlayersAlly

LOTRO Players @LOTROPlayers

Andang @PvMP_Andang

Braxwolf @Braxwolf

Cithryth @Cithryth

Draculetta @Draculetta_72

Ethelros @Ethelros

Lilikate @LilikateBuggins

Mysteri @Mysterixox

Pineleaf @PineleafNeedles

Final Thoughts

You can join us LIVE for LOTRO Players News each Saturday at 8:30 p.m. Eastern at lotroplayers.com/live.

You can also join us on Landroval for LOTRO Players Adventures each Saturday at 5 p.m. Eastern.

Thanks for listening!

8 comments

  1. That was weird I just linked to one of your pages and you just linked to one of mine…gonna have to listen to this this afternoon…but first LUNCH!

    • Great show as always 🙂

      Thanks Brax for the shout-out! Yeah not the most LOTRO orientated post but I think the ‘gaming’ public needed to know!

      I am not scared about changing into a woman…I do not believe in statistics…I just play with them!

      LOTRO PLAYERS origin story still percolating…

  2. Lakyata /

    Definitely surprised that the majority of gamers are adult women. It certainly doesn’t feel like that if you keep an eye on the World chat, and I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve grouped and heard a female over the chat. Males in general appear more social in game, and I wonder how much of that is because since females are (sometimes rightly) concerned about harassment, we keep more to ourselves.

    2 origin stories in a row…poor Ethelros. Amusing for the rest of us, but kudos to you for being a good sport. Third time’s a charm?

    • As with all stats the Devil is in the Detail:

      The stats are based on US only and the majority of these GAMERS are playing mobile games…

      Full report here:

      • http://www.theesa.com/facts/pdfs/ESA_EF_2014.pdf

        I couldn’t get link to work oh well!

      • Lakyata /

        Ah, that makes a bit a more sense. Between Candy Crush, 2048, and Angry Birds, plenty of people are using mobile apps. Maybe someday we’ll get more females in MMOs.

        I found the ESRB stats interesting. Although a good many parents know about it and find it useful when getting games, I’d be curious to see whether it’s treated similarly to movie ratings, being VERY loose guidelines.

  3. Ethelros is definitely a good sport after the two stories. It does seem, though, that Pineleaf was made out to be the villain in that story.
    I also appreciate fan fiction getting some love. Andang and even Ethelros say great things about my series but for fan fiction as a whole being portrayed just as strong as the lotro news means a whole lot. To the whole lotro news panel, thank you very much 😀

  4. Barnabras /

    Thanks for reading my O.S. They are fun to write and funny to hear read. And thanks for being good sports!

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