LOTRO Video Highlights: One Year of Highlights

One year ago I started a series covering some of my favorite videos for The Lord of the Rings Online.  At the time I had a relatively small selection of about 25 videos planned for the weekly series.

After starting the series, I quickly began looking on YouTube for hours and hours with the goal of finding more great LOTRO YouTube videos.  I was greatly surprised when I found another 25 or so in the first search and several more each time following.

I have likely done over 100 hours of searching for videos in this series.  Each time I am about to throw in the towel and say I have found all the great LOTRO videos, there has always been a video or a whole channel that I find which tells a great story or shows the beauty of the game.

At times this series alone has kept me motivated and passionate about LOTRO.  There are so many things players can accomplish in the game and then even more with the power of editing.  It is truly amazing and has really blown me away.

I am truly shocked though by how many great LOTRO videos there have been over the years and how many are still being created for such an old MMO.

The table below is a count by year released of each of the videos I have featured so far in this series.

Year Released	Number of Videos
2007	6
2008	2
2009	9
2010	5
2011	8
2012	12
2013	6
2014	3

Note: I did count the Beyond the Shadows videos in 2007 instead of 2009 because the special edition for Shadows of Angmar had them available in 2007.  If I had them in 2009, when the videos were made public, it would cause a bigger perceived increase in 2009 than what is actually the case with created video content. Also this table only shows the number of videos this series has featured, not the number of LOTRO videos released in that year.

Finally, I would like to share my top 15 LOTRO videos so far from this series.  It was extremely hard to narrow down from the 51 videos featured in this series to the 15 on this list.  Also keep in mind there are still at least 10 more months of video highlights that do not appear on this list.

15. Dividion

Dividion does a great job taking a good song and applying it to their character’s story in LOTRO.

14. LOTRO – Friend of Bears

While Friend of Bears does have a fairly simple idea, it was executed really well with fitting visuals and sounds.

13. Through the Mines: A Mad World (LOTRO Machinima)

Who would have ever thought this song would work so well at capturing the feeling of Moria.  The excellent visual application of images to the song really helps sell the experience.

12. LOTRO Music Video – Would You Be My Minstrel

Would You Be My Minstrel is one of the best original songs for LOTRO and the music video is really well done.

11. The Stay at Home Hobbit

This video is truly original and has a great sense of humor showcasing what it is like to be a stay at home hobbit.

10. Elbenritter Trailer

While this trailer is full of the same panning shot throughout different locations, it creates a feeling of a bigger world as it moves from location to location.  With the inclusion of epic music, this trailer becomes great.

9. The Lord of the Rings -Online- “I am Warden”

Way better than the official class trailers, “I am Warden” really showcases the essence of the Warden class in a very epic way.

8. The Lord of the Rings Online – Inception Trailer

This trailer once again proves that adding the Inception soundtrack to anything makes it more epic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCR4b6RE-1c#t=71

7. LOTRO: Galadriel’s Lament

Mirkwood brought great trailers to LOTRO and Galadriel’s Lament is the best example.  This trailer shows players the history of Mirkwood while still keeping an exciting feel throughout.

6. The Call: A Hobbit Journey

This machinima does a great job portraying the emotional struggle a hobbit goes trough when they decide to have an adventure.

5. Durin’s Folk: Baruk Khazâd! Khazâd ai-mênu!

This video is easily one of the best kin trailers ever.  It does a great job showing how a group of dwarves would be in Middle-earth.

4. The Hobbit An Unexpected Journey Trailer – LOTRO Version

I honestly didn’t think The Hobbit trailer could be done well in LOTRO but clearly I stand corrected.  The replication of shots and character cosmetics is truly amazing.

3. Lord of the Rings Online Music Video – Still Alive

Still Alive uses filters and editing to make the great visuals in LOTRO look even better while still telling a good story.

2. LOTRO Machinima : Curse of Harperella

The Curse of Harperella has more special effects than any of the other videos on this list.  With extra enemies, moving mouths and at times entire sets created to better tell the story, it is clear a lot of effort went into creating this short film.

1. LOTRO – Bain Ennorath – Beautiful Middle-earth HD

Beautiful Middle-earth indeed!  From the breathtaking Lake Evendim time lapse to the glow of Lothlórien, this video reminds me instantly why I love LOTRO.  It has fantastic visuals put to great music.

Thank you all for supporting this series and also I would like to thank the LOTRO community for making so many great videos.  This series would not be possible without their passion for the game.

You can view all LOTRO Video Highlight articles here.

Do you know of a good LOTRO video and want it to be featured in this series? Send an email to contact@lotroplayers.com with a link to the video and it might end up in a future article.