[CC] How big is Bingo Boffin?

*insert hobbit height jokes

Now that this has passed. How big is Bingo? At 10:30 on a sunday i set out to find that answer. Can you finish the 52 week journey of Bingo Boffin in about a days time?

Setup, a 105 captain with lousy gear. Plenty of stablemasters before central Gondor. He just fell in love with the crafting station on the belfalas kin island and never left there since. He has always crafted for fun so he has no access to fancy mithril coins or taxi’s. And has to rely on the postal network provided by the denizens and horses of Middle earth.

What is Bingo?
You start of in a quaint hobbit hole in the Shire with a 60’s bowlcut hobbit looking for an adventure. Each week on a Wednesday the next chapter got released and you could accompany him on his journey. Each region has his own B ert Bartelby for you to spend his Bingo badges on. From housing items, maps, pets to a never-ending hattrack it’s all free for the taking.

Each week you would return to the Michel delving stablemaster to check a npc as to where you left Bingo last week. But for this exercise we’ll continue down the road. After a good 45 minutes we leave the shire after becoming an expert on the Michel delving – stock stable routes path. Finding new tales in the Old forest and the Barrow downs. Being chased by a rat and returning to his family in Buckland.

Leaving the Shire
Memory loss started to set in. I do remember the Lonelands treasure hunts pretty well. But not sure what Bingo was doing in Bree. Turns out it’s a lot of drinking and feeling sorry for it the week later. Seeking treasure is boring, but after a good rest we found the true hero of this journey. Only known as “Trapped lynx” at this time.

It’s time for another famous hobbit and a lot of time spend teaching the elves. Waiting for bilbo to finish his writing before we can set our gaze north. We trade in the hobbit for a dwarf companion, but only for a little while. We lose our hobbit to a treacherous hole and need to go find him in the deepest place in eriador. The dwarven home of Moria is our next target

Calling on the knowledge of ancient dwarven cartographers only to be beaten by  fine-tuned nose of the lynx in question. Willem whiskers is the male of map. Finding Bingo near some morrovals and then cruising Moria and lothlorien for some pages and stories will lead you to the siege of Mirkwood. From where we quickly go nope after searching for that white fuzzball.

The hobbit goes south
Going back to Lothlorien and then further south by the great rivers. Where we meet folks and creatures from far away places (without getting too spoilery). Ancient good and evil crosses our path in Rohan. As well as a more recent betrayal in the Wildermore.

A few weeks later into the journey the party grows home sick. By this time we’ve been joined by several characters that have gone on their our paths. Some you might have missed and some not that much. But towards the latter part of the 52 weeks you will be left with a gut wrenching feeling. Not all hope is lost, but certainly when Bingo boffin was on a weekly release it stayed with you for a while.

The ending is something else in terms of lotro quest lines. There arnt more relatable finishes that you’re not already expecting. Sure the ring gets destroyed and Boromir dies, but this one made me pretty happy by that time.

So how big is bingo?
At the time a weekly free mini-update was the centerpiece to a lot of questers. Curiosity where the journey would take us was palatable in the discussion forums and kinchats. Certainly towards the end where we knew it was gonna be 52 weeks and Minas tirith was on the horizon. New pets, cosmetics and other item every new region were a new thing to lotro.

We’re 2 years in at this point or 1 if you count the end. How has bingo faired? Bingo is still pretty relevant. Most new characters will follow the journey and the questline will sit next to Volume 1 in my questlog for a long time. One of those things you say you will finish soon.

On the other side there are plenty of people who will never see Bingo cause it’s not really advertised or necessary anymore. A single quest ring in the north parts of Michel Delving. Leveling faster than the quest chains will turn them grey before you know it. It fits nicely with previous multi-region quest lines such as the Tomb of elendil or Volume 1.

If you’re more into the numbers and metrics. Bingo is about 1 meter in height. Takes about 9 hours on my journey on my captain and is worth 270 Bingo badges. Good for 19 pets, a full hat rack and a ton of other items. And some of the best titles in-game.
Bingo is as big as you want him to be is the real answer. We’ve gotten a new bingo story for the last fall festival. But will we see him again in the future?  A comment about the creator makes me think not.

I’m looking forward to see if anyone tries Bingo-style episodic content in the coming years, but you never know what’s going to be The Next Thing.

MoL