By: Jared 'Sleepy' Saramago

The Anniversary Festival

Hello everyone! I’m Sleepy, and I’m one of the newest content designers here at Turbine! Actually, some of you may already know me, as I had been a member of the QA team for about three years and had interacted with many of you on the Palantír and Bullroarer test servers. I’ve been playing LotRO since it was in Alpha, back when it wasn’t much more than Archet and the beginnings of what would eventually become Bree. It’s possible that you have grouped with me in-game, or even communicated with me in a chat channel, although you’d never know it. Well, now I’m on the content creation team, and I’ve been given my first design task: a revamp of the Anniversary Festival.

This April, LotRO celebrates the fifth anniversary of its launch. Incredible, isn’t it? What I believe makes this festival so special is that it directly relates to all of us. It wouldn’t even exist if it weren’t for you! It’s the one festival that isn’t focused on a particular season or holiday, but is instead a celebration of our enjoyment of a common interest. It should be a cheerful time, where we (as the game’s creators) can express our appreciation for all your loyalty and support, and you (the players) can look back and remember all of the wonderful times you’ve had over the course of your adventures in Middle-earth. If there was ever an occasion for you to share those memories with others, then the Anniversary Festival would be it!

A Plan of Action

When I started thinking about how to approach the Anniversary event, I already knew there was a lot of existing content that was fun and remained a solid foundation of events to build upon. Some things needed tweaking, and yet others were fine as they were. I was also well aware of the history of this particular festival and the perceived lack of content and methods for obtaining rewards. I was excited to have the opportunity to address those criticisms.

I decided on two major goals for improving this festival: One, to create additional NEW content and fully flesh-out this collection of events as a full scale festival. Two, to create a memorable ‘theme’ (something that I felt the anniversary was lacking). Spring has its Hedge Maze; Fall has its Haunted Burrow; but what about Anniversary? Well, the Anniversary now has…

Fireworks!

Many of you may have seen and used fireworks in LotRO in the past, but never have they taken center stage (literally!) like this before. Fireworks are a major aspect of some of the celebrations that we know about in The Lord of the Rings, and I really felt we were doing ourselves a disservice by not incorporating them more. So with that in mind, I went about planning several firework-centric events.

The citizens of Bree have organized a firework show, which will take place every night near the hobbit-farms, just inside the North Gate of Bree. This is not just a simple, “sit and watch” type of show. Oh no, the event organizers are seeking active participants to step up and launch the correct fireworks when they are needed! This game will challenge your skills of timing and attention to detail, as well as providing quite a fun scene for the onlookers. Speak with the show coordinator, Winston Peartree, if you think you’re up to the test.

Not to be outdone, the hobbits of Bywater have organized their own type of firework celebration at the Methel-stage. Be sure to gather up your friends as you head out, as a crowd has been eagerly awaiting the next show. As you will see, they have a completely different idea of how to put on a show than the Men of Bree do! The hobbit patrons are much less concerned with ‘style’ or ‘coordination’ of fireworks, and much more concerned with sheer volume. They just want to see lots and LOTS of fireworks, and they need as many volunteers as possible to make that happen. Have a chat with Milo Brockhouse when you get to the Methel-stage, and he will explain what you need to do.

The Battle for the Glorious Beer

The previous festival marked the return of one of the most popular events in all of LOTRO, “The Battle for the Glorious Beer” in the Thorin’s Hall arena. This event is making a return, but not without a few important changes. As some of you may remember, this quest could be quite difficult when dealing with a full room of skillful opponents, and there was much frustration due to the hindrance this could be on your festival token acquisition. I hope to have addressed that issue by breaking the single quest into three different difficulty levels, all for this event.

Before playing each round of the event, you will be allowed to choose the “Basic,” “Advanced,” or “Expert” versions of the quest. Each quest will have different objectives and rewards based on the difficulty chosen. If you are finding it too difficult to pick up the beer, or consistently finding yourself knocked out of bounds and eliminated, then choosing a less challenging quest might be a good option for you. This should allow everyone to keep making progress at collecting those elusive tokens, even when the odds seem to be stacked against you!

Other Things to Do

For those of you who are interested in mounts, the horse races are returning to both the Bree-land and Shire race tracks, offering you the chance to win the newest horse design. Oh, and don’t forget about the gift boxes, as well! Enemies all across Middle-earth will once again be dropping tokens that may be exchanged for gift boxes with random rewards inside.

In addition to these events, there are all kinds of other new things to discover this year that I won’t go into detail about just yet. But, here’s a sneak peek of some of what you might find: kind-hearted folks who are in a gift-giving mood, a man whose job has been undone by the wind, and a couple of odd hobbits delivering a message in a unique way.

As you can see, we’ve been hard at work making new content for you to play with. A lot of thought and effort went into this festival revamp, so I hope you all have a great time with it. I want to personally say ‘thanks’ to Budgeford, Maurath, Amlug, Aubergine, Scarecrow, all my other coworkers for their help and guidance and a very big ‘thank you’ to all of you out there who continue to play and support LotRO. Have a very happy Fifth Year Anniversary, and may there be many more fun times yet to come!