Greetings Valar Guild

[Elatan]

Hello Valar Guild,

Long time no see but I thought I would pass by and say hello. Long I have been away from my home ( I do dare call Valar Guild my home ) because thats where I grew up in the online world so to speak and learned how to navigate the great seas of the internet community.
I hope you are all well but it seems so. I occasionally drop by the Valar homepage and read the news and it fills me with joy the Valar Guild still exist. It proves good maners, comradie and honor are still worth it all.
In the online world I am still in EU-LOTRO but not as active as I used to be. The game is in my opinion taking a turn into elite gaming leaving the casual way and players behind.

Anyway I just wanted to say hello. One day my small boat perhaps will steer along your mighty wessel again but for now take care and be proud of what you are and have here in Valar

[Varda]

Aiya Elatan! It's so good to hear from you! I too am seeing people drift into more instance running, but it seems to be mostly due to their having played long enough that it is the main area left for the high level characters. However, each time a free or paid expansion comes out, even the highest level raiders have a new run of questing and book play.

There is some discussion once again of starting a particular time of week and day for European and Asian players who are in the Turbine group, perhaps starting at level 1 and working up together, with people who miss catching up at odd times. Players in the Americas may also be able to pop in especially for that if it is a regular time.

[Shelob]

Aiya Elatan and welcome back!

Glad you got your forum account working again (sorry, admin's rights to see security log *grin*). It's good to see you again!

Aye, there are indeed plans to get a european group doing weekly get-tgoethers for quests and such, but it is important to say that it is on our "official" US server.

[Elatan]

I thought so Menelvagor but I am not going to buy a new CD for that and start all over
I bought the Euro version of the same reason, I wanted a kinship I could play with as it became too lonely and boring running around alone all the time save the few occassions I or others at odd times for them or I could team up.
I guess a real world server is still needed and I never have understood why it should be so difficult to have them.

[Shelob]

I couldn´t agree more Elatan! World sever for the win.

[Varda]

I'd prefer a true world server as well. I do remember the language problem we sometimes had in Diablo, and suspect that since the world has not adopted a common tongue, we may require the separation. English is the nearest thing we have to Common.

The nearest thing we were able to come to a world server was using Turbine, as it allows both Eastern and Western hemisphere. Codemasters did not. I truly wish more Europeans would come to Turbine, but I can certainly understand their not doing so. It would take a mass of them coming at one time to the same place as together as possible. Irmo moved some of his characters to a European guild on Turbine due to the same problem and of course Miriel and Hurin went with him.

We do what we can.

[Eonwë]

Well, I suspect part of the problem is technology too. If any game declared a "world server" there would be an expectation of decent to excellent latency whereever in the world you happen to be connecting from. With the current system they can at least say "at your own risk" about playing on realms not based within your area and thus cover themselves regarding repercussions.

That said, I know Blizzard has made attempts to bring certain areas of the world together on the same PTR server back with patch 2.4 of WoW, and at that time claimed it was their goal for future PTRs as well, so the attempt has been made.

Perhaps the time isn't too far off.

[Irmo]

Aiya Elatan -who was my twinbrother Omar when I was Salmar !

Good to hear from you old friend. After many years of DaoC (which were great) and a half year on Warhammer (which was very frustrating) me and my little band of friends are now back playing LOTRO. LOTRO is graphically and substantially still the best MMO I have seen. Pity that the PvP aspect is very poorly developed.

I must say that when one is blessed with a regular small band of Eurofriends playing LOTRO on the American server is actually not bad at all. Like not much competition for quest mobs and nodes and not much lag etcetera. We are casual enough not to care about getting radiance gear and avoid the very tiring instance-raiding like the plague .

Our blood will run towards RvR gaming soon again. We will be trying AION when it comes out in september. Then we will be playing on the Euroservers though, for the long years of experience with DaoC have told us that indeed for RvR you DO want to play primetime.

All in all it is sad for the Valarguild that indeed the gaming worlds always have to be divided into time-zones. Undoubtely Diablo 3 will also have that problem. I will not mind playing Diablo 3 on the American servers though, so maybe we will all be able to meet in the same place again there!

<cheers to all>
Irmo, the dreamy one.

[Elatan]

Nice to hear the sound of the old tongue
Yea warhammer was kind of frustrating and I guess the timing was a bit off too, I never got to really know my witch and playing both Lotro and warhammer was too much. Only bought it because of the great time I had for years in DaoC.
It still stands out as game nr.1 in my list but LotRO is the living in a world I only knew from tales and stories and thus very interesting in a different way. I remeber when I saw the North Downs the first time ingame. The landscape was so much what I expected that I felt I knew it before I walked it. A rather strange experience realizing it came out of Tolkiens capability to set your imagination in motion with precise words and some gameprogrammers idears and my inner fantasy.
I have no idear what AION is. I am afraid I have not heard of it.
But for LotRO one might hope that when the game becomes old and new ones arrive on the scene they fold the servers together and the last days can be played together.
Far off and far fetched but still a hope ;D

[Eonwë]

I'm not sure that I'm interested in another romp through the Diablo world, so I may pass on D3. However, if the way Blizzard's talking holds up, We'll be able to bridge the WoW/SC2/D3 chat barrier at least.

Take a look at this:
www.blizzard.com/blizzcon/recaps/battlenet-panel.xml