Middle-earth’s Yule celebration is now, sadly, over. It was fun while it lasted, and many of us here at the Middle-earth News were finally able to enjoy some of the festivities together. As we anxiously await the arrival of the next festival, the Warriors of the Westfold reflect on their time in Frostbluff – but first, here’s a group photo taken during the last day of the festival:
ALICE
The Yule Festival has been my first festival. Since I started playing LOTRO, I never understood how the festivals worked. I gained tokens, but I couldn’t find the barters…I was very clumsy. But the Yule Festival has been a revelation for me and I enjoyed it every single day.
With Hobbit Hunter and my Elf, I completed all the tiers and I gained several TP. I also played with my other characters, but not every single day with them. My favourite quest was the Empty Keg Emergency, once I understood that I only had to jump down the wall to not be seen by patrons and guards, it became my first quest of the day, because was easy, quick and I gained four tokens. The quest that I most hated was The Biggest Stomach of Them All, because I never finished it, my characters were too overburdened by all that food and they never reached the next table in time.
Thanks to the Yule Festival I also bartered amazing cosmetics and two lovely ponies.
At the end I can say I really liked it and, now that I’m more practical, I can’t wait for the next festival!
ARWEN
As I mentioned in our previous post, when I first began playing LOTRO it was on a small netbook. Because of it, I never enjoyed when festivals ran, due to the constant lag I would experience while playing. All that changed last Christmas, when I received my new PC. The Yule Festival was in full swing and for the first time I could actually enjoy it!
There is nothing about Winterhome I don’t love. What other festival is there where you can have a snowball fight, build snowmen, decorate your house with Yuletide cheer, or attend and perform at the Frostbluff Theater? There is no other festival that is its equal, in my opinion. There are good ones and I do enjoy them, but they’ll never be the Yule Festival.
If I had any complaint about it, it would be that we didn’t receive any new cosmetics this year. I pretty much have all there is to offer, so I was looking forward to collecting more. Here’s hoping we’ll get some new goodies come this December.
BRITTA
Every year, I look forward to two festivals in particular: the Fall and Yule Festivals. While the Haunted Burrow is fun and exciting, I love that the Yule Festival takes place primarily in a new zone (Winterhome/Frostbluff). I am also fond of the tiered quest completion system, and wish that more festivals followed that model. I would love a spring- or fall-themed portrait frame for my characters!
I am a player who religiously participates in the festivals simply to save up tokens for future events. But one of my concerns with the Yule Festival this year was the lack of (updated) rewards. If you’re like me and have already acquired all of the rewards from previous festivals, then you probably found there wasn’t anything new this year (except for the new warsteed cosmetic, which was simply a caparison). I would especially love to see more purchasable housing decorations in the future – beyond the snowmen for the yard or those snow globes which randomly drop from gift boxes.
As always, I enjoyed this year’s Yule Festival, and I made sure to keep plenty of tokens to get me off to a good start next year. And now I’m ready for the next festival!
MARIA
My previous Festival experiences are similar to Alice’s experiences. Prior to the Yule Festival, I’ve just stumbled clumsily around during the Autumn Festival, not knowing what to do or where to go. It took me a while, but eventually I began to understand what I needed to do in Frostbluff. I have to admit that I neglected my other two characters and only played with my main, Lilloa since it is my current focus to level Lilloa up.
With her, my daily routine began with bringing some cheer to the Abominable Snow Beasts. I loved it every single time and I’ll miss them dearly. The task I hated the most, and kept ignoring, was The Biggest Stomach of them All. I’m a lousy player when it comes to fulfill a task in a given time or to be the fastest. So naturally, I always lost and never managed to complete The Biggest Stomach of them All. After a few days, I’ve just stopped trying it altogether. Maybe I’ll manage to practice a bit until the next year’s Yule Festival. Most of the time, I participated in Frostbluff and ignored Festival activities in all other regions. Except for the Drinking challenge with the Inn League. It was a blast! I was pleasantly surprised to see that my Hobbit can actually get drunk, and it was funny!
All in all, I really enjoyed the Festival, even though it felt towards the end as if I’m doing some household chores. Yet, every cleaned table, thrown fruit, and built snowman was worth it as I’ve got two beautiful ponies, Murray and Egon, and the one thing I’ve wanted the most, the Abominable Snowbeast cloak. Now I’ll have all year something to remind me of my good pals, the Snowbeasts!
MYLA
I was so excited during the weeks leading up to the Yule festival! Mostly because I kept hearing talk about snowball fights and a play where I could act as Bilbo. I even thought about staying up till around 3 AM the day the festival was going to be released, I was THAT ready to begin all the quests.
Everyday I logged on my five characters and had them each do a quest or two mostly so I could see what goodies were in my sack of presents. I played the most with my main, Alellea, though. I had her doing all the quests everyday, and the quest I enjoyed the most would probably be the Snow beast one. Or “Unwilling Firewood” mainly because I loved that I could kill a tree with one swipe of my shield! The theatre quest got a little annoying after a while, I can probably recite the entire thing by heart now. But hey, all those Turbine Points were pretty nice.
I got so. much. stuff during this festival, it took me a while to organize everything in my vaults and house chest. And I don’t even want to talk about how many Wintry Yule Caps I have. I practically have warehouses fill of them.
In addition to all the cosmetics and my new theatre stage, I got all of my characters two new mounts (three for my main because I spoil her).
Now I can’t wait for all the festivals this year! I’m definitely going to participate more.
Did you participate in the Yule Festival this year? What did you like/dislike about it?
