SCHADENFREUDE

Schadenfreude can be defined as malicious or gleeful pleasure at the misfortunes of others. Honestly, no malice is involved here, but I couldn't resist giggling at what came up this morning when I did a search for "Mirkwood" on the Lorebook forums. Here is a selection of thread titles from the first two pages of results, all from the last 24 hours:

• I'm so mad
• SoM not on account page
• Unable to start game after Mirkwood expansion
• Lag Galore!!!
• Stuck on "Cleaning Up Old Connection"
• Rubber banding!
• Server issues???
• Stuck on Loading Screen
• Cannot access any new areas
• Help me fast! 1 hr reconnect time!

In other words, the usual feedback from the first day or so of any expansion... Coming your way soon. I recommend going away for a couple of days till the dust settles, or perhaps hauling that old Monopoly set out of the basement and playing that instead; 90% of early glitches have to do with server overload, and with a bit of luck the other 10% will have been fixed by the time you get back online.

SoM PRE-PATCH FOR EUROPE NOW ACTIVE!

We in Europe have often had occasion to grumble, not without reason, about the imbalance between what Turbine does for its subscribers Stateside, and what we get from Codemasters in Europe. Well, Codemasters have gone some way to redeeming themselves today, with the release in torrent form of a Siege of Mirkwood pre-patch. I'm not normally a great fan of torrents, and the speed currently (Monday afternoon) is averaging no more than about 25-30 kb/s, which means it will take a bit more than 24 hours to download the whole 1GB, but what the hell... we won't be able to use it till Thursday anyway, and anything that helps bypass the projected server log-jam is more than welcome. Now, if we could only have a look at the patch notes...

EARLY MIRKWOOD BRIDGEHEAD ESTABLISHED!

At last it can be revealed! Astonishing photograph documents the first (non-beta) raid and hostile landing on the shores of Mirkwood, weeks before the official release of SoM. LOTRO Cronicles is proud to release this undoctored image of history in the making, as elements of the Western Alliance raiding forces establish an early bridgehead on the east bank of the Anduin, well in advance of the main Free Peoples' invasion.

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