LOTRO: The sad story of Ravanel and the evil wallet

I'm not into negativity. No matter your age, gender or profession, you're playing a game to have fun. The many traps of MMO's (feeling too responsible for people, regarding your game time as a job instead of free time, clashes with people...) should be avoided at all costs. If something happens after all it's best to take a deep breath and look at things in perspective: it's just a game and you're there to have fun. So now I'm experiencing a feeling that is very unlike me, namely, I feel seriously annoyed. I need to vent a little about Turbine's newest creation of evil: the barter wallet. 

A short history of the barter wallet

Oldschool players will remember those days of Mirkwood when we were running around and noticed that, besides the Moria and Lothlórien medallions, silver branches and golden leaves, we now also had to gather bronze feathers and golden star emblems. It was all getting a bit much. Perhaps we could get an in-game feature that would store these barter items out of our inventory, like a wallet? The developers reacted positively on this idea, but nothing was yet to be seen. They liked the idea, but could not promise a Soon™. Then this new 'revolutionary' system was introduced. No instance would ever be the same again! You would get rewarded with marks, and each cluster had their own type, and stronger enemies would also drop other special marks and... they would all go into your inventory. The horror. These were dark days for people gathering stuff, especially for people with a weakness for cosmetic appearances...

But then there was hope! A barter wallet was announced, and we all eagerly awaited its implementation the next update. Imagine the anti-climax when we found that only (a part of) the skirmish marks went in there. Sure, in time the other marks were added to it as well, but the barter items we had wished for were still in our inventories. Time went by, free-to-play and the Store were introduced and now we got our wallet... but we have to buy it.

Depicted above: a very sad lore-master without premium barter wallet

Like a virgin

Now I'm not the only one being deeply disappointed in this, but the past has taught me one thing: you cannot win from the greed of the Store. The barter wallet is a game-changing thing that every regular player should have. It's not a stupid invention such as stat tomes or store pots that you can simply ignore. Something needed to be done, I needed to get that thing, but... I did not have enough Turbine Points to purchase it.

A distinct lack of currency marks Ravanel's downfall into grinding deeds for Turbine Points

I had heard stories of people grinding Turbine Points before. Apparently there are even people who refuse to buy anything from the Store and spend half their gaming life killing mobs to buy quest packs. But not me, I had avoided the Store at all costs. Until now.

With the store coupon I wrote about on March 28, I would be able to buy the wallet for 697 instead of 995 Turbine Points. That meant I had to grind 90 before the coupon would expire that evening. Would that be possible?

As this was my first time, I decided I could just as well do something useful with my deeds. I had always wanted to complete all deeds on my main character, but never put much effort into it. I now found that I had many deeds open that were almost finished, especially exploration deeds. So I headed north into Thinglad, where I was supposed to find a location called Foulmaw's Den. Now there's another thing you need to know about me: I don't like spoilers. If I haven't done something yet, I refuse to look it up at the lotro-wiki or another website, no matter how long it takes. I thus spent quite some time running in circles, expecting a wolf den of some sort, before I saw a tiny icon in Thinglad on the map, that looked like a beast. Heading in that direction, I soon found a...

...that someone with a lack of imagination had called Foul-maw. I mean, he's sitting (can one not feel anything else than adoration when seeing sitting bears?)! All alone in those big woods...

I left the bear, the deed was completed, and I went on with an astonishing amount of deeds of which I won't bore you with the details:

You have discovered Uflûmp-mur - hell yeah!

• Explorer of Thinglad (5)
• Zirakzigil (5)
• Western Durin's Way (5)
• The Waterworks (10)
• Explorer of Khazad-dûm (15)
• Rath Teraig Exploration (5)
• Orc-slayer & Orc-slayer (Advanced) in Bree-land (5 + 10)
• Nemesis of the Fallen & Nemesis of the Fallen (Advanced) (5 + 10)
• Stronghold Exploration (5)
• Warg-slayer (Advanced) in the Lone-lands (10)

= 90 Turbine Points!

The end was fun, as I grouped up with some lotro-wiki friends, who happened to be doing the very same thing. We made it into some sort of match. I lost from my German wiki-colleague, who managed to complete his last deed five minutes before I mine. I bought my wallet right on time and... there was much rejoicing! Twenty-eight spots saved, and that is only for one character.

Afterwards I visited the lonely bear again, to show my boyfriend the last location of his exploration deed. It was time for act two, and this act didn't end so well for the bear...

I won't post any details or pictures here, as this blog is supposed to be kid-friendly, but one can guess the ending of this story. I did tell them the bear was cute, but it was no use. He had an ugly name, he might be dangerous to wandering elves, he smelled etc etc... and oh, detail, he had a gold token hidden in his stomach.

Today's sad events teach us a true thing: greed always wins. 

...not that I mind that, though, I'm going to enjoy my premium barter wallet!