Star Wars characters I would love to dress up as for Halloween

...if only I could sew. And actually be able to attend the two Halloween parties I've been invited for. All I'll say is, chronic diseases SUCK. Almost as much as your boyfriend wanting to watch Heartstone tournaments instead of playing Star Wars: the Old Republic with you. Anyway...

Summarized, if my life would be more awesome, I would definitely dress up as:

(Spoiler alert: this post features the names and pictures of some main characters of the recently released Knights of the Fallen Empire expansion. However, there are no spoilers about the story developments.)

Fashion Friday: dressing your jedi for the autumn

You may have noticed a distinct lack 5 Fandom Friday posts on Ravalation today. Don't worry, I'm still loving 5FF, but today's topic was "Things I Love About Halloween" and jedi simply do not care for pumpkins. They do, however, care for fashionable robes. So hereby I'm introducing a new project for those pumpkin-heavy 5FF's: Fashion Friday! That's right, a Friday dedicated to drooling at pretty bathrobes, dreaming you are the one wearing them, elegantly strolling through the Old Republic.

Are you ready for Knights of the Fallen Empire?

The time is there: just one more week and Knights of the Fallen Empire will take off for subscribers.* In an ideal world we players would just sit back and relax before a new expansion hits. In reality, though, there are usually things to take care of before big changes are implemented.

I've gathered a few in the form of a last-minute check list. If you actually want to do these things is of course entirely up to you!

Teachers of the Old Republic

Padawans at the Tython training grounds

If you like numbered lists you're in for a treat this week. After my "6 orange-pictures" post on Tuesday's 6 on 6 it's time for yet another classic: 5 Fandom Friday!* This week's theme was "5 Favourite Teachers". As always, I'm turning to the Star Wars universe for help and selected my favourite teachers from online multiplayer game Star Wars: the Old Republic (SWTOR).

This post includes some mild spoilers (like the names of some companions and NPCs that are encountered through various class stories), but I took care not to mention any major plot spoilers. Oh, and I totally would have included Yoda, but he wasn't there yet in the Old Republic! *runs off to file a formal complaint*

Six times orange

Put mildly, orange is not exactly my favourite colour. Once upon a time, when the internet was young, I even initiated the "Orange club", a website dedicated to loathing oranges and everything that shared the same colour. Every once in a while an orange lover would accidentally join and be hugely disappointed.

So you can see that I truly love you guys, because I decided to endure the pain and stomach finding six suitable pictures for this month's issue of 6 on 6 gamer style!

Goodbye, Gilrain

 Saying our goodbyes

As I am writing, server transfers for my server in Lord of the Rings Online, Gilrain, have opened up. While I'm waiting for the sign of our kinship leader that Asylum has successfully transferred to the Laurelin server, I figured now would be a good time to dig deep into my screenshot archive, coming up with crappy pictures and fond memories of the time behind us.

While server merges in other games did never affected me on an emotional level, it is different for LOTRO. With the playerbase originally being very opposed to merges, all servers since the game's launch in 2007 are still operating. Gilrain was always one of the smaller servers with a tight community that I - and many with me - have become fond of. I don't think anyone disagrees with the server consolidation now since many servers near-deserted, but it will be the end of an era nevertheless.

As Lord of the Rings Online was the first MMO I was involved with, some memories are deeply entwined with the discovery of my love for gaming and my growth as a player. I've selected 10 events for you that represent the most memorable moments of my gaming life on Gilrain, more or less in chronological order. I'm going all out in nostalgia mode, with Instagram-ready ancient screenshots and all, so you've been warned! 

Nora in Oxpring

We had no idea what he would look like. While we were safely sitting in the car, the rain poured on the gravel of the small parking place. Every now and then, a car would stop and an Englishman, or lady, would scurry for cover in the inviting dry and warm local inn.

We started theorizing.

"He organizes a folk festival, right? So surely he has a beard!" 

"And long hair? No, he doesn't strike me as the hippie type."

It was easy enough for him. All he had to do was look for the one Dutch car with four tourists in it.