The Books and The Game – What one brings to the other

After not having read The Lord of the Rings in over 10 years, I decided to sit down and re-read the series. The impetus was listening to A Casual Stroll to Mordor, and hearing how Merric has never read the books, although I hear that he has begun (yeah!).

I started with The Hobbit, as that is where the story truly begins, and have now begun to read the fellowship books. I noticed, almost right away, that is was a very different experience than the last time that I had read this same story. In the past, I would have been what you might call a “skim” reader. My goal as a reader was to get to the end of the book as quickly as possible. I would often skip entire paragraphs if I didn’t feel that they directly affected the plot. Therefore, I don’t believe that my previous reads of J.R.R. Tolkiens’ works where very thorough. More than that however, I believe that playing Lord of the Rings Online also affected how I approached the books. That whole maturity thing might have change my experience too.

With The Hobbit, I noticed right away that I was envisioning the world with a LOTRO twist. I found this to be especially true when Tolkien wrote about the dwarves and Bilbo crossing the Lone Lands. As clear as could be, in my mind, I could picture the Lone Lands from the game. I noticed that I started following this ragtag group on the LOTRO mental map in my mind, and when I would play the game, I would make a note, however quickly and subconsciously, of where they where at that point.

I also found that I was more interested in the descriptions that Tolkien gave for areas that the group travelled, especially Mirkwood. With the expansion due out soon (YEAH!), and with so much coverage of Mirkwood, I found myself looking forward to travelling the same path as Bilbo once we get to explore that area. Mind you, we won’t have access to all of Mirkwood with this expansion, but hey, it’s a start.

As I got to the end of The Hobbit, I started to have a greater appreciation for the dwarves and the hobbits. It wasn’t necessarily that I didn’t respect those races in LOTRO, but, well, I just didn’t have any interest in them. My first character in LOTRO was a dwarf guardian (Almazar) and although I enjoyed the experience, I didn’t really love it. My wife and I stopped playing LOTRO for about 8 months after we got out characters to level 32, and I think that it soured my thoughts on the whole dwarven race. Mind you, I also had some negative thoughts about the Guardian class, which I now love, so there really isn’t any rhyme or reason to how things worked out.

Now, after having read The Hobbit, the first thing I did was to delete my level 12 human champion, and create a dwarf champion. Not because I didn’t like the human character, or because I thought that the dwarf starting zone was better, but just because that’s what felt right. I know it makes no sense, but if I’m going to have a champion, I want it to be a dwarf, so that I can visually see the character as one of those 13 dwarves. Weird, huh?

I also had new appreciation for what is coming with Mirkwood. Tolkien describes Sauron’s expulsion from Dul Guldur in passing in The Hobbit, with Gandalf only mentioning that he was delayed when he and several others drove the necromancer from Dul Guldur. Knowing that at some point I will be going through there is very exciting.

And now, continuing on to The Lord of the Rings, my thoughts on hobbits has also changed. Tolkien created such an amazing, thriving, living community in the Shire, with all the types of characters that you would expect, that I feel I now must create a hobbit and complete all of the quests and deeds in the area. I know, coming from me, that must sound crazy. I have made no secret of my lack of interest in The Shire in the past. In fact, I think I even spoke quite disparagingly of it. Something along the lines of “It sucks” and “Worst starting zone ever!” Now, with the addition of the 2 character slots that I’ll receive once Mirkwood goes live (Point of Screwage!) I’ll be able to create a couple more characters, and I know that at least one of them will be a hobbit, probably a minstrel. Who knew someone as stuck in their ways as me could change his mind?

When the hobbits went through the Old Forest, I found myself, once again, visualizing the in-game scenery, and it really expanded on my appreciation of that section of the book. Although I do find that the Old Forest in the game is not nearly as menacing as it should be, it fits for the zone level, and I’m ok with that. I especially love the section in the book where they go through the Barrow Downs, as I feel that the game represents that very well visually, and it was great to picture that along with Tolkiens’ descriptions.

I think that one of the coolest things about reading the books again  is that they mention all of the places that are in the game, even if the fellowship does not go there. Evendim, the North Downs, they are all there. Very cool.

I can’t recommend the books enough for anyone who loves this game and hasn’t read them yet. They offer a completely different experience than the game, but are very complimentary to it. It adds a whole other layer that I never realized was there before. And no, the movies don’t count. They are another wonderful way to experience Middle Earth, but they lack so much that the books have. They are a great place to start, but they are far from the great compliment to the game that the books are.

So there you have it. I’m a changed man. Come December 1st, I’ll be running my hobbit all around the shire, delivering pies and letters, and maybe killing a few boars.