Autumn is an odd place to be in; I love the taste, the smell and the feel of it but the lack of light or something similar puts me in an odd place almost every time. I end up doing various silly and not so silly things to walk through this and out the other side (most having at least a parting acquaintance with chocolate ...) and fortunately the consequences rarely last any longer than the impulse itself.

This year I suffered from a fit of nostalgia (among other things) and started playing another online rpg. I'm not sure quite what I was expecting - the only real enjoyment I've ever had from them is the social side (a good group of friends to do something with can make almost anything look better) - the actual game systems generally make me feel like I have a second job or am being encouraged to run mazes for treats like some sort of lab mouse.

For this particular piece of silliness I chose to follow a couple of old friends into Lord of the Rings online - an attempt by turbine/codemasters to, if not break the World of Warcraft mold, certainly stretch it a little in some new ways. With the Tolkien mythos to draw on they have a lot of material to work with and game system wise they've managed a few new twists on the same old classes and systems. They've even managed to work in something that feels like an overall storyline via the 'book quests' telling the epic story of the game - allowing you to play your part in the defense of the free people of middle earth while the fellowship are making their journey. This was novel enough to hold my interest at first, but after a couple of weeks the problems of all classic level based MMOs started to show through the cracks - leaving me wondering increasingly what on earth I was doing there.

Long story shortened, after four weeks of trial (with another two weeks before I'd have had to pay anything) I've closed the account and uninstalled the game - if there's still a relationship for me to have with these people I'll choose a more sensible medium in which to do it.

With that in mind, I'm going to go read a book - Locke and Jean demand my attention .