Changing of the guard?

So Doyce gave me a trial game code the last time I was out in Denver, for ten free days of Lord of the Rings Online. I brought the disk home and set it on my dresser, doing nothing further with it. I have CoH, I told myself. That's enough. Two weeks ago when he was out for the engagement party, he found the disk and installed it on my computer, making sure the game ran fine, and telling me again how I should sign up, so we could have a game we could play together, and both start out on the same page, so to speak.

(He conveniently skipped over the part when he could recite the entire mythology and history of Middle Earth. I'm marrying a total GEEK.)

Well, I gave it a try, and it's very different than CoH, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy it. I do -- I made a hobbit, and an elf, and a human -- and while there's times certain aspects of the game go against the kind of straight-forward play I know and enjoy, there is a lot of fun to be had in our being able to explore this world together, neither one of us always the lead character, showing the other around.

In CoH, I feel like I reached the end-game -- months ago, if I'm being honest. We still have fun when we play together, but I'm long past the time when I had to get on and see what new part of the game I could discover next. The lower-level character version of Noelle that I run around with the tank version of Hang-Time is mostly just so we have a game we can play together when we're 1600 miles apart.

So, I'm thinking...

I think that's going to be LOTRO for a while. My CoH account is paid up until January, unless I can figure out a way to put it on hold, so I may still find myself being a hero now and then. Especially if a group of people I know and love want to get on and be silly Hostess Heroes. But since I'm only getting on to spend time with my honey, we thought it'd be fun to do something different.

It's a big change. I've got something like 3 years and 8 months of time invested in the game (which is crazy long when I think of it), and I just did an interview with a writer about meeting my fiance through an online game. Not even mentioning the book I was going to write, which has been collecting dust for months. But Doyce is right. It's nice to have something that's just ours, not something with a ton of history for either of us.

It's been great visiting Paragon City, but I think I ought to move on now, or I may never leave. And I have other things I want to do with my time.