Mordor or Bust: A Retrospective
My friend and regular podcast co-host, Brian, celebrates a significant birthday today. So first off let me wish him many happy returns of the day. Now while the Burton & Scrooge podcast is on hiatus, Brian has been pursuing his own side project; namely the Scrooge Uncut podcast. The latest episode is a retrospective look at Brian’s former LOTRO fansite and show, Mordor or Bust. The both these creative endeavours were a significant part of the LOTRO community, back in the halcyon days of the MMO. Brian had the unique experience of predicting LOTROs transition to F2P, days before Turbine’s announcement. He also caused a minor furore when he posted screenshots of every item in the LOTRO store while the beta test was going on.
This particular episode of Scrooge Uncut is a very personal recording. as Brian catalogues jumping in to the deep end of content creation without any prior experience. It is also a greats snapshot of what a fan community is like during a games heyday. What is so striking is the fact that Brian got so much traction with the game developers Turbine, over such a short period of time. The story of Mordor or Bust is a short one because the website and podcast endured for less than a year. Listening to Brian recount various anecdotes brings a lot of memories back for me as well. LOTRO has always had a very passionate community. Something that is lacking with other games over recent years. So much of the fan created content that use to fill blogs and podcasts, is now mainly corralled within official forums and sub-reddits.
On a personal note, I got in to podcasting due to Brian and his show, back in the summer of 2010. At the time, Turbine handled the North American release of LOTRO, while Codemasters dealt with the European market. I contacted Brian and offered to provide LOTRO news from across the pond and subsequently created short news segments that were used on the Mordor of Bust podcast. Because we go on so well, I soon joined both Brian and Fyurae, as a permanent presenter on the show. It was a lot of fun at the time, to be part of a very active community. Furthermore, 2010 was a very interesting year for LOTRO. So, enjoy Brian’s trip down memory lane. I think the show will resonate with a lot of listeners, especially those who were involved with the scene, circa 2010.