Hello dear Istarians. My wife and I used to play this game about 4.5 years ago and cancelled after LOTRO came out. Now LOTRO is becoming sorta streamlined WoW type MMO and we are thinking back about nostalgic moments that we used to have in Istaria. I don't remember most of the things I've done here. Remember fighting some blight creature with my wife and mining ore in Blight infested lands.

We are returning now for a month for starters, will try to restore our property, get our houses back up etc, thanks to the support staff who got all our characters back. Question that drills my mind - has Istaria been able to avoid becoming a WoW type MMO with grind for uber gears annoyance and raid sickness? Is it still a good old Istaria where you are not forced to grind like obsessed day and night raid for some tokens to get some uber lewtz ..grrrr

I loved plots and house building in Istaria, awesome crafting system and aegis attacks etc.

I can't ask what changed the last 3 years, I'll try to read news archive, but maybe someone can say in a few words, whats changed in crafting and plot system, what new story-lines or story arcs been added etc. I hope that Istaria didn't fall under influence of 'successful MMO template' and converted to a dumb MMO that MMO market is so full of today.

Its good to be back, anyway.

We are bipeds, btw .