It’s been nearly two years since I started working as a game designer on Lord of the Rings Online, at Standing Stone Games. I’ve helped ship six updates in that time, with our latest, Arenas of Conflict, coming out this past Wednesday.

There’s a cool tradition I’ve seen at Bungie, where team members get a shield after a certain number of years with the company. The shield is blank, and with each update that the team member ships, they fill in a hex with that update’s symbol. A way for team members to see the progress they’ve made on the game they worked so hard on.

While we don’t have that at SSG (though I wouldn’t say no, huh, huh?) I have my own similar tradition of grabbing a high quality image of our update splash screen, organizing them and putting them together for each update I’ve worked on.

Six updates have passed in the blink of an eye. It’s been tremendous fun, a great learning opportunity and an incredible honour to work with the passionate, dedicated and talented people I have. Also a big shout out to our players and our community, for helping shape LOTRO and making it as warm and welcoming a community as it is.

Sometimes, like they say in Ferris Bueller, you have to take a moment to stop and smell the roses, to enjoy what you’ve helped build. Updates, like seasons, can pass all too quickly if you don’t take a moment to enjoy them. It’s been a great six seasons. Here’s to many more.

– Jeremiah