LotRO's 64-Bit Server Launch Has Been A Mess, But At Least We Got Some Excellent Memes Out Of It

To say that The Lord of the Rings Online has had a rough week is an understatement. From overloaded transfer queues to players (like myself) who have never even see the transfer button materialize in our launcher, what was meant to be a one-day process has extended into its fourth day. 

Frustrations within the player community have been runing high, thanks in large part to the level of uncertainty as to when to expect transfers to open back up to concerns over name reservations, kinship transfers, housing and so much more. While the Standing Stone Games team has acknowledged that the demand was much higher than expected, at the time of this writing there doesn't seem to be an end to the uncertainty in sight. 

The good news for those who have been super lucky and able to transfer thus far is that the news 64-bit servers here in North America and the EU will open later today, providing (in theory) a more stable server environment, clear of the lag and rubber banding issues that have plagued the 32-bit servers for so many years. For the rest of us, it's the rush to initiate the transfer and hope nothing breaks in the process.

However, despite the mess this week, the community has provided some comic relief: excellent memes. These have been filtering throughout the Discord server, namely the 64-bit Server Transfer chat channel, as well as through the rest of LotRO-related internet. In fact, one player created an entire megathread on Reddit to archive the memes in all their glory, preserving this part of LotRO history for posterity.

Here are some of my favorites from Discord yesterday as we all awaited the return of the mythical Transfer button:

Via Kataro

Via Rohirrim Rider

Via Spiffy-Magical

Via Throwback Jay

Via Solmyr

Via Merlinous

One Discord user, Freesia, even re-wrote Tolkien's iconic A Elbereth Gilthoniel to incorporate the transfer process, and it's so, so good. 

Here's to hoping that the transfers open today and players who are eager to start their journey on the new 64-bit servers are able to soon. This has undoubtedly been a rough week on all involved, from the SSG team working hard to make sure things run smoothly to players who have taken time off and dealt with the uncertainty of when they can transfer and finally join their friends, to Kin leaders eager to make sure that Kinship names and historical data is preserved for each player as they log into the new server. But hey, the memes have been excellent, so not all is lost.