If you can remember last July – and I realize last July was several decades ago, but bear with me – you might recall that Standing Stone Games announced it would finally piece together official Discords for both of its MMORPGs, Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons and Dragons Online. The move came after the studio already invested significant time and resources into bolstering the games’ forum software, suggesting it planned to support both.
Well, DDO’s Discord opened a month later, but LOTRO’s was apparently more challenging, as it was still hunting for volunteer mods in December. Whatever the hold-up was, it’s over now, as the game launched its Discord server yesterday, forcing me to delete yet another channel to make room. (So many MMO Discords, you guys.)
SSG included an FAQ along with the announcement, though we don’t really see anything out of the ordinary; the team is requiring verified Discord accounts, opening up voice chat and self-promo, and offering server-specific roles.
Worth noting is that members of the community had already been running several unofficial Discords for many years, but at least the biggest one doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, nor is there any obvious bad blood. In fact, the community is encouraging players to make use of SSG’s official Discord for announcements.
“[O]fficial Discord is great for news and meeting folks, but we like the idea of a quiet little corner for folks who want to chat about the game occasionally,” wrote one unofficial Discord moderator, exuding the most LOTRO vibe ever. In other words, Second Discord is a go.
