Introducing the Field Marshal in the Army of Mordor: Me
About 25 years ago, two middle school friends introduced me to an online computer game called The Two Towers, based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series. The game wasn’t what you might think. There were no graphics…it was entirely text-based…a “multiuser dungeon,” or a MUD. It was one of the earliest forms of multiplayer online games. As we all had dial-up internet connections, this is the most that connection could handle…simple text from an IP address.
Players came from all across the globe and the game had between 100 and 150 players online at any time. Aside from all the Tolkien lore in the game—going to Mordor, completing a quest with the riddles from the Hobbit, etc.—one of the highlights of the game for me was the ability to command an “army” and fight other armies in a simulated Battle of the Pelennor Fields…my favorite chapter from the entire trilogy. In the book, Sauron’s orcs, trolls, and loyal humans launch a massive attack against the city of Minas Tirith. The city’s steward is overcome with terror and launches no defense to meet his attackers. Nevertheless, the Rohirrim arrive and flank Sauron’s army from the north and Aragorn leads an assault from the south. In the end, the King of Rohan is slain, as is the Witch-King of Angmar, and the heroes of the book win the battle.
The coders and admins of the game simulated this in the MUD. You could “enlist” in an army of your choice—either Gondor or Mordor—and “engage” opposing armies, battling them and removing them from the Pelennor Field. Each player who wanted to do this started as a sergeant commanding a squad. If you won your battle, you earned a win and experience points and could advance in rank from sergeant to lieutenant, and eventually captain, major, commander, colonel, general, and field marshal, commanding, respectively, a platoon, company, host, battalion, regiment, brigade, and legion.
As Sauron, the Dark Lord in the trilogy, always had a soft spot in my heart, I joined the Army of Mordor (I was kind of an evil player anyway). Back then, in the late 1990s, I had the most wins, highest win percentage, and most battle experience of any player I ever interacted with. But I only ever got to the rank of general. Field marshal seemed impossible, and I never met anyone who ever attained that rank. After a few years of playing the MUD, I graduated from high school and stopped playing…
Whether because of the Rings of Power series or that I’m rereading the trilogy, I recently thought about the MUD and found that it was still up and running. So I created a character and started playing again with the sole purpose of accomplishing two things I had never done in the game 25 years ago: go to the land of Mordor by myself and become a Field Marshal in the Mordor Army.
As I started playing, the nostalgia was incredible and brought back a lot of memories of playing all those years ago. Once I advanced my character rose to the level necessary to join an army, I once again enlisted and became a sergeant in the Mordor Army. I restarted my campaign to vanquish the horsemen of the Rohirrim and the men of Gondor. I won 75 battles in a row before I lost one. And I kept battling and battling…and winning and winning. Before long (or so it seemed), I was a colonel, commanding a regiment with superhuman morale.
But there was a problem. Just as 25 years ago, the game still kept the requirements to become a field marshal hidden:
Because I wanted to know exactly what it would take (and therefore how much time I would have to commit), I tried to calculate it, figuring it would take about 60,000 experience to get to the top level. So, I kept logging on and battling the good guys. I eventually got to 100 wins. 30,000 experience. 125 wins. 50,000 experience. I became a general and commanded a brigade. 130. 135. 140 wins. 70,000 experience. It wasn’t enough. I kept battling. 80,000 experience. Still not enough. More battles. After a full hour of straight battles and swift victories, I eventually tried for a promotion with a record of 151 wins and 1 loss and more than 87,000 experience.
About 10 minutes later, the following happened:
“Your promotion came through,” the text read. I smiled widely and gave a sigh of relief. I did it. 25 years after I first tried. I looked at my new rank:
I was finally a field marshal. I sat and looked at my screen for a few minutes, savoring the long-sought after accomplishment.
Then, with my two goals in the game achieved, I decided to lock my character for 30 days (meaning I can’t log in again until that time is up). My mission had been accomplished.
