User:Pinkfae

Background

I’ve been a fan of The Lord of the Rings series ever since I first watched the 1977 film The Hobbit. I was seven at the time I saw the animated movie and enjoyed the book just as much as I enjoyed the movie. I didn’t actually read The Lord of the Rings until I was in high school. I then read The Silmarillion when I was in college. Although I was a big fan of the Tolkien’s legendarium, I didn’t start playing the game until July 25, 2007, almost three months after it was released.

I researched and decided to join the Landroval server as it was the unofficial LGBT server. I played around with some of the classes that were offered at the time. I found that I liked the loremaster the best out of the bunch. My main reason for preferring the class was the ability to have animals as pets.

I joined up with the kinship Knights of the White Lady within a few days after creating Pinkfae. The game was remarkably less grindy than Final Fantasy XI. I reached level 50 within a month. Many in the kinship that started playing the game before I did were not at that level yet. I went out to the Ettenmoors to play some PvMP while I waited for the rest of the kinship to reach end-game so that we could do raids together.

After realizing that the kinship wasn’t going to do any raids, left Knights of the White Lady to join The Palantiri. We did some runs in the Rift and also some Watcher runs when Mines of Moria came out. Yet, the members’ interest in doing raids started to diminish. I was trying to find some other kinships that were interested in raiding, but then my interest in doing raids started to change as well. I play the game more casually now, but I log on almost everyday.

Other Sites

Tolkien Gateway

I joined the Tolkien Gateway a while after joining LOTRO. I’m on there as PinkKatie. My goal was to add the story line found in the game on that site. I’m not as active there as I’d like to be. I created a lot of stubs that were removed. I’m not upset about it. I’m fact, I can understand the reasoning behind it. Maybe one day I’ll actually find the motivation to pick up the project and complete it.

Twitch

I follow the official LOTRO Twitter account. They posted that they were doing a Q&A on Twitch. I have never heard of the site before, but I made an account on the site with the username PinkKatie. I initially got to follow some LOTRO streamers, but they no longer play the game. I started to just look around at other games. Yet, I got drawn back to LOTRO and follow some streamers that religiously play LOTRO, like Jessica, Christy and a handful of others.

About Me

When I joined the game way back in July 2007, I identified as a gay man. It was an identity that I felt comfortable with for twenty years of my life. In February of 2014 after years of struggling with it, I accepted that I am a straight transgender woman. I medically transitioned that same date. Some might remember me by my deadname but I’m Katherine now, or Katie for short. The Palantiri was very accepting of this change and I had no problems with anyone, inside or outside of my kinship in the game.

I joined a transgender gamers group on Facebook and heard some awful stories of transphobia that others experienced gaming. It wasn’t my experience at all with the games I play. Soon after I founded the nonprofit organization called PinkFae Gaming. It was my hope to have an organization that would support transgender gamers and those working in the gaming industry. I also wanted it to educate cisgender gamers and developers to create some understanding. I have been financing the organization out of my own pocket. Yet, in February 2019, I lost my job. I was maintaining it on a shoestring budget but it is dormant now. Hopefully I’ll be able to secure funds to bring it back to life.