D&Co du Milieu turns 10!

Today, on this 12th of August, D&Co du Milieu celebrates ten years of decorations, guides and contests.

Ten years ago to the day, I opened the doors of a small French blog dedicated to LOTRO housing. The plan? Photograph the 300 or so decorations available in the game at the time. Maybe run a contest here and there.

Back in August 2016 I already had another LOTRO blog going (Les Ballades de Yao), and I remember thinking: a housing blog? Easy. Two months of work and I’m done.

I have rarely been so wrong about anything in my life.

Ten years later

Ten long years later, D&Co du Milieu is still standing. The database is closing in on 5,000 decorations, the contests are still running, and the community has grown far bigger than I ever dared hope.

And if this site is still here, it means LOTRO is still here too, heading for its own 20th anniversary next year.

Ten years ago I was young, handsome and full of fire, with absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into.
Today I'm a little older, a little more wrinkled (though no less handsome), and looking back, I think I did alright keeping this place afloat.

It hasn't always been easy, but I complain quite enough the rest of the time, so I won't start today.

Thank you

Thank you to you, the people who visit this site, for the regular reminder that I'm not doing this for nothing.

Thank you to the housing community, which grows year after year and keeps both this site and the Discord server alive.

Thank you to SSG and its developers for going along with every mad idea I've had, whether it was a contest or a Q&A. In ten years, I have never once had a "no" from SSG. For all of that: thank you (and a special thank you to Cordovan, who has backed and helped me with every one of my projects over the years).

Thank you as well to the judges, the moderators, the contest entrants and everyone else who has lent me a hand along the way.

It's thanks to Baccata back in 2016, and to Scenario and Orion since, that LOTRO housing has become such a big part of this community. That is precisely why this site still exists, so my personal thanks go to every developer who has had a hand in building our homes in Middle-earth. Although in Scenario's case, I do retain some suspicions regarding his intentions towards me (heh).

So, to wrap up the Yao rambling: THANK YOU, ALL OF YOU!

Let the celebrations begin

We're not parting ways without kicking off the first contest of this anniversary, are we?

Let's start with the simplest one: the good old screenshot contest.

The Anniversary Screenshot Contest

From August 12 to August 26, show us your houses. Any house, any server, any style: a finished build you're proud of, a corner you finally got right, or a room you're still arguing with.

How to enter:

• Discord - post your screenshots in the #screenshot-contest channel
• Bluesky - post them with #LOTRO and #DCO10, and mention @dcodumilieu.com
• Facebook - post them as a comment under the contest post on the page (here)

One important note for Facebook: hashtags don't really work there, so please comment directly under the pinned contest post. That's the only way I'll actually see your entry.

Prizes: two draws, one on August 19 and one on August 26. Each draw picks 5 winners, and every winner receives a 100 LOTRO Points code. That's 10 winners in total.

Entries from the first week roll over into the second draw, so posting early only helps you.
You can post multiple screenshots, but you'll only have one spot in the draw.

A second contest follows very shortly. Stick around.

And a reminder: our annual Q&A with the LOTRO development team takes place on August 21. All the details are here.