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Facts of F2P
delete5230
Member EpicPosts: 7,081
Everyone talks about how Turbine did F2P right in D&D Online.
I say diffrient.....They made F2P seem better than other F2P only.
I'm playing D&D Online now, and had a lot of experience with D&D Online back in its day. What you do get is a free trial only, NOTHING MORE. The game only has 20 levels. At level 4 the game almost comes to a stop. Yes you can press on, but the real party is over.
Knowing the Pay model well, I can talk from experience. You need ALL the adventure packs in order to have any real fun. People without experience with paying the premium can no way understand the real dept of this game. I DO !
I've found that DDO has a small population, about the size it had before F2P. These players cut them selfs off from the short timers. I'm now at level 4 and had to stop. It's time to make a choice to pay the monthly sub or stop playing altogether, individual adventure pacs are not worth it. Believe me you need them all, I can't stress that enough !
Being at level 4 and stopped, I Begin to do some investigation. I use a method to find facts that very few use or even think of. A way that can be used in all mmo's....... You can use the " lfg panel " and " search panel " to find out what's really going on, and it can be used on all servers, buy creating a level one character on other popular servers.
Using this method I've found that the hard core players are not using the LFG Panel that this game is noted for in finding groups. It was always a popular method, but not any more. They are using their closed off Guilds, and monthly pay friends list. The REAL population got smart. They are not giving the freebie, and one time adv. pack players the time of day ! I'm 100% sure of this, I've been level 4 for days. I don't think I moved my character 10 feet. I just studied this.
Turbine is also using a little trick:
They are not showing players what every one has. You can't tell who is a monthly sub, or who has what adv. pack. This keeps the noob off balance. It keeps them guessing on the real population, gets them to feel as if they can get some place, and spoon feeds them.
So is DDO a good game ?......Yes but only for $14.99 a month. The game is not as good as it used to be because, you have to rely on Guilds, and friends list, unlike when it was monthly sub only.
...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................
By now your probably pissed with this wall of text, and your asking what this has to do with LOTRO :
Well everything........LOTRO will have to play out the same way....... People say that LOTRO is boring, and a solo game. Well it's gonna get even worst. You will now have a split population. Pay players, free players, and the in between adv. pack players.
They will not play well with each other !
Comments
Hey Page where are the "facts"?
All I read is personal ranting.
If WoW = The Beatles
and WAR = Led Zeppelin
Then LotrO = Pink Floyd
Facts? LOL
This is a pretty funny rant though. You obviously didn't explore around enough to find the 80+ quests available to F2P players. I'll give you another tip - run every quest you encounter on normal, hard, and elite modes. You get a 25% XP bonus the first time on each difficulty. Doing this should get you well past level 4.
They don't make the claim you can play the whole game for free, free to play just means you can play without a monthly subscription fee. What they have available for F2P players in DDO is a good bit more generous than what they'll have available to F2P LOTRO players, who will have gimped characters and some pretty major inconveniences unless they spend money.
As far as the vets not using the LFG panel, so what? Maybe they rather play with their friends they've known for years rather than new players. Their choice to play the game how they want. Why don't you create your own group for the quest you want to run? F2P quest groups don't take long to fill up at all.
And what difference does it make if you can't tell if people are F2P, premium, or VIP?? I still haven't figured out how you consider that a "trick".
heres a fact Im going to play it when its free to play
After reading this I find that your really missing a lot in DDO, were talking the core of the game ( It takes an experienced player to know what your missing ):
Tangle root Gorge- jungle, a world and an adventure in it self,
Three Barrel Cove-Pirates, a world in it self.
Necropolis- Zombies, a world in it self.
Delora's Tomb- ghost and grave yards. A major story in it self.
Giant hold- this is a total world in it self.
I could go on and on, but to someone thats not experienced with the game, you think you are getting a lot....But think about this, your free Dungeons....Have you noticed, all your free Dungeons look almost exactly the same ?... Your missing EVERYTHING !
Who cares if you know who is paying and who is not ?........This is very important, when you have to ask that healer, or that rogue if they can do Delora's Tomb with your group.
You say that you played higher than level 4, how many levels do you think you can stand. Know what you will do ?........Quit and say that you got a lot but it's boring. You have no experience with this game, and to get it you can pay $100 on adventure packs or just $14.95 a month.
More people will have experience with LOTRO than DDO. They will soon find that most everything will be locked out. How frustrated will you be when no one else paid for that " Book Chain Quest Adventure pack " you paid for, along with not knowing who did pay for it. Their is no way of knowing, turbine will not tell you.
At the end of the day, when the sun go down, and the fat lady is singing, you will find that its better to pay $14.99 a month with LOTRO than not. After you played PAST what ever level Turbine gives as a gift. You will find that things are less than when the game was pay monthly, because you don't know who has what. Half your Guild will have adv. pack 1,2,4, and others will have 3,2,5. How then will you play as a solid group..... I know Guilds will start closing to the public, like in DDO.
So I think the OP is saying that the game will create tiers of players but not in like gear tiers but social standing, like
- f2p will be scroungers and will mainly spend time begging for stuff or jumping around the taverns screaming ascii text.
- Adventure pack premium players will be casual but not full time hardcore. The middle class.
- VIP members who pay per month will be the hardcore, rich boy tier, the upworldly mobile trendy and the elite upper class who will look down their noses at the riff raff peasant folk.
Yah, pretty common in real life too, unfortunately. Don't forget to doff your cap and bow as the VIP members pass you in the street, f2p'rs.
I would love to try LoTR now. however, to much going on elsewhere with SC2 around the corner and Catacls at end of year. not to mention all the counsel b.s
Yesssss, yes, You got it !..................Thats how it is...........Some one understands !
I've played DDO and seen those taverns. LoTRo your fate awaits.
Who? People who Play the Game? No one in My Guild feels that way...I've played SWG, EQII, AoC, STO and Vanguard along with LOTRO...IMHO LOTRO is the most well rounded MMO I've Played...Group content for My Guild, and we don't even Raid, is a blast...People say a lot of things...Especially People who quit Games...Not saying LOTRO is for everyone...I am saying it's neither boring nor a solo game...
At the end of the day, when the sun goes down, and the fat lady is singing, you will find that it's better to have an option to pay as you go, and not be forced to pay 14.95 regardless of your playstyle and amount of time spent in game.
I've got your solution. Subscribe to the game. BAM, it is no longer a F2P for you, and now it's a standard P2P at, wait for it, the exact same subscription rate as every other P2P game out there.
If you don't like the game, just say so. Be the only reason I know of not to play.
i don't get it at all ?
Doesn't developers make games F2P to get more players P2P?
I mean how many tryes do people need to understand that there is a catch!
Just curious did you look at the plan comparison before you decided to post your opinion that LOTRO is going to be like DDO F2P? Fact is LOTRO F2P can get to level 50, they have access to all of the book quests in the game up till Moria and Mirkwood where they will need to buy the expansions. So no one will be getting frustrated that someone did not buy the epic book quest
. The only thing you will be paying for is all of the side quests past the starting zones, if you group really wants to do all of the quests in Bree for example. But the fact is I have taken a Character to level cap in SoA doing nothing but the book quests, which are now soloable. I guess I can see some people being heart broken that they have to get to level cap with the book quests and the 4 skirmishes they have avialable as a F2P account. 
And if they really like the quest in the low lands they have to buy all the side quests, oh no how depressing for us all. There is a seperation of the population, for I am a VIP and get that side quest that makes it so I am level 50 way before I get to the last book in SoA 
. /palm to face
I played PnP D&D starting back in '78 and have played DDO in both the P2p and F2p modes. Yes if you want a bunch of different environments you may have to pay for those packs, but not everyone is going to enjoy your list. Some packs are more popular than others either because they have good favor, good loot drops or good xp. Doesn't make them good.
What DDO has is a true F2p option. You don't want it, then sub and guild up. LotRO may be more restrictive because of how the game is set up (zones) but we won't know that until the NDA is lifted. As far as finding 'that things are less than when the game was pay monthly, ' well duh. It's a business model, of course it would be and for every older P2p guild that closes it's doors, a F2p low level one will open up. Also guilds are coordinating on the LotRO forums to be F2p friendly since by showing them what the game has to offer, you're more likely to win over people to the VIP ranks.
All I know is my son & I dropped LotRO because we found it boring and felt we weren't getting our monies worth while paying a sub. Now with the F2p option both of us will be back playing as much or as little as we want ...... for free.
And before you point the finger at DDO and say you really have to spend money I pre-counter that since the game went F2p, I've only spent $9.95 which comes out to .51 cents a month and I only did that because I wanted to buy Sharn, 3BC and the new Carnival packs, not because I had to.
SWG (pre-cu) - AoC (pre-f2p) - PotBS (pre-boarder) - DDO - LotRO (pre-f2p) - STO (pre-f2p) - GnH (beta tester) - SWTOR - Neverwinter
Well thoughtout post. I thought about posting a second response similar to this, but got it half typed and didn't feel like finishing. Instead I decided to be sarcastic. Oh well. Nice response.
Page, whether you want to accept it or not, f2p only sucks bad.
Paying means you pay for new content, and for the wages of the devs and gm's that are there to help you. One shot of money (or none) is not enough for a continued staff if you want a game that isn't inundated with advertisements. They need to pay for it somehow.
I hate f2p games. But the way Turbine has done this makes it livable, even if I don't like it.
Whether you accept it or not, f2p never sucks for me. Free fun is always free. The trick is hopping to some other game before you need to pay to have fun.
This is called free-riding. Let other pay for our game. That is why MOST MMO players in the US (research article posted a while back) never pay anything.
Its also why free is never as good as pay.
It does not have to be .. it is .. uh .. .FREE.
Thats right, so why would you go for free when it sucks when pay is actually good?
"not as good" != "suck". Just like 50 cents is not as good as a dollar, would you take 50 cents for free?
Not if it means that the snack I bought with it tasted like doggy doodoo.
Well if there are people paying $15 to play LOTRO .. i will certainly play part of it for free.
Uh huh, and missing out on most of the content because of it.