I cancelled sub before they even announced F2P and rightly did. That game startd downgrade after Moria and not stopped. But F2P isn't never-ever my solution, let fanboy hordes cry halleluuyah on it.
IF they only sell not one big expansion pack for $30 but six areas for $5 - that's OK.
If they sell only cosmetics, that's OK too.
But in reality as many ppl sayd before - F2P is a BIG LIE and I agree with this 120%
Ya think about it - Wallet Brothers isn't Mother Theresa! If they buy something they must show to their stock-holders how they INCREASE their profits, how they pump more $$$ from players etc. If ya are casual player spending online few hours a week, ya can save some money even, not buying expensive areas, raids, etc.
But if ya hard-core player all previous "free games" showed that ya must pay 2-3-4 times more than that $15/mnth.
And say how many is in game fashion-fanboys who buy new suit every week? I think amongst us gamer-nerds a little. That means publisher must put in shops something people really use benefits or w/out which they just play end-game. I would not be surprised to hear about ticket-booths with elf hags at gates to Rift and Watcher and DN etc.
Technically you can sub and not have to deal with most of the cash shop items. Unless you raid, that is.
From what I hear, there are +stat and +Virtue tomes that will increase your vital statistics. You can bet that having all of these are going to be a pre-req for raiding kins out there.
Technically you can sub and not have to deal with most of the cash shop items. Unless you raid, that is.
From what I hear, there are +stat and +Virtue tomes that will increase your vital statistics. You can bet that having all of these are going to be a pre-req for raiding kins out there.
Oh yeah. Sub payers and lifers are going to see all kinds of things to spend their "free tokens" on. Not so much in the beginning perhaps but the water will heat up slowly so the frogs will not all jump out of the pan. The idea of saving up "free CS tokens" to buy future xpacs is a pretty huge leap of faith made by some.
WOW isnt great because it has 12 million players. WOW has 12 million players because its great.
In this case I'm pretty sure they don't let ya gather points for long time. They do like avialines gifting ya bonus miles ya can obtain free flights but these points dissapear after some time. If their goal is making more money and earn bigger income why they make otherwise?
And as I read one DDO fanboy explanation about prices "that there are low prices, only few are more than 700 TurbinePoints". So if VIPs will get 500 pts per months I will not see possibility they can practice raiding and end-game events frequently w/out paying premiums. Word...
Fact: Lotro is in the top-five of most succesful subscription MMO's. Subfact: but that don't mean much when the leader in the field is so many lightyears ahead. Fact: Lotro community is more mature then WoW. Subfact: Well, used to, now even RP servers are overrun by silly names. Not quite "Biggus Dickus" yet, but that seems to be only a matter of time. Fact: Turbine has had some self-claimed success with DDO going Micro-Transaction. Subfact: Success is relative. DDO was a commericial failure. Anything therefor would be an improvement. Fact: Lotro provided a LOT of content in SoA. In fact far more then DDO has in its "free" areas. You can spend weeks if not months if all the content of SoA is free (which I doubt since they talked about buying content in Lone-Lands before). Subfact: Hosting SoA for free sounds like a very risky business strategy. It would give players plenty of free content and get them used to not paying for a long time by which time other games will come out. Fact: Turbine has been overselling the life-time subscription. Desperate for cash they really dropped the price, 75 dollars is WAY down from the original Collectors Edition price and it is simply to little. It pays for about half a year of gaming. After that the players cost money. Subfact: Life was originally considered a good deal, now only the most die-hard fanboys still feel Turbine is doing them right. Good luck getting me to ever buy another MMO from them. Fact: Their are three kinds of MMO's people seem to want on this forum. PvP, PvE with lots of story and grouping and sandbox. Lotro is going solo. I am not alone in thinking that the influx of F2P peeps will make the demand for solo even stronger making the game feel even more desolate then it is already. Subfact: Don't kid yourself, this F2P is a desperate move to rescue a game that is dying financially after serious mis management has caused its fanbase to dwindle into lifers who have got nothing better to do and are payed up in any case. Fact: SWTOR is going to be out someday. That seems to be the next PvE/story MMO. It could be the death of Lotro. Subfact: games can hang on a longtime. Bring support way down, have some extra content added by interns and milk it for as long as possible. Those that hope this will be revival of Lotro, I think you are going to be disappointed. It may give some extra financial life to the game, but there are plenty of F2P games around. Lotro used to appeal to the slower, more casual player who wanted a place free of bunny-hopping 12 year olds. Half my kin is female, I can't see them responding well to an invasion of 12 year olds. On the whole the sentiment on my server is "thank god this channel will be off limits to F2P" and "this area won't be reachable by them for months" instead of "wow, new gamers, what fun! Just what the game needs." We shall see, but I think that in a years time, after the release of SWTOR, LOtro will be having server mergers and we all know what means.
Lotro used to appeal to the slower, more casual player who wanted a place free of bunny-hopping 12 year olds. Half my kin is female, I can't see them responding well to an invasion of 12 year olds. On the whole the sentiment on my server is "thank god this channel will be off limits to F2P" and "this area won't be reachable by them for months" instead of "wow, new gamers, what fun! Just what the game needs." We shall see, but I think that in a years time, after the release of SWTOR, LOtro will be having server mergers and we all know what means.
Same with my Kin. At best some are hoping they will be able to avoid the influx of morons by being far away from Bree by the time the game goes F2P. A very big percentage of people thinking this is a wonderful thing are people who didnt like the game until this announcement of F2P and know they think its a great game. LOTRO can perhpas now get a mention on Xplay as a game for cheap bastards.
WOW isnt great because it has 12 million players. WOW has 12 million players because its great.
Lotro used to appeal to the slower, more casual player who wanted a place free of bunny-hopping 12 year olds. Half my kin is female, I can't see them responding well to an invasion of 12 year olds. On the whole the sentiment on my server is "thank god this channel will be off limits to F2P" and "this area won't be reachable by them for months" instead of "wow, new gamers, what fun! Just what the game needs." We shall see, but I think that in a years time, after the release of SWTOR, LOtro will be having server mergers and we all know what means.
Same with my Kin. At best some are hoping they will be able to avoid the influx of morons by being far away from Bree by the time the game goes F2P. A very big percentage of people thinking this is a wonderful thing are people who didnt like the game until this announcement of F2P and know they think its a great game. LOTRO can perhpas now get a mention on Xplay as a game for cheap bastards.
Dang...elitists much?
Glad I never asked y'all for help or to answer a question...Your ignore lists must be a mile long...
Lotro used to appeal to the slower, more casual player who wanted a place free of bunny-hopping 12 year olds. Half my kin is female, I can't see them responding well to an invasion of 12 year olds. On the whole the sentiment on my server is "thank god this channel will be off limits to F2P" and "this area won't be reachable by them for months" instead of "wow, new gamers, what fun! Just what the game needs." We shall see, but I think that in a years time, after the release of SWTOR, LOtro will be having server mergers and we all know what means.
Same with my Kin. At best some are hoping they will be able to avoid the influx of morons by being far away from Bree by the time the game goes F2P. A very big percentage of people thinking this is a wonderful thing are people who didnt like the game until this announcement of F2P and know they think its a great game. LOTRO can perhpas now get a mention on Xplay as a game for cheap bastards.
Dang...elitists much?
Glad I never asked y'all for help or to answer a question...Your ignore lists must be a mile long...
It's a Game...Try to have a little fun...
I honestly dont think ive used the ignore list since launch when there were some gold spammers about. Its good that friendly folks like you will remain to guide the freebies and get them a good start in the game. And when someone begs a gold from you, be sure to let hiim have it because we all know what a pain it is to earn your way in a game.
WOW isnt great because it has 12 million players. WOW has 12 million players because its great.
And what is with life time account owners? Are their accounts becoming permanent VIP accounts or is that a way from Turbine to rid off the lifetime accounts?
Well so far I haven't find someone ingame who doesn't like the f2p switch. Most people look forward to it, so we have a fresh influx of new players and a boost in content, and that's what this game needs. One thing most also like to see is a revamp in the pvmp system. At the moment pvmp isn't interesting enough, the rewards are useless, Etten is an empty place most of the time. The free players should get acces to creeps for free. And the pvmp needs an update. This will make it a lot more fun to play in Etten ^^, and it will be filled with people again
------------------------------------------------------------------- waiting for ... nothing..
Well so far I haven't find someone ingame who doesn't like the f2p switch. Most people look forward to it, so we have a fresh influx of new players and a boost in content, and that's what this game needs. One thing most also like to see is a revamp in the pvmp system. At the moment pvmp isn't interesting enough, the rewards are useless, Etten is an empty place most of the time. The free players should get acces to creeps for free. And the pvmp needs an update. This will make it a lot more fun to play in Etten ^^, and it will be filled with people again
I guess it depends on what server your on and what Kinship your in. Some are hopeful at best but ive yet to see anyone happy things have gone this way. If Mirkwood type exapnsions and adventure packs are what passes for new content yes there will be one now and then but if your looking for a large new area and an additional 10 levels to earn, dont hold your breath. Forachel and Mirkwood type areas are the future but the cash shop will see regular updates. Ive seen a map outline of the next "xpac", again, if you thought Mirkwood was acceptable, you will be happy.
WOW isnt great because it has 12 million players. WOW has 12 million players because its great.
My experience is that free is not a good thing, even though it did wonders for DDO.
But keep in mind that DDO was a considered a bad game among the pay for play games. So being the best of the free to play games does NOT mean good.
I can say that the free to play enticement got me to try LOTRO again. Its gotten massively better than it was when the game started. SO SO much better that I'm actually having a heck of alot of fun. I'm willing to pay monthly for it.
BUT... and we knew that was coming didn't we... BUT we'll see in a few months.
Here's the problem that I'm understanding as its coming from LOTRO vets.... the game is losing players. And there's a very good reason it is.
Because its been out three years, there has only been one major expansion, and one smaller expansion.
Crafting requires that you buy stuff from other players for nearly everything you make (unless you are a yeoman meaning, a farmer/cook). Other players charge way too much for people to be able to use these items. The broker/auctioneer actually has very little on it because of this. There's no point in making things when it costs you more to make it than it does to just play with the loot you get from the game.
For some completely idiotic reason, housing has "hooks" and you can only "hang" like 50 things in the largest houses. The player cannot choose where these "hooks" are placed, and you STILL have to zone into your house despite having to zone into the housing area in the first place. Yes, the housing area allows you to place things in your garden zone, but the number of things that can be placed is so small that its almost inconsequential. Players on the forums are begging Turbine to change this idiotic idea (at least remove the "hooks" in the house and simply change it to a limited number of items alot higher than 50, and allow them to be turned 360 degrees to be placed as you wish) but so far Turbine has shown reluctance to do so. There's even a thread on there asking for a housing only expansion that everyone pays for so they can have proper housing.
AND most of the players have reached the limit of the content offered. Meaning, all they have to do is raid or mpvp. They are bored and there's no indication of when the next expansion will be.
In the first three years of EQ2, SOE released three adventure packs and four expansions, one expansion in the fourth year, and one expansion in the sixth year with already rumors that the next expansion will be Velious and released probably sometime next year.
Yes, LOTRO is going to free to play. For a very good reason. Because the company is trying to cover its butt or they'll go under.
I participated in Beta and the beta testers were supposed to receive credits to be used in the Live store. The credit code these people gave me did not work when it went live, and then on top of that their support for billing site was crappy! not only did they keep the lengthy two week support reply, they also sent me some non-sensical crap that had nothing to do with the problem at hand. With the new system being F2P and the problems they are having wit their support section i would say this game dropped to a 5.
I participated in Beta and the beta testers were supposed to receive credits to be used in the Live store. The credit code these people gave me did not work when it went live, and then on top of that their support for billing site was crappy! not only did they keep the lengthy two week support reply, they also sent me some non-sensical crap that had nothing to do with the problem at hand. With the new system being F2P and the problems they are having wit their support section i would say this game dropped to a 5.
It truly is shame. A good content addition would have done wonders for the game but they got greedy. or lazy or both No regrets about leaving but I hate to see what was a pretty good game go this way but its not unexpected.
WOW isnt great because it has 12 million players. WOW has 12 million players because its great.
Crafting requires that you buy stuff from other players for nearly everything you make (unless you are a yeoman meaning, a farmer/cook). Other players charge way too much for people to be able to use these items. The broker/auctioneer actually has very little on it because of this. There's no point in making things when it costs you more to make it than it does to just play with the loot you get from the game.
...
This is what I said earlier: F2P players can buy off the AH but cannot sell anything there without buying access.
So there is a high demand for a lot of things.
Wood, in particular I think. Possibly because more of the crafting professions offer 'prospecting' than 'forester'.
There are F2P players with surplus - but they cannot (easily) put it up for general sale.
I think there are a couple of potential solutions to this;
1/ Allow F2P players a single AH slot but limit their gold (Gold Cap)
2/ Allow F2P players 1-5 AH slots but have an automaticly set 'buyout price'. The advantage of that is that Turbine could set the buyout prices and regulate the economy.
3/ An NPC Barter Agent with prices set by Turbine (bare minimium profit margin - or at cost -on sales of crafted goods like Wood and Metal Ingots and a 'fair' sale price of the same items) this could then be used as a 'sink' to control the economy.
In the case of Wood (for example) there are a couple of smart players who have realised that there is a demand for small (cheap) batches as required by the new players in order to complete some of the early crafting quests. So, they have been putting up small bundles of the required materials with a reasonable buyout price - and as a result they are getting a load of sales and keeping the price under control.
Comments
I cancelled sub before they even announced F2P and rightly did. That game startd downgrade after Moria and not stopped. But F2P isn't never-ever my solution, let fanboy hordes cry halleluuyah on it.
IF they only sell not one big expansion pack for $30 but six areas for $5 - that's OK.
If they sell only cosmetics, that's OK too.
But in reality as many ppl sayd before - F2P is a BIG LIE and I agree with this 120%
Ya think about it - Wallet Brothers isn't Mother Theresa! If they buy something they must show to their stock-holders how they INCREASE their profits, how they pump more $$$ from players etc. If ya are casual player spending online few hours a week, ya can save some money even, not buying expensive areas, raids, etc.
But if ya hard-core player all previous "free games" showed that ya must pay 2-3-4 times more than that $15/mnth.
And say how many is in game fashion-fanboys who buy new suit every week? I think amongst us gamer-nerds a little. That means publisher must put in shops something people really use benefits or w/out which they just play end-game. I would not be surprised to hear about ticket-booths with elf hags at gates to Rift and Watcher and DN etc.
You can still just sub to the game and not deal with this whole F2P BS, right?
Yes and no.
Technically you can sub and not have to deal with most of the cash shop items. Unless you raid, that is.
From what I hear, there are +stat and +Virtue tomes that will increase your vital statistics. You can bet that having all of these are going to be a pre-req for raiding kins out there.
Oh yeah. Sub payers and lifers are going to see all kinds of things to spend their "free tokens" on. Not so much in the beginning perhaps but the water will heat up slowly so the frogs will not all jump out of the pan. The idea of saving up "free CS tokens" to buy future xpacs is a pretty huge leap of faith made by some.
WOW isnt great because it has 12 million players. WOW has 12 million players because its great.
In this case I'm pretty sure they don't let ya gather points for long time. They do like avialines gifting ya bonus miles ya can obtain free flights but these points dissapear after some time. If their goal is making more money and earn bigger income why they make otherwise?
And as I read one DDO fanboy explanation about prices "that there are low prices, only few are more than 700 TurbinePoints". So if VIPs will get 500 pts per months I will not see possibility they can practice raiding and end-game events frequently w/out paying premiums. Word...
Fact: Lotro is in the top-five of most succesful subscription MMO's. Subfact: but that don't mean much when the leader in the field is so many lightyears ahead. Fact: Lotro community is more mature then WoW. Subfact: Well, used to, now even RP servers are overrun by silly names. Not quite "Biggus Dickus" yet, but that seems to be only a matter of time. Fact: Turbine has had some self-claimed success with DDO going Micro-Transaction. Subfact: Success is relative. DDO was a commericial failure. Anything therefor would be an improvement. Fact: Lotro provided a LOT of content in SoA. In fact far more then DDO has in its "free" areas. You can spend weeks if not months if all the content of SoA is free (which I doubt since they talked about buying content in Lone-Lands before). Subfact: Hosting SoA for free sounds like a very risky business strategy. It would give players plenty of free content and get them used to not paying for a long time by which time other games will come out. Fact: Turbine has been overselling the life-time subscription. Desperate for cash they really dropped the price, 75 dollars is WAY down from the original Collectors Edition price and it is simply to little. It pays for about half a year of gaming. After that the players cost money. Subfact: Life was originally considered a good deal, now only the most die-hard fanboys still feel Turbine is doing them right. Good luck getting me to ever buy another MMO from them. Fact: Their are three kinds of MMO's people seem to want on this forum. PvP, PvE with lots of story and grouping and sandbox. Lotro is going solo. I am not alone in thinking that the influx of F2P peeps will make the demand for solo even stronger making the game feel even more desolate then it is already. Subfact: Don't kid yourself, this F2P is a desperate move to rescue a game that is dying financially after serious mis management has caused its fanbase to dwindle into lifers who have got nothing better to do and are payed up in any case. Fact: SWTOR is going to be out someday. That seems to be the next PvE/story MMO. It could be the death of Lotro. Subfact: games can hang on a longtime. Bring support way down, have some extra content added by interns and milk it for as long as possible. Those that hope this will be revival of Lotro, I think you are going to be disappointed. It may give some extra financial life to the game, but there are plenty of F2P games around. Lotro used to appeal to the slower, more casual player who wanted a place free of bunny-hopping 12 year olds. Half my kin is female, I can't see them responding well to an invasion of 12 year olds. On the whole the sentiment on my server is "thank god this channel will be off limits to F2P" and "this area won't be reachable by them for months" instead of "wow, new gamers, what fun! Just what the game needs." We shall see, but I think that in a years time, after the release of SWTOR, LOtro will be having server mergers and we all know what means.
Same with my Kin. At best some are hoping they will be able to avoid the influx of morons by being far away from Bree by the time the game goes F2P. A very big percentage of people thinking this is a wonderful thing are people who didnt like the game until this announcement of F2P and know they think its a great game. LOTRO can perhpas now get a mention on Xplay as a game for cheap bastards.
WOW isnt great because it has 12 million players. WOW has 12 million players because its great.
Dang...elitists much?
Glad I never asked y'all for help or to answer a question...Your ignore lists must be a mile long...
It's a Game...Try to have a little fun...
I honestly dont think ive used the ignore list since launch when there were some gold spammers about. Its good that friendly folks like you will remain to guide the freebies and get them a good start in the game. And when someone begs a gold from you, be sure to let hiim have it because we all know what a pain it is to earn your way in a game.
WOW isnt great because it has 12 million players. WOW has 12 million players because its great.
Lotro is still a fine MMO, we have a right to be elitist. Or we did till they decided to milk the game for all its worth.
And what is with life time account owners? Are their accounts becoming permanent VIP accounts or is that a way from Turbine to rid off the lifetime accounts?
Play My magic Tales
Play Rise of Immortals
Play Regno card game for free.
Premium membership available.
You will be a permanant VIP, but they stoped allowing new life time accounts some time ago.
Well so far I haven't find someone ingame who doesn't like the f2p switch. Most people look forward to it, so we have a fresh influx of new players and a boost in content, and that's what this game needs. One thing most also like to see is a revamp in the pvmp system. At the moment pvmp isn't interesting enough, the rewards are useless, Etten is an empty place most of the time. The free players should get acces to creeps for free. And the pvmp needs an update. This will make it a lot more fun to play in Etten ^^, and it will be filled with people again
-------------------------------------------------------------------
waiting for ... nothing..
I guess it depends on what server your on and what Kinship your in. Some are hopeful at best but ive yet to see anyone happy things have gone this way. If Mirkwood type exapnsions and adventure packs are what passes for new content yes there will be one now and then but if your looking for a large new area and an additional 10 levels to earn, dont hold your breath. Forachel and Mirkwood type areas are the future but the cash shop will see regular updates. Ive seen a map outline of the next "xpac", again, if you thought Mirkwood was acceptable, you will be happy.
WOW isnt great because it has 12 million players. WOW has 12 million players because its great.
My experience is that free is not a good thing, even though it did wonders for DDO.
But keep in mind that DDO was a considered a bad game among the pay for play games. So being the best of the free to play games does NOT mean good.
I can say that the free to play enticement got me to try LOTRO again. Its gotten massively better than it was when the game started. SO SO much better that I'm actually having a heck of alot of fun. I'm willing to pay monthly for it.
BUT... and we knew that was coming didn't we... BUT we'll see in a few months.
Here's the problem that I'm understanding as its coming from LOTRO vets.... the game is losing players. And there's a very good reason it is.
Because its been out three years, there has only been one major expansion, and one smaller expansion.
Crafting requires that you buy stuff from other players for nearly everything you make (unless you are a yeoman meaning, a farmer/cook). Other players charge way too much for people to be able to use these items. The broker/auctioneer actually has very little on it because of this. There's no point in making things when it costs you more to make it than it does to just play with the loot you get from the game.
For some completely idiotic reason, housing has "hooks" and you can only "hang" like 50 things in the largest houses. The player cannot choose where these "hooks" are placed, and you STILL have to zone into your house despite having to zone into the housing area in the first place. Yes, the housing area allows you to place things in your garden zone, but the number of things that can be placed is so small that its almost inconsequential. Players on the forums are begging Turbine to change this idiotic idea (at least remove the "hooks" in the house and simply change it to a limited number of items alot higher than 50, and allow them to be turned 360 degrees to be placed as you wish) but so far Turbine has shown reluctance to do so. There's even a thread on there asking for a housing only expansion that everyone pays for so they can have proper housing.
AND most of the players have reached the limit of the content offered. Meaning, all they have to do is raid or mpvp. They are bored and there's no indication of when the next expansion will be.
In the first three years of EQ2, SOE released three adventure packs and four expansions, one expansion in the fourth year, and one expansion in the sixth year with already rumors that the next expansion will be Velious and released probably sometime next year.
Yes, LOTRO is going to free to play. For a very good reason. Because the company is trying to cover its butt or they'll go under.
I participated in Beta and the beta testers were supposed to receive credits to be used in the Live store. The credit code these people gave me did not work when it went live, and then on top of that their support for billing site was crappy! not only did they keep the lengthy two week support reply, they also sent me some non-sensical crap that had nothing to do with the problem at hand. With the new system being F2P and the problems they are having wit their support section i would say this game dropped to a 5.
It truly is shame. A good content addition would have done wonders for the game but they got greedy. or lazy or both No regrets about leaving but I hate to see what was a pretty good game go this way but its not unexpected.
WOW isnt great because it has 12 million players. WOW has 12 million players because its great.
This is what I said earlier: F2P players can buy off the AH but cannot sell anything there without buying access.
So there is a high demand for a lot of things.
Wood, in particular I think. Possibly because more of the crafting professions offer 'prospecting' than 'forester'.
There are F2P players with surplus - but they cannot (easily) put it up for general sale.
I think there are a couple of potential solutions to this;
1/ Allow F2P players a single AH slot but limit their gold (Gold Cap)
2/ Allow F2P players 1-5 AH slots but have an automaticly set 'buyout price'. The advantage of that is that Turbine could set the buyout prices and regulate the economy.
3/ An NPC Barter Agent with prices set by Turbine (bare minimium profit margin - or at cost -on sales of crafted goods like Wood and Metal Ingots and a 'fair' sale price of the same items) this could then be used as a 'sink' to control the economy.
In the case of Wood (for example) there are a couple of smart players who have realised that there is a demand for small (cheap) batches as required by the new players in order to complete some of the early crafting quests. So, they have been putting up small bundles of the required materials with a reasonable buyout price - and as a result they are getting a load of sales and keeping the price under control.
Nothing says irony like spelling ideot wrong.