even DDO lets you buy anything in shop you fully open AH and fully remove money blockers not for a extra charge but just for proving your human and makeing 1 buying points 1 time.
1000 F2P players spend 5-10 bucks a month playing the game is far more of a income than 100 F2P player spending 30-40 a week . for some odd resson they cant see that , and i dont think they will till it is far to late
LotrO would have a huge problem with gold farmers if they lifted certain restrictions. Have you ever played a f2p Korean game that didn't limit gold ? It is a nightmare. LotrO is a AAA mmorpg. DDO is not.
really you dont think its the gold farmers selling 1 copper ore for 1 gold in AH ? ........gold farm removes gold block and AH restriction on 1 accouts sets copper ores for sale in AH at 1g each , sends his bot farmers in 1 bot at a time to AH to buy his copper ores from AH . its cleaner , safer , and unrecorded. dont be a do boy for the system the restrictions place on basic gameing are not there to stop farmers its there to greed extra money. lotro has not been a AAA ranked mmorpg for years , give it 6 months it will be a ghost town.
Will anyone still pay to play this once the pions take hold , hell no , i just today seen 2 groups of them far acrost the map from each other , the game cant go back to sub only , puts flat out stupid restrictions on F2P , and promotes disintent between F2P and subber accounts . ya thats not a recipe for a win , thats the recipe for slow slow death.
friend you are miss lead some where along the line . going from F2P to vip then back to premium will not unlock Ah gold trade all of this on any toons that you already had made from your start as F2P. the same time your sub end all functions are relocked on any toon that was started on a F2P account. do you see the hitch ,
The way this game was set up for F2P launch is nothing like the launch of DDO. They Made no attempt to fast talk and under hand players in the DDO swap over. what you had you had all of it , there was no f your F2P you can not spend or earn money ingame , there was no if your F2P your not worth AH space . and beings your already not able to trade game money for goods with anyone dammed to a game play of poverty .
As set the game will pick up for a few weeks , about half the players that dropped cash fast on the game will stick around to try to get there moneys worth. for a bit. sub players will start to drop away when whats left of the F2P croud is for the most part the dregs and the game killers the pions and start asking them self , why are we paying for this?
areas , maps , zones, and common F2P cash shop items . if they would have stuck to this as there modle they could have made it work. greed took over , i mean really in there set up now you have to pay $7.00 as a F2P just to keep the money you are lucky to scrap up in grinding and selling all your drops to the npc. beings they droped the max gold from 5 to 3 thats greed friend not fair play.
even DDO lets you buy anything in shop you fully open AH and fully remove money blockers not for a extra charge but just for proving your human and makeing 1 buying points 1 time.
1000 F2P players spend 5-10 bucks a month playing the game is far more of a income than 100 F2P player spending 30-40 a week . for some odd resson they cant see that , and i dont think they will till it is far to late
This is odd, I have read multiple times on the official forums that once you sub and go back to premium the restrictions gets lifted on all current characters(obviously not new ones after just being on premium). I am premium at the moment and have not ran into any issues with gold limit, bag limit, or AH limit. Of couse I only have about 2g at the moment(I think the cap is 5g on premium). Since I already have the restrictions less sever I will most likely wait till I have aroung 5g then just buy the cap removal on said character(or is it account wide?). The way they did this is confusing honestly, they need to update the features list on the main site and give more detail in the store to exactly what the lift does(account wide, or only the one char, etc).
even DDO lets you buy anything in shop you fully open AH and fully remove money blockers not for a extra charge but just for proving your human and makeing 1 buying points 1 time.
1000 F2P players spend 5-10 bucks a month playing the game is far more of a income than 100 F2P player spending 30-40 a week . for some odd resson they cant see that , and i dont think they will till it is far to late
LotrO would have a huge problem with gold farmers if they lifted certain restrictions. Have you ever played a f2p Korean game that didn't limit gold ? It is a nightmare. LotrO is a AAA mmorpg. DDO is not.
really you dont think its the gold farmers selling 1 copper ore for 1 gold in AH ? ........gold farm removes gold block and AH restriction on 1 accouts sets copper ores for sale in AH at 1g each , sends his bot farmers in 1 bot at a time to AH to buy his copper ores from AH . its cleaner , safer , and unrecorded. dont be a do boy for the system the restrictions place on basic gameing are not there to stop farmers its there to greed extra money. lotro has not been a AAA ranked mmorpg for years , give it 6 months it will be a ghost town.
Will anyone still pay to play this once the pions take hold , hell no , i just today seen 2 groups of them far acrost the map from each other , the game cant go back to sub only , puts flat out stupid restrictions on F2P , and promotes disintent between F2P and subber accounts . ya thats not a recipe for a win , thats the recipe for slow slow death.
Thanks for this bit of insight...I'll be posting this M.O. to the Turbine Devs, if they don't already know about it.
But back on topic..
Yeah, every time I've logged on this past week, I've seen Brandy and Landroval with queues. A population increase most certainly.
I think it's a success too and I like the direction Turbine is going with their games. I hope other game companies learn a thing or two. Not everything has to be P2P to actually be good!
~Miles "Tails" Prower out! Catch me if you can!
Come Join us at www.globalequestria.com - Meet other fans of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic!
if you started a toon on a vip account from lvl 0 creation and then drop to premium your your toon keeps what if got from premium but loses all restrictions back to premium account just like they say
what they are not saying if you started the toon lvl 0 creation on a F2P account then go vip and let it drop back that toon reverts back to the restrictions of a F2P account which is the way they had intended it
There is far to many hidden fees , 2 faced meanings , and double standards with in this set up to make it at all enjoyable . even there own TOS tells you there double dipping , where it says areas and maps can be split into smaller units for sale in the turbine shop at any time. and we have all seen what a split area equals 1 added quest in each area and a need for all users that have bought already the area as a whole to rebuy these maps as smaller units.
I would no longer advice anyone to download this game . F2P is F2P you can not have a F2P game that mandates a player to spend $24.00 usd just to use basic mmorpg features . trade and sales are very base mmorpg features . extra sales space for sale in shop wonderful great no prob there , but you have to give the user his base free. the you need to pay use $7.00 usd to keep the money that drops to you is bogus this needs removed all together ., its not there to deture gold farmers they use 1 premium account with cash shop and sell base items for 1g each in AH and send there bot to town to buy these items from the AH fast ez clean bot cash transfers . the blocks are in place only for greed no other resson .
if you started a toon on a vip account from lvl 0 creation and then drop to premium your your toon keeps what if got from premium but loses all restrictions back to premium account just like they say
what they are not saying if you started the toon lvl 0 creation on a F2P account then go vip and let it drop back that toon reverts back to the restrictions of a F2P account which is the way they had intended it
There is far to many hidden fees , 2 faced meanings , and double standards with in this set up to make it at all enjoyable . even there own TOS tells you there double dipping , where it says areas and maps can be split into smaller units for sale in the turbine shop at any time. and we have all seen what a split area equals 1 added quest in each area and a need for all users that have bought already the area as a whole to rebuy these maps as smaller units.
I would no longer advice anyone to download this game . F2P is F2P you can not have a F2P game that mandates a player to spend $24.00 usd just to use basic mmorpg features . trade and sales are very base mmorpg features . extra sales space for sale in shop wonderful great no prob there , but you have to give the user his base free. the you need to pay use $7.00 usd to keep the money that drops to you is bogus this needs removed all together ., its not there to deture gold farmers they use 1 premium account with cash shop and sell base items for 1g each in AH and send there bot to town to buy these items from the AH fast ez clean bot cash transfers . the blocks are in place only for greed no other resson .
The free-to-play model is designed for people who are not using LOTRO as either their main MMO, or do not have a lot of time to devote to it. If you are not playing it that often, the $6 or so it cost you to unlock a new quest zone around once a month is a fairly cheap option.
If Turbine was all about greed as you say, they would have completely removed the option to continue subscribing to the game and have full access to everything along with giving you a bonus of 500 Turbine Points per month. If you want to see greed, go and check out games like Allods Online, and see what they did with their cash shop and no subscription fees.
The only zones you need to actually purchase is the Shadows of Angmar ones, and that is because a lot of people actually got it for free when they purchased Mines of Moria. There is actually a really cheap way of getting into LOTRO. If you buy Moria in a store and use the retail box key, it actually upgrades your account to Vip for a month after which you will be considfered a premium member. Any characters you create during that time have all restrictions lifted, and if you go from VIP to premium, you do not lose store items such as bag spaces, mounts, traits etc.
Free-to-play does not mean play the game 100% free. It never has and it never will because it is an unrealistic way for any MMO to go.
if you started a toon on a vip account from lvl 0 creation and then drop to premium your your toon keeps what if got from premium but loses all restrictions back to premium account just like they say
what they are not saying if you started the toon lvl 0 creation on a F2P account then go vip and let it drop back that toon reverts back to the restrictions of a F2P account which is the way they had intended it
There is far to many hidden fees , 2 faced meanings , and double standards with in this set up to make it at all enjoyable . even there own TOS tells you there double dipping , where it says areas and maps can be split into smaller units for sale in the turbine shop at any time. and we have all seen what a split area equals 1 added quest in each area and a need for all users that have bought already the area as a whole to rebuy these maps as smaller units.
I would no longer advice anyone to download this game . F2P is F2P you can not have a F2P game that mandates a player to spend $24.00 usd just to use basic mmorpg features . trade and sales are very base mmorpg features . extra sales space for sale in shop wonderful great no prob there , but you have to give the user his base free. the you need to pay use $7.00 usd to keep the money that drops to you is bogus this needs removed all together ., its not there to deture gold farmers they use 1 premium account with cash shop and sell base items for 1g each in AH and send there bot to town to buy these items from the AH fast ez clean bot cash transfers . the blocks are in place only for greed no other resson .
The free-to-play model is designed for people who are not using LOTRO as either their main MMO, or do not have a lot of time to devote to it. If you are not playing it that often, the $6 or so it cost you to unlock a new quest zone around once a month is a fairly cheap option.
If Turbine was all about greed as you say, they would have completely removed the option to continue subscribing to the game and have full access to everything along with giving you a bonus of 500 Turbine Points per month. If you want to see greed, go and check out games like Allods Online, and see what they did with their cash shop and no subscription fees.
The only zones you need to actually purchase is the Shadows of Angmar ones, and that is because a lot of people actually got it for free when they purchased Mines of Moria. There is actually a really cheap way of getting into LOTRO. If you buy Moria in a store and use the retail box key, it actually upgrades your account to Vip for a month after which you will be considfered a premium member. Any characters you create during that time have all restrictions lifted, and if you go from VIP to premium, you do not lose store items such as bag spaces, mounts, traits etc.
Free-to-play does not mean play the game 100% free. It never has and it never will because it is an unrealistic way for any MMO to go.
What I thought, sounds more on par with what I have been hearing and seeing. I actually like the new options available as I don't need to sub to the game to enjoy it, and my limited time every month I don't feel pressured to play like I do if I have a sub. Can take my time, go through the content slowly and buy a pack every now and then. I already have the MoM expansion as I got it when it was on sale for $10 + free sub for 30 days about a year ago or so. Great I don't have to repurchase that content, makes me much more willing to put money down on the game for the actual content. As far as the traits, gold limit, etc I may just fill up all my slots with the classes and sub VIP a month then go back so I don't need to purchase all those lifts for each toon(though I probably wont, as I am lazy and will just end up buying the packs lol).
Turbine is not being greedy at all, they just added more options to pay by and give away about 10 hours of content for free(or more if you level alts, or actually grind for TP and unlock the packs). If you want to see greedy farfanugon you need to check out SOE and EQ2's new "F2P" model, it's insanely limiting and cannot even get past level 10 without needing to go platinum.
lol i can honestly say ive never tyr them , Eq2 just never held even a remote intrest, as far as can tell from the lotro forums a F2P gone vip then drops back to premium has the gold caps reapply and bags taken back, only the toons made new from lvl 0 while in vip account keep the upgrades. theres a we are looking into this on the post reply then nothing more .
it is steadily moving up on XFire and the website is getting hammered. Comparing the last three Sundays Xfire hours it went from 6328 on Sept. 05, to 14,196 on Sept. 12, to 17, 924 yesterday. If you look at the website traffic on Alexa
it is steadily moving up on XFire and the website is getting hammered. Comparing the last three Sundays Xfire hours it went from 6328 on Sept. 05, to 14,196 on Sept. 12, to 17, 924 yesterday. If you look at the website traffic on Alexa
I would expect people would have some interest since it is "free to try" now. It is expected. I would think the real measure will be where the game sits in a year from "free to try" launch. That will give an much better picture of what "free to try" has meant for the over all health of the game. Its far to early to prodlaim success or failure and those that try either are just serving personal agendas and are not being objective.
Considering that this is "just" the US release impressive really. One needs to keep in mind that neither the EU F2P release nor afaik the Asian/Russian one is ready yet. Considering a good 30-50% of blizzards subscribers are in china there is definitly a market there aswell.
You don't really need x-fire numbers to tell you that going f2p has increased population. I can't remember the last time I had to wait in queue to get in game. It's nice to see people all over the place again, spamming for fellowships again, and just seeing places like Bree flooded with people and not just there for some player held celebration or something.
The chat's gone downhill a little. I see a lot of people complaining about it. I largely ignore chat for the most part anyways, unless I'm looking for a fellowship or advice on something, so it doesn't really bother me.
I'm having fun just seeing other people in places where I didn't see too many before. early this year I finally found a class I wanted to stick with and got my RK through Moria. the entire time I was there I rarely ran accross people leveling. I went back this weekend to finish up a book and the place was crawling with activity. It was unbelievable!
It was a good change, let's just hope it stays like this now.
I think it's a success too and I like the direction Turbine is going with their games. I hope other game companies learn a thing or two. Not everything has to be P2P to actually be good!
~Miles "Tails" Prower out! Catch me if you can!
LOTRO is a decent MMO, but a success as F2P? The success comes from added revenue, which there is no proof of as of yet. There won't be proof of this for quite some time. The number of logged in players is meaningless, when any number of them could be casually sight seeing, never offering a dime.
I don't doubt they have a chance at increasing their profits. The problem is, it's far to early to tell whether or not that will happen. It's also far to early to tell whether or not there is an actual value to what is being sold, at least in the scope of their new payment model.
I don't mind the approach they've taken with LOTRO, I just feel it's a bit too early to be singing praises.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
It sure looks like this is going to be the future business model for games. I figure the monthly sub options will be headed the same way pay by the hour internet went.
It sure looks like this is going to be the future business model for games. I figure the monthly sub options will be headed the same way pay by the hour internet went.
Only for the bad games.
Using LOL is like saying "my argument sucks but I still want to disagree".
It sure looks like this is going to be the future business model for games. I figure the monthly sub options will be headed the same way pay by the hour internet went.
No, I think sub with a cash shop is the way of the future, but F2P will be a way for companies to keep older titles like Lotro and EQ2 much more viable as they age.
It sure looks like this is going to be the future business model for games. I figure the monthly sub options will be headed the same way pay by the hour internet went.
No, I think sub with a cash shop is the way of the future, but F2P will be a way for companies to keep older titles like Lotro and EQ2 much more viable as they age.
I am betting that Turbine keeps LoTRO viable by introducing new tech like the roll your own classic instancing they just introduced. Also new social tools like the shared wardrobe. The smart money says next year the Rohan expansion will offer mounted combat so I am real curious to see if it holds true.
It sure looks like this is going to be the future business model for games. I figure the monthly sub options will be headed the same way pay by the hour internet went.
No, I think sub with a cash shop is the way of the future, but F2P will be a way for companies to keep older titles like Lotro and EQ2 much more viable as they age.
I am betting that Turbine keeps LoTRO viable by introducing new tech like the roll your own classic instancing they just introduced. Also new social tools like the shared wardrobe. The smart money says next year the Rohan expansion will offer mounted combat so I am real curious to see if it holds true.
Pretty sure there is no Rohan next year, Paiz said Isengard is next xpac.
It sure looks like this is going to be the future business model for games. I figure the monthly sub options will be headed the same way pay by the hour internet went.
No, I think sub with a cash shop is the way of the future, but F2P will be a way for companies to keep older titles like Lotro and EQ2 much more viable as they age.
I am betting that Turbine keeps LoTRO viable by introducing new tech like the roll your own classic instancing they just introduced. Also new social tools like the shared wardrobe. The smart money says next year the Rohan expansion will offer mounted combat so I am real curious to see if it holds true.
Pretty sure there is no Rohan next year, Paiz said Isengard is next xpac.
I am speculating, read that as a wild ass guess, Isengard wil be a free exapansion early on 2011 and Rohan will be a pay expansion late 2011 or early 2012. From what I have read I don't think Isengard will have enough content to justify it being a pay for expansion. We shall see.
It sure looks like this is going to be the future business model for games. I figure the monthly sub options will be headed the same way pay by the hour internet went.
No, I think sub with a cash shop is the way of the future, but F2P will be a way for companies to keep older titles like Lotro and EQ2 much more viable as they age.
I am betting that Turbine keeps LoTRO viable by introducing new tech like the roll your own classic instancing they just introduced. Also new social tools like the shared wardrobe. The smart money says next year the Rohan expansion will offer mounted combat so I am real curious to see if it holds true.
Pretty sure there is no Rohan next year, Paiz said Isengard is next xpac.
I am speculating, read that as a wild ass guess, Isengard wil be a free exapansion early on 2011 and Rohan will be a pay expansion late 2011 or early 2012. From what I have read I don't think Isengard will have enough content to justify it being a pay for expansion. We shall see.
Im sure Turbine is still feeling out its playerbase since free to try launch, no telling how it will be packaged but my best guess wil be zone by zone packages. I believe the days of large all in one xpacs like MoM are long gone and in are the days of broken up for seperate sale game expansion
Im sure Turbine is still feeling out its playerbase since free to try launch, no telling how it will be packaged but my best guess wil be zone by zone packages. I believe the days of large all in one xpacs like MoM are long gone and in are the days of broken up for seperate sale game expansion
I think it is highly possible you are spot on here. That isone reason I have not spent many of my TP's. Just 2 iniitial tests and a wardrobe expansion. Not realy much in te Store I really need or want. Also as a VIP I get 6K a years worth of points so I should be good to go on new zones. I could see small zones liek Isengard going for 5 to 10 bucks worth of points and larger ones going for 10 to 30 bucks worth.
Xfire showed a big increase this weekend and LotrO is now #9 and third among MMOs. It is interesting that while Aion have more hours played, LotrO have 1000 more player using xfire. This is because the Average Aion player on xfire played 7.4 hours (that is a crazy number) on sunday while LotrO players "only" averaged 4 hours of play time.
If WoW = The Beatles and WAR = Led Zeppelin Then LotrO = Pink Floyd
It sure looks like this is going to be the future business model for games. I figure the monthly sub options will be headed the same way pay by the hour internet went.
No, I think sub with a cash shop is the way of the future, but F2P will be a way for companies to keep older titles like Lotro and EQ2 much more viable as they age.
I am betting that Turbine keeps LoTRO viable by introducing new tech like the roll your own classic instancing they just introduced. Also new social tools like the shared wardrobe. The smart money says next year the Rohan expansion will offer mounted combat so I am real curious to see if it holds true.
Pretty sure there is no Rohan next year, Paiz said Isengard is next xpac.
I am speculating, read that as a wild ass guess, Isengard wil be a free exapansion early on 2011 and Rohan will be a pay expansion late 2011 or early 2012. From what I have read I don't think Isengard will have enough content to justify it being a pay for expansion. We shall see.
Im sure Turbine is still feeling out its playerbase since free to try launch, no telling how it will be packaged but my best guess wil be zone by zone packages. I believe the days of large all in one xpacs like MoM are long gone and in are the days of broken up for seperate sale game expansion
I disagree. I think we will keep seeing both. Reason is quite simply that questpacks(or single zones) are free for VIPs and Lifetimers, while xpacs are not. My guess is that once Turbine get its production running again(i think the LotRO team was understaffed the last 2 years compared to the time around/before the MoM release) we will see expansions again. So maybe around end of 2011, or middle 2012.
Besides expansions are very good PR, all the gaming magazines come knocking and want to do previews and stuff.
Comments
really you dont think its the gold farmers selling 1 copper ore for 1 gold in AH ? ........gold farm removes gold block and AH restriction on 1 accouts sets copper ores for sale in AH at 1g each , sends his bot farmers in 1 bot at a time to AH to buy his copper ores from AH . its cleaner , safer , and unrecorded. dont be a do boy for the system the restrictions place on basic gameing are not there to stop farmers its there to greed extra money. lotro has not been a AAA ranked mmorpg for years , give it 6 months it will be a ghost town.
Will anyone still pay to play this once the pions take hold , hell no , i just today seen 2 groups of them far acrost the map from each other , the game cant go back to sub only , puts flat out stupid restrictions on F2P , and promotes disintent between F2P and subber accounts . ya thats not a recipe for a win , thats the recipe for slow slow death.
This is odd, I have read multiple times on the official forums that once you sub and go back to premium the restrictions gets lifted on all current characters(obviously not new ones after just being on premium). I am premium at the moment and have not ran into any issues with gold limit, bag limit, or AH limit. Of couse I only have about 2g at the moment(I think the cap is 5g on premium). Since I already have the restrictions less sever I will most likely wait till I have aroung 5g then just buy the cap removal on said character(or is it account wide?). The way they did this is confusing honestly, they need to update the features list on the main site and give more detail in the store to exactly what the lift does(account wide, or only the one char, etc).
--------------------
-Currently playing FFXIV, and BDO.
Thanks for this bit of insight...I'll be posting this M.O. to the Turbine Devs, if they don't already know about it.
But back on topic..
Yeah, every time I've logged on this past week, I've seen Brandy and Landroval with queues. A population increase most certainly.
I think it's a success too and I like the direction Turbine is going with their games. I hope other game companies learn a thing or two. Not everything has to be P2P to actually be good!
~Miles "Tails" Prower out! Catch me if you can!
Come Join us at www.globalequestria.com - Meet other fans of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic!
heres how the restrictions really work ....
if you started a toon on a vip account from lvl 0 creation and then drop to premium your your toon keeps what if got from premium but loses all restrictions back to premium account just like they say
what they are not saying if you started the toon lvl 0 creation on a F2P account then go vip and let it drop back that toon reverts back to the restrictions of a F2P account which is the way they had intended it
There is far to many hidden fees , 2 faced meanings , and double standards with in this set up to make it at all enjoyable . even there own TOS tells you there double dipping , where it says areas and maps can be split into smaller units for sale in the turbine shop at any time. and we have all seen what a split area equals 1 added quest in each area and a need for all users that have bought already the area as a whole to rebuy these maps as smaller units.
I would no longer advice anyone to download this game . F2P is F2P you can not have a F2P game that mandates a player to spend $24.00 usd just to use basic mmorpg features . trade and sales are very base mmorpg features . extra sales space for sale in shop wonderful great no prob there , but you have to give the user his base free. the you need to pay use $7.00 usd to keep the money that drops to you is bogus this needs removed all together ., its not there to deture gold farmers they use 1 premium account with cash shop and sell base items for 1g each in AH and send there bot to town to buy these items from the AH fast ez clean bot cash transfers . the blocks are in place only for greed no other resson .
The free-to-play model is designed for people who are not using LOTRO as either their main MMO, or do not have a lot of time to devote to it. If you are not playing it that often, the $6 or so it cost you to unlock a new quest zone around once a month is a fairly cheap option.
If Turbine was all about greed as you say, they would have completely removed the option to continue subscribing to the game and have full access to everything along with giving you a bonus of 500 Turbine Points per month. If you want to see greed, go and check out games like Allods Online, and see what they did with their cash shop and no subscription fees.
The only zones you need to actually purchase is the Shadows of Angmar ones, and that is because a lot of people actually got it for free when they purchased Mines of Moria. There is actually a really cheap way of getting into LOTRO. If you buy Moria in a store and use the retail box key, it actually upgrades your account to Vip for a month after which you will be considfered a premium member. Any characters you create during that time have all restrictions lifted, and if you go from VIP to premium, you do not lose store items such as bag spaces, mounts, traits etc.
Free-to-play does not mean play the game 100% free. It never has and it never will because it is an unrealistic way for any MMO to go.
My Guild Wars 2 Vids
I agree. Came back after just doing beta (it ran like a slide show). And subbed. Great game. Well thought out quest lines, crafting etc.
(Irregardless is not a word)
What I thought, sounds more on par with what I have been hearing and seeing. I actually like the new options available as I don't need to sub to the game to enjoy it, and my limited time every month I don't feel pressured to play like I do if I have a sub. Can take my time, go through the content slowly and buy a pack every now and then. I already have the MoM expansion as I got it when it was on sale for $10 + free sub for 30 days about a year ago or so. Great I don't have to repurchase that content, makes me much more willing to put money down on the game for the actual content. As far as the traits, gold limit, etc I may just fill up all my slots with the classes and sub VIP a month then go back so I don't need to purchase all those lifts for each toon(though I probably wont, as I am lazy and will just end up buying the packs lol).
Turbine is not being greedy at all, they just added more options to pay by and give away about 10 hours of content for free(or more if you level alts, or actually grind for TP and unlock the packs). If you want to see greedy farfanugon you need to check out SOE and EQ2's new "F2P" model, it's insanely limiting and cannot even get past level 10 without needing to go platinum.
--------------------
-Currently playing FFXIV, and BDO.
lol i can honestly say ive never tyr them , Eq2 just never held even a remote intrest, as far as can tell from the lotro forums a F2P gone vip then drops back to premium has the gold caps reapply and bags taken back, only the toons made new from lvl 0 while in vip account keep the upgrades. theres a we are looking into this on the post reply then nothing more .
it is steadily moving up on XFire and the website is getting hammered. Comparing the last three Sundays Xfire hours it went from 6328 on Sept. 05, to 14,196 on Sept. 12, to 17, 924 yesterday. If you look at the website traffic on Alexa
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/lotro.com#
7 day
0.03380
+48%
1 month
0.01760
+141%
3 month
0.01120
+48%
I miss DAoC
I would expect people would have some interest since it is "free to try" now. It is expected. I would think the real measure will be where the game sits in a year from "free to try" launch. That will give an much better picture of what "free to try" has meant for the over all health of the game. Its far to early to prodlaim success or failure and those that try either are just serving personal agendas and are not being objective.
Considering that this is "just" the US release impressive really. One needs to keep in mind that neither the EU F2P release nor afaik the Asian/Russian one is ready yet. Considering a good 30-50% of blizzards subscribers are in china there is definitly a market there aswell.
You don't really need x-fire numbers to tell you that going f2p has increased population. I can't remember the last time I had to wait in queue to get in game. It's nice to see people all over the place again, spamming for fellowships again, and just seeing places like Bree flooded with people and not just there for some player held celebration or something.
The chat's gone downhill a little. I see a lot of people complaining about it. I largely ignore chat for the most part anyways, unless I'm looking for a fellowship or advice on something, so it doesn't really bother me.
I'm having fun just seeing other people in places where I didn't see too many before. early this year I finally found a class I wanted to stick with and got my RK through Moria. the entire time I was there I rarely ran accross people leveling. I went back this weekend to finish up a book and the place was crawling with activity. It was unbelievable!
It was a good change, let's just hope it stays like this now.
LOTRO is a decent MMO, but a success as F2P? The success comes from added revenue, which there is no proof of as of yet. There won't be proof of this for quite some time. The number of logged in players is meaningless, when any number of them could be casually sight seeing, never offering a dime.
I don't doubt they have a chance at increasing their profits. The problem is, it's far to early to tell whether or not that will happen. It's also far to early to tell whether or not there is an actual value to what is being sold, at least in the scope of their new payment model.
I don't mind the approach they've taken with LOTRO, I just feel it's a bit too early to be singing praises.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
It sure looks like this is going to be the future business model for games. I figure the monthly sub options will be headed the same way pay by the hour internet went.
I miss DAoC
Only for the bad games.
No, I think sub with a cash shop is the way of the future, but F2P will be a way for companies to keep older titles like Lotro and EQ2 much more viable as they age.
I am betting that Turbine keeps LoTRO viable by introducing new tech like the roll your own classic instancing they just introduced. Also new social tools like the shared wardrobe. The smart money says next year the Rohan expansion will offer mounted combat so I am real curious to see if it holds true.
I miss DAoC
Pretty sure there is no Rohan next year, Paiz said Isengard is next xpac.
I am speculating, read that as a wild ass guess, Isengard wil be a free exapansion early on 2011 and Rohan will be a pay expansion late 2011 or early 2012. From what I have read I don't think Isengard will have enough content to justify it being a pay for expansion. We shall see.
I miss DAoC
Im sure Turbine is still feeling out its playerbase since free to try launch, no telling how it will be packaged but my best guess wil be zone by zone packages. I believe the days of large all in one xpacs like MoM are long gone and in are the days of broken up for seperate sale game expansion
I think it is highly possible you are spot on here. That isone reason I have not spent many of my TP's. Just 2 iniitial tests and a wardrobe expansion. Not realy much in te Store I really need or want. Also as a VIP I get 6K a years worth of points so I should be good to go on new zones. I could see small zones liek Isengard going for 5 to 10 bucks worth of points and larger ones going for 10 to 30 bucks worth.
I miss DAoC
Xfire showed a big increase this weekend and LotrO is now #9 and third among MMOs. It is interesting that while Aion have more hours played, LotrO have 1000 more player using xfire. This is because the Average Aion player on xfire played 7.4 hours (that is a crazy number) on sunday while LotrO players "only" averaged 4 hours of play time.
If WoW = The Beatles
and WAR = Led Zeppelin
Then LotrO = Pink Floyd
I disagree. I think we will keep seeing both. Reason is quite simply that questpacks(or single zones) are free for VIPs and Lifetimers, while xpacs are not. My guess is that once Turbine get its production running again(i think the LotRO team was understaffed the last 2 years compared to the time around/before the MoM release) we will see expansions again. So maybe around end of 2011, or middle 2012.
Besides expansions are very good PR, all the gaming magazines come knocking and want to do previews and stuff.
Anyone else look at the OP's topic and immediately think:
This was a triumph!
I'm making a note here:
"HUGE SUCCESS!!"
It's hard to overstate
my satisfaction.
Aperture Science:
We do what we must
because we can.
For the good of all of us.
Except the ones who are dead.
But there's no sense crying
over every mistake.
You just keep on trying
till you run out of cake.
And the science gets done.
And you make a neat gun
for the people who are
still alive.
I'm not even angry...
I'm being so sincere right now-
Even though you broke my heart,
and killed me.
And tore me to pieces.
And threw every piece into a fire.
As they burned it hurt because
I was so happy for you!
Now, these points of data
make a beautiful line.
And we're out of beta.
We're releasing on time!
So I'm GLaD I got burned-
Think of all the things we learned-
for the people who are
still alive.
Go ahead and leave me...
I think I'd prefer to stay inside...
Maybe you'll find someone else
to help you?
Maybe Black Mesa?
That was a joke! *HAHA- Fat Chance!*
Anyway this cake is great!
It's so delicious and moist!
Look at me: still talking
when there's science to do!
When I look out there,
it makes me GLaD I'm not you.
I've experiments to run.
There is research to be done.
On the people who are
still alive.
And believe me I am
still alive.
I'm doing science and I'm
still alive.
I feel fantastic and I'm
still alive.
While you're dying I'll be
still alive.
And when you're dead I will be
still alive.
Still alive.
Still alive.
~Miles "Tails" Prower out! Catch me if you can!
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