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Lord of the Rings Online: Free to Play Interview
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Turbine devs have already stated that it will not be "free to play, pay to win" model. Most of the items will be cosmetic and convenience items.
Various mount skins, wardrobe skins, +10-20% or more XP potions, run speed potions, maybe even some port scrolls.
Just look at the DDO store, and that is exactly what the LOTRO store will be modeled after they have said. Also stated, a dev said this plain and simple:
"The purchase of items in the LOTRO Store is entirely optional. While items in the Store are designed to immediately enhance your in-game experience, premium loot and rare gear are the rewards of adventure and are only obtainable through gameplay."
This means that raid gear, and any type of gear with stats that will give you a major advantage will only be obtainable through actually doing the content. Hope this helps answer some questions and silences the doom-and-gloomers.
I love that idea! Let them create Free 2 play servers! If the newbies love the game they can pay to be transferred to a VIP/Premium server!
We must keep Ladroval safe!
Pffft, more like keep the rest of the world safe from Landrovalians!
; )
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
One thing that I learned from this story is that Turbine lie with all the teeth. Patience and Sapience in the forum said that there wouldnt be F2P, rested the LOTRO community, then the F2P appears with absolutely no warning. When greed climb over their heads again we will see the loan sharks again in action. I dont trust in Turbine anymore and what they say.
Single digit IQs and illiteracy usually breed misinformation. Oh, and blind hate for F2P games. Let's not forget about that.
What I find so amusing is that the game is not even going F2P -- it's gaining a F2P OPTION. Big difference.
In a game that lacks pvp the concurrence betwen players is exactly that. Fluff items and experience.
Essentially, they are making a permanent free trial of the game, since the f2p'ers will be limited to quests in the three starter areas; so they aren't going to get much past levels 15-20 for free. And, we subscribers just get to keep our current deals, access everthing, and get free Turbine Points every month, STARTING NOW. Gee, I feel so used. How dare they give me MORE than what I thought I was paying for!!! How dare they make the game more accessible to people who would rather play on a pay as you go plan since they may not play enough to justify a monthly!!!
The sky is not falling.
Hedonismbot: Your latest performance was as delectable as dipping my bottom over and over into a bath of the silkiest oils and creams.
The misinformation is on your part, because the F2P name, really is just a hoax, of course we all have to pay to play, subscription or microtransactions, we all have to pay to enjoy the gameplay at least.
And some of us are in MMOs a lot of time and not let ourselves be deceived because we have an advanced IQ, some of us are test players of MMOs.
Therefore do not be rude and gets your IQ that you love so much.
Oh damn.. :-p and I am a lifetimer! nooooo
DOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
haha =D
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No they never said that. Saying that they currently dont have plans to make LotrO free to play does not mean that they promise it will never be. But I guess thats the fun thing with the internet, people like to spin everything into something it is not.
The producer even said a couple of years ago that its unlikely that LotrO will remain subscription only forever.
If WoW = The Beatles
and WAR = Led Zeppelin
Then LotrO = Pink Floyd
Ok, I'm sorry, but...
What the hell are you rambling on about? Your response doesn't even make any sense.
Well "stop" no wonder "stop" that you dont understand "final stop"
Yep I have a liftime sub, ill get 500 points. Then whats going to happen when we got to unlock new content, how many points is that going to cost. How many points is it going to cost me to keep up with the jones. My entire thinking is yea they give us 500 points a month there has to be a reason , they need you to spend, on what who has any idea. All I see is a further subdivide between the folks who have stuff and the folks who dont, and that is not what we first got and was promised back in soa.
You'll be getting 500 points a month. How much do you think those updates are really going to be? Plus, as you said you're a lifer so what else are you really going to spending those points on since you'll essentially have the same benefits as someone with VIP status anyways? Especially if you have been playing the game all this time on a regular basis.
They're banking on getting new blood into the game and making money off of them and making money off of those that simply have to have everything and have it now regardless the cost. About the only significant change this is going to make that will effect you directly outside of the in game economy and community is there will be "expansions" coming out on a more frequent basis than before.
One thing I will say that I find to be rather lame about all this is that the points are not transferrable between the two games. Really should be...
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
/dances
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
Well I"m shocked because I always thought Lotro was a healthy MMO. There have never been server mergers and when I"m on there are always plenty of people playing. I felt when they did it with DDO that the subscriber base was probably low enough that F2P made good sense. However, doing it with Lotro makes me wonder how bad off the subscription base is for the game.
I have a big problem with games that say they are free, and then say they are free for up to 300 hours and then they cost money.
On the Pay to Win issue, if I read the article correctly they are saying you can't buy gear except starter gear. That's why they claim it's not pay to win.
But then they say that you will come across a quest (that may have gear as a reward) and you have to pay to be able to do that quest, and thereby be able to get that reward.
I guess there are two ways of looking at that. One way is to say it's the same as the subscription model. If you want the content in the expansion pack in a subscription model game you have to buy the expansion pack, to gain access to its content, to gain access to its rewards.
But another way of looking at it is that they are selling gear under the guise of giving you access to that gear by having you pay money to do some quest.
Balancing the two, I still call it pay to win because it's paying for gear where that payment is being laundered through the facade of "content access." We don't sell you the sword. We sell you a quest where you talk to a guy who gives you a key to open a door and the sword is there in a chest. I can't get the sword unless I pay. Pay to Win.
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
There should have been server merges but they have always avoided that discussion like the plague. While there are some healthy servers such as Brandywine, Landroval, and Elendilmir there are others that are rather desolate in comparison and were a pain in the ass for new players to try and group on them.
They always refused to look into this issue though and tried handling grouping woes players had by doing other things such as creating smaller group oriented material or turning prior group content into soloable material. I didn't agree with their thinking then and now that they're going this route seems like it was even more of a waste that they went that route now.
Still, in a roundabout way it did lead to them fleshing out the earlier level zones more with additional content so I suppose there is a silver lining to it.
Anyways, I think this isn't due to the LotR subscription level being bad but more due to what they think the income potential could be considering what happened with DDO and what they believe will transpire with LotR when they go the same route.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
I also heard the story of the empty servers in the US. I don't know what the situation was there. But on the EU realms we didn't really had that problem, we had only 1 low populated server, and everything else was always full of people. Atleast on my server, evernight. I never noticed the server was empty or something like that. Like last night, it was really bussy in the crafting hall in Bree :-), But ofcourse I can imagine the population dropped this year. Because there was almost no content comming in. Lotro isn't in the bad state DDO was. But turbine found out their 'f2p' system worked to get more people in the game. If it works for DDO why wouldn't it work for LOTRO ? :-)
I really don't mind LOTRO goes this way. I will be a VIP player and have fun :-)
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LoTRO IS successful the way it is. My server Landroval is just as packed now as it was at launch!
BUT they increased DDO's profits 500% when it went to the hybrid F2P/P2P model.
500%!
500%!
A 500% increase in profits is quite the incentive for Turbine to try it on their successful game too. Why be happy with a few mill a year when you can go hybrid and quintuple your cash coming in? I'm guessing their profit increase in LoTRO will be even bigger than in DDO.
I'm gonna think positively about this whole thing. More Cash to Turbine = More Devs= More Frequent and Bigger Updates
If ^ comes true, then I'm estatic that they made this decision.
So. ****ing. True.
Turbine really played their cards idiotically with LoTRO. First of all, there hasn't been made a single improvement to its broken LFG tool since its launch 3 years ago. With dying populations, crappy LFG people just stopped picking up group quests. Turbine thinks people don't like to group anymore, and instead of merging servers + breathing a new life into its LFG tool (like Patch 1.9 did for Aion) they instead decided to DELETE group content (Lone Lands revamp). The Solo'ists loved it, people who wanted a balance did not and left.
And now the game is going F2P. Serves Turbine right imo.
Elannar
Completely agree w/Darkholme, and I'm a lifetime member. As long as I'm compensated (and it looks like I will be), I'm fine with it. I actually believe it helps the game, not hinder it.
Your fail comment, failed.
Counting Gpotato? ^^ Lets see how this works out in practice before we break out the torches and pitch forks. There will be plenty of time for that, if it turns out to be warranted.