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Lord of the Rings Online: F2P Launching September 10th
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Turbine has announced that the free-to-play version of Lord of the Rings Online will officially launch on September 10, 2010. Along with the announcement, a new concept art shot of the Captain character class has been released.
LOTRO's new pricing model features a trio of ways to play the game:
Completely free up to level 50 with limited character slots and content
Purchase premium content, potions, convenience and vanity items to expand the F2P experience
Become a VIP with access to all premium content, expanded character slots, monthly points allotment, and priority server access
“Our LOTRO beta program has been a huge success and we want to thank all of our players who worked with us to get the game ready for launch,” said Kate Paiz, Executive Producer of LOTRO, Turbine. “Our unique pricing model has revolutionized the industry and starting in September, players will be able to choose how they pay for and play one of the world’s best online games and we can’t wait to welcome millions of new players to Middle-earth!”
Find out more about LOTRO at the official site.
Comments
I'm super interested to see where this goes.
Playing:
Lotro
Have Played:
EQII,DAOC,SWG,COH,EQ,DDO, Lotro,AoC, EvE,Guild Wars,
Silkroad Online,Aion,and WoW
Favorite of all time: WoW
Waiting on:Swtor,Gw2, and Tera
Being one of LotRO's biggest fanboys, I gotta say, the bullet points on the announcement page are extremely misleading.
"Free means Free! – Players will download LOTRO by visiting www.lotro.com and join with millions of other adventurers as they explore the most complete and authentic recreation of Middle-earth ever created and participate in LOTRO’s award-winning epic story up to level 50 for free."
Millions??? F2P will likely get the game close to that number(many of whom won't play often or at all), but that's a bit of a stretch.
Yes, they get the epic story up to level 50, but anyone not having intimate knowledge of the game would think that means you get all the content up to lvl 50 for free.
F2P, I think, will be a very positive thing, and the amount of free content they're providing is certainly nothing to shake a stick at, but that's still pretty deceptive.
woot!
Disclaimer: This is not a troll post and is not here to promote any negative energy. Although this may be a criticism, it is not meant to offend anyone. If a moderator feels the post is inappropriate, please remove it immediately before it is subject to consideration for a warning. Thank you.
Well if DDO could attract 2 million new player over 6 months (yea I know not active players) then I dont see why LotrO couldnt get even more. Also note that DDO only is in english while LotrO is translated to German/French and have 2 seperate servers for Russia and apparently 10 Chinese servers. So there could easily be a couple of million playing after F2P release.
And yea leveling to 50 for free is abit ddeceptive but still true. I think volume 1 is atleast 200 quests up to level 50..
Awesome news anyway, alot sooner that I expected
If WoW = The Beatles
and WAR = Led Zeppelin
Then LotrO = Pink Floyd
So it begins....
I am the Player that wonders... "What the %#*& just happened?!"
...............
"I Believe... There should be NO financial connection or portals between the Real World and the Virtual in MMOs. "
__Ever Present Cockroach of the MMO Verses__
...scurrying to and fro... .munching on bits of garbage... always under foot...
Considering the west is not its only market, it's not that much of a streach.
----------
"Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"No, your wrong.." - Random user #123
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
How are you?" -Me
We'll see! I hope so! I'd love to see the servers end up with a million or so fairly active players!
Well, looks like the forums crashed, so that's probably a good sign there will be alot of new players on Sept 10th. They spent alot of time in Beta trying to stress test and implementing new Layering technology, so hopefully that will bear some fruit and the servers won't come to a screeching halt on Sept 10th. Unlike the forum server which hasn't been stress tested in some time apparently....
Without pvp server, world pvp flagged etc..i dont see f2f changing this game mutch.
on requiem memento mori you got the same
free , basic 7usd an premium 15 usd
well in my oppinion it isnt so bad to do this way
you want to test it ok but how much u guys think cost a game? even more then 30 million usd for sure
i like it that way test it if u say alright i play couple of months i pay
I think it can easily get 1 or 2 million players. When it will be released it will without any question be the best F2P available ( you know this too)
As for Free
Only game that will be free is GW2 , and when that comes out everything else will suffer.
LOTRO will be restricting. But not in any means unplayable to 50.
Take DDO for example.
You can play it , but as you rise in levels it gets harder and harder to do it for free.
But when you reach high level you either love the game and want to pay , or not and dont want to pay a cent.
People that pay for DDO do it happily. They dont feel the sub was forced on them.
Wooohooooooo,
I really cant wait, I'm so excited
September 2010 is a big month for me personally, as I finally finish paying of a massive 4 years loan so I think im gona splash out, have some time off and get some quality adventuring done
And in europe too http://community.lotro-europe.com/news.php?id=10758&articletype=News
Awesome news!
let the spamming of "ok, sombod show me how'd i becom a wezard??????????? ok thnx" began.
Like the most popular game in the genre, Wow, has much of the way in pvp? Pretty much puts your comment into the ridiculous area.
Past 25 you have to spend money on some of the quest packs, getting to 50 otherwise would be an exercise in major frustration. This will be great for the casual crowd, they can buy the necessary packs when they need them and not worry about wasting subscription money when they can't play.
Oh F2P is going to change the game a lot. Whether the change will be for the good or for bad has been a matter of contention for sometime.
WOW isnt great because it has 12 million players. WOW has 12 million players because its great.
Wrestle a Balrog while falling through the depths of Khazad-Dum, and crash it into the ground causing it to take all the damage and die, and not die yourself in the process
I thought the game had nothing to do with the movies? What's Mr. Mortensen doing there?
I just dreamed about this for a long time, i played alot of mmo's, most dissapointment of all were WAR and Aion , but LOTRO it's simply the best FOR ME, i know that not everyone likes LOTRO...
And now you wonder, why did you dreamed about this if you like it so much why dind't you p2p ... because on my retarded country (Portugual), the only mmo fnac exports is WOW, so basicly after 2 months lotro was out pre-paid cards were off, and moria here came out like 3 moths after european release... and the most funny is that Moria here is at sale for 5€ , but why do they keep selling it if they don't even have pre-paid gamecards...
So now with my moria account i have a litle bit more than a single normal, f2p account, and i can play lotro 4_Ever :P
P.S: Everyone out there that didn't try APB. SHOULD, because it's the funniest "mmo xD" if you wanna call it that ever, just dont pay forit, w8 for private servers, because the official game will go bankrupt...
lock up yo kids, lock up yo wife, even yo husband cuz they rapin everybody round here
Not really PVE is far more popular than pvp when it comes to numbers.
They may be re-launching but I done with turbine. Astalavista lotro.
You can keep your cash shops with advantage items you cant get in game.
+1
WOW isnt great because it has 12 million players. WOW has 12 million players because its great.
Well atleast it seems like peoples concerns about the community getting worse with F2P was uncalled for.
This is proof it will improve instead!
If WoW = The Beatles
and WAR = Led Zeppelin
Then LotrO = Pink Floyd
If vets leaving is an improvment you should be quite happy with the community in 6 months or so.
WOW isnt great because it has 12 million players. WOW has 12 million players because its great.
This looks like it might be time to cancel that AoC membership I been paying and not been playing and give LOTRO another go.