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Lord of the Rings Online: F2P Finally Arrives
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Lord of the Rings Online is now officially free to play in North America. To celebrate, Turbine has released a great new commercial with Gandalf hanging out in a gray flannel suit as he announces to the chanting hordes, "You...Shall...Not...Pay!" Check it out!
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 story up to level 50 for free. Players can also choose to visit the new LOTRO Store to purchase expansions, quest packs, items, and account services a la carte, or join the VIP program that provides unlimited access to the game for one low monthly price.
Comments
If your a returning Player, who has opted not to re-subscribe don't be surprised to find out that you'll need to purchased any quests beyond bree land using turbine points. Because according to turbine you never paid for those quests.
However if you purchase Mines of Moria and Siege of Mirkwood you do get access to all those quests.
Just thought I would add, that even if you paid $50.00 for the Orginal box game, you will still have to buy those quests...
And where was it said that you would not have to buy them quests? I think it's been made more then clear (everywhere) that if you do not subscribe to the game you will have to buy quests packs regardless if you bought the game or not in the past.
Sub pays for service and connection to the content.
Don't pay a sub? Pay a one time fee for the content forever.
Fin.
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"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
It costs a measly 17 bucks to purchase the three quest packs to get you through the 20-50 ranges.
After that, assuming you have MoM and SoM, you literally never need to buy anything else. Seems like a pretty meager investment for the amount of entertainment you will receive in return.
Quit Jumping all over me I just spent 2 days in forums trying to explain those same damn facts to other people, I'm trying to prevent anymore WAAAA WAAA POOR ME threads. Sheesh people.
New Line Cinema and Sir Ian McKellen should file a complaint. This is just a taste of where the LOTRO community is going.
"Stand aside, Frodo! Here comes XxHobbitDudexX!"
"Soloists and those who prefer small groups should never have to feel like they''re the ones getting the proverbial table scraps, as it were." - Scott Hartsman, Senior Producer, Everquest II
"People love groups. Its a fallacy that people want to play solo all the time." - Scott Hartsman, Executive Producer, Rift
If you have not tried it out yet, I suggest you do. I resubbed in time for the head start and the servers have been packed with returning players and head start beta folks, there have even been some VERY SHORT waits in the que for my old server! Haven't seen those in a loooong time. The game is beautiful to look at, and if you are an MMO fan that can control his or her ADD the world is very easy to lose yourself in.
As for people griping about "XxHobbitDudexX" and the like, this game seems to have a built-in filter that keeps those types away, and there is already a community in place that is as a whole easily the best I've encountered in any MMO.
Just come give it a try!
@ LordDraekon
Yeah, thats the bad side of it, but there are still the RP Servers. Guys with those names won't have much fun there.
Anyone knows when the European Servers become free to play?
Just to clarify again: I bought a lifetime sub back in the beginning. So I am considered a VIP, I think. Will I have to pay for any quest packs?
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2024: 47 years on the Net.
Nope. In fact you get 500 TP a month.
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"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
Lifetime members get VIP forevor and never have to buy any of the old content you own , I have MoM and SoM so i have to buy nothing , I also have gotten like 4000 + TP and 500 each month , Not bad really . At first I was mad about this change but i guess i have been bought , Im looking forward to seeing full servers again .
Arianna, thank you for helping clarify. Yes, even if you bought the box of the game from retail... you still have to purchase quest packs. Sucks, but really, thats my only complaint so far. Well... that and the "leveling" gift they give you takes up a ton of inventory space when inventory space is limited to begin with (very sneaky there).
I paid for a few TP last night and bought some account-wide stuff (~$12.50 for the 4th and 5th bag slot) and I'll just buy the quest packs when I run into those areas. If I never get there... no harm/no foul. Although I will most likely purchase the lifting of the gold cap, too. Which is 495 pts (~$6.18). Everything else doesn't seem like a hinderance... bank storage is purchasable with in-game currency... and if you are Premium, you have decent access to everything, just not uber access that VIP gives, but its not necessary to enjoy yourself.
If you can find copies of Mines of Moria/Siege of Mirkwood in a game store, buy and use them. They're going to be cheaper in the game store than in the Turbine Store. Thats how I got the two expansions ($9.99 ( ~ 800 TP) deal for both expansions + 1 months playtime).
Hope this helps.
"Finally Arrives"?
Jesus. Impatient enough?
Should have been today but now its anyones guess . Codemasters postponed the releae yesterday and caused a great deal of confusion and concern in the European Lotro community . Whether your a person that likes that its going free to play or not .Realistically we know if Codemasters leave it too long that most of the people interested in f2play in Europe will end up on the North American servers leaving the EU ones to die a slow death. A week or two wont make a huge amount of difference beyond that it though it will be more damaging with each week that goes by . I have heard rumour that the NA release has'nt been too smooth so maybe Codemasters will end up being vindicated then again maybe they've made a huge mistake . Time will tell .
I already bought the whole game once. For them to charge me, again, to play certain parts of it is why I'm not coming back. To expect that from the people that have already bought it is nuts.
Good game, great detail, good ideas. I'm not paying for content more than once. Sorry you changed your business model; my money goes elsewhere.
I don't especially mind the whole F2P thing, if that's what people want-whatever. What bugs me is the interface changes that have gone with it. The cyharacter selection screne is truely hideous now. The gold coin (the golden Eye of Sauron) down in the corner where your skills should go is very intrusive-I'm here to play a game, not shop. The little drawings in the store are pointlessly misleading. The whole implimentation is dumbed down and braindead.
Even Cryptic is more subtle.
Forget about swift travel if your not a sub, at 250pts for 60min of swift is a joke. Swift travel should be included with your purchased quest packs at least.
Siege of Mirkwood was always a PC digital download expansion.
hmm, i had MoM a few months ago, the acc ran out , so now that im returning with f2p will my acc be reactived`?
Subscriptions are still there just like they were before. Now you have option to pay ala carte IF thats they way you prefer to play.
And for non-subscribers from the past that had NO option to play, you now get to play more NOW than before. And you can play 100% FREE if you really want to. IF you are a savy gamer, you should be able to figure it out...and NO, I wouldn't reccomend that kind of gaming for your grandmother because it'd probably put her in her grave.
For those that subscribe or Lifetimers, things change very little. Patience has already said we will still have free Book updates in the future as well as paid expansions ala Moria/Mirkwood. Now we hpoefully draw in new players and that is potential more dollars for developement.
My problem wasn't the quests my problem was that to buy enough backpack inventory, bank inventory, auction posting ability, and the skirmishes to get those back to subscription levels it was going to cost me like 75 bucks. Thats like 8 months of subscription.
In response to a comment here about buying content from a game store vs. using TP points in the LOTRO store...if you are looking for a copy of Mines of Moria I have a brand new & sealed Collector's Edition box on eBay starting at $9.99. The item number is 220665797646.
Is this free to play for Australian players? or just North America?
Australian players can play for free, yes.
I am quite surprised that they offer +stat items. Such as "Tome of Vitality" , permanantly adds 10 points to vitality, and each corrosponding tome for other stats. I thought the mmorpg communtiy would have had an absolute fit over lotro going pay to win.
Edit: I am not so sure how these work, can anyone explain? Seems that they may not be cumulitive, and can be obtained from loot.