LOTRO Update 28.1 Releases as Server Issues Affect Multiple Worlds | MMORPG.com

System · October 2020

LOTRO Update 28.1 Releases as Server Issues Affect Multiple Worlds | MMORPG.com

Server issues appear to be plaguing Lord of the Rings Online today as Update 28.1 releases.

Greatness · October 2020

Wow what a tragic comedy. I feel for the players.

FrodoFragins · October 2020

It's hard to have sympathy for the players that support things like the $100 packs. The whales have enabled SSG to get more and more predatory over time. But I guess they figure it's that or maintenance mode. I'm just so glad the gameplay is so mediocre that I never fell into that hole.

Ungood · October 2020

FrodoFragins said:

It's hard to have sympathy for the players that support things like the $100 packs. The whales have enabled SSG to get more and more predatory over time. But I guess they figure it's that or maintenance mode. I'm just so glad the gameplay is so mediocre that I never fell into that hole.

So why you seem to be pissing all over this game if you never got burned by it?

ashiru_1978 · October 2020

Ungood said:

FrodoFragins said:

It's hard to have sympathy for the players that support things like the $100 packs. The whales have enabled SSG to get more and more predatory over time. But I guess they figure it's that or maintenance mode. I'm just so glad the gameplay is so mediocre that I never fell into that hole.

So why you seem to be pissing all over this game if you never got burned by it?

I think many people would like to play LOTRO and spend money on it to support the game and its developers, but the developers and the state of the game aren't giving them the chance to do it. I tried getting into LOTRO at least 3 times so far in 2020 and the longest I lasted was a week and after that I just had enough of the issues with the game.

The devs communication with the players also doesn't do them much justice either. They act very defensive and somewhat arrogant, like they're doing players some great service and they should be glad the game even exists at this point, even though it's the players that keep paying that support the game's existence, not the developers.

I'm sure if LOTRO was given up by its devs and made Open Source or something like that Neocron Cyberpunk MMO that was given by the devs to the players to run it, it will do better. Players will rent proper servers and provide the service cost and they might even do a better job at providing lore-friendly new content to it.

JeroKane · October 2020

Greatness said:

Wow what a tragic comedy. I feel for the players.

It is a tragic comedy. It's the same old same old ever since it became SSG.
The game just runs on the cheapest and oldest hardware they could find to save cost, since they moved data center several times now. It has only gotten worse over time, not better.

I live in Europe and I have been playing MMO's on US servers for years. Especially back in the SWG days and EverQuest 2.
These servers were running on the Pacific Coast, so as far as you can get from European mainland. Yet they were perfectly playable with acceptable ping times between 200-240 ms average.

Lately with LOTRO (since the EU servers are also running in US now), the last measurements I did a while back, was average ping times of 300+ ms, sometimes even spiking to over 400+ ms.
It's insane and makes no sense other than the server hardware being completely inadequate to handle the current load (together with shoddy and broken net code), which can't be much at all anymore, since there are not that many players left. /shrug

That is why the game has become pretty much unplayable for me at this point with the constant lag spikes, combat delays, crashes, etc.

Scot · October 2020

They certainly need to turn all their attention to the stability of the game, you can't keep having issues like this arising. It must already be influencing players thinking of joining.

Lithuanian · October 2020

Recently game has issues: terrain disappearing, instant chat problems (connection lost, "problems with chat server").
Summer festival at the Party tree was mostly unplayable: I log in, I lag, lag, lag.
We do need developers who care about game. What's the point in have new regions if there are big problems with stability?

Ungood · October 2020

ashiru_1978 said:

Ungood said:

FrodoFragins said:

It's hard to have sympathy for the players that support things like the $100 packs. The whales have enabled SSG to get more and more predatory over time. But I guess they figure it's that or maintenance mode. I'm just so glad the gameplay is so mediocre that I never fell into that hole.

So why you seem to be pissing all over this game if you never got burned by it?

I think many people would like to play LOTRO and spend money on it to support the game and its developers, but the developers and the state of the game aren't giving them the chance to do it. I tried getting into LOTRO at least 3 times so far in 2020 and the longest I lasted was a week and after that I just had enough of the issues with the game.

The devs communication with the players also doesn't do them much justice either. They act very defensive and somewhat arrogant, like they're doing players some great service and they should be glad the game even exists at this point, even though it's the players that keep paying that support the game's existence, not the developers.

I'm sure if LOTRO was given up by its devs and made Open Source or something like that Neocron Cyberpunk MMO that was given by the devs to the players to run it, it will do better. Players will rent proper servers and provide the service cost and they might even do a better job at providing lore-friendly new content to it.

I am going to take it that you do not know anything about this game.

First, There is no way in hell that they will make the Turbine Engine Open Source, as that is still owned by Turbine, and SSG just bought a licence to use it. Any pipe dream that they can make the code open source should be taken out back and shot.

Secondly, unlike say something like Everquest, which was the creation of Verant Interactive just to make an MMO from, the IP, Lord of the Rings, is a very protected IP, so, even if Turbine (Not SSG), did make their engine and code open source, you would still need to get permission from the IP holder of Lord of the Rings as well as deal with litigan from other companies that are making games based on the IP, like Amazon Games for example, and an individual's right to use that IP.

Third: Standing Stone Games, did in fact do the gamers and players a service. Turbine was going to sunset LORTO. Turbine had direct plans to shut the game down, and it was going to go away. Since the Engine and the IP are both very protected by copyrights, the second Turbine sunset them, the game would have vanished. SSG bought the rights to the game, as well as set it up so all accounts could be transferred over to the new producer, and even honored the lifetime subs.

So, get off your high horse, and realize that, yes, players who are enjoying the game still being alive, should in fact be glad that the game still exists and that SSG did in fact do them a favor saving it from the brink of extinction.

Now, if You want to run an MMO so badly, and want to deal with Turbine, they buried Asheron's Call a ways back, I hear it was quite popular from the people on this forum, so feel free to jump through the legal loop holes to dig that one up and revitalize it.

ashiru_1978 · October 2020

Ungood said:

ashiru_1978 said:

Ungood said:

FrodoFragins said:

It's hard to have sympathy for the players that support things like the $100 packs. The whales have enabled SSG to get more and more predatory over time. But I guess they figure it's that or maintenance mode. I'm just so glad the gameplay is so mediocre that I never fell into that hole.

So why you seem to be pissing all over this game if you never got burned by it?

I think many people would like to play LOTRO and spend money on it to support the game and its developers, but the developers and the state of the game aren't giving them the chance to do it. I tried getting into LOTRO at least 3 times so far in 2020 and the longest I lasted was a week and after that I just had enough of the issues with the game.

The devs communication with the players also doesn't do them much justice either. They act very defensive and somewhat arrogant, like they're doing players some great service and they should be glad the game even exists at this point, even though it's the players that keep paying that support the game's existence, not the developers.

I'm sure if LOTRO was given up by its devs and made Open Source or something like that Neocron Cyberpunk MMO that was given by the devs to the players to run it, it will do better. Players will rent proper servers and provide the service cost and they might even do a better job at providing lore-friendly new content to it.

I am going to take it that you do not know anything about this game.

First, There is no way in hell that they will make the Turbine Engine Open Source, as that is still owned by Turbine, and SSG just bought a licence to use it. Any pipe dream that they can make the code open source should be taken out back and shot.

Secondly, unlike say something like Everquest, which was the creation of Verant Interactive just to make an MMO from, the IP, Lord of the Rings, is a very protected IP, so, even if Turbine (Not SSG), did make their engine and code open source, you would still need to get permission from the IP holder of Lord of the Rings as well as deal with litigan from other companies that are making games based on the IP, like Amazon Games for example, and an individual's right to use that IP.

Third: Standing Stone Games, did in fact do the gamers and players a service. Turbine was going to sunset LORTO. Turbine had direct plans to shut the game down, and it was going to go away. Since the Engine and the IP are both very protected by copyrights, the second Turbine sunset them, the game would have vanished. SSG bought the rights to the game, as well as set it up so all accounts could be transferred over to the new producer, and even honored the lifetime subs.

So, get off your high horse, and realize that, yes, players who are enjoying the game still being alive, should in fact be glad that the game still exists and that SSG did in fact do them a favor saving it from the brink of extinction.

Now, if You want to run an MMO so badly, and want to deal with Turbine, they buried Asheron's Call a ways back, I hear it was quite popular from the people on this forum, so feel free to jump through the legal loop holes to dig that one up and revitalize it.

I have a hunch that LOTRO will speak for itself in the near future and then everything will be revealed.

JeroKane · October 2020

Ungood said:

<SNIP>

Well for us European players the game can just as well be shutdown. Makes no difference anymore.

The only people not complaining about LOTRO's issues are either in denial and lying or they live so close to the current Data Center, they can throw a rock at it from their house.

Ever since SSG, the game hasn't seen any worthwhile new content, with lackluster expansions that contained mostly just reused/recolored existing assets of the game and was downright broken/unbalanced. Instead of fixing issues, they hid their incompetence and have their community manager insulting the players on the forums instead. You know...the very people that pay their bills and put food on their table. /Facepalm

This latest mini expansion is just the icing on the cake of comedy, looking so bad and out of place. You would have thought it was made by some interns. But I cannot say that, as it's insulting to interns who probably would have done a much better job. /shrug

Even their Classic server attempt was a complete failure and nothing but a desperate cash grab to jump on the Classic server hype train.

Po_gg · October 2020

Ungood said:

Third: Standing Stone Games, did in fact do the gamers and players a service. Turbine was going to sunset LORTO. Turbine had direct plans to shut the game down, and it was going to go away. Since the Engine and the IP are both very protected by copyrights, the second Turbine sunset them, the game would have vanished. SSG bought the rights to the game, as well as set it up so all accounts could be transferred over to the new producer, and even honored the lifetime subs.

Just some fact-checking to that part since it's pretty mixed up.

Turbine didn't want to "sunset" LotRO (and wasn't in their power to do so even if wanted), WB did. You can tell a lot of bad things about WB, they can read the market well enough to see MMORPGs are on a downhill, while mobiles is the future (financially). Since I've said the same I won't argue on that statement, as much as I dislike it. Not to mention the followed years prove them right.

SSG wasn't a saviour, it didn't even exist. SSG is Turbine, at least the part of Turbine which handled DDO and LotRO. Was formed after a couple layoffs, by Turbine, with the approval of WB, to continue handling DDO and LotRO (unfortunately AC was lost in the transition). They even said at the start how much nothing has changed, the same people working at the same place, doing the same thing, just now they have SSG over their heads virtually. (Since it took 1-2 months to set up the new office, move the desks, etc.)

Account transfers and lifetime honoring, there was none of that (you probably mix it with the handover when Turbine took us Codies players under their wings). From the players' point of view nothing happened during that transition, since it was just an administrative change on company level.

Game stayed on the same servers (later was a relocation to a new datacentre, but still the same servers), just as all the accounts and pages - for a while they were allowed even to stay under the turbine.com address as well, until registered their own.

(sidenote, the part of Turbine which wasn't directly working on those MMORPGs were redirected to mobile development, and later melted into WB entirely, so there's no Turbine anymore)

JeroKane · October 2020

Po_gg said:

Ungood said:

Third: Standing Stone Games, did in fact do the gamers and players a service. Turbine was going to sunset LORTO. Turbine had direct plans to shut the game down, and it was going to go away. Since the Engine and the IP are both very protected by copyrights, the second Turbine sunset them, the game would have vanished. SSG bought the rights to the game, as well as set it up so all accounts could be transferred over to the new producer, and even honored the lifetime subs.

Just some fact-checking to that part since it's pretty mixed up.
Turbine didn't want to "sunset" LotRO (and wasn't in their power to do so even if wanted), WB did. You can tell a lot of bad things about WB, they can read the market well enough to see MMORPGs are on a downhill, while mobiles is the future (financially). Since I've said the same I won't argue on that statement, as much as I dislike it. Not to mention the followed years prove them right.

SSG wasn't a saviour, it didn't even exist. SSG is Turbine, at least the part of Turbine which handled DDO and LotRO. Was formed after a couple layoffs, by Turbine, with the approval of WB, to continue handling DDO and LotRO (unfortunately AC was lost in the transition). They even said at the start how much nothing has changed, the same people working at the same place, doing the same thing, just now they have SSG over their heads virtually. (Since it took 1-2 months to set up the new office, move the desks, etc.)

Account transfers and lifetime honoring, there was none of that (you probably mix it with the handover when Turbine took us Codies players under their wings). From the players' point of view nothing happened during that transition, since it was just an administrative change on company level.
Game stayed on the same servers (later was a relocation to a new datacentre, but still the same servers), just as all the accounts and pages - for a while they were allowed even to stay under the turbine.com address as well, until registered their own.

(sidenote, the part of Turbine which wasn't directly working on those MMORPGs were redirected to mobile development, and later melted into WB entirely, so there's no Turbine anymore)

To add. The account management/publishing part was later handed over to Daybreak Games.

Ungood · October 2020

Po_gg said:

Ungood said:

Third: Standing Stone Games, did in fact do the gamers and players a service. Turbine was going to sunset LORTO. Turbine had direct plans to shut the game down, and it was going to go away. Since the Engine and the IP are both very protected by copyrights, the second Turbine sunset them, the game would have vanished. SSG bought the rights to the game, as well as set it up so all accounts could be transferred over to the new producer, and even honored the lifetime subs.

Just some fact-checking to that part since it's pretty mixed up.
Turbine didn't want to "sunset" LotRO (and wasn't in their power to do so even if wanted), WB did. You can tell a lot of bad things about WB, they can read the market well enough to see MMORPGs are on a downhill, while mobiles is the future (financially). Since I've said the same I won't argue on that statement, as much as I dislike it. Not to mention the followed years prove them right.

SSG wasn't a saviour, it didn't even exist. SSG is Turbine, at least the part of Turbine which handled DDO and LotRO. Was formed after a couple layoffs, by Turbine, with the approval of WB, to continue handling DDO and LotRO (unfortunately AC was lost in the transition). They even said at the start how much nothing has changed, the same people working at the same place, doing the same thing, just now they have SSG over their heads virtually. (Since it took 1-2 months to set up the new office, move the desks, etc.)

Account transfers and lifetime honoring, there was none of that (you probably mix it with the handover when Turbine took us Codies players under their wings). From the players' point of view nothing happened during that transition, since it was just an administrative change on company level.
Game stayed on the same servers (later was a relocation to a new datacentre, but still the same servers), just as all the accounts and pages - for a while they were allowed even to stay under the turbine.com address as well, until registered their own.

(sidenote, the part of Turbine which wasn't directly working on those MMORPGs were redirected to mobile development, and later melted into WB entirely, so there's no Turbine anymore)

No, WB was not the hero here.

SSG is NOT Turbine.

WB made the choice to get out of MMO's altogether, and they were going to shut down DDO, LOTRO, AC, and AC2 (All of Turbines MMO's)

AC and AC2 were not lost in transition, SSG didn't want them, so they were thrown in the trash by WB/Turbine. Feel free to try and dig them out if you want an MMO to call your own.

Now, Turbine may not have wanted to sunset any of their games, but, make no mistake it was always within their power to sunset them, hence them shutting down AC2 for a while. It was after all, their games, and their IP, to do what they wanted with.

I can respect your confusion, but, with all that put out, let's clear up some points.

SSG was started by a bunch of Devs from Turbine, but that is not in any way, being Turbine, or even a part of Turbine, or being related to Turbine or WB.

What happened, was more akin to a bunch of pastry chefs leaving a restaurant to start their own bakery, because the main restaurant was getting rid of doing pastries.

So these people, pooled their money, and made their own company to take over DDO and LOTRO.

Since they were already industry insiders, they already knew everyone in the levels going up, and had access to being able to talk with the higher ups, and thus as opposed to shutting the game down, they cut a deal with Turbine/WB to hand over the rights and all data to SSG, for them to deal with and continue on, which is why the handover went as smooth and amicably as it did, and some overlap at the start.

SSG is their own independent company being produced through Daybreak. Again, they are not Turbine or related to WB.

To really grasp this, SSG is just a group of passionate developers saving the games they loved.

Simple as that.

Ungood · October 2020

For anyone that is confused by the Turbine/SSG saga. Let me sum it up for you.

Turbine: WB said we are shutting down our MMO's and Firing you all.
Dev1: Shit dude, they are shutting down the MMO's and we are all getting fired!
Dev2: If we could make our own company we could keep making this game ourselves and not be Fired!
Dev3: Gimme some money to make a company!
(Devs Pool Money and make SSG)
SSG: Good Day sir, we would like to buy the rights to DDO, and LOTRO from you.
Turbine/WB: who the fuck are you?
SSG It's us asshole, the people you fired!
Turbine: Oh, righty then.. sure, here you go, enjoy your shit show.

katzklaw · October 2020

Ungood said:

For anyone that is confused by the Turbine/SSG saga. Let me sum it up for you.

Turbine: WB said we are shutting down our MMO's and Firing you all.
Dev1: Shit dude, they are shutting down the MMO's and we are all getting fired!
Dev2: If we could make our own company we could keep making this game ourselves and not be Fired!
Dev3: Gimme some money to make a company!
(Devs Pool Money and make SSG)
SSG: Good Day sir, we would like to buy the rights to DDO, and LOTRO from you.
Turbine/WB: who the fuck are you?
SSG It's us asshole, the people you fired!
Turbine: Oh, righty then.. sure, here you go, enjoy your shit show.

loooooooool

also... legit

Hariken · October 2020

Ungood said:

For anyone that is confused by the Turbine/SSG saga. Let me sum it up for you.

Turbine: WB said we are shutting down our MMO's and Firing you all.
Dev1: Shit dude, they are shutting down the MMO's and we are all getting fired!
Dev2: If we could make our own company we could keep making this game ourselves and not be Fired!
Dev3: Gimme some money to make a company!
(Devs Pool Money and make SSG)
SSG: Good Day sir, we would like to buy the rights to DDO, and LOTRO from you.
Turbine/WB: who the fuck are you?
SSG It's us asshole, the people you fired!
Turbine: Oh, righty then.. sure, here you go, enjoy your shit show.

Pretty much sums it all up. And the whales are keeping it alive and kicking.

Po_gg · October 2020

Ungood said:

No, WB was not the hero here.
[...]

That's odd, you reply to me, even quote the entire post, and then talk about something else... where did I say WB was a hero? Also,

Ungood said:

SSG was started by a bunch of Devs from Turbine, but that is not in any way, being Turbine, or even a part of Turbine, or being related to Turbine or WB.

You don't see the contradiction there?

(Let me help with a dumb example: Garriot is at Portalarium, and in not in any way related to Origin or EA...)

SSG was founded by the people of Turbine who were working on the MMORPGs. Some of them worked on those games since launch. They've founded it while they were at Turbine, founded it with the approval of WB, and in their first 1-2 months they were even seated at the same office. The very same people.

If it suits you more, you can see it as from the moment of the announcement they were "not in any way related to Turbine of WB".

To me it's just semantics. A group of people were working for years on a game I play, with the sign Turbine over their heads.

Then the same group of people working on the game I play, just now the sign above them is SSG. In my book that means they're still Turbine - in the sense that they're the same group of people the game had 10 years ago as well.

Sure, technically Turbine was bigger, and some people of it (unrelated to LotRO and DDO) are not with SSG. But since they were working on other projects... /shrug

Feels weird even to have detailing it, to be honest. And definitely not worth debating over it.

Have it your way. SSG != Turbine. There. You won the internet.

What I was trying to point at was your original post of

"evil Turbine wanna kill LotRO but the saviour SSG rides in for the rescue" ain't accurate. (unless you mean they saved it from themselves)

Also, to the WB is the hero (which I never said, and you didn't mention WB at all, for the record) part: at least they went on with it. There are countless examples in the industry for the opposite.

Could've gone the Ncsoft way, when Paragon tried to do the same with CoX... Nc simply said no and pulled the plug.

WB at least worked with them to set up and take over the games.

Ungood · October 2020

Po_gg said:

Ungood said:

No, WB was not the hero here.
[...]

That's odd, you reply to me, even quote the entire post, and then talk about something else... where did I say WB was a hero? Also,

Ungood said:

SSG was started by a bunch of Devs from Turbine, but that is not in any way, being Turbine, or even a part of Turbine, or being related to Turbine or WB.
You don't see the contradiction there?

(Let me help with a dumb example: Garriot is at Portalarium, and in not in any way related to Origin or EA...)

SSG was founded by the people of Turbine who were working on the MMORPGs. Some of them worked on those games since launch. They've founded it while they were at Turbine, founded it with the approval of WB, and in their first 1-2 months they were even seated at the same office. The very same people.
If it suits you more, you can see it as from the moment of the announcement they were "not in any way related to Turbine of WB".

To me it's just semantics. A group of people were working for years on a game I play, with the sign Turbine over their heads.
Then the same group of people working on the game I play, just now the sign above them is SSG. In my book that means they're still Turbine - in the sense that they're the same group of people the game had 10 years ago as well.

Sure, technically Turbine was bigger, and some people of it (unrelated to LotRO and DDO) are not with SSG. But since they were working on other projects... /shrug

Feels weird even to have detailing it, to be honest. And definitely not worth debating over it.
Have it your way. SSG != Turbine. There. You won the internet.

What I was trying to point at was your original post of
"evil Turbine wanna kill LotRO but the saviour SSG rides in for the rescue" ain't accurate. (unless you mean they saved it from themselves)

Also, to the WB is the hero (which I never said, and you didn't mention WB at all, for the record) part: at least they went on with it. There are countless examples in the industry for the opposite.
Could've gone the Ncsoft way, when Paragon tried to do the same with CoX... Nc simply said no and pulled the plug.
WB at least worked with them to set up and take over the games.

I could have let a squirrel dance on a keyboard and made more sense then your post did.

Ungood · October 2020

Hariken said:

Ungood said:

For anyone that is confused by the Turbine/SSG saga. Let me sum it up for you.

Turbine: WB said we are shutting down our MMO's and Firing you all.
Dev1: Shit dude, they are shutting down the MMO's and we are all getting fired!
Dev2: If we could make our own company we could keep making this game ourselves and not be Fired!
Dev3: Gimme some money to make a company!
(Devs Pool Money and make SSG)
SSG: Good Day sir, we would like to buy the rights to DDO, and LOTRO from you.
Turbine/WB: who the fuck are you?
SSG It's us asshole, the people you fired!
Turbine: Oh, righty then.. sure, here you go, enjoy your shit show.

Pretty much sums it all up. And the whales are keeping it alive and kicking.

I wager they are. I mean, it stands to reason that the people that not paying into the game are not keeping it going.. LOL.

Po_gg · October 2020

Ungood said:

I could have let a squirrel dance on a keyboard and made more sense then your post did.

Don't stress yourself on it (neither stress poor squirrel), you've already won the internet, just said so above innit?

An another small tidbit which I'm sure won't rock your world either,

Ungood said:

Turbine/WB: who the fuck are you?
SSG It's us asshole, the people you fired!

Except SSG was made by people still at Turbine and not part of the previous layoffs.

(Though I believe later they've hired back a few of those people too, when everything was on rails already.

The founding and the negotiations were with the original crew however. You know, the not-Turbine-but-SSG people, still working on LotRO at the time

)

Ungood · October 2020

Po_gg said:

Ungood said:

Turbine/WB: who the fuck are you?
SSG It's us asshole, the people you fired!

Except SSG was made by people still at Turbine and not part of the previous layoffs.

(Though I believe later they've hired back a few of those people too, when everything was on rails already.
The founding and the negotiations were with the original crew however. You know, the not-Turbine-but-SSG people, still working on LotRO at the time )

Actually they were all terminated before SSG was made.

Turbine/WB made it clear they were closing down their MMO's, they made the announcement that all their MMO games were being sunset and all the staff that was working on them was being let go.

There was an Official announcement, crying on the forums, the whole dog and pony show and everything, if you had been there, you would have understood. It's obvious you were not.

Anyway, Everyone that worked on the MMO's was given their notices that they were being let go, Just to say this again, because you seem confused, Everyone had been officially given their notice of termination.

A few of the Devs pooled their money together and made SSG as a panic move to keep doing what they loved the games alive, before the official closing date of DDO/LOTRO, and made deals with Turbine to take over the games, and transfer them to the new company before they were shut down.

Ergo. New Company, made by the Employees. Not by Trubine, not by WB, it was in every sense of the word, the Developers jumping in and saving the game they loved.

Pity that is too hard for you to understand.

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