Originally posted by junzo316

Originally posted by Liltawen

I agree. Maybe some one can come up with a new UI that doesn't include that gold coin. Even Cryptic is more subtle.

 

*In before Philby*

 

This doesn't actually bother me and is easily ignored.  It also allows me faster access to the store when I need something.

Dont know about it I left before the F2P started,  but ive seen pictures. Glad you jumped in to defend it though, it shows your paying attention.

Well there was so many half truths in this article one had to wonder who is being paid to write this article.

First off, lets get this straight the real folks who were winners are those who have vip access.  Otherwise at some point your going to either have to spend turbine points, or pay to unlock things. 

The level 20 areas-50 have to be unlocked even for a premium player.  The only folks who don't have to unlock are the VIP's.

Now lets take a look at the low level areas, and go over to the general discussion chat over in the lotro forums.  Have you all seen how many folks are upset.  Seams the community took a downer according to some folks.  I just think its more the same as its been in the past few years, just more of it now that there are more folks playing.

This game is not free to play in any term.  I prefer the term "Free to Log in"  and pay for unlocks, or subs. 

Some folks claim that you don't have to pay, if your smart you can do the deeds and game play to earn enough TP to pay for the unlocks, however I think that is more horse hockey than anything else.

Lotro use to be a great game, it is now a cash grab pure and simple.  If you love it then by all means play it, however I will not be spending any TP at all. Even the free TP that I earned being a lifter. 

There is nothing in the store that I would buy,  but I am sure plenty of other folks will find plenty to spend TP on.

Originally posted by Philby

Originally posted by junzo316

Originally posted by Liltawen

I agree. Maybe some one can come up with a new UI that doesn't include that gold coin. Even Cryptic is more subtle.

 

*In before Philby*

 

This doesn't actually bother me and is easily ignored.  It also allows me faster access to the store when I need something.

Dont know about it I left before the F2P started,  but ive seen pictures. Glad you jumped in to defend it though, it shows your paying attention.

Not actually defending it...just giving my opinion.  I could do without it, but it's there, so I just ignore it for the most part.  It's easily ignored.

Originally posted by SnarlingWolf

1) I remember doing two of the killtasks from that outpost south of Bree and the correct creatures were not popping up much even with me mass killing everything I came across. The reason was there was 1 other guy on those same exact kill task and there wasn't enough of the creatures to support us both doing them. In fact a couple of times we both ran to try and hit the creature first when we saw one spawn. So to have tons of new F2P people all doing the same killtasks would of been an absolute nightmare.

I stopped playing about 2 weeks ago, when I realised there were not enough things to kill for everybody! I might try again in the future, but with so many other games to play, who knows when!!!

I jumped in to check it out again and I'm loving it.  I came from STO so I dont expect much from an MMO anymore.  I have an awesome rig so seeing this game with the visuals all turned up is awesome.  I find it refreshing that they have a good crafting system, player housing, raid content, purpose for kinships and all the other things that STO lacks.  I plan on subbing and picking up the expansions this weekend when I have time.  Going F2P worked for getting my money!

What I have found worst of the switch to the ftp hybred model is that it seems at least from my personal experience of rolling a new character on 4 different servers is that most of the ftp people are nothing but trolls and as has been called on other threads the dregs of the gaming population.

The non stop vulgarity and racial/homophobic slurs are trully sickening. I have had to turn off all the standard chat channels just to keep from rage qutting the game entirely. Even my days of playing wow were never this bad not to mention all the kill and resourse stealing.

I find it very sad that there are that many people with nothing better to do then make throw away accounts just to do everything in their power to disrupt the gaming experience of everyone around them.

I hope that this trend goes away over time for if this the type of players that are going to be taking over lotro my time in middle earth is over for good.

fuí beneficiado para poder jugar  LOTRO sin costo al principio. Y sinceramente pienso que es lo mejor, por que sirve para atrapar a los que queremos pagar para tener mejores cosas. Habrá gente que tenga varios personajes sin pagar pero lo importante es la gente que ama el juego y ahora quiere pagar. Nosotros defenderemos por siempre LOTRO.

I went to play LOTRO benefit at no cost at first. And frankly I think is the best, used to track those who want to pay for better things. There will be people who have multiple characters without pay but the important thing is the people who love the game and now wants to pay. We will defend LOTRO forever.

( In Spanish)

fuí beneficiado para poder jugar  LOTRO sin costo al principio. Y sinceramente pienso que es lo mejor, por que sirve para atrapar a los que queremos pagar para tener mejores cosas. Habrá gente que tenga varios personajes sin pagar pero lo importante es la gente que ama el juego y ahora quiere pagar. Nosotros defenderemos por siempre LOTRO.

Originally posted by coldandnumb

What I have found worst of the switch to the ftp hybred model is that it seems at least from my personal experience of rolling a new character on 4 different servers is that most of the ftp people are nothing but trolls and as has been called on other threads the dregs of the gaming population.

The non stop vulgarity and racial/homophobic slurs are trully sickening. I have had to turn off all the standard chat channels just to keep from rage qutting the game entirely. Even my days of playing wow were never this bad not to mention all the kill and resourse stealing.

I find it very sad that there are that many people with nothing better to do then make throw away accounts just to do everything in their power to disrupt the gaming experience of everyone around them.

I hope that this trend goes away over time for if this the type of players that are going to be taking over lotro my time in middle earth is over for good.

Well, you know, when people are creating alts they don't give a shit about to grind out TP to buy quest packs that came with the box they originally bought but they now have to buy again, I dont think they much care whether anyone else is annoyed since  they most likely don't even play on those servers normally, and those characters will be deleted shortly anyway to amke new ones to grind more TP.

Originally posted by DonnieBrasco

"Essentially if you own the three expansions already, Lord of the Rings Online really is subscription free and only a minority of features or disabled for the player"

Ok, first of all, there had only been 2 expansion so far: Moria and Mirkwood (not 3).

Secondly, this is incorrect. If you own both Angmar, Moria, and Mirkwood, and you wish to play free (being a Premier player), you would still need to buy the quest packs between 20-50.

" those that own the game, but do not actively subscribe, are “premium players” and therefore do not need to buy content they already own." - this is the totally incorrect part.

Please try to focus on giving correct info, or you will be flamed by haters. The game is great, and I agree it's still the best option to stay VIP and be subbed/lifetimer.

DB

I agree. Guess we have yet one more newbie writer who doesn't even research the topic of his article. Yay.

The only winner in the long run in "Free to Play" is the company running the game.

Every single F2P game on the market tweaks the difficulty level of added content in order to sell cash shop items and make buffs mandatory.

Even D&D Online, makes much of their money selling buffs (that's straight from their presentation). So don't think that this won't be the case in LOTRO. $15 a month with 500 points as a bonus? Oh no, more like $15 plus another $15 in the store worth of cash shop items.

You can see it with the new content. Quests that are supposedly solo require you to kill a boss that has literally 3x the hit points I do.

They removed the rewards of giving you virtues for deeds in the new area. Because they want to sell the virtues in the store now. You can't get most of them by just playing normally, your choices are now either grind your fingers off, or use the store.

Originally posted by trancejeremy

The only winner in the long run in "Free to Play" is the company running the game.

Every single F2P game on the market tweaks the difficulty level of added content in order to sell cash shop items and make buffs mandatory.

Even D&D Online, makes much of their money selling buffs (that's straight from their presentation). So don't think that this won't be the case in LOTRO. $15 a month with 500 points as a bonus? Oh no, more like $15 plus another $15 in the store worth of cash shop items.

You can see it with the new content. Quests that are supposedly solo require you to kill a boss that has literally 3x the hit points I do.

They removed the rewards of giving you virtues for deeds in the new area. Because they want to sell the virtues in the store now. You can't get most of them by just playing normally, your choices are now either grind your fingers off, or use the store.

I can kill a boss that has 3x the hit points I do, but some of them have 9x the hit points I do and obviously these will not be solo. 

I like the game update so far and have not used one of my 4500 store points yet.  I see no reason to. 

Originally posted by Danthelgard

We will defend LOTRO forever.

 

 

LOL you fanbois are more like a religious sect :) You made my morning :) By the way Lotro fanbois tend to talk a lot about "the best community ever" but generate much more hate towards those who dare not to praise what Lotro has become over a last year or F2P. 

The praise heaped on Turbine by this article is unwarranted. As another poster pointed out, this is Turbine regressing to FTP. I am all for trials which lower the barrier of entry into an MMO. These serve players and developers equally well. Players who believe they are better off with the free to play set up are either deluded, or are poor enough that they really couldn't pay a subscription even if they wanted to. I understand the second group having enthusiasm for the whole FTP thing and they can't even be manipulated into spending cash because they simply don't have any. The rest of us are being manipulated in an underhanded way, whether we realise it or not.

The free Turbine points, for example, are "training" you to become comfortable with the cash shop, to get used to the interface and become accustomed to the idea of shopping being part of the player experience.

Once again mmorpg.com is going along with whatever way developers want to go without thinking that perhaps they could do more to stand up for the players and question whether these companies are serving themselves or really trying to provide better value for money.

Shame on you Adam Tingle.

Originally posted by Strap

 

The praise heaped on Turbine by this article is unwarranted. As another poster pointed out, this is Turbine regressing to FTP. I am all for trials which lower the barrier of entry into an MMO. These serve players and developers equally well. Players who believe they are better off with the free to play set up are either deluded, or are poor enough that they really couldn't pay a subscription even if they wanted to. I understand the second group having enthusiasm for the whole FTP thing and they can't even be manipulated into spending cash because they simply don't have any. The rest of us are being manipulated in an underhanded way, whether we realise it or not.

 

The free Turbine points, for example, are "training" you to become comfortable with the cash shop, to get used to the interface and become accustomed to the idea of shopping being part of the player experience.

 

Once again mmorpg.com is going along with whatever way developers want to go without thinking that perhaps they could do more to stand up for the players and question whether these companies are serving themselves or really trying to provide better value for money.

 

Shame on you Adam Tingle.

Well I have noticed a push here to make all the games go free to play.  There is one writer in particular who pushed his bias views of free to play every chance he gets.  Then when games go free to play the praise them.  However I have to say that turbine has always been the fair haired child.

Yes turbine is getting praise, while soe who pulled the same move got like 1 or 2 articles at best.  Not even a mention of hey they are out of beta with their free to play model of eq2, not that I am happy about it either (as in free to play at least its on seperate servers), just pointing out that some companies seam to get the pass.

As far as the store goes, I  can see what is going to happen.  Eventually at the end game you will need to buy some of the items in the store to beat certain end game bosses.  I will just call that right now. After all the way your going to make your new revenue stream, is for folks to buy items that is not in game live that are needed.  We have that right now with the power/heath pots.  

I will say this if you look at other games that have a store.  STO - federation dreadnought 25 bucks not available in game, facebook/zenga  apps all have items you can not earn in game, you must buy those. EQ2 Next special armor, mounts, and other items same thing.   Over and over you see this.  What they hope happens is with your free to log in they hope you get hooked enough to spend the cash in order to progress. Even eq2 live has special mounts 25 bucks a shot in that cash shop.    

F2P lives or dies with the cash shop and the ability to convince the players to spend money. There are those that know this, those that wont admit that and those that just dont get it.

Originally posted by erictlewis

Originally posted by Strap

 

The praise heaped on Turbine by this article is unwarranted. As another poster pointed out, this is Turbine regressing to FTP. I am all for trials which lower the barrier of entry into an MMO. These serve players and developers equally well. Players who believe they are better off with the free to play set up are either deluded, or are poor enough that they really couldn't pay a subscription even if they wanted to. I understand the second group having enthusiasm for the whole FTP thing and they can't even be manipulated into spending cash because they simply don't have any. The rest of us are being manipulated in an underhanded way, whether we realise it or not.

 

The free Turbine points, for example, are "training" you to become comfortable with the cash shop, to get used to the interface and become accustomed to the idea of shopping being part of the player experience.

 

Once again mmorpg.com is going along with whatever way developers want to go without thinking that perhaps they could do more to stand up for the players and question whether these companies are serving themselves or really trying to provide better value for money.

 

Shame on you Adam Tingle.

 

Well I have noticed a push here to make all the games go free to play.  There is one writer in particular who pushed his bias views of free to play every chance he gets.  Then when games go free to play the praise them.  However I have to say that turbine has always been the fair haired child.

Yes turbine is getting praise, while soe who pulled the same move got like 1 or 2 articles at best.  Not even a mention of hey they are out of beta with their free to play model of eq2, not that I am happy about it either (as in free to play at least its on seperate servers), just pointing out that some companies seam to get the pass.

As far as the store goes, I  can see what is going to happen.  Eventually at the end game you will need to buy some of the items in the store to beat certain end game bosses.  I will just call that right now. After all the way your going to make your new revenue stream, is for folks to buy items that is not in game live that are needed.  We have that right now with the power/heath pots.  

I will say this if you look at other games that have a store.  STO - federation dreadnought 25 bucks not available in game, facebook/zenga  apps all have items you can not earn in game, you must buy those. EQ2 Next special armor, mounts, and other items same thing.   Over and over you see this.  What they hope happens is with your free to log in they hope you get hooked enough to spend the cash in order to progress. Even eq2 live has special mounts 25 bucks a shot in that cash shop.    

I don't get all the criticism directed at Turbine.  Obviously most of you have no clue what you are talking about.  You also are completely oblivious to the fact that this is perfect for a casual player.  They can buy content when they are ready for it for a reasonable price.   

If you want to get more active in the game you can sub and buy the expansions.   There is nothing in the store you have to have as in many f2p games and the prices are quite reasonable.  I don't like f2p much in general, but the Turbine model actually makes sense.

I have not seen any reasons posted in this thread that support the criticism.  

Originally posted by trancejeremy

Every single F2P game on the market tweaks the difficulty level of added content in order to sell cash shop items and make buffs mandatory.

Even D&D Online, makes much of their money selling buffs (that's straight from their presentation). So don't think that this won't be the case in LOTRO. $15 a month with 500 points as a bonus? Oh no, more like $15 plus another $15 in the store worth of cash shop items.

You can see it with the new content. Quests that are supposedly solo require you to kill a boss that has literally 3x the hit points I do.

They removed the rewards of giving you virtues for deeds in the new area. Because they want to sell the virtues in the store now. You can't get most of them by just playing normally, your choices are now either grind your fingers off, or use the store.

    I'll just say You're wrong.  You've never played D&D Online - your statement above proves that (Since there is NO content tuned for the store there - and that's after over a year)

  The new content (Enedwaith) is tuned specifically for end-game players.  You know darn well that pretty much every boss in the game as more than 3 times the average players health - why you try to bring this up as a negative now?  Who knows.

  You obviously have quite the problem with the game now - as evidenced by your posts here, and on the official forums.  Perhape it's time to cut your losses and find something else?  The posturing is getting old.