LOTRO TAXI to victory lasted two weeks

[Bunk]

Bunk = Grunk

heh

Oh, hells no. 

And WUA summed up what I really wanted to say to him a few posts back.

[bignatz]

3.  I'm enjoying working my way through the story
4.  They have added more content in the first 3 months than WoW did the first year

This is the most interesting part for me. How you are "following close behind" Frodo until you finally meet him in Rivendell, trying to keep minor nuisances off his back with your own quests, and meeting certain key characters in varying closed environments, is at least a semblance of dynamic storytelling. I, uhhh, admit that I liked the strange walk that you do with Frodo in Rivendell, expecting an ambush or something... and all he really does is confide in you about his Angst.

Best system for storytelling that I've seen yet in an MMO (my favorite single player RPG is Planescape:Torment, so I'm a sucker for stories).

And Turbine wasn't happy how they never really got marketing credit for the monthly updates of AC (although there were gems in there like Frore, and innovative stuff like the Shard Defence... Stormy, say something!!). Now they are copying the CoX "issues" and try to get more media attention with that. Successfully, I hope.

[Yegolev]

WTF does lotro have to keep people playing?

I can play as a chicken.

[Venkman]

Except that it didn't, because they tried again with Vanguard.  That went well

VG was started so long ago though they can be excused for old thinking. What they can't be excused for is the wonton avoidance of the years worth of people who tried to tell them otherwise. There's faith in an idea and then there's zealotry.

[Yegolev]

wonton avoidance

Fear of fried noodles?

[Venkman]

Too many carbs.

[Chimpy]

I sure wish people would stop exhuming this thread with their "I think LOTRO is a piece of shit because I play "X" game super hardc0r3 styleee" posts.

 

[Nonentity]

I sure wish people would stop exhuming this thread with their "I think LOTRO is a piece of shit because I play "X" game super hardc0r3 styleee" posts.

 

Where's grunk when you need him?

[Abelian75]

Where's grunk when you need him?

He's the one that exhumed this thread earlier today.  But I wouldn't count on him coming back, he may have accidentally seen Blizzard's 9 million subs press release and gone into a rage-induced comatose state.

[Yegolev]

More likely his check bounced and he was thrown out of rehab.

[Hutch]

More likely his check bounced and he was thrown out of rehab.

Where's Amy Winehouse when you need him?

[Slayerik]

More likely his check bounced and he was thrown out of rehab.

Where's Amy Winehouse when you need him?

Nice.

[Azazel]

And fuck your fucking dark knight, you humpbacked catass degenerate fucking loser.  Get your ass over to FoH or somewhere else you belong with this fucking dumbass sig of yours.  Go apply your "discipline" to something that matters.  The rest of the universe likes it's games to be fun.
Wait, sigs don't appear in quotes.  You fucking typed that by hand.  Jesus.

Great post, WUA. I'm almost in tears of laughter.

Except that it didn't, because they tried again with Vanguard.  That went well.

They were building that piece of catass-shit before WoW came out, remember. It was their last great white hope.

[DraconianOne]

There is not enough content in this game. Not enough depth. This game follows the WoW, give it to em now without any work. No discipline. WoW had the BG/Faction treadmill to keep people going. They had the 40 man lol-zerg-raids to keep em going.

WTF does lotro have to keep people playing? It aint the PVMP. It aint the traits…

They will not be able to keep the customers they have due to the game model they are following. They will not add new customers because of the new games that are coming out. Then you got older games that have expansions coming out, graphic updates ETC.


Grunk
75 Dark Knight
Remora

But it's not so long since...

Speak to just about any of us beta testers of lotro, and they will tell you that they are buying lotro not because it’s a great mmo, but because it quite simply is the best beta they have ever been in.
 
If turbine is willing to work hard for us, for free imagine what they will do when we actually pay them.
 
the haters seem to point at a lot of turbines past mistakes or failures, but I just don’t see how this even relates to Lotro or the success Turbine is GOING to achieve. Lotro will be a hit, it will be a million sellers, you can basically bank on that…
 
I will go out of my way and frankly say, that WAR will be a flat out bust and Mythica will go the way of Origin … except Origin actually made GREAT games… DaOC was not such.
 
Its just a waste of my time, to explain why Lotro is a great game. You can sign up for the beta, if you can’t figure it out, you were never meant to be here…
 
Oh btw, im not a casual gamer, im a POWER gamer… so much for that Stereotype that the Vanbois are throwing around…
 
I think out of all of them, AoC will either be a milestone, or a complete bust. The guys at fun com are maybe the only ones who are actually trying to do something different in this space.
 
Why will I sign up for lotro lifetime? Its really simple, A my EQ clan is moving to it ( http://rotfh.com ) and it’s the best PVE mmorpg I have played since FFXI.

Also, there's this classic quote from another of his posts: "if your view is different then mine, I could care less… all it means is your wrong."  The boy's a genius!

[Endie]

Except that it didn't, because they tried again with Vanguard.  That went well.

They were building that piece of catass-shit before WoW came out, remember. It was their last great white hope.

You're a kinder, gentler man than I.  I think that - if all that stuff they posted on FOH was to be believed - they actually were confirmed in their decisions to go "hardcore" (which I translate as "unpleasant"), and drove more strongly in that direction for a time in order to differentiate.  They certainly had time for major rethinks to the actual encounters, quests and XP-gain in the light of WoW.


^^^ Excellent internet detection skills, Draconian ^^^

[Azazel]

Oh, I agree with what you're saying. But they had the Cult of Brad in place, while he Jim Jonesed along quite obliviously right up till they got booted by MS, and started making last-moment concessions to not sucking. But all their h4rdc0r3 bullshit was in from the start, as basic design fundamentals, so they were largely fucked regeardless.

I mean, just look at how long EQ2 has taken with what I understand is a very good live team to go from from it's early VG-esque steps to what it is today.

My real question, though, is whether Grunk ever took out that lifetime LOTRO sub?

[Abelian75]

Man, that's a nice find DraconianOne.  O grunk, what a fickle flower you are.

[Ironwood]

I fear Draconian just ended things nicely.

I would like him banned from my Divorce thread, should it ever happen.

 

[Venkman]

Why will I sign up for lotro lifetime?

Payin' to hate is just stupid. LoTRO is as easy-mode as WoW.

[cmlancas]

My e-peen brings all the boys to the yard, and they're like, it's better than yours.....

LOTRO is currently doing better than VG. Perhaps you and your hardcore friends can revive the game!

[Nebu]

Anyone have some semi-madeup numbers for LOTRO current subscriptions?  If you're ambitious, I'd love to see the lifetime sub numbers as well.

[Venkman]

They haven't added any new servers yet, anywhere (12 US, 15 EU). So I imagine they're at plateau in terms of subs. They had invited 1,000,000 players to test out the Middle Earth World Tour, but I have no idea how many showed up. Certainly we would have heard if they got anywhere near 1,000,000 players though.

My guess would be they have somewhere between 300k and 400k active subscriptions, not enough to add nor merge servers.

I also think they launched Book 9 too early. For one this sets the expectation for content for every book publish, something quite unsustainable. Much of Book 9 felt like it was stuff that was done but not done enough for launch. For another, they could have enjoy a returning-subscriber spike if they had waited another month or to for people to let their monthly bills relapse due to disappointment/boredom.

On lifetime passes, I have no idea. Those people are whack anyway ;)

[Hound]

On lifetime passes, I have no idea. Those people are whack anyway ;)

thank you thank you , we do try, normalcy is highly over rated you know

[Azazel]

That feels right to me somehow. If it were near a million, or even over the half-million mark I'm sure they'd be trumpeting it loudly from the rooftops. Not that 3-400k is a bad number for any game not called WoW...

[Numtini]

It would be easy enough to use the social window to get peak player counts and extrapolate populations from there.

[Nebu]

In this day and age (and by that, I mean post-WoW) any game with a large development budget should seriously question why it doesn't have 1 million + subs.  Unless they are purposefully attempting to be niche, I'd be a pissed investor if my $50 million didn't garner a larger audience.  My hope is that LOTRO will serve as a wake-up call to investors.  It proves that a pretty diku with the right license still isn't enough to grab the big numbers.  

[Venkman]

I thiink LoTRO only cost $30mil. That ain't chump change of course. But that is a fairly contemporary budget for a pricey console game that doesn't have a recurring fee, much less one that isn't designed to end it's collection of money.

To me, you need to make some design, business and technical decisions up front, so you can appropriately scale your investment to the potential market. VG would have loved to have a few hundred thousand accounts. But the decisions they made along the way did not support that outcome. Oh they thought it would, but they acted like an indie by not even considering methods to substantiate it.

To me, the days of AAA budgets managed by indie thinkers are over. People want confidence in the return on their investment. That isn't to say indie development is done. It just means $50mil isn't handed over freely to just anyone who thinks they have a good idea and handle the development.

There's a reason so much activity is happening on the browser size. You can proven success in the "millions" for a hell of a lot less money than it costs to make the sort of MMO we here would play for long. Different audience of course, but a bigger one that has different expectations too.

[Daztur]

In this day and age (and by that, I mean post-WoW) any game with a large development budget should seriously question why it doesn't have 1 million + subs.  Unless they are purposefully attempting to be niche, I'd be a pissed investor if my $50 million didn't garner a larger audience.  My hope is that LOTRO will serve as a wake-up call to investors.  It proves that a pretty diku with the right license still isn't enough to grab the big numbers.  

Well expecting to pay $50 and automatically get something with $15,000,000/month revenue (and that's just subscriptions, not boxes at $15 per month per person) is silly in any industry, let alone one with as high marginal profits as MMORPGs.

[Oban]

The box is selling for CAD59.99 up here.  Seemed a little high for a subscription game so I am holding off for a bit until the price drops.

Do price drops cause a noticeable up-tick in sub numbers?

[Slayerik]

The box is selling for CAD59.99 up here.  Seemed a little high for a subscription game so I am holding off for a bit until the price drops.

Do price drops cause a noticeable up-tick in sub numbers?

If anyone is looking for this game PM me, I'll save you some money. I got 2 accounts and boxes ill sell for 40 bucks shipped (or 35 for just accounts 26 guardian on one, 25 hunter on other). They are subbed through Mid august as well. We're all friends here, but if we arent supposed to post this kinda stuff feel free to hack and slash it with my apologies.

[Hound]

If anyone wants a guest key PM me with a email address, I went with the lifetime thing at release so I have no need for the game time cards however if I refer you it gets you in the door for ten a month and I will give any time cards I receive away here.

the link: http://www.lotro.com/referral

[tmp]

In this day and age (and by that, I mean post-WoW) any game with a large development budget should seriously question why it doesn't have 1 million + subs.  Unless they are purposefully attempting to be niche, I'd be a pissed investor if my $50 million didn't garner a larger audience.  My hope is that LOTRO will serve as a wake-up call to investors.  It proves that a pretty diku with the right license still isn't enough to grab the big numbers.  

That's a bit like expecting every new soft drink or junk food brand to reach huge popularity because it's post-CocaCola or post-McDonald world...

[Nebu]

In this day and age (and by that, I mean post-WoW) any game with a large development budget should seriously question why it doesn't have 1 million + subs.  Unless they are purposefully attempting to be niche, I'd be a pissed investor if my $50 million didn't garner a larger audience.  My hope is that LOTRO will serve as a wake-up call to investors.  It proves that a pretty diku with the right license still isn't enough to grab the big numbers.  

That's a bit like expecting every new soft drink or junk food brand to reach huge popularity because it's post-CocaCola or post-McDonald world...

Expecting popularity and questioning a lack of success are two different things.  Can you really not see that?

[tmp]

Expecting popularity and questioning a lack of success are two different things.  Can you really not see that?

But the perceived lack of success is tied strongly with expected level of popularity. If you set your expectations unrealistically high, you are given to be disappointed which doesn't have to do much with actual success or lack thereof.

[Nebu]

Fair enough.  What's an unrealistic expectation when you're investing say... $50 million into a project?  I think most everyone here would consider Vanguard to be a failure yet investors are still chasing after the same shiny diku projects.  Which brings me back to the original comment that you had quoted. 

In this day and age (and by that, I mean post-WoW) any game with a large development budget should seriously question why it doesn't have 1 million + subs.

If they do their homework, their next project should be more successful.  Well... should they get a second opportunity.