Re: LOTRO Goes Free to Play : Sept 10 (Sept 8 for Cool Kids)

[Numtini]

Just saw this on their facebook feed.

Today is an important day for LOTRO: we’ve announced that this fall, LOTRO will begin offering a Free-to-Play option! Players will be able to download the game and adventure in Middle-earth for free. With Free-to-Play comes the addition of the LOTRO Store, where players will have immediate in-game access to a wide variety of special items, account services, and convenience items.

(Apologies if this belongs in LOTRO, but a supposedly successful top shelf MMO going F2P seems significant beyond LOTRO.)

[Malakili]

Wow! Did not see this coming at all.  Is there any word on if there will still be subscriptions?   What about the lifers? 

[Mrbloodworth]

Holy shit.

http://www.lotro.com/news/709

Seems none of this affects me as a lifer. Other than I get an allowance for store stuff.

Is there any word on if there will still be subscriptions?   What about the lifers?  

Yes, and Nothing changed. Looks like this is mostly about new users, and expansions and adventure packs are still required as a different purchase. Lifers are unaffected.

Hello!

Today we announced a couple of big changes for LOTRO, and I wanted to take a moment to talk about them. Last year my esteemed colleague and friend Jeffrey Steefel moved over to a new project at Turbine and I am now the Executive Producer for LOTRO!

As far as my background goes – I have been a producer in MMO development for 10 years. My career began in the industry working on the social world of There.com, where I designed and managed the implementation of There’s new player experience and commerce suite, including There’s 5000 product in-game catalog. I joined Turbine in 2005 and helped launch Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach. I’d been leading the DDO development team for some time when we decided to transform the game with our hybrid business model, and after Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited launched I joined the LOTRO team as Jeffrey segued onto his next project.

Given my background, it’s hardly surprising that I believe very strongly in the power of providing gamers with a choice in how they pay and play our games. By adding a free–to-play component and store offering we will open up LOTRO to millions of players who simply won’t play a game that requires a subscription fee. I’m sure many of you have lots of questions about this decision, and I want to say clearly that the decision to introduce a free-to-play option was based on the desire to take the game to a new level by bringing even more players into the world of Middle-earth. LOTRO is one of the most successful MMOs in the world and has been doing very well as a subscription-only game, but with the success we’ve seen with DDO it seemed clear that this move is going to be hugely beneficial for the LOTRO community.

For our LOTRO VIPs the game will not change, except there will be more players around to group with, and there will be the ability to use the new LOTRO Store, which is completely optional for all players and gives access to hundreds of convenience, cosmetic and consumable items! You’ll be able to check out the Store in the Beta Program, and I encourage any of you who are interested to click here to sign up for it! For more details, and to learn about the differences between VIPs, Premium players, and Free players, click here.

When we launch LOTRO Free-to-Play this fall, the change will bring with it more than just the transition to the hybrid business model. We’ve revamped the game’s starting areas, added the new region of Enedwaith, and will continue the journey of the Rangers south in Book 2 of our epic story.

As we go forward beyond this major update, we’re going to be giving our players the same great content and feature releases that you’ve come to expect from LOTRO. In late 2010 and into 2011, we’re going to be working on improvements to the Item Advancement / Legendary Items system, to Radiance, and to the monster play system. I believe this is going to be a very exciting time for LOTRO, and hope that you all continue to share your perspective on the game as it grows and changes as we continue our journey toward Mordor. Please sign-up for the Beta Program and let us know what you think about the way Book 2 is shaping up!

I look forward to seeing you in Middle-earth!

Kate Paiz

Executive Producer
The Lord of the Rings Online

Giant FAQ:

[Cyrrex]

Can you add more details to your "holy shit"?  I don't want to click that link at work.

[Ollie]

This would be the time to climb on a really high horse and white knight the shit out of this thing. I don't think I will, though.

I'm a founder and a lifer, and it has been a good run these past three years. Heck, I guess I've played for free for almost two years now. I have no regrets. If they implement the cash shop in a manner that absolutely rubs me the wrong way, I'll just leave quietly.

[Mrbloodworth]

Can you add more details to your "holy shit"?  I don't want to click that link at work.

Working on it! But, i didn't see this coming, LOTRO has been quite successful, I guess the DDO successes has made them think twice about pure sub plans. I knew subs were getting tired in MMO's, but I didn't think LOTRO would be a AAA that would switch.

I think the bar just got raised again for F2P games.

[Zetor]

Interesting.. this might get my guild playing lotro again. Free is a good price.  

[Draegan]

Oh this is nice.

[Sky]

I only played for a couple months, but it looks like the free options would already be pretty limiting. Small annoyances to drive the cash shop, I guess.

The new capitalism model: slightly annoy your customers into spending money to make you stop.

[tmp]

Interesting they don't include their PvM thing in the free deal.

[Malakili]

After having played the "full version" so to speak, I don't think I could deal with the free version, so this effects me not at all I've decided.  Either I would go back and sub, or I'd not.

[Tarami]

As a lifetime subscriber to LOTRO, you will keep all of your membership privileges and are automatically upgraded to VIP status. You will receive 500 Free Turbine Points every month like the other VIPs, but you do not have to pay a monthly fee since you are a lifetime member. All you have to do is keep playing the game and visit the LOTRO Store to spend your free points and enjoy the wealth of new a la carte items and options to enhance your game experience.

NICE.

[Numtini]

Pricing I guess would be key. I can see a lot of deal killers in there.

[Mrbloodworth]

Interesting they don't include their PvM thing in the free deal.

There are some interesting spoilers for future updates in that producers letter.

Also, I brought just about all the official info on this over for our work locked readers.

[Draegan]

If it's anything like the DDO store, it's all pretty reasonably priced.  They did a nice job with it.

[Tarami]

Yes, I don't see Turbine doing what Nival did with Allods. They've basically been giving LotRO away the past year and imagine keeping a low price point is part of their marketing.

[Reg]

LOTRO has always had a fairly intelligent and mature community though. I'm a little concerned about how that will change once it's free to play.

[Numtini]

LOTRO has always had a fairly intelligent and mature community though. I'm a little concerned about how that will change once it's free to play.

I've played enough free to play games to have a 100% answer to that one: it's history.

[Mrbloodworth]

DDO makes free players play on new servers. Quite sure old players/servers will be unmolested.

[Stormwaltz]

LOTRO has been quite successful, I guess the DDO successes has made them think twice about pure sub plans.

I think I noted when Mirkwood was announced that the "Digital Expansion" idea sounded a hell of a lot like DDO's e-store modules. You ask me, that was them testing how the existing playerbase would react to the idea.

I made a thread in the LotRO forums before noticing this thread. Someone should probably delete that. Sorry!

[Mrbloodworth]

LOTRO has been quite successful, I guess the DDO successes has made them think twice about pure sub plans.

I think I noted when Mirkwood was announced that the "Digital Expansion" idea sounded a hell of a lot like DDO's e-store modules. You ask me, that was them testing how the existing playerbase would react to the idea.

And the adventure pack, that now seems to have been broken apart for store items.

[rattran]

It's gone, but I liked your topic better. An influx of players would be good, but I know a lot of people who play LotRO because of the mature playerbase. And I can't see them opening new servers for the kiddies. So overall, I get a feeling of doom from this.
So as a founder, this pretty much means I lose 2 character slots, and not much else. It'll all hinge on how much shit in the Cash Shops costs, and how much it affects gameplay. But as I said, vague feeling of DOOOM!

Quoth Tarrant one of the LotRO community reps

There won't be a server merge, and there won't be separate free-to-play only servers. All the servers will remain as they are, and the new population will pick from them just as you once did.

[Ollie]

So as a founder, this pretty much means I lose 2 character slots, and not much else. It'll all hinge on how much shit in the Cash Shops costs, and how much it affects gameplay. But as I said, vague feeling of DOOOM!

Nah, you won't lose your character slots. The chart is pretty confusing, it doesn't account for MoM, SoM or Adventure pack slots. You keep what you have now.

[rattran]

Yeah, just read that in a dev posting. Looks like about an even split of Meh and Doom on the official boards.

[Modern Angel]

As a long time player I'm not worried about the retard brigade taking over. They'll basically have to commit cash to get up to a nice high level where I am. So Breeland becomes outpatient night more than before oh no.

I'm interested in the industry wide ramifications. As was said, AAA title going free is a big deal. With this and GW2 around the corner I'm wondering if we won't look back on this as the first death rattle of AAA sub models.

[UnSub]

As I said in the other thread, F2P suits the economy well.

[Mrbloodworth]

As I said in the other thread, F2P suits the economy well.

As i said in another thread, hybrids are becoming more prominent.

[Hutch]

The new capitalism model: slightly annoy your customers freeloaders into spending money to make you stop, thereby converting them into customers.

[WayAbvPar]

Interesting. Might be enough to get me to check it out. However, this is fucking RETARDED-

34. I bought Turbine Points in the DDO Store. Can I use those Turbine Points in LOTRO (and vice versa)?

      Turbine Points are not transferrable, so Turbine Points purchased in the DDO Store cannot be transferred to the LOTRO Store or vice versa.

So they are both called Turbine Points, but aren't the same. 

You know what would be a good way to get me to buy points? Allow me to pick and choose the games I apply them to. I have purchased hundreds of dollars worth of MS points (or whatever the fuck they are called), since I know I can use them to buy Rock Band II or B:RB songs, card packs for FIFA Ultimate team, even stupid crap like avatar goodies. They have some utility.

[Mrbloodworth]

I bet that comes later. For a while you could not have DDO unlimited automatically attached to your turbine account if you had one for lotro, this isn't the issue anymore. That, or licensing may be biting them in the ass, they have people to pay % to after all.

[tmp]

Maybe they plan to sell Turbine Points which can be used to convert Turbine Points into Turbine Points 

[Morfiend]

I was reading a thing about the DDO F2P, and some of the players where saying that it was pretty easy for them to spend upward of $200 a month. Thats got to look pretty damn good to Turbine.

[Mrbloodworth]

Maybe they plan to sell Turbine Points which can be used to convert Turbine Points into Turbine Points 

Brilliant! But this isn't SOE.

[rattran]

No, it's Warner Brothers.

[Stabs]

DDO makes free players play on new servers. Quite sure old players/servers will be unmolested.

This is not correct. Anyone playing the US version of DDO can roll on any of the servers without spending any money. There are separate sub-based servers for European customers run by Codemasters but frankly since the US ones became free all of us Euros are rolling up our characters there, even those of us who want to pay subs.