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

[Nebu]

I am totally making you an officer.  Hell yeah!

You do and I'll string together a chain of profanities in kin chat that would make a sailor blush. 

[Furiously]

Anyone up for making two males hobbits to "accidentally" cyber in kin chat? I'd like to see the response to that.

[Yegolev]

God, I am so subbing to WoW.

[Kitsune]

Bamwise breathes deep the sensual aroma of your foot hair while you rub pie on his chest.  "Oh Bilbro Broggins," Bamwise whispers, "put on the ring and climb my mountain."

DO IT.

[Lantyssa]

I'm now imagining the picture of the two actors being handed fan art to sign of them making out.

[Ingmar]

There is like a 99% chance that has already happened.

[Lantyssa]

[birdsguts]

Hahahaha!
Update: 100% chance.

[Mrbloodworth]

Lord of the Rings Online doubles revenue since going free-to-play

Lord of the Rings Online Executive Producer Kate Paiz announced during a panel at GDC Online 2010 today that Turbine has done it again: Lord of the Rings Online has doubled its revenue and created over a million new accounts since going free-to-play early last month. That's the second MMO Turbine has taken from a paid subscription to a hybrid microtransactions-based business model, with Dungeons and Dragons Online doing the same thing last year (important to note: Paiz was in charge of both transitions, switching to LotRO in July). Paiz told us after the panel that LotRO  wasn't in trouble, but rather that Turbine did the math and decided the switch would work. "We knew there was more out there for us," she said.

Paiz also shared that 20% of LotRO's former players have returned to the game since the switchover, and that the game has seen a 300% increase in peak concurrency, with three times the number of players online simultaneously, and a 400% increase in active players total. 53% of players have used the in-game microtransaction store (which sells everything from mounts and outfits to XP boosts and character slots), and as you can see above, extra storage slots are extremely popular in the store. And even paid subscriptions have increased. Turbine's lesson seems to be that, as Paiz said during the panel, "when you tell people you no longer have to pay for it, they come in droves."

Side note: I thought Kate Paiz was a blond.

[rattran]

Perhaps she was. It's nice to see it's increased revenue for them in the short term, It'll be interesting to see if the long term works out as well. I spent about 2500 of my fake money points on expanded storage, but I see nothing else in the store I want. I'd buy the +10 stat tomes, but they're too pricey, and seem like store-based cheating.

[DraconianOne]

Still no F2P in Europe though.

Current speculation is that's all down to legal shenanigans rather than something technical.

[Mrbloodworth]

Still no F2P in Europe though.

Current speculation is that's all down to legal shenanigans rather than something technical.

Its code-masters, you should expect nothing less but lagging behind and horrible service.

[Nebu]

We saw this same kind of increase with DDO.  It was followed by a sharp decline after 2-3 months.  I'm wondering if the same thing will happen here. 

[koro]

We saw this same kind of increase with DDO.  It was followed by a sharp decline after 2-3 months.  I'm wondering if the same thing will happen here.  

Quite possibly, given the standard reaction of a F2P player once they find out just how much "free to play" past the initial starting areas costs in LOTRO is usually some variation of "WTF."

[caladein]

We saw this same kind of increase with DDO.  It was followed by a sharp decline after 2-3 months.  I'm wondering if the same thing will happen here. 

I wouldn't be surprised if it did, but considering DDO's been F2P for over a year I think they still believe they'll be making more money long term under this model.

[Kitsune]

Yeah, it's only natural for the initial burst of people who will never pay one penny ever no way no how to bail once they hit the wall and run dry on free content.  But since those people were of no benefit to the game, except as grouping fodder for low-level paying customers, their departure shouldn't be a big loss.  As long as enough paying people stick around to keep the population numbers up enough to make getting fellowships easy for people, they should be golden.

[Malakili]

It seems like most of that list is made of up things that are one time purchases for most players.  I'm not so sure people will keep playing long term.

[Ingmar]

It seems like most of that list is made of up things that are one time purchases for most players.

One time per character for a lot of it, though.

[Murgos]

I've been jonesing for an MMO.  I though FFXIV was going to be it but, uh, maybe next year.  So, I'm dling this.

I haven't played since Alpha and I have to admit I wasn't too fond of some of the design decisions then but I'll try and keep an open mind and see how it goes.

[Rishathra]

Whatever your stance on the whole free to play thing, there's definitely been a net positive improvement on the game since beta, when I started.  I think you'll enjoy yourself.

[Nebu]

Whatever your stance on the whole free to play thing, there's definitely been a net positive improvement on the game since beta, when I started.  I think you'll enjoy yourself.

This. 

I think that the improvements since beta have been dramatic.  I've been doing nothing but book quests the past few days and they have really impressed me.  This is the first MMO I've played in a while that both a) didn't make me feel a need to rush through the content and b) made me feel like a part of the story. 

Give the game a try.  If you can resist the urge to power to cap, there's a lot to like about the game. 

[Murgos]

So far it's ok.  Really only got to play for about an hour.  In Alpha they only had part of the shire intro story done so I was glad not to have to do that again.

I like playing stealthy types but I didn't like burglar in the alpha so I am trying a hunter because warden appears to cost extra.

[waffel]

When I played maybe a year ago, I came back to play a burglar (had played a 20-30ish captain before that) and I had a lot of fun. It was probably one of the most fun classes I've played in an MMO simply because I was able to sneak around and kill mobs easier, I was able to kill difficult mobs with various kiting techniques, and I had a lot of abilities and different ways to play.

I'm not sure how other classes fared, but I know it was nice to be able to solo a lot of content I think others couldn't.

[Azuredream]

I entered one month when it went F2P, but it ran out, and I'm not resubbing. My characer was 60 so I had to bump him up to 65, which was kind of fun I guess. I did some of the new dungeons, played some alts, but it didn't really grab me. One thing that annoyed me was how little of a difference there was between 60 and 65 gear. The whole thing felt totally pointless, even after running a bunch of dungones I think I got a ring and a new shield and that's it. Even looking at the latest raid set it was such a slight upgrade over my VM set I just couldn't help but go WTF?

[Pendan]

I entered one month when it went F2P, but it ran out, and I'm not resubbing. My characer was 60 so I had to bump him up to 65, which was kind of fun I guess. I did some of the new dungeons, played some alts, but it didn't really grab me. One thing that annoyed me was how little of a difference there was between 60 and 65 gear. The whole thing felt totally pointless, even after running a bunch of dungones I think I got a ring and a new shield and that's it. Even looking at the latest raid set it was such a slight upgrade over my VM set I just couldn't help but go WTF?

To give you another perspective this described why I stopped playing WoW and like playing LotRO.

In WoW before the first expansion was announced and after slow leveling to level max I joined a raiding guild. For the next 6 months I raided 4 times a weak. The expansion was announced during this time and two months before the release I stopped playing WoW. It was obvious from the beta reports that all that raiding effort was going to be invalidated. Why work so hard on raiding when a few weeks leveling in the expansion will invalidate all the equipment gains?

In LotRO when Moria was release I raided once a week for 3 months and got the best gear. When the next expansion came out I did not feel my raiding time was a loss and could take my time replacing pieces. I do what I want when I want and don’t feel pressure to get the gear improvements to make the other things I do go easier because the improvement is not game changing.

[Ingmar]

Why work so hard on raiding when a few weeks leveling in the expansion will invalidate all the equipment gains?

The obvious answer of course is "because you enjoy raiding". Different strokes, etc., though.

[Tarami]

Why work so hard on raiding when a few weeks leveling in the expansion will invalidate all the equipment gains?

The obvious answer of course is "because you enjoy raiding". Different strokes, etc., though.

I guess neither of the two people before you enjoy raiding. One doesn't like it when it doesn't give gear, the other not when it does.

[Pendan]

Why work so hard on raiding when a few weeks leveling in the expansion will invalidate all the equipment gains?

The obvious answer of course is "because you enjoy raiding". Different strokes, etc., though.

Then the obvious reply is you are enjoying yourself so only slight upgrade does not matter. My point however is while some people like big changes others prefer small changes which are usually more frequent.

It is not important to the point but I still like an occasional raid regardless of the loot and even like the hardcore raiding at the time as a different gaming experience but don't feel a need to do it again.

[amiable]

I'm sorry but their entire store interface is absolutely terrible.  I wanted to come back for a month to do some monster play but after 20 minutes of trying to figure out how to upgrade my account to "VIP" I just gave up in frustration.

[Nebu]

The obvious answer of course is "because you enjoy raiding". Different strokes, etc., though.

People generally don't enjoy raiding after the first trip through a dungeon if at all.  They enjoy getting new stuff.  Saying "I enjoy raiding" is a serious misnomer for most MMO enthusiasts.  If they did enjoy raiding, you'd see fewer people powergaming the system and more enjoying the raid.  

Ask yourself this: If you could get exactly the same gear running an instance solo, how many people would still raid those instances?  I'm guessing a few guilds would for fun, but they're in the minority.  

It's all about loot and epeen.  People enjoy having the best loot.  For the most part they endure the pain that is raiding to have it. 

[Paelos]

I think that's true and not true. For the most part, people abhor raiding in the "challenge" sense unless you are chasing down world firsts and initial strategies. You're about to see how much they hate it when WoW converts to the 10=25 man loot system, and 25 man raids all but bite the dust completely.

I do think people enjoy grouping though. I think they love the idea of getting something done with whoever they like, drawing them together and making it happen regardless of the total number. I think they HATE the idea of having exactly X amount of people to get something done, no matter how big or small. You're going to have odd numbers most of the time, and most of the frustration from raiding stems from having to fill gaps with people you hate, or kick out decent people because you are over the limit.

[Ingmar]

I really enjoy the feeling of accomplishment when we finally get some encounter down we're having trouble with, etc.

I do have a limit in terms of futility (closing in on ~80 Sindragosa tries with no kill  ) but for the most part I still enjoy it well after I can't get any direct benefit in terms of drops or whatever.

[Azuredream]

People generally don't enjoy raiding after the first trip through a dungeon if at all.  They enjoy getting new stuff.  Saying "I enjoy raiding" is a serious misnomer for most MMO enthusiasts.  If they did enjoy raiding, you'd see fewer people powergaming the system and more enjoying the raid.  

Ask yourself this: If you could get exactly the same gear running an instance solo, how many people would still raid those instances?  I'm guessing a few guilds would for fun, but they're in the minority.  

It's all about loot and epeen.  People enjoy having the best loot.  For the most part they endure the pain that is raiding to have it. 

That's pretty much it for me, raiding the dungeon after the first time the only reason I'm going is to collect new shinies. I know it's a treadmill and that I'm not actually getting anywhere but I'm still trained to want the carrot that's just out of arm's reach.

[Malakili]

The obvious answer of course is "because you enjoy raiding". Different strokes, etc., though.

People generally don't enjoy raiding after the first trip through a dungeon if at all.  They enjoy getting new stuff.  Saying "I enjoy raiding" is a serious misnomer for most MMO enthusiasts.  If they did enjoy raiding, you'd see fewer people powergaming the system and more enjoying the raid.  

Ask yourself this: If you could get exactly the same gear running an instance solo, how many people would still raid those instances?  I'm guessing a few guilds would for fun, but they're in the minority.  

It's all about loot and epeen.  People enjoy having the best loot.  For the most part they endure the pain that is raiding to have it. 

Would people play CRPGs in general if it weren't for collecting loot?  Does that mean that the genre is "painful" to play?

[Paelos]

Would people play CRPGs in general if it weren't for collecting loot?  Does that mean that the genre is "painful" to play?

No. But great loot systems don't make a great game.