First off there are so many inaccuracies in this article, I really have to wonder if the author spent much time in the game. No quest packs cost more than $10. Turbine points can be either 5 or 10 and there are a bunch you collect just for exploring. You don't start running out of quests until about level 26 or 27, not 20 as stated. Next time find an author who can take the time to write a respectable review. If you want to take the time to get all the deeds you don't have to spend a dime.
In any of these f2p games, if you expect to craft then there is no way to avoid spending money as it is mandatory to buy pack space, that is an obvious need you cannot get around.
At least Turbine allows you to enjoy the entire game unlike that mess SOE came up with for EQ2.
I agree with you up to the point that you claim SoE doesn't allow you to enjoy the whole game. You can play to max level in EQ2X without buying zones. All zones and areas are open to you and you can level to 90 (max level). So I'm not sure what you're talking about here other than maybe the armor and spell level restrictions or gold restrictions, but none of those have anything to do with not being able to play the whole game, so....I'm a bit confused by the end of your statement.
I haven't read all of the responses, though I did read the first few. I think the derision shown to the author of this article is unwarranted, unnecessary, and you should apologize and get your attitudes under control.
I have a level 45 Elf Lore-master, and a level 46 Dwarf Hunter -I LOVE Hunters, in any game-, both currently grinding it out in Forochel, and various other places. Though I did find some inaccuracies in Adam's comments, and think he should probably have spent a bit more time in the game, I also think there are some necessities that will need to be paid for, no matter what F2P game you find yourself in. I also think the game fails the F2P model, but not quite as much as Adam. All told, since level 25, I've spent $16.50, and a friend of mine gave me a $10 card for Christmas, so $26.50 all told. I've been able to purchase 2 quest packs on my own, simply by earning Turbine Points from deed completion. For many of the deeds, there are three levels: 5, 10, and 15 Turbine points, and the deeds are terribly numerous. Indeed, I still have deeds from my time in Ered Luin, a quest hub.
Now, here's the rub... if you play more than one character, and you've made a cash purchase with Turbine, the points you've purchased and the points you earn from all of your character's on one server, go into a kitty, of sorts, and you can purchase what you want. Certain things, such as bag storage, quest packs, and Auction House slots go for your account, for all characters. Other things, like travel, XP, and crafting bonuses are by-character, and absolutely none of those are necessary to move your skill up. I spent leftover points -125 TP- for an experimental crafting pack when the last major update came out and they updated crafting, but I did it of my own accord, not because I needed it, and it turned out to be useless to me. I am Artisan level crafting in everything on both of my characters, and I didn't have to spend a dime.
To the fact that the game is so very well designed, except for a few things I'll address in a moment, it is the level of quality the developers put into the game that makes me want to purchase the expansions and more quest packs. If/when I get back to work, I may pay for the $10 per month the subscription was just listed down to, and then still purchase the expansions.
There are imperfections with the game. Several of the solo quests should be Small Fellowship quests, others Large Fellowship quests. Some quests that are marked Large Fellowship my Elf Loremaster can do with his eyes closed, while certain solo quests are impossible unless he's several levels above the quest. So, in short, Turbine needs to go back and review all of their quests to see what they should actually be at. Also, they might make a grid for each quest where they take each of their classes and cross-reference them with Solo, Small Fellowship, and Large Fellowship, and then place a Level number in each applicable square of the grid, so the various classes can face the various challenges at levels that really suit them, rather than having a single level number for all classes, period, and causing a ton of frustration because it can't be done when it's supposed to be done.
Otherwise, I found this article to be inciteful, and a fairly accurate determinate of the F2P status of LotRO.
Maybe you should have continued reading atleast until the part where the author himself apoloqizes for the many mistakes he made in the article before you presume to chastise the community for calling him to task for those mistakes.
Further I was told some of the other suggestions made (such as just comparing the f2p offerings and the value of them) may in fact work better than this pseudo idea that he is going to keep reviewing the freemium games until he finally finds one that is really "free".
The bottom line though is when you are talking about things that have a number on them such as the number of classes available for free and those needed to be purchased, or which areas can be quested in for free and which must be bought there is no room for mistakes like the author made in journalism (atleast not if you want your word to continue to mean something.
And there is absolutely nothing wrong with us reminded the author of this (if there was he wouldn't have responded with an apoloqgy obviously further down than you decided to read.
I am also glad to see mmorpg.com realises the dangers coming with these free to p(l)ay game game mechanics.
New P2P MMORPG's will have a much harder time to be get their players past the free month playing time.
It was already painful to see those players leave after 2 or 3 months, with F2P even the big role outs will feel the pain.
All in all, to me F2P is clearly a LOSS/LOSS in every way:
For the players: less and less players at the upper levels (try finding enough players to do the end game).
For the industry: new games will have a hard time convincing players to be subscribed after 2 months.
For the revenue of F2P: I don't think in the mid long term this formula is as succesful as a fixed P2P game.
With going F2P the MMORPG world looses one of its main attraction points: LONG term playing value in which you progress your year long played characters.
Everyone will feel the pain if this is the general trend.
I don't have any argument with a person having a feeling and going with it but honestly you may have been better of simply stating
"I personally think f2p is going to ruin the mmo industry and nothing is going to change my mind."
As a gamer and knowing many other gamers I don't know anyone who isn't willing to pay for what they enjoy. Basically if p2p mmorpgs are going to have a more difficult time keeping subs they should ramp up the quality beyond what we have gotten as the norm from the developers of this genre. I certainly don't agree that the consumer who can't afford a sub should have to suffer so that we can continue the flow of lackluster releases we have seen.
I subscribe to LOTRO and in my personal experience there is no noticeable difference in the amount of high level toons available to group with (such as in moria) just a whole lot more low levels, I'm having a hard time seeing the loss in that.
As stated above I still have no problem paying a sub fee for a game worth the time and money but as has always been my practice I'm not in the business of buying the client then paying a sub fee for a game not ready for release yet. F2P if nothing else is putting the onus back on the devs releasing good complete polished products which has been a hit or miss thing in the industry to this point.
As far as revenues go? Well to be quite honest it is simply your opinion which as of right now holds no more value than any of the other fifty plus people who may have responded to this article. As a matter of fact when first reading over that point you made I was immediately forced to wonder where you are maiking your comparisons from in my experience it is alot easier to get an idea on the numbers and financials for F2P games than it has ever been for P2P games. Turbine has on a few occasions divulged the numbers surrounding both DDO and LOTRO and other than Blizzard releasing WOW sub numbers most other devs keep this info very close to the vest. So who knows????
I may be wrong that you are reading too much into this average at best article and maybe F2P will somehow show itself as everything you predict it will become but I have to say it isn't for any of the reasons you mention above or atleast not enough so that you should be making the statements that you do.
At least Turbine allows you to enjoy the entire game unlike that mess SOE came up with for EQ2.
What are you talking about? As bronze or silver you can enjoy the whole game in EQ2X except for the last expansion. But then ppl with a subscription have to buy that expansion too.
In LOTRO you have to buy quest packs to have an enjoyable experience in all zones. Of course you dont have to and can grind for the Turbine currency, but that turns the game in the worst grindmare.
The restrictions in EQ2X for a silver player ( a one time 10$ payment) is easily managable at least untill lvl cap. You dont have to buy anything from the cashshop if you just ask a little around on how to expand your storage space (personal harvest storage box comes to mind, housevault expander key etc).
The way I see it , is that EQ2X turns expensive if you are only interested in endgame or pvp. But for any casual player that just plays it for the quests, its as cheap as it can get. But these questers have to shell out a lot of money for LOTRO.
So I think it totally depends on your playing style.
That's exactly what I thought when I read that too. Like....huh? LotRO is last on my list of f2ps because of all the charging for just continuing to play. I keep hearing you can "earn" those things in game, but I'm wondering what it takes (how much TIME) to "earn." I'll still stick with EQ2 myself.
Way to much pay to win items (including update 2) not unless you like to spend $100s on virtual items you will always be behind the players with deep pockets. They have switched almost every thing in the game around to where you have to pay for every thing these days or you go without.
Far from the truth, rant from a obvious clueless guy. Never used the store and doing endgaming content with no problems. As me tons of other players.
At least Turbine allows you to enjoy the entire game unlike that mess SOE came up with for EQ2.
What are you talking about? As bronze or silver you can enjoy the whole game in EQ2X except for the last expansion. But then ppl with a subscription have to buy that expansion too.
In LOTRO you have to buy quest packs to have an enjoyable experience in all zones. Of course you dont have to and can grind for the Turbine currency, but that turns the game in the worst grindmare.
The restrictions in EQ2X for a silver player ( a one time 10$ payment) is easily managable at least untill lvl cap. You dont have to buy anything from the cashshop if you just ask a little around on how to expand your storage space (personal harvest storage box comes to mind, housevault expander key etc).
The way I see it , is that EQ2X turns expensive if you are only interested in endgame or pvp. But for any casual player that just plays it for the quests, its as cheap as it can get. But these questers have to shell out a lot of money for LOTRO.
So I think it totally depends on your playing style.
That's exactly what I thought when I read that too. Like....huh? LotRO is last on my list of f2ps because of all the charging for just continuing to play. I keep hearing you can "earn" those things in game, but I'm wondering what it takes (how much TIME) to "earn." I'll still stick with EQ2 myself.
I'm having a hard time understanding what you mean by "all the charging for just continuing to play". Playing LOTRO is free to access some questing areas is what costs money but that isn't the same thing as what you imply.
I am a subscriber so while I may not be the best authority on the situation I know a few and hear from many other people who have no problem earning the TP to open whatever quest packs they seek. The first and second tier of deeds can be completed in under an hour which is more than enough to get a person a few quest packs.
The bottom line for both games is that if you plan on playing either EQ2X or LOTRO as a full time player then you may be better of subcribing, but if you don't mind grinding mobs at all LOTRO is the clear cut winner of the race as you will be able to play without ever spending money on it.
As stated earlier though this forum isn't about which is better I think by this point we should all be able to admit that the setup for these games will appeal to different players different ways.
I honestly cant disagree that you WILL spend... SOME money.
But when you do spend SOME money you get upgraded to Premium. Which gives you a great deal! The most important being 5 character slots.
If it took you only 1 day to hit lvl 17, then it would only take you a week to hit that kind of level with 5 characters (quite enjoyable actually) I estimated that just by using the _FREE GIFTS_ you get every 5 levels, ie deed accelerators, within a week you would have enough turbine points to unlock nearly 4 areas, which unlocks them for ALL characters and could possibly take all of them to level 40.
Sorry, but your article is very wrong, and portrays innacurate bordering on false statements about lotro.
What you dont seem to calculate into your "bang for buck" is how much bang you get for your buck, when you actually spend some bucks =P
You could of course argue that its not the "free to play" but you would be wrong, because Guildwars is "free to play" but you STILL have to buy it!
Free to play just means " no mandatory monthly subscription " thats all !
Wow, seems my previous comment has been deemed "trolling" because I called out the writer for posting false information. So here's why this article is not true
1) As a F2P player, the level cap is not 20. Turbine has opened up the Lone Lands and as other previous commentors pointed out, a F2P player can easily make it to 30, if not a bit farther before having to purchase a expansion.
2) There are two classes that are not free, the Rune-Keeper and Warden.
3) Not all deeds give 5 Turbine Points, some 10, and at higher levels 20 TP.
LotRO is free to play. It doesn't say Free to play to the end, but anyone can play a lot of the game for free. It has been proven that a person could do enough grinding to get additional quest packs for free. At least to MoM, if my memory serves me correctly. What more could you want for free?
My point is, the writer clearly is biased. He either didn't fully play the game or played it months ago before the Lone Lands became free. Either way, that needs to be cited in the article so others will know. If this aritcle is a measure of the other aritcles on here, maybe I should quit reading this site.
Wow, seems my previous comment has been deemed "trolling" because I called out the writer for posting false information. So here's why this article is not true
LotRO is free to play. It doesn't say Free to play to the end, but anyone can play a lot of the game for free. It has been proven that a person could do enough grinding to get additional quest packs for free. At least to MoM, if my memory serves me correctly. What more could you want for free?
My point is, the writer clearly is biased. He either didn't fully play the game or played it months ago before the Lone Lands became free. Either way, that needs to be cited in the article so others will know. If this aritcle is a measure of the other aritcles on here, maybe I should quit reading this site.
Sorry got to call you on that. You cant say it free to play, then go its not free to play at end game. I prefer to call it a free to log in trial, with a hybred store model that allows you to buy extra's and or unlock content. Nothing is free to play about lotro. If it were truely free then no money would ever change hands.
Sorry got to call you on that. You cant say it free to play, then go its not free to play at end game. I prefer to call it a free to log in trial, with a hybred store model that allows you to buy extra's and or unlock content. Nothing is free to play about lotro. If it were truely free then no money would ever change hands.
Free to play means it's free to play. It doesn't mean you get everything for free. What you are describing is a "free" game. It's not a trial as your game doesn't have a "time limit" or other ending date. Sure, you may run out of content, but you will always be able to play, maybe not gain levels or what not, but you will be able to login and interact with the environment and community. Heck, that's what most leveled cap players do. Sure they run intances, but they are the same ones and they don't gain exp.
Again, the point being the game is by all means Free to Play. Just because some people think that just because they can't experience every little detail of the game without paying some money does not mean it's not Free to Play.
Try to think of it this way, if you see and advertisement for a bar/club/some event that says"free to party" or something like that , are you going to say it's not really "free" because you have to pay for drinks once you are inside?
Personally, I'm a lifetime subscriber and I wasn't really happy about moving to F2P. Things could have been worse then they have been. I'm just tired of hearing people, both in game and out, saying it's not free. If you can download the game client, create a char, and play til level 30 (or more if you deed grind) without paying a single cent, then it's free to play because you have indeed played for free.
Wow, seems my previous comment has been deemed "trolling" because I called out the writer for posting false information. So here's why this article is not true
LotRO is free to play. It doesn't say Free to play to the end, but anyone can play a lot of the game for free. It has been proven that a person could do enough grinding to get additional quest packs for free. At least to MoM, if my memory serves me correctly. What more could you want for free?
My point is, the writer clearly is biased. He either didn't fully play the game or played it months ago before the Lone Lands became free. Either way, that needs to be cited in the article so others will know. If this aritcle is a measure of the other aritcles on here, maybe I should quit reading this site.
Sorry got to call you on that. You cant say it free to play, then go its not free to play at end game. I prefer to call it a free to log in trial, with a hybred store model that allows you to buy extra's and or unlock content. Nothing is free to play about lotro. If it were truely free then no money would ever change hands.
What exactly are you calling him on? The universally accepted meaning of a "free to play" mmorpg? I personally don't have anything against you having your own ideas on what "f2p" means but I don't think anything qualifies you to change the meaning any more than I or swollentiki.
As it stands the entire community has to know that a "f2p" mmorpg has an optional cost associated with it somewhere. And I hate to have to tell you after reading over what you would feel comfortable relegating the industry to (in terms of terminology) most are probably not going to agree with you or even care that they use the term free to play.
This response really needs it's own topic because we aren't debating whether free to play mmorpg's are actually "free to play" or not. Though I imagine an entire new topic about that subject will go over as well as the fifteen hundred other ones that have to exist on here already.
Sorry got to call you on that. You cant say it free to play, then go its not free to play at end game. I prefer to call it a free to log in trial, with a hybred store model that allows you to buy extra's and or unlock content. Nothing is free to play about lotro. If it were truely free then no money would ever change hands.
Free to play means it's free to play. It doesn't mean you get everything for free. What you are describing is a "free" game. It's not a trial as your game doesn't have a "time limit" or other ending date. Sure, you may run out of content, but you will always be able to play, maybe not gain levels or what not, but you will be able to login and interact with the environment and community. Heck, that's what most leveled cap players do. Sure they run intances, but they are the same ones and they don't gain exp.
Again, the point being the game is by all means Free to Play. Just because some people think that just because they can't experience every little detail of the game without paying some money does not mean it's not Free to Play.
Try to think of it this way, if you see and advertisement for a bar/club/some event that says"free to party" or something like that , are you going to say it's not really "free" because you have to pay for drinks once you are inside?
Personally, I'm a lifetime subscriber and I wasn't really happy about moving to F2P. Things could have been worse then they have been. I'm just tired of hearing people, both in game and out, saying it's not free. If you can download the game client, create a char, and play til level 30 (or more if you deed grind) without paying a single cent, then it's free to play because you have indeed played for free.
Hahaha, yeah I agree with you man. A lot of people really do think "Free to play" = "Free game".
Not sure why a student is allowed to post utter garbage like this.
The entire game is now based around skirmishes. Why was the word skirmish never even used in the article?
There are literally hundreds of legitimate criticisms of LOTRO, which is why I no longer play. However, saying that the entire F2P model is only an extended trial to level 20 is simply inaccurate.
Interestingly enough, it is level 20 that the player unlocks skirmishes. Maybe if the author, to use that term loosely, had spent more than 1 day playing the game, he might have actually found out what a skirmish was?
I've only been playing lotro about a week now and wouldn't have even tried it if it wasn't a freebie.
Out of all the free games i've tried lately its my favorite.
I have a level 28 guardian and haven't come close to using all the quests available yet.
I found a copy of mines of moria for 10 bucks at microcenter and have ordered it.
I'll probably wind up putting a few dollars in the game but if i decide to take a break for a month or two when gw2 comes out i wont feel foolish for wasting dough.
The truth is 10 years from now all games will either be versions of free to play or the sub prices will be way lower.
The truth is 10 years from now all games will either be versions of free to play or the sub prices will be way lower.
That is really hard to say and actully depends on several things. The reason F2P and B2P MMOs exists at all is because bandwidth and storage (for character slots and similar) have dropped a lot since Meridian 59 released in '96. If that price for some reason would rise again the whole thing would fall flat and only P2P could survive, maybe with higher sub.
The fact that many P2P games adds RMT shops is a sign that they more or less digging their own graves or plan to go F2P as well but not all P2P games are doing that.
I think the genre will still keep all 3 payment methods in 10 years but P2P will be exclusive and it is not unlikely that the P2P games will have F2P servers as well like EQ2. I don't think P2P will just go away even if it might be rarer and that the players expect more from P2P games than they do today.
I also think B2P (like Guildwars) will be a lot more common in the future, unless of course something bad happens to bandwidth prices for some reasons we don't know right now.
The future is hard to predict so anything can happen, or close to anything. I still have my doubts about Chinese games in the west, they never done well before. Japanese games do fine, and Korean games might eventually really get some more western customers as well in the future but few I met plays Chinese MMOs for a long time.
Comments
I agree with you up to the point that you claim SoE doesn't allow you to enjoy the whole game. You can play to max level in EQ2X without buying zones. All zones and areas are open to you and you can level to 90 (max level). So I'm not sure what you're talking about here other than maybe the armor and spell level restrictions or gold restrictions, but none of those have anything to do with not being able to play the whole game, so....I'm a bit confused by the end of your statement.
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
Oops. Sorry.
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
Maybe you should have continued reading atleast until the part where the author himself apoloqizes for the many mistakes he made in the article before you presume to chastise the community for calling him to task for those mistakes.
Further I was told some of the other suggestions made (such as just comparing the f2p offerings and the value of them) may in fact work better than this pseudo idea that he is going to keep reviewing the freemium games until he finally finds one that is really "free".
The bottom line though is when you are talking about things that have a number on them such as the number of classes available for free and those needed to be purchased, or which areas can be quested in for free and which must be bought there is no room for mistakes like the author made in journalism (atleast not if you want your word to continue to mean something.
And there is absolutely nothing wrong with us reminded the author of this (if there was he wouldn't have responded with an apoloqgy obviously further down than you decided to read.
I don't have any argument with a person having a feeling and going with it but honestly you may have been better of simply stating
"I personally think f2p is going to ruin the mmo industry and nothing is going to change my mind."
As a gamer and knowing many other gamers I don't know anyone who isn't willing to pay for what they enjoy. Basically if p2p mmorpgs are going to have a more difficult time keeping subs they should ramp up the quality beyond what we have gotten as the norm from the developers of this genre. I certainly don't agree that the consumer who can't afford a sub should have to suffer so that we can continue the flow of lackluster releases we have seen.
I subscribe to LOTRO and in my personal experience there is no noticeable difference in the amount of high level toons available to group with (such as in moria) just a whole lot more low levels, I'm having a hard time seeing the loss in that.
As stated above I still have no problem paying a sub fee for a game worth the time and money but as has always been my practice I'm not in the business of buying the client then paying a sub fee for a game not ready for release yet. F2P if nothing else is putting the onus back on the devs releasing good complete polished products which has been a hit or miss thing in the industry to this point.
As far as revenues go? Well to be quite honest it is simply your opinion which as of right now holds no more value than any of the other fifty plus people who may have responded to this article. As a matter of fact when first reading over that point you made I was immediately forced to wonder where you are maiking your comparisons from in my experience it is alot easier to get an idea on the numbers and financials for F2P games than it has ever been for P2P games. Turbine has on a few occasions divulged the numbers surrounding both DDO and LOTRO and other than Blizzard releasing WOW sub numbers most other devs keep this info very close to the vest. So who knows????
I may be wrong that you are reading too much into this average at best article and maybe F2P will somehow show itself as everything you predict it will become but I have to say it isn't for any of the reasons you mention above or atleast not enough so that you should be making the statements that you do.
That's exactly what I thought when I read that too. Like....huh? LotRO is last on my list of f2ps because of all the charging for just continuing to play. I keep hearing you can "earn" those things in game, but I'm wondering what it takes (how much TIME) to "earn." I'll still stick with EQ2 myself.
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
Far from the truth, rant from a obvious clueless guy. Never used the store and doing endgaming content with no problems. As me tons of other players.
I'm having a hard time understanding what you mean by "all the charging for just continuing to play". Playing LOTRO is free to access some questing areas is what costs money but that isn't the same thing as what you imply.
I am a subscriber so while I may not be the best authority on the situation I know a few and hear from many other people who have no problem earning the TP to open whatever quest packs they seek. The first and second tier of deeds can be completed in under an hour which is more than enough to get a person a few quest packs.
The bottom line for both games is that if you plan on playing either EQ2X or LOTRO as a full time player then you may be better of subcribing, but if you don't mind grinding mobs at all LOTRO is the clear cut winner of the race as you will be able to play without ever spending money on it.
As stated earlier though this forum isn't about which is better I think by this point we should all be able to admit that the setup for these games will appeal to different players different ways.
I honestly cant disagree that you WILL spend... SOME money.
But when you do spend SOME money you get upgraded to Premium. Which gives you a great deal! The most important being 5 character slots.
If it took you only 1 day to hit lvl 17, then it would only take you a week to hit that kind of level with 5 characters (quite enjoyable actually) I estimated that just by using the _FREE GIFTS_ you get every 5 levels, ie deed accelerators, within a week you would have enough turbine points to unlock nearly 4 areas, which unlocks them for ALL characters and could possibly take all of them to level 40.
Sorry, but your article is very wrong, and portrays innacurate bordering on false statements about lotro.
What you dont seem to calculate into your "bang for buck" is how much bang you get for your buck, when you actually spend some bucks =P
You could of course argue that its not the "free to play" but you would be wrong, because Guildwars is "free to play" but you STILL have to buy it!
Free to play just means " no mandatory monthly subscription " thats all !
Wow, seems my previous comment has been deemed "trolling" because I called out the writer for posting false information. So here's why this article is not true
1) As a F2P player, the level cap is not 20. Turbine has opened up the Lone Lands and as other previous commentors pointed out, a F2P player can easily make it to 30, if not a bit farther before having to purchase a expansion.
2) There are two classes that are not free, the Rune-Keeper and Warden.
3) Not all deeds give 5 Turbine Points, some 10, and at higher levels 20 TP.
LotRO is free to play. It doesn't say Free to play to the end, but anyone can play a lot of the game for free. It has been proven that a person could do enough grinding to get additional quest packs for free. At least to MoM, if my memory serves me correctly. What more could you want for free?
My point is, the writer clearly is biased. He either didn't fully play the game or played it months ago before the Lone Lands became free. Either way, that needs to be cited in the article so others will know. If this aritcle is a measure of the other aritcles on here, maybe I should quit reading this site.
Sorry got to call you on that. You cant say it free to play, then go its not free to play at end game. I prefer to call it a free to log in trial, with a hybred store model that allows you to buy extra's and or unlock content. Nothing is free to play about lotro. If it were truely free then no money would ever change hands.
Free to play means it's free to play. It doesn't mean you get everything for free. What you are describing is a "free" game. It's not a trial as your game doesn't have a "time limit" or other ending date. Sure, you may run out of content, but you will always be able to play, maybe not gain levels or what not, but you will be able to login and interact with the environment and community. Heck, that's what most leveled cap players do. Sure they run intances, but they are the same ones and they don't gain exp.
Again, the point being the game is by all means Free to Play. Just because some people think that just because they can't experience every little detail of the game without paying some money does not mean it's not Free to Play.
Try to think of it this way, if you see and advertisement for a bar/club/some event that says"free to party" or something like that , are you going to say it's not really "free" because you have to pay for drinks once you are inside?
Personally, I'm a lifetime subscriber and I wasn't really happy about moving to F2P. Things could have been worse then they have been. I'm just tired of hearing people, both in game and out, saying it's not free. If you can download the game client, create a char, and play til level 30 (or more if you deed grind) without paying a single cent, then it's free to play because you have indeed played for free.
What exactly are you calling him on? The universally accepted meaning of a "free to play" mmorpg? I personally don't have anything against you having your own ideas on what "f2p" means but I don't think anything qualifies you to change the meaning any more than I or swollentiki.
As it stands the entire community has to know that a "f2p" mmorpg has an optional cost associated with it somewhere. And I hate to have to tell you after reading over what you would feel comfortable relegating the industry to (in terms of terminology) most are probably not going to agree with you or even care that they use the term free to play.
This response really needs it's own topic because we aren't debating whether free to play mmorpg's are actually "free to play" or not. Though I imagine an entire new topic about that subject will go over as well as the fifteen hundred other ones that have to exist on here already.
The OP does know that the Turbine model was created to convince players that going P2P is the better long term deal? That's why it seems that way.
I dont think so, well of course they would like that. But mainly what they want you to do is spend SOMETHING!
The amount you spend to unlock most of the game is no more than you would spend on the latest Call of duty.
Hahaha, yeah I agree with you man. A lot of people really do think "Free to play" = "Free game".
Not sure why a student is allowed to post utter garbage like this.
The entire game is now based around skirmishes. Why was the word skirmish never even used in the article?
There are literally hundreds of legitimate criticisms of LOTRO, which is why I no longer play. However, saying that the entire F2P model is only an extended trial to level 20 is simply inaccurate.
Interestingly enough, it is level 20 that the player unlocks skirmishes. Maybe if the author, to use that term loosely, had spent more than 1 day playing the game, he might have actually found out what a skirmish was?
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Erirdar means lonely hunter in Sindarin
I've only been playing lotro about a week now and wouldn't have even tried it if it wasn't a freebie.
Out of all the free games i've tried lately its my favorite.
I have a level 28 guardian and haven't come close to using all the quests available yet.
I found a copy of mines of moria for 10 bucks at microcenter and have ordered it.
I'll probably wind up putting a few dollars in the game but if i decide to take a break for a month or two when gw2 comes out i wont feel foolish for wasting dough.
The truth is 10 years from now all games will either be versions of free to play or the sub prices will be way lower.
China may be the new king of mmorpgs by then.
The 14.95 a month sub fee time has passed.
That is really hard to say and actully depends on several things. The reason F2P and B2P MMOs exists at all is because bandwidth and storage (for character slots and similar) have dropped a lot since Meridian 59 released in '96. If that price for some reason would rise again the whole thing would fall flat and only P2P could survive, maybe with higher sub.
The fact that many P2P games adds RMT shops is a sign that they more or less digging their own graves or plan to go F2P as well but not all P2P games are doing that.
I think the genre will still keep all 3 payment methods in 10 years but P2P will be exclusive and it is not unlikely that the P2P games will have F2P servers as well like EQ2. I don't think P2P will just go away even if it might be rarer and that the players expect more from P2P games than they do today.
I also think B2P (like Guildwars) will be a lot more common in the future, unless of course something bad happens to bandwidth prices for some reasons we don't know right now.
The future is hard to predict so anything can happen, or close to anything. I still have my doubts about Chinese games in the west, they never done well before. Japanese games do fine, and Korean games might eventually really get some more western customers as well in the future but few I met plays Chinese MMOs for a long time.
ah well....its always like this...paid mmorpgs are best, free mmorpgs will walk behind them and Guild wars 2 will run them over XD
https://ashesofcreation.com/r/Y4U3PQCASUPJ5SED