4. Remember the adventurer pack? It cost less than half in Europe, i bought it on both services and paid like 15 or 20$ in the US and got it for less than 8 in europe. Same for moria box, its currently about half the price on amazon than the US version.
In the initial offer You could get free Mirkwood xpac in US just for paying multi month subscription(which You had to do anyways in order to play), Codies offer were nowhere near good. Lifers had a bit rougher offer, but got free adventurers pack when purchasing Mirkwood. Also CM charge about 30% more for people outside UK due to "exchange rates".
So depending on person, I guess there grass is always greener...
Though LTAs is indeed a sweet deal, tho I wonder if it's contractual or only Turbines good will to honor them when license will expire.
People who use the € always end up paying more for games online, not just CM...I know this is a problem on other mmorpg and online retailers like steam.
People who use the € always end up paying more for games online, not just CM...I know this is a problem on other mmorpg and online retailers like steam.
That's because they like them so much... the more the better!
If I had an international company, I'd love to have my income in euros and my debt in US dollars...
That problem is actually one of tax evasion. US companies usually list prices without VAT because its different in every state(they only have like 7% anyway), while in europe prices are always listed with VAT. So what happens when you order from a US service is that they don't add the VAT because your not living in the US, but your not paying the EU VAT either. So actually your not only comparing currencies, you compare tax free shopping vs taxed shopping.
I actually had a nice discussion with our local customs here in germany, where they confirmed that i actually should declare and pay tax for these kind of things but it only ever gets enforced for values above 40€ or 50€ i think, and even there only if they catch you redhanded which is more than unlikely with subscriptions and the like.
So yeah, technically your evading tax(though its usually below some free limit), and thats why its so cheap. Once you slap on that 18-20% VAT we have in europe these things do not look as cheap anymore.
Well my point about 30% difference was between United Kingdom aka in Europe vs say Germany again in Europe. Unless I'm horribly wrong UK has a VAT tax as well.
Well my point about 30% difference was between United Kingdom aka in Europe vs say Germany again in Europe. Unless I'm horribly wrong UK has a VAT tax as well.
Well my point about 30% difference was between United Kingdom aka in Europe vs say Germany again in Europe. Unless I'm horribly wrong UK has a VAT tax as well.
Inner European tax is something else completely, i was only talking about transactions between US and Europe. If you are inside the EU, you pay the tax of the country where the service provider is located, and do not have to pay your own countries tax.
Simple example, say i order a game from Amazon.co.uk to an address in Germany. I will pay whatever tax there is in UK for the product, which then will never even touch customs.
Which of course raises the question of why there is such a difference between UK and EU prices that goes beyond the exchange rate or VAT differences. If have some ideas but that would get pretty offtopic. Suffice to say there is a similar situation in regards to medicine, which has a less then pleasant explanation for us customers.
Well my point about 30% difference was between United Kingdom aka in Europe vs say Germany again in Europe. Unless I'm horribly wrong UK has a VAT tax as well.
That might be solved by (virtually) moving to the UK to allow payment in Pound Sterling instead of Euro.
I'm so glad I never had to deal with Code Masters. They seem to cause nothing but problems for players in games they have been involved in.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
I'm so glad I never had to deal with Code Masters. They seem to cause nothing but problems for players in games they have been involved in.
Meh i have experienced much worse, atleast they answer emails or tickets and do not "accidently" charge you 100 months worth of sub in a single day ... You kinda need to put things into perspective when talking about MMOs, they have some of the worst customer support.
Compared to some of the issues i had or which made press CM really is actually looking pretty good. The two month delay would have been more of an issue if it had been an actual expansion delivering the long awaited new content ... Besides its not like CM was delaying the launch to annoy players or because they where too lazy/unqualified to launch it, it was a contractual problem and there is atleast a 50/50 chance the whole mess was caused by the other contractual party, you know the one that actually benefited from it.
Do yourself a favor. Do NOT go for the Codemaster EU servers. Go for Turbine.
Codemasters are just like GOA, most MMORPG veterans must remember those. They have poor customer support, poor handling, and they are incompetent. 3 years after launch, European players are still treated as second class customers, not having access to things like myLOTRO and the appended services.
I tried the US servers from Europe, there's no perceptible lag, ping varies between 100 and 140ms which is just fine for a MMORPG, and the servers Vilya and Windfola are both "unofficial" EU servers with a healthy population of European players, so you won't be alone in your time zone.
So I repeat: do yourself a favor... go for US servers, go for Turbine, get the real thing.
Not to mention you can start to play and get points right now, unlike on EU servers where Codemaster's incompetence delayed the patch for 3 weeks to end of this month AT BEST, with no real fixed date announced yet.
See you in game!
So your not in any way bitter about being banned on the CM lotro forum then ;P
I see you have started saying the same crap here that you spouted over there.
Ah well, at least you are consistent.
A creative person is motivated by the desire to achieve, not the desire to beat others.
Comments
People who use the € always end up paying more for games online, not just CM...I know this is a problem on other mmorpg and online retailers like steam.
March on! - Lets Invade Pekopon
That's because they like them so much... the more the better!
If I had an international company, I'd love to have my income in euros and my debt in US dollars...
That problem is actually one of tax evasion. US companies usually list prices without VAT because its different in every state(they only have like 7% anyway), while in europe prices are always listed with VAT. So what happens when you order from a US service is that they don't add the VAT because your not living in the US, but your not paying the EU VAT either. So actually your not only comparing currencies, you compare tax free shopping vs taxed shopping.
I actually had a nice discussion with our local customs here in germany, where they confirmed that i actually should declare and pay tax for these kind of things but it only ever gets enforced for values above 40€ or 50€ i think, and even there only if they catch you redhanded which is more than unlikely with subscriptions and the like.
So yeah, technically your evading tax(though its usually below some free limit), and thats why its so cheap. Once you slap on that 18-20% VAT we have in europe these things do not look as cheap anymore.
Well my point about 30% difference was between United Kingdom aka in Europe vs say Germany again in Europe. Unless I'm horribly wrong UK has a VAT tax as well.
Yeah 20%.
March on! - Lets Invade Pekopon
Inner European tax is something else completely, i was only talking about transactions between US and Europe. If you are inside the EU, you pay the tax of the country where the service provider is located, and do not have to pay your own countries tax.
Simple example, say i order a game from Amazon.co.uk to an address in Germany. I will pay whatever tax there is in UK for the product, which then will never even touch customs.
Which of course raises the question of why there is such a difference between UK and EU prices that goes beyond the exchange rate or VAT differences. If have some ideas but that would get pretty offtopic. Suffice to say there is a similar situation in regards to medicine, which has a less then pleasant explanation for us customers.
That might be solved by (virtually) moving to the UK to allow payment in Pound Sterling instead of Euro.
I'm so glad I never had to deal with Code Masters. They seem to cause nothing but problems for players in games they have been involved in.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
Meh i have experienced much worse, atleast they answer emails or tickets and do not "accidently" charge you 100 months worth of sub in a single day ... You kinda need to put things into perspective when talking about MMOs, they have some of the worst customer support.
Compared to some of the issues i had or which made press CM really is actually looking pretty good. The two month delay would have been more of an issue if it had been an actual expansion delivering the long awaited new content ... Besides its not like CM was delaying the launch to annoy players or because they where too lazy/unqualified to launch it, it was a contractual problem and there is atleast a 50/50 chance the whole mess was caused by the other contractual party, you know the one that actually benefited from it.
So your not in any way bitter about being banned on the CM lotro forum then ;P
I see you have started saying the same crap here that you spouted over there.
Ah well, at least you are consistent.
A creative person is motivated by the desire to achieve, not the desire to beat others.