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Lord of the Rings Online: Turbine Layoffs Confirmed

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Comments

  • GeezerGamerGeezerGamer Member EpicPosts: 8,855

    Maybe developers will start to realize the MMO genre isn't in trouble because of a revenue model, but rather from piss poor quality games. LOTRO may not have been a fast cash grab, but it sure as hell inspired the industry to get lazy.

  • MeridionMeridion Member UncommonPosts: 1,495
    its still miles away from real Pay 2 win, just saying...
  • starwarsnutstarwarsnut Member UncommonPosts: 230

    Lotro store is the definition of p2w btw. Store pots buying your traits and more. Lets be serious..

    im glad this is happening its 5 years to late. Like i said in my prior post that was removed with no reason? Those devs and gm abused thier power. Ive said this years ago. They accused my friend of buying 3000 in gold took him a year to get the account back. 3000 in gold thats a lot of money lol. There was a turbine employee dating a customer that i know of.

    Good riddance I hope they all get the axe sapience,frelorn all them. 5 years to late though

    Once again mmorpg staff this isnt trolling or baiting maybe i should make this my signature? still like to know why my original post was removed with out warning or anything almost feel like im on the official lotro forums lol

  • Nebula131Nebula131 Member Posts: 22

    relating these layoffs to the sale numbers of RoR is...funny. no big company would decide such matters in only one week and then allready inform the press.

    but it is related to the RoR expansion...

    with several systems now implemented they could "get rid" of some of the coding staff and more or less just keep some designers around. maybe they even did hire extra staff with timed contracts just for the RoR expansion and the "we lay off workforce" is just for WB and their shareholders?!

    i don't know and i guess none of you do. so i just hope it is not a bad sign for the game (because i just began playing again) because there is a dedicated fanbase to it. you could keep it that way, even with a small staff

  • theniffrigtheniffrig Member UncommonPosts: 351

    What I see from all this is that MMO's that have been around for several years, even the really successful ones, eventually start to stagnant and lose players & the sub model is pretty much irrelivant as players move on to newer games or the game itself is just too old by todays standards. Ofcourse, games like LOTRO will probably struggle on with some sort of life support system as they will always have a small dedicated playerbase.

    The real problem here is the new MMO's on the market for along time now have pretty much sucked, or tried to copy these old MMO's and suffer from not having anything really new. The whole genre needs some sort of new, refreshing, take on every aspect of gameplay.

  • ThillianThillian Member UncommonPosts: 3,156
    Originally posted by theniffrig

    What I see from all this is that MMO's that have been around for several years, even the really successful ones, eventually start to stagnant and lose players & the sub model is pretty much irrelivant as players move on to newer games or the game itself is just too old by todays standards. Ofcourse, games like LOTRO will probably struggle on with some sort of life support system as they will always have a small dedicated playerbase.

    The real problem here is the new MMO's on the market for along time now have pretty much sucked, or tried to copy these old MMO's and suffer from not having anything really new. The whole genre needs some sort of new, refreshing, take on every aspect of gameplay.

    The small dedicated playerbase is probably running on the lifetime for years, which were extremely cheap back then in 2007-2008 (for 99$), so they aren't really paying customers anymore. 

    REALITY CHECK

  • LonzoLonzo Member UncommonPosts: 294
    They should just fix the Character models. They look like 1993 and the customization is like from 1986.

    image
  • roo67roo67 Member Posts: 402
    Originally posted by Lonzo
    They should just fix the Character models. They look like 1993 and the customization is like from 1986.

    You obviously wern't gaming in 1986 .

    Heres a link to a video to Dungeon Master a game released in 1987 . You can quite clearly see how primative the graphics were .

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ho5E05Bi3bU

    In 1993 Doom was released I'm sure we are all familiar with that game and it plain to see the character models in Lotro are superior

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aJjMOy-Ops

    So I think you picked a couple of years out of your head because you thought it made you sound like you knew what your talking about when in actual fact you don't

    However I do agree the character animations in Lotro could do with an update .

  • JeroKaneJeroKane Member EpicPosts: 6,959
    Originally posted by Gaborik
    Originally posted by Mardukk
    Originally posted by Ehliya

    Turbine now has scrolls you can buy in the cash store to max out your crafting skills?  I had to look twice and read that again slowly.

    Cash-shop whoring some of the most devoted fans in the fantasy genre.   Not sure how much worse it can get.

    I can't believe they sell scrolls to instant max crafting tiers.  I already hate their FTP restrictions (no quests past newbie) but this  is much worse.  I can't imagine why their 5+ year old game is struggling...oh yeah it's 5+ years old.  It was a nice 6 month diversion for me around Mirkwood but I think they have reached a point of  desperation and going about things in the wrong way.

     

    Ok 1st off there is nothing in the store that give you instant max tier. You can buy scrolls that give you an extra 50% boost but not instant max. 2nd Lotro is still a good game and is also very active. My kinship alone has over 20 people on at any giving time and we are a smaller kin. ROR has been there best expansion since Moria, once they release the instances might pass it up. So people can say turbine sucks and has made mistakes but the game is still alive and well. The economy suck people, companies are struggling its no surprise video game companies are feeling the pain.

    Yes there is! I couldn't believe it myself either.

    I had some TP left and thought to buy those 50% XP boosters to speed up the Master tier of my Metalsmithing.... as I still have two more to go.

    Then among the 50% XP boosters I saw the Tier completion scrolls!

    As I was working on my Supreme Tier, I was faced with a Supreme Tier completion scroll for 4990 TP ! And a Expert Tier completion scroll for Tailor (as I didn't do much with that one, as Metalsmith is my main craft) for 3k TP or something.

    So yes. They DO sell Crafting Tier completion scrolls in the store now! For quite hefty prices.

    So people with big wallets can just buy their way to max out their crafting now! Absolutely disgusting!

     

    PS. The store checks your character state and uses that as to what will be shown in the store.

    You most likely have maxed out all crafting tiers? That might explain you do not see these Tier completion scrolls.

  • RoxtarrRoxtarr Member CommonPosts: 1,122
    Back in 2007 when I first played this game in beta, the game looked impressive.  I can't put a finger on it, but the game just doesn't seem to have aged very well.  When I logged back in the other day, suddenly it felt old.  Not sure why, but it just did.  Not to mention that it crashed to desktop several times (had to turn it back to DX9 to solve the problem).  Perhaps the 'freemium' model isn't quite the barnstorming success that we first heard about.  Perhaps things will turn around once the hype of the Hobbit movie ramps up.

    If in 1982 we played with the current mentality, we would have burned down all the pac man games since the red ghost was clearly OP. Instead we just got better at the game.
    image

  • kevjardskevjards Member UncommonPosts: 1,452
    i find it kind of strange..the numbers dropped severely when gw2 was released,but now that rohan is here ,on the servers i play on the numbers are back to what they have been for the last 2 yrs..i cannot speak for the other servers.i do like rohan..its huge..they made some great changes .i just think its very sad that peeps are losing their jobs though.i dont think this is turbine,i could be wrong but it sounds like warner bros to me..everything went bad when they got involved..i,m not saying its all down to them.turbine have not done themselves any favours trying to moneygrab off the players at every turn.things do not bode well for the future for turbine..i hope they can keep lotro going because to me its a great game.
  • GeezerGaz82GeezerGaz82 Member UncommonPosts: 65
    it's sad news to hear, I've been playing LOTRO for years and still find it fun.  the only thing I dislike really is the fact that every server is being hosted in the USA, including the supposed Europe servers.  But saying that, LOTRO is still in my top 3 MMORPGs of all time
  • HarryDresdenHarryDresden Member Posts: 2
    Originally posted by Cecropia
    Looks like F2P conversions are time buyers and not the sweet saviour that many folks had dreamed. Ah well, it will be intriguing to see how everything unfolds.

    That is the dumbest thing I have ever read.  No one thinks that F2P was going to make an MMO last forever.  Even a subscriber model can't manage that.  What it has done is add YEARS to the lifespan of an MMO.  Both DDO and possibly LOTRO would be closed by now if they hadn't gone F2P.

  • HarryDresdenHarryDresden Member Posts: 2
    Originally posted by asmkm22
    Originally posted by Xerith
    Originally posted by Elsabolts

    I've got a Lifetime sub and quit the game when it went F2P glad to see the Lay-offs.

    image

    Because people losing their jobs is cool right?

    People lose their jobs because they make poor descisions.

     

    The people losing the jobs aren't the ones making the decisions numbnuts.  The execs and marketing teams oversold what RoR and MotU would bring in for sales and WB ordered them to cut back on the workforce as a result.  You can bet none of the ones who lost their jobs yesterday were from the marketing department or were executives.

  • skydiver12skydiver12 Member Posts: 432

    I still think turbine is to small a company to keep AC, DDO and LOTRO up. They proved numerous times one always get's the shaft,

    DDO took a huge hit with Lotro release and Moria. Since the revamp of DDO, Lotro took a hit.
    They finally decided to probably skeleton crew one more of their games, making effectively half a crew for those three games, maybe they stopped developing that hidden harry potter mmo, who knows.

    As far as i can say, lotro does not seem to be affected at all, and a lost CM which job was putting up banners on external sites and chit chatting isn't a loss to me.

    Now if we had GM live events on the other hand, i'd probably mourn a lost leading CM :)

  • Po_ggPo_gg Member EpicPosts: 5,749
    Originally posted by skydiver12
    Now if we had GM live events on the other hand, i'd probably mourn a lost leading CM :)

    Actually we had that sometimes when we're under Codemasters... But then they dragged our servers over the Atlantic.

    Originally posted by GeezerGaz82
    the only thing I dislike really is the fact that every server is being hosted in the USA, including the supposed Europe servers. 

    this is why our servers are only "supposed Europe servers" now.

    I miss Codies... :)

  • JRonnie1976JRonnie1976 Member UncommonPosts: 20
    Originally posted by Gaborik
    This article never stated the layoffs were from the LOTRO team. And just last week they added 5 experienced developers. So these comments about the layoff prove lotro is failing are misguided. Granted lotro is not the most populated mmo out there or to some not the best. But from what my kinmates and experience day in and day out its still a very good and active game. I would bet the road to Mordor will continue and it will be a fun ride.

    Fact:  At least two of the layoffs known at this point are Clover, a long time forum moderator, and Graalx2, a long time developer.

    The only unconfirmed speculation here is your saying that the added hires were to the LOTRO team.  It has already been suggested that these hires are probably for their new production in the works.  But then, that's just speculation ;)

    Again, at least two well known long term LOTRO employees are confirmed gone.

  • FrodoFraginsFrodoFragins Member EpicPosts: 5,898
    Originally posted by clumsytoes44
    Really crappy new's turbine has made mistake's sure, but imho most of the really bad mistake's came after WB took control. Hopefully all the people who lost their job can find new one's in the near future.

    But it all started with the release of SoM a truly craptastic "expansion" that lowered the bar drastically.  No one bought it and they then spent two years converting to F2P.

  • FrodoFraginsFrodoFragins Member EpicPosts: 5,898
    Originally posted by strangiato2112

    No, F2P is not a lie. 

    Eh.  Any game that doesn't give you immediate free access to the level cap isn't really F2P in my opinion.  It's more of a limited free trial.

  • OzmodanOzmodan Member EpicPosts: 9,726

    Said thing when anyone gets laid off.

    On another note so many clueless posters on this thread.  There is nothing with Lotro, it is still one of the best MMO's out there and a ton a people are playing it.  The character animations are fine, no worse or better than any other MMO.  Graphics are just as good as many of the newer MMO's.  Amazing the engine does that well after all these years.

    If you are tired of playing this game, it is understandable, it is easy to burn out on any game, but don't try to come here and make up things that just are not true about the game.

    Oh and Frodo there are lots of people in f2p mode at level cap or getting close, so yeah it is f2p.  Like any f2p it just depends how much time you have to spend in game.

  • Po_ggPo_gg Member EpicPosts: 5,749
    Originally posted by FrodoFragins

    But it all started with the release of SoM a truly craptastic "expansion" that lowered the bar drastically.  No one bought it and they then spent two years converting to F2P.

    Khm... /raisehands  I bought it :)

    ok, not very proud of it, but I think it wasn't that bad. And true, after Mirkwood many players left the game.

  • CecropiaCecropia Member RarePosts: 3,985
    Originally posted by HarryDresden
    Originally posted by Cecropia
    Looks like F2P conversions are time buyers and not the sweet saviour that many folks had dreamed. Ah well, it will be intriguing to see how everything unfolds.

    That is the dumbest thing I have ever read.  You should really get out more ;) No one thinks that F2P was going to make an MMO last forever. No one said it would. Absolutely nothing lasts forever. Even a subscriber model can't manage that.  What it has done is add YEARS to the lifespan of an MMO.  Both DDO and possibly LOTRO would be closed by now if they hadn't gone F2P. With respect to sub numbers, LOTRO was at number three for western mmos very close to the time of the big switcheroo. This wasn't a dying game by any means. Turbine was obviously very excited with the success they had with DDOs F2P tranformation, and decided to roll the dice with LOTRO much to the shock of many. We'll never know how LOTRO would have fared had they continued with a P2P model, we do however now know how things are turning out for the F2P route.  There's a reason we heard very little about the health of the game with the exception of the initial attraction just after (F2P) launch. They rolled the dice, and instead of sustaining or even growing their playerbase for the mid/longterm, it looks as though Turbine just ended up buying themselves some time. They essentially squeezed the sponge dry.

    I don't know about you, but that's not how I want to see my favorite titles bow out.

    "Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor." - Pat Webb

  • JeroKaneJeroKane Member EpicPosts: 6,959
    Originally posted by JRonnie1976
    Originally posted by Gaborik
    This article never stated the layoffs were from the LOTRO team. And just last week they added 5 experienced developers. So these comments about the layoff prove lotro is failing are misguided. Granted lotro is not the most populated mmo out there or to some not the best. But from what my kinmates and experience day in and day out its still a very good and active game. I would bet the road to Mordor will continue and it will be a fun ride.

    Fact:  At least two of the layoffs known at this point are Clover, a long time forum moderator, and Graalx2, a long time developer.

    The only unconfirmed speculation here is your saying that the added hires were to the LOTRO team.  It has already been suggested that these hires are probably for their new production in the works.  But then, that's just speculation ;)

    Again, at least two well known long term LOTRO employees are confirmed gone.

    They didn't add any new members to the LOTRO team. The recent hirings were for their new focus towards the console platform.

  • BadaboomBadaboom Member UncommonPosts: 2,380
    I'm joining this discussion late, so not sure if this has already been mentioned but; Didn't LotRO just come out with an expansion?  Are there not more people needed to create the game than needed after its release?  Is it just me, or is this not just produnt business practice?
  • JeroKaneJeroKane Member EpicPosts: 6,959
    Originally posted by Torvaldr
    Originally posted by Cecropia
    Originally posted by HarryDresden
    Originally posted by Cecropia
    Looks like F2P conversions are time buyers and not the sweet saviour that many folks had dreamed. Ah well, it will be intriguing to see how everything unfolds.

    That is the dumbest thing I have ever read.  You should really get out more ;) No one thinks that F2P was going to make an MMO last forever. No one said it would. Absolutely nothing lasts forever. Even a subscriber model can't manage that.  What it has done is add YEARS to the lifespan of an MMO.  Both DDO and possibly LOTRO would be closed by now if they hadn't gone F2P. With respect to sub numbers, LOTRO was at number three for western mmos very close to the time of the big switcheroo. This wasn't a dying game by any means. Turbine was obviously very excited with the success they had with DDOs F2P tranformation, and decided to roll the dice with LOTRO much to the shock of many. We'll never know how LOTRO would have fared had they continued with a P2P model, we do however now know how things are turning out for the F2P route.  There's a reason we heard very little about the health of the game with the exception of the initial attraction just after (F2P) launch. They rolled the dice, and instead of sustaining or even growing their playerbase for the mid/longterm, it looks as though Turbine just ended up buying themselves some time. They essentially squeezed the sponge dry.

    I don't know about you, but that's not how I want to see my favorite titles bow out.

    I don't think it's accurate to blame the model for poor development and implementation.  Keeping on the same path they were on with regards to development I think they would be in a simialr situation now.

    Going F2P actually hurt them in the longer run, in my opinion, because they weren't doing that poorly with their sub revenue.  If you look back at the PAX East Keynote with Paiz it's clear that they saw a revenue opportunity by moving to the F2P model which disenfranchised a reasonable portion of loyal players.  So couple that with poor development practices (slow content releases, slow and poor bug fixes, lack of design direction and focus - design by committee) and you have a recipe of imminent failure.

    All this still doesn't mean the game will shut down though. I expect it will linger with diminishing quality of content updates and game play as time progresses.

    This! LOTRO at that time still had quite a few subscribers. Over 300k at least. Especially when the EU servers were still managed by Codemasters.

    Sure it wasn't the 600k + subs they had in the first 2 years till after Mines of Moria, but 300k+ is still a very respectable number.

    The thing was:

    1. DDO's conversion to Freemium F2P model was a huge success in the first year!

    2. They were bought by Warner Bros and wanted to put all focus on expanding the Freemium F2P model towards LOTRO.

    So LOTRO going Freemium F2P wasn't because the game was doing bad. They just wanted to increase their revenue further after the initial success with DDO.

    In other words .... they saw the $$$ signs and got greedy!

    And now 2 years later it's starting to backfire, as they have chased away most of their loyal fans with their continuing greed, squeezing out the playerbase more and more, turning the Store into Pay 2 Win, VIP subscribing has become pointless as it's much cheaper to stay Premium!

    So they have just shot themselves in the foot with their blind greed! /Facepalm

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