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Lord of the Rings Online: F2P Survivor Guy & LOTRO
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
MMORPG.com writer Adam Tingle has been on a quest to find great free-to-play games. Delving into our site's Game List, Adam has spent time playing F2P games, both good and not so good. This week, Adam takes time to look at Lord of the Rings Online, recently turned F2P by Warner Interactive and Turbine. See what Adam thinks of Middle Earth in its newest incarnation and whether or not it is worthy of your time.
For those unaware or simply too cool to care, Turbine has taken a bold move and converted its flagship MMORPG Lord of the Rings Online, to the F2P subscription model. While this decision has polarized opinion, it is a brave step and the developer deserves praise for trying to find a way out of playing second fiddle to bigger games such as Blizzard’s World of Warcraft.
Read more F2P Survivor Guy: LOTRO.
Comments
It is good to see the low level areas teeming with life again. However, it is a shame they are not 'teaming' with life again as before f2p most of the group content in the lower zones was removed in an effort to make it easier, in an environment where most players had at least one character at the cap, for players to level up.
That being said, I'm glad to see many new and returning players enjoying themselves in Eriador.
"Essentially if you own the three expansions already, Lord of the Rings Online really is subscription free and only a minority of features or disabled for the player"
Ok, first of all, there had only been 2 expansion so far: Moria and Mirkwood (not 3).
Secondly, this is incorrect. If you own both Angmar, Moria, and Mirkwood, and you wish to play free (being a Premier player), you would still need to buy the quest packs between 20-50.
" those that own the game, but do not actively subscribe, are “premium players” and therefore do not need to buy content they already own." - this is the totally incorrect part.
Please try to focus on giving correct info, or you will be flamed by haters. The game is great, and I agree it's still the best option to stay VIP and be subbed/lifetimer.
DB
Denial makes one look a lot dumber than he/she actually is.
As a free player in the realm, currently have a 26 dwarf champ. Now I have unlocked Lone Lands as a pack, and the story seems interesting, but not enough for me to pay actual money. Still, its a fun diversion where the deeds sytem is useful for gaining points, but for me the things that should be free are not.
Horses, get a free one then gotta pay 195 points and 500 silver just to get the simple horse. While most people will have the points by 15, there doesn't seem to be much choice in spending the points on a horse, or opening up the next area.
So as a f2p player, you have several choices, none of which are remotely fun. Grind the deed system in each newbie area (elf, hobbit, etc.) to gather all the points necessary to get the next quest content, even though by then most things are gray. I have gotten Bree almost finished and dwarf was about half done. Its time consuming and have already hit my gold cap of 2 gold (unlock for 495 points to raise to 32), have no horse currently, altho have gotten to do skirmishes which are interesting grind battles.
Suffice to say, I could see the game picking up a few new subs, but for people doing the free experience, the thrill will go away soon.
The end-game content currently is non existant as there is no way to see Frodo throw the ring into the volcano at mount doom. The cap is 50 for free, 65 for sub. And most of the well known lands from the movie are currently not available. So when you hit the 65 cap what is there to do? Not much. Grind legend items, a few raids, monster-play (which is limited to 1 zone), craft and basically re-roll.
The game is unfinished, prolly should not have gone f2p with no current end game content and frankly is a pay-to-play game with a tease of some freedom. As the author stated, its a longer trial game, with a cash shop.
I think that the real difference that Turbine has made in the F2P market is the inclusion of a way to earn turbine points through deeds and questing in the game. In theory, you could roll characters over and over again, and make enough points to purchase all the account-wide options, and deck out your main with the extra bags, bank slots, mounts, costumes, etc. that are on offer for "cash only". Besides DDO, I don't think any other F2P offering does this.
The only gripe I really have about LOTRO's conversion is that the riding skill is much easier to purchase from the store (available at level 5) than it is to do the quest to get it (requires VIP or quest pack and level 20). Especially since all my characters can use the Mirkwood pre-order Goat starting at level 5.....if I shell out 250 points for the skill (between $2.50 and $3.80 depending on when/how many points you bought)
That being said, I cancelled wow and have been playing DDO and LOTRO quite a bit without paying a dime, at least until cataclysm comes out :-p
It's great to see the lower lvl areas more alive. However, it's a shame that they felt the need to have multiple instances of an area. I'd love to see a more teaming Bree.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Although I haven't hopped back in since it's been f2p (thought I'd let the rush die down a bit) I would say it was necessary for at least 1 of 2 reasons.
1) I remember doing two of the killtasks from that outpost south of Bree and the correct creatures were not popping up much even with me mass killing everything I came across. The reason was there was 1 other guy on those same exact kill task and there wasn't enough of the creatures to support us both doing them. In fact a couple of times we both ran to try and hit the creature first when we saw one spawn. So to have tons of new F2P people all doing the same killtasks would of been an absolute nightmare.
2)There engine probably isn't setup to have a couple hundred players on screen at the same time so they had to instance it out.
True.
I have to wonder why people think Turbine should have designed the F2P system in a way that makes it as appealing to play for free as it is while paying for a sub/buying points.
Yes, if you're gonna choose to not spend a dime on the game, then expect epic grinds for points to buy the content.
If you like the game enough to grind that much to get the content for free, how's about donating plasma for 20 bucks a pop and paying for a sub?
Some things should be free or level locked. Posting to the AH, for example. Some things should be free or remarkably cheaper that currently aren't. But you can buy ALL the missing Anmar content for $14-23 bucks worth of points, at regular price.
And in Europe we are still waiting for F2P launch, with no date specified... great job CodeMasters.
If I wasn't a lifetimer, I would switch to US servers instantly.
If you think kill tasks are a nightmare, which they are in lower areas where I am currently playing, try gathering resources to craft. There are least 3 more more people running for the same mineral deposit or pile of wood. Many times I have been standing on top of a resource trying to gather it when interupted by a mob, while I am still standing on top of the resouirce and fighting the mob someone runs in and gets it from under me... yes, I have tired gathering during non peak hours and days and I have tried to find areas where there are less people...
So, I am hoping this all dies out as people move up to higher lvl areas or try the game then decide to drop out...
"Those that own the game, but do not actively subscribe, are “premium players” and therefore do not need to buy content they already own."
Misleading. Unintentionally, I'm sure, but still...
Players, premium, free, VIP, whatever, do not own ANY of the content. Closest thing to ownership anyone has is a free player that buys access to content with points.
Statements like this feed the argument that xpac owners own the content and are entitled to it for free. They aren't. Turbine gives them ACCESS for free as thanks for buying it, and as incentive to come back and play.
Lol, can't wait to sell my wagons of low level stuff, once F2P finally (if ever) kicks in in Euro servers
F2P is good for inflation though
DB
Edit: Robsolf, I have already pointed this out in my first response.
Denial makes one look a lot dumber than he/she actually is.
You know people keep tossing around this "there is no end game content" and they keep making themselfs look like fools. Theres several end game raid dungeons, theres over 10 different instances that you can run (just about every instance in the game scales based on level now), there are skirmishs, monster play (and its one huge zone - dont make it sound like this small little area).
LOTRO has as much endgame content as just about any other MMO out there. Just because you can't see Frodo toss the ring into the volcano (heck the storyline is not even that far along yet) does not mean there is no endgame content. What it does mean is that there is still alot of room for expansion by continuing on the story like they have been for the last several years.
I'd recommend to anyone starting, to become a Yeoman... AKA farmer/cook/clother. Farming provides pretty much all the resources for cooks that you can't buy from a vendor.
the clother bit is tougher, but at least the leather you need drops from kills, and doesn't have to be harvested. You just need someone to make hides into leather.
Actually, this is not correct either.
A Premium member, who has bough Angmar, Moria and Mirkwood, can play the game as an F2P with some extra features, and owns Moria, and Mirkwood - but NOT Angmar!
Thus, a premier player owning all these boxes will not have to buy any quest packs in Moria and Mirkwood, but will have to buy 20+ quests in the base game.
DB
Denial makes one look a lot dumber than he/she actually is.
Three expansions...purely an idiotic typo. In regards to Premium, free player and VIP. I guess I'm just as confused as anyone. Let me get this straight, if you own Angmar, Moria and Mirkwood the only content you will re-purchase is quest packs from 20-50?
I wouldn't doubt that it is, even before F2P you'd see multiple people run for the same deposits. For me it isn't much of an issue though because outside of trying it on one character out of curiosity, I never bothered to craft in LotRO. I was never hurting for cash, my characters were always fairly decently geared out between quests and the occasional purchase from the AH. So I just saw no need to craft. Generally I craft in MMOs as a way to make money, but if my character is making enough money then I don't need to spend time crafting.
I've wondered this myself about most of the f2p reviews, there is always that caveat attached to the commentary "yeah but if they did this or that for free it would be perfect" but then they wouldn't make any money I still sub and love the game will continue to sub for the forseeable future but truth be told if it was that much easier as a f2p I wouldn't just give them money for the hell of it so yeah to sub has to have more appeal than f2p or what's the point?
In all though this is by far the best and most easily accessible free to play I've ever encountered. As other posters mentioned you can go on every server you chose and make those two toons per server and easily accumulate enough points to deck your main out fully.
And I wanted to address another poster who referenced the early grinds maybe it's just me but I can get most of the low level deeds done in sometimes as little as fifteen minutes, is the grind really that bad? I know at the later stages the deeds are not my favorite part as alot of the kill deeds reach into the 150-200 plus range but the early deeds are extremely easy to achieve.
My honest assessment is that Turbine is giving free players maybe more than anyone should expect to get for free.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
Correct.
DB
Denial makes one look a lot dumber than he/she actually is.
"My only criticism is that perhaps the developers could have added a new playable race"
Yeah, like Blood Elves or something. They're mentioned in the Appendix, I swear :-)
People that complain that it's not truly F2P, as you have to shell out cash at some point, crack me up. The developers have to make money somehow, so of course they want you to buy stuff.
In terms of the game not being complete and there not being any end-game content, that's incorrect. The game is complete up to the point we're at in the story at the moment and there's end-game content appropriate to the current level cap. All MMOs develop over time and expand their lore and level caps (if they survive). The comments about LOTRO are like saying WoW isn't complete and there's no end-game content because we haven't exhausted the lore yet. To have launched a game with the whole of LOTR's story would have delayed the game by years - and probably bankrupted Turbine. A big part of LOTR is the journey of the various members. That's kinda how the game also works; we're moving along with the story. Now, having said that, I'd love it if they get back to their old schedule of releasing more content every couple of months instead of the currently infrequent updates. Maybe that'll change with F2P (DDO seems to be releasing new content fairly frequently). And, yeah, Rohan soon please.
Slainte Mhath!
LOL, Ninjajucer had me chuckling with his post here as well.
LotRO, probably more than any other MMO, is all about the journey, not the destination. In other words, it's like fly fishing -- its about the process, not so much the product. Having been with LotRO since very early Closed Beta myself, and a Lifetime Founder since the game went live, I've seen many people (with the mind set of this Ninja-d00d person here) who start playing LotRO as an alternative MMO (usually from WoW) and/or looking for a new MMO who grind through LotRO content like their ass is on fire, never stopping to smell the flowers, reaching the level 60 cap in the original game then saying, "OK, I BEAT the game -- now what. God that's still hilarious thinking about it
It's equally annoying and not nearly as comical to see other complaints about why "FTP" has certain limits. I'd like to reminf him and others with this mind set that if you want to play at some point you have to pay -- true in life and true in LotRO and every other worthwhile MMO -- the folks who produce these games for us have to make money in one way or another.
Turbine has already included the mind sets of people like Ninja-d00d here into their business plan equation for the FTP model of LotRO -- the plan is rock solid and was tested and re-tested both in a limited in-game Beta and for over 2 years in their Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO) MMO. The reality of life is it is absolutely proven that while some players will come and some will go away, a lot more players will remain after they come try LotRO with zero risk.
What Turbine decided to give players for free, based on what xpacs those players bought isn't really my point. I'm not trying to reacreate the FAQ, here.
My comment was intended as a matter of perspective. No one owns ANY of the content. It's turbine that decides who gets free access to what.
If Turbine decided tomorrow to no longer allow access to Moria quests for those that bought the MoM box before F2P, they'd be well within their rights to do so(It'd be a dumb business move to take something away that people once had free access to, but still...). The only people on the free model that really have any rights to access content are those people who paid points for those areas.
It's smart business to give perks to customers to get them coming back; any business owner that likes to be successful knows this. But no one has "rights" to a bakers dozen, let alone has rights to the whole bakers dozen for free because they bought donuts 3 years ago.
Funny first paragraph.
Turbine seems to have done something right in the world of free to play. Of all the complaints out there regarding f2p, Turbine seems to get the least flak of any company.
Maybe I'm just a fan of their easy-going, extended free trial. LOTRO isn't my style, but I sure didn't mind the chance to find out, and maybe I'll drop back in from time to time between games, obligation-free, just to see if my style has changed.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
~Albert Einstein
My major issue is that it is simply there, blighting the corner of my screen like the MMORPG equivalent of a Hooker offering “special services” if you put down a twenty and go round the back.
The biggest problem in LOTRO for me is replayability so I don’t see why Turbine cannot simply flesh-out somewhere like Buckland or Thistlebridge and make them into newbie hubs too.
I agree. Maybe some one can come up with a new UI that doesn't include that gold coin. Even Cryptic is more subtle.
I'm sort of thinking that maybe when we get into Rohan/Gondor territory that there might be new starter zones as theoretically they are more 'civilized' then the North where we are now.
I remember being a hair away from level 60 (pre SoM) for days while I did other things... craft... help other players get through Angmar, etc.
I often tend to be one of those players that tries to book it through the levels at a pretty quick pace in an mmo. I think it took me about 5 months to get to level 60, when I could actually probably have done it in a month or two. When you start thinking like:
"OK, the best place for me to go to advance is Moria. Item XP, more LI stuff, etc. Angmar is still an option, and Eregion still has some stuff I can do. There's Forochel, too, but the mobs are blues now... less XP and no quests with item XP...
But man, I love Forochel. I'm going to Forochel."
When you start thinking like that when you normally think "advancement, level, loot!!!", you've got a good game.