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Burn the LoTRo Store - Restore JRR.T's World
Felseth
Member Posts: 9
I understand the economics that game developers work under, I used to do it many moons ago.
I also used to LIVE in Lord of the Rings Online because I was such a fan of the books.
Then Evil came to the lands - far, far worse that anything Mordor could conjur up.
LoTRo went and opened the LoTRo Store - where nothing you buy is in any JRR.T book, movie, or anywhere.
It was a great game to play(with all it own unique flaws included) - But the Evil GREED opened a store that totally defies any Tolkien Lore, in game logic, everything.
It made it a Game for the Wealthy. It skewed the haves and have nots almost as bad as the US Government.
Forgot your TP, just buy it from the store no matter where you are. Need a bandage, there's the store. Want all your crafting materials without farming, theres the store. But bring your VISA card as they don't take Gold.
Hear Me Turbine / Warner Brothers - you screwed it big time. First mistake was $200 gets you free play for life. Who did the math on that one? But that is nothing compared to ruining your fine game.
Hear Me Turbine / Warner Brothers - Kill the Store and I'll gladly come back and pay $25/mth to have LOGIC returned. Equality returned. Yes the extra $10 will hurt some, but my guess is that $10 is paltry to what that player is paying the store.
But thats the catch isn't it. The wealthy spend cold hard cash at your store far and beyond any exorbitant monthly fee.
Which brings us back to GREED. Don't try the "we would be out of biz without it" line - nobody is buying that old crap.
So before you let GREED KILL THE GAME, ALIENATE MORE AND MORE PLAYERS, AND YOU END UP WITH LESS MONEY and ULTIMATELY NO GAME PLAYERS....
BURN THE STORE TO THE GROUND.
Comments
Although you mention things about lore and such, from what you wrote it sounds more like you're in some kind of odd personal competition with the other players over who has more stuff and how they got it. Do you also get upset about the people selling high fantasy weapons at ren faires?
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
All I can say is preach on brother!
I find it disgusting what they have done to the game in the name of greed. The greed became apparent to me with the release of SoM, and it's gone downhill from there.
Quite frankly they didn't need to go F2P, but they did because they knew from DDO that it would generate substantially more reveue. It was a cash grab plain and simple. The only reason Turbine's other game, Asheron's Call, isn't F2P is because they can't figure out how due to tech limitations with the game being so old(13 years). Basically it's nearly impossible or not feasible financially to do so...thank the gaming gods.
Einherjar_LC says: WTB the true successor to UO or Asheron's Call pst!
Everyone says they love F2P but i think its a load of crap to get as much cash out of you as they can.... give me a game with 13-16$ monthly payment and no cash shop and im happy
Well i guess people can ask them self... Do i want to keep playing the game or not
Because it did not really pull in enough green as a sub game it seems and thus if you strip the cash shop the game goes with it.
Sad to say.
This have been a good conversation
Sympathy to the OP...
I am a avid JRR Tolkein and Middle Earth fan... and YES the store takes away from what makes JRR Tolkeins works so immersive.
Its supposed to be about adventure and going anywhere thru out the world...instead you cant go here cant go there and must buy this or that to go here or there....
Now having said that, LOTRO needs to make money and its a known fact that F2P with transaction stores makes money and no one wants to pay a sub.
burn it with lava
In my mind that illusion was shatterd when i could stand in Bagsend and spit to the edge of the shire. We all have to look away from the aspects that are glaringly wrong to be immersed in the story.
But i'd like to point out that even before it went F2P you had to pay to be able to advance the story so that is not really anything new.
This have been a good conversation
It pulled in what they expected to get and more. Or are you actually suggesting that F2P wasn't planned from the beginning and that Turbine had zero strategy beyond the lifetime subs? It doesn't seem illogical to you to in one breath say they are greedy EvilCorpCo and in the other suggest their business strategy was to have no revenue beyond the first two years?
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Nope, you missed the mark on that one. I have no need or desire to keep up with the Jones in terms of game bling. I play my characters as I imagined them from the books and that's it. I have a great little Kinship of like minded and we have our fun.
In beta and launch, all was equal - and good (inherent game problems excluded). I could do the same at the store as others do, cash isn't an issue for me, but I choose not to. What its done to the logic of the game is my issue. It's not over who has more stuff, its the ridiculous notion that a character can pop into a 'store', mid instance, and buy his way out of it. Just not logical.
Nor is it fair to those who are just scaping by to make the fee - but that's really another, but pertinent issue.
Not sure what ren faires have to do with this, but never lost a wink of sleep over them. Just pop Blackmore's Night into the iPod, fill my horn with beer, and enjoy the day.
Just a Tolkien fan who wanted the game to be as close as possible to the books, and they are heading farther and farther away despite Turbines professed obedience to Tolkien Lore as their driving force. I would make a guess that despite growing numbers (thats a guess too), there are less 'knowledgeable' Tolkien fans in the game than during pre-store times - or they sure are harder to find.
Cheers - Kill Well, Stay Vertical !
Why would you gladly play $25/month? I don't think many others would.
Yeah I used to love LOTRO... played it so much (Still kicking myself that I missed out on the lifetime) .. but once the FTP update hit .. it just didn't feel like the same game and I just couldn't play it anymore...
If it meant that Turbine could make there $$$'s and leave the game as it originally was, yes I would.
I agree it would be a steep price for too many players, however, I know that there are plenty of players who drop that much in the "Store" in a month and more.
Of course if I was paying $25/mth, I'd expect that the expansions would be less than $40 / $50 / $70 !!!!!!
$70 bucks for the UberVersion. If that is not greed, I don't know what is.
I canceled after resubbing one month in hopes to like the game again and hoped to play Rohan...
BUT when my characters (which date back to Open Beta I might add) cannot even ride to Bree from RIvendel without buying points from the store I quit. AND I unlocked all those years ago. I resubbed but lost all my past progression?
Screw it. LOTRO is dead for me as well as it appears others. This game will limp along for a few years then die.
http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?467819-I-came-back...
No one cares dude.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XltWe4PZLN4/Td7A3YKsjlI/AAAAAAAALGk/JnDPKzu4eF8/s1600/tmp.jpg
Dude, learn how to hyperlink. No one is going to look at that crap.
I left LOTRO for similar but broader reasons. When Turbine first introduced the approach they would take, they emphasized how they would remain true to the original vision of the books. For example magic, which in Tolkien's Third Age was at the least uncommon, would be kept within boundaries.
That didn't last long.
I could cite many examples, but the most obvious first deviation from their promises was Runekeepers. No where in the books are dwarves running around shooting lightning from their fingertips like Senator Palpatine. But Turbine needed to generate some subscriptions and retentions, hence they discovered that Runekeepers were "what the customers wanted." This list goes on from there. The cash shop was the last straw.
The living world of Tolkien is a dead dream. What is left is basically WOW with Tolkien names. As a result, I have vowed never to touch another MMO that has the Turbine name associated with it. They may be making money. But they have sold off their souls.
When are people going to start understanding that 98% of F2P games are designed to get you to P2W? Which just so happens to cost more than P2P! I still waiting for GP2P (Get paid to Play).
DarnRight this seem pretty fitting for you. http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/5038084#5038084
You are right about the store and turning LOTRO to cash machine. I hate players who are lazy and dont want to work for it, its much simpler for them to just pull out there or parents card and "presto", they are level 60 with full gear. Its just go to show how simple minded they are, with no imagination or ethics. I miss old days when mmo was played by gamers who enjoyed game for what it offer, an adventure and lore. Today mmo become just one more mediocre product (with few bright exceptions).
Yeah, you had to pay a subscription fee, or pay for the expansions, that's the nature of the business. But if not enough were subscribing to keep the game going, what do you expect them to do? Shut the game down, or try another method of making money and keeping the game alive for folks to play and enjoy... Personally I think if the store breaks your immersion, don't buy anything off of it, and don't worry about anyone else but yourself.
And if you are pissed that it doesn't fit the books or movies (and the movies took some liberties as well) then don't play. MMO's have far too many people that cry about the silliest of things when they can simply not participate in those things, ignore those that do, or move on. And if you have a lifetime like I do, you already got your money's worth 2 years ago.
Nilmarr,
Given my frustration with LoTRo's divergence from their original mission statement, be true to Tolkien Lore, I would very much like to know what games you consider "bright exceptions". I've scouted around and haven't come across anything that is 'bright'. I'd like to check them out.
Thanks - Kill Well - Stay vertical
Felseth
Well, mostly those games are from older times. And by bright exceptions I mean mmo that are or used to be played by gamers who put effort in playing and of course those games that are good. DAOC is good example, Everquest 1&2, GW (not real mmo in that sense of word, but still great game), Lineage 1&2, Lotro (before F2P), ...etc. And hopefully few new ones will be "bright excep." , like TSW, GW2, ArchAge...
Thats the real catch isn't it. Games from older times. Gamers who put effort in playing. Games that are good. The last two being the criteria for a good MMO experience. LoTRo, in older times, game flaws blurred by adherence to Tolkien Lore, had wonderful players who wanted the Tolkien immersion and played it as such. Not so anymore as Turbine has reduced the immersion factor to just another MMO that can have Tolkien names in it. You can still find small pockets of such players, most on the original servers, who ignore the Store, don't play dwarf loremasters, etc. and try to keep the game as it was. But I fear its a losing battle and they, like myself, are out looking for a better places, but fall back on our lifetime subs and hang around and bitch about whats been done to "our" game. As if it ever was. And the search goes on....
I just love people crying abou what other people are doing in games. It is just the funniest part of our horrible society that everyone is so worried about what everyone else is doing. Face it LoTR was dying it went free to play because subs were dropping to new games. FTP brought it new life. Yeah new people run it and it probably does not get the attention and dedication of writers to make it as close to the books as you would like. That is a valid argument for you to make, but worrying that your hard work is not looked upon and oogled by the masses is a joke. Do you whine that your car does not make everyone oh and ah like the 16 year old who's parents bought him a ferrari. Your anger over the fact he did not work for it.