Free to Play
Codemasters General Manager responds to free to play delay
Oct 19th
It seems the higher-ups at Codemasters have heard the cries of outrage from their customers. David Solari, general manager of Codemasters Online, wrote a message, in which he (sort of) explains why Europe hasn’t received the free to play update yet.
Turns out the reasons are “contractual rather than technical”, something that most players suspected. Solari goes on to state that release is now “imminent” since “most” of these contractual problems have been dealt with. According to him, these contractual problems cannot be explained, since there are confidentiality clauses in effect.
Solari’s message is a direct response to the demands of players on the Codemasters forums, who wanted to hear something ‘direct from the horse’s mouth’ rather than through the usual forum moderators.
You can read the full message from Solari here.
1045th in line? Isn’t PAX over?
Sep 12th
Judging from completely unscientific measurements, it seems that the initial weekend of Free-to-play has been a big success for LOTRO. Servers are full, there’s been a lot of buzz this week about the game and most of the attention I think has been fairly positive.
To me it’s a little like watching your kids go away to school for the first time. You’re happy because you know there’s whole new worlds of discovery and prosperity coming their way. At the same time, while you know they will be coming back later, you kinda just want to play with them now.
Since many of you have some time on your hands (judging from the screenshot above) let us know what you think of this first weekend (or week, if you were part of the pre-launch) in the comments below. Happy? Sad? Enraged? Inebriated? We want to hear about it!
P.S. This screenshot was taken at about 12:55PM PDT on 9/12/2010 while trying to connect to Brandywine. All the other worlds were full as well, with queues of various size.On Sale at the Turbine Store
Sep 10th
- Get 6900 Turbine Points for $49.99
- 50% Off the Writ of Special Passage
- 20% Off All Travel Maps
- 20% Off Monster XP and Item XP Boosts
- 20% Off Skirmish Boosts
Messages from Turbine re: Turbine Points
Sep 9th
- Known Issue with Turbine Point Balances
- Sep 08, 2010 04:00 EST
- We are currently investigating an issue with incorrect Turbine Point balances in some players’ accounts (balances are lower or higher than they should be). We’ll have this fixed as quickly as possible! Thanks for bearing with us!
- Loyalty Rewards
- Sep 09, 2010 04:00 EST
- Reminder: Loyalty rewards may take 7-10 days to appear in your account after the launch of Volume III, Book 2. VIP Points should appear within 2-3 days after your billing date.(Click Here) for more information on account status, points, or other Free to Play related questions.
The pain of delaying Free to Play in Europe
Sep 9th
Before I got into this journalism thing, I was a drama major. I’ve done a couple of musicals (even though I have the dancing skill of a couple of broken brooms duct-taped together) and directed plays. Theatre teaches you the true meaning of deadlines.
As I’ve told nervous actors time and time again: there is this fixed moment (let’s say Friday, September 10, at 8 ‘o clock) when the curtain rises. This is an immutable fact. Some stage hand will pull a cord and the audience will see whatever it is that you’ve worked on for all those months.
Whatever the audience sees then (and what will wind up in the reviews), is the proverbial ‘it’. There are no excuses, no disclaimers. If you don’t know your lines by then, God help you and the rest of your career. This makes theatre a rather stressful occupation.
Only once during my years in theatre did the curtain not go up. This was doubly painful as this was supposed to be my big break. Still a student, I managed to get a part in a big budget production of a show called ‘Jack the Ripper’. It would tour the Netherlands, and there were huge stars in the cast. I met one of Holland’s most famous singers (Ramses Shaffy) and managed to embarrass myself in front of him, as is tradition when a young actor meets someone he idolizes.
LOTRO Reporter Free to Play Resources
Sep 8th
With Free to Play successfully up and running now, we’d like to present this list of resources for new players to use when they are starting to play the game.
So you’re new to LOTRO – 8 Tips to get you going!
Sep 8th
Hi, and welcome to this wonderful game we call Lord of the Rings Online. I think you’ll like it here. The people are really friendly, the scenery is beautiful, and the adventure is second to none! Since you’re new to the neighbourhood, I thought that I could give you a few tips to help you get the most of your time here.
1) Don’t spend any money right away!
- Unless you’re sure that you’re going to be playing the game for a while, hold off on spending any Turbine Points until you get a handle for the game. That way, it will reduce the change of you buying something that you’ll regret later.
2) Explore your first zone completely.
- You’re going to start in one of three zone: Bree, Ered Luin, or The Shire. Each of these is broken down into small areas (for example, the Dwarves start at Thorin’s Gate in Ered Luin, while the Elves start in Celendim, also in Ered Luin) and you should try to finish all of the quests and the deeds before you move on. Not only will this allow you to get the most out of the game before you decide whether or not you want to spend any money, but you’ll also most likely earn enough Turbine Points to purchase the Lone Lands quest pack.
Win a chance to get into the Head Start!
Sep 6th
Do you have a friend who is thinking of starting to play LOTRO on September 10th when Free to Play launches?
Wish they could start playing with you on the 8th when the head start launches?
Haven’t played LOTRO yet and can’t wait until the 10th?
Coming back from PAX, we are lucky enough to be in possession of 13 Head Start codes. What are these codes you ask? It’s a code for new players to start LOTRO when the Head Start launches on September 8th! Included with this code is also 500 Turbine points to get you going? All you need to do is comment on this post, and at 5:00pm on September 7th, we’ll use Random.org to pick 13 lucky winners and email their codes to them so that they can get going on the 8th.
See you in-game!
LOTRO Dev Diary – Instance 2.0 (Part 5)
Aug 18th
Jwbarry’s latest Dev Diary was posted today, and discusses the changes coming to the Great Barrows wing. Having gone through this Instance a few times in the beta now, I can tell you that the redesign is great, and that it’s a lot of fun.
The short description is that the instance has been split into The Maze, The Water Wing and Sambrog. The Maze has a few new tricks to it, with a new boss fight that adds some interesting mechanics (get out of the acid!), the Water Wing has a cool fight/puzzle before you can fight Thadur, and Sambrog has gotten a few new tricks to help new players learn all about instances.
More >
