Posts tagged f2p
EU Free-to-Play Preview Event Oct 25th!
Oct 21st
Wow. David Solari wasn’t kidding yesterday when he said that news about the EU transition to Free-to-Play was imminent in his post to players, was he?
Today Codemasters announced that they would having a Free-to-Play Preview Event starting on October 25th. This will be the typical stress test, etc. event for them to get a feel for how the system will work. They will also launch the full free to play “shortly thereafter”.
You can sign up for the Preview Event here.
Turbine: Sleeping in a bed of money?
Oct 10th
At the GDC Online conference in Texas, Lord of the Rings online Executive Producer Kate Paiz announced that the Free-to-Play transition has been an amazing success for Turbine. Not only have a million new accounts been created, but the game has doubled it’s revenue.
The details of the talk that Paiz gave can be found on joystick here.
Here are some numbers:
- 20% of former LOTRO players have returned since the transition.
- There has been a 300% increase in peak concurency (how many people are playing at once). In english, that means that there are 3 times as many people playing the game at any one time than before.
- 400% increase in total active players.
- 53% of players have used the in-game store for micro-transactions.
Pretty impressive, in my opinion.
The one thing that’s important to notice in all of this is that the game itself has not changed in any drastic way. Yes, there are some changes to the community, but nothing that in my mind has been a deal breaker. Although there are more people acting in very immature ways in the starter zone, I’ve been very impressed with the way in which the players have responded, which is to shut those people down in a very non-threatening way, i.e. “That’s not cool dude. Please stop.”
The only thing that’s missing now is some more content. Has anyone heard anything about some new content? Beuller? Bueller?
See you in-game!
The March for Information (to the gate and back again)
Sep 30th
I stand on the boulder in front of the Prancing Pony. There are about fifty other players there. We have gathered to make some noise, and I deliver my first virtual speech. People scant ‘Free Middle Earth’ or /roar. And while we march through Bree I wonder how the heck I got into this in the first place.
Tuesday, September 7. Twitter shows some disturbing news. I quickly log into the EU Lotro forums and see the official confirmation: Free to Play has been delayed. I am upset, and immediately see the irony. My first response to the actual announcement of F2P was one of utter disgust.
My annoyance isn’t just as a player. A week before I wrote an article in my newspaper announcing Lotro launching free to play on the 10th. It’s also the lack of an explanation that bugs me. The forum mods give no details and no new date. Calling Codemasters yields a friendly request to send my inquiries by mail.
More >
European Players March for Information!
Sep 24th
European players have started to chat on the forums about putting together a march on the Prancing Pony in the hope of trying to get some more information from Codemaster/Turbine about the Free-to-Play transition for European servers.
I’ve stated in the past that I through it was a really bad move for Codemaster to announce 2 days before the planned launch that they where delaying it indefinitely. Information has definitely not been forthcoming from the company.
That being said, I wonder how much of this is Codemaster’s fault. When I asked for an email interview with one of the CMs from Codemaster, I know that they had to vet all of their answers through Turbine before they could send them back to me. Could this lack of information be coming from Turbine, not just Codemasters?
All that aside, I think that this march is a great idea, and I whole heatedly support it! If you’re interested in participating, the march is going to take place at 8:00PM CET on Saturday September 25th , on the Laurelin server, or if you can’t make it to Laurelin, march on any server!
You can find the original forum post here.
Win a Signed copy of LOTRO!
Sep 23rd
Several months ago, after Turbine had announced that LOTRO would be going Free to Play, I went into my local Wal-Mart and found that there where a few boxes of LOTRO on the shelves. This got me to thinking: What would happen if someone bought these copies after the game went F2P?
I sent a email to Patience, and found out that the codes from the boxes would still be valid, so I decided to bring these boxes to PAX and ask the developers to sign them so that I could give them away as contest, which leads us to this post!
Wondering what you get if you win?
1) A signed copy of LOTRO: Shadows of Angmar and Mines of Moria
2) VIP access for one month, and premium access permanently after the month is over if you decide not to subscribe.
3) All MoM content: Access to the Mines of Moria region and content, premium classes (Rune-Keeper and Warden), legendary items feature, Tier 6 crafting feature, 2 extra character slots and a level cap of 60
4) The perks of having once been a VIP if you choose to let your account go premium:
- No Gold Cap
- 5 Inventory Bags
Here’s how to win: Comment on this post with a reason why your think you should win. We will use Random.org to pick a random comment on September 30th at 5:00pm, so comment before then!
This contest is open to anyone in North America . I would love to offer it world-wide, but the shipping limits me to North America, and the code inside the box would only be valid on Turbine servers. Comments that do not state why you think you should win will not be elligeble.
Good luck, and see you in-game!
Changes To Minstrels with Volume 3.2
Sep 21st
So with all the changes we’ve seen with the transition to Free-To-Play with LOTRO, you’d think I would have more to talk about with Minstrels. Fact of the matter is, there really isn’t much of a change for our happy little healing class. We’ve got a few skill acquistions moved around and a few other miniscule things.
- Mentor skills can now be used while mounted.
- “Song of the Hopeful Heart” is no longer affected by Hope-dispelling attacks like the Balrog’s roar.
- Addressed an issue where Lothlórien instruments were not applying threat reduction properly.
Source: http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Release_Notes_Volume_3_Book_2_Official
Changing around the order of some of the lower level skills seems to offer a bit more DPS to the newly created Minstrel but there’s nothing game changing about it. There’s not really any new surprises with this list, what is surprising is the addition of a Medium armor radiance set for any class able to wear it. There are also some other “endgame” armor sets available that offer similarly wonderful stats. I’ll be looking forward to doing Annúminas instances for a few weeks in order to get the new Medium Set.
Have a great week in Middle-Earth!
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
The Looking Glass: New LOTRO Free to Play Trailer
Sep 9th
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.
Get the Podcast!
Use the coupon code LOTROREPORTER to save 25% off your first month!
Use the coupon code MMOREPORTER for you first month free!
