So apparently on September 10th, Lord of the Rings in its F2P incarnation goes live here in the US. No offense to Blue Kae or anyone else who may love LOTRO but I could really care less. If you were not a paying subscriber or lifetimer before the F2P announcement, then there is absolutely nothing in the F2P version that will draw you in other than the price. Let me put it another way - going F2P is not going to make LOTRO any better.
I predict that there will be a large number of players from the levels of 1 and say 24, but once players will be required to start shelling out money to continue questing those numbers will drop. But this is me being jaded, I am sure there are a number of players looking forward to this and I hope that it's successful, but I highly doubt that you will find me in the world of Middle Earth.
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| How I feel about F2P LOTRO. |
5 comments:
Nah, I think if D&D Online was a success as a free-to-play / pay as you go / subscription hybrid - and by all accounts it was - then LOTRO is even more likely to be a success under the same model.
I honestly think only WoW does the race/class/level/questgrind DIKU experience better.
So I predict greatly increased playerbase, and while obviously a lot of those people won't spend money, a lot will, and revenue will increase pleasingly for Turbine.
But time will tell. :-)
I can't say I blame you. I never felt like the price was what was keeping me from playing LotRO. I'm not a fan of EQ2X's pay model, but I'm not convinced LotRO has it right either. Time will tell.
I think you are both right, time will tell. I can say with all honesty that I don't even know how much the questing pack price stuff is, so I'm sure I am way off on my not so real prediction.
I do hope that EQ2X and LOTRO have a successful transition to f2p, it can only be a good thing for the industry in my mind.
Actually Jay, speaking as a huge fan of the game, I suspect you are correct. LoTRO simply isn't for everyone. I am burned out on it myself currently, but it gave a me a longer run than any other MMO I've played. So overall I'd say it's fantatsic to Yeebo tastes.
The thing that really interests me about this, and to a lesser extent EQ2X, is that these are grand experiments. Will merely going FtP bring in thousands of gamers that would have never subbed . . .short of a man with a gun and a retail box showing up at their house? Or will it turn out that LoTRO and EQ2X really were rather niche products, regardless of their price structure?
The answer will make a big difference as to whether we see many more sub based MMOs in the future. I think a lot of folks are watching.
No offence taken.
I'm actually in agreement with you about the F2P, for someone who wants to play the game totally for free. For those people the game stops at 20 once you reach the end of the initial content. Turbine really should of marketed it more as a "free to try" game because after 20 you'll either need to subscribe or start buying ala cart from the store.
The big benefits of the new hybrid model is non-lifers can still keep in touch with friends through the game without resubbing for a month, and some people (like a friend of mine who wants to play but doesn't have much time, maybe an hour or three a week) who wouldn't sub can still spend $15 or so every couple of months rather than committing to a monthly charge.
Still, I prefer that model to the server segregation that SOE is doing. Either way (as has already been mentioned several times) time will tell.
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