Lord of the Rings Online MMORPG

[CaptainofDespair]

I will probably log into LOTRO from time to time. At the moment, I'm going to wait until the next update (whenever that is), as Turbine has promised to take a closer look at some of the annoying features of the game (like radiance, the legendary item time-sink, etc). If it only gets worse after that point, I'll know I'm done. But I don't expect them to get around to that until early next year, at best.

I shudder to think what "new" or "innovative" ideas they have for Rohan, as all of the choices they've made on gameplay and features since SoA concluded have been major blunders.

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by CaptainofDespair

I shudder to think what "new" or "innovative" ideas they have for Rohan, as all of the choices they've made on gameplay and features since SoA concluded have been major blunders.

Actually, Turbine has blundered ever since changing MEO into the mutant LOTRO. The world was scaled back, the adherence to canon was sacrificed, and the controls and feel of the game were redesigned to emulate WoW. They plopped tedious PvP sandboxes in where players eternally play capture the flag, plopped absurd sci-fi creatures in, segregated the North American and European player communities, and now forced everyone into a free-to-play situation that will certainly rub long-time players the wrong way.

Humorously, the Turbine motto is 'powered by our fans'. They do not know who their fans are, nor do they care.

[Kuruharan]

Originally Posted by CaptainofDespair

Turbine has promised to take a closer look at some of the annoying features of the game (like radiance, the legendary item time-sink, etc).

I'm shocked to see that they are willing to admit that those were all horribly implemented...especially considering that they *still* (years later) haven't officially admitted that a "little" thing like the troll/ranger session play thing was a complete fiasco.

I shudder to think what "new" or "innovative" ideas they have for Rohan, as all of the choices they've made on gameplay and features since SoA concluded have been major blunders.

You and me both.

Originally Posted by Morthoron

Humorously, the Turbine motto is 'powered by our fans'. They do not know who their fans are, nor do they care.

Truer words were never spoken. They really are a joke of a development studio at this point. I am officially coming out and saying that I hope they go belly up and that somebody else can get the Tolkien license...although my level of confidence in most game developers is pretty low.

I personally think that the whole move to f2p across the board in MMOs is caused by most developers not having a clue how to make quality products and their incompetence is being shown by the hordes of small time people who are making small f2p games that are better in quality to almost anything being put out by a big name studio.

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Kuruharan

I personally think that the whole move to f2p across the board in MMOs is caused by most developers not having a clue how to make quality products and their incompetence is being shown by the hordes of small time people who are making small f2p games that are better in quality to almost anything being put out by a big name studio.

The saddest part of all of this is that had Turbine maintained their original MEO concept, stayed truer to the lore and eschewed the WoW influence, they'd have as many loyal customers, if not more, than they do now. Having MEO as a boutique design for 300,000 to 400,000 zealous Tolkien fans worldwide may have commanded a higher monthly fee, and would certainly have assured a higher customer retention rate. How do I know this? Well, from a personal standpoint, I am still in touch with most of the people involved in the design prior to LOTRO's release. It was always Middle-earth and not necessarily the game, a fact lost on Turbine.

Once they cheapened the game with lustful dreams of stealing customers away from WoW, they lost many adult fans, such as me, who would have paid more simply because the game DID NOT attract the WoW crowd. But they lost a ton of money by going immediately for marketshare, offering ridiculously low lifetime rates at the game's release. Start high while the game is fresh and people are excited (that's at least what I learned in college Marketing). You can always go lower, but you can never go higher without attrition.

Just plain ig'nant.

[Kuruharan]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

It was always Middle-earth and not necessarily the game, a fact lost on Turbine.

That's the truth. CoD can attest to how long and how much I bellyached about how the Tolkien feeling was rapidly lost from the game. For me it was gone before I was halfway through SoA and it never returned.

*wonders aloud if some of these developers could somehow grab hold of rights to the Sil*

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Kuruharan

*wonders aloud if some of these developers could somehow grab hold of rights to the Sil*

You'll have to wait for Christopher Tolkien to take the last ship from Gray Havens before that ever comes to pass.

[Kuruharan]

I suppose rights to make an MMO from the movies would fall under the same umbrella...not that I would necessarily want that either.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Oddwen

So, come September 10th, LotROnline will be free-to-play. Something which is very close to what I can afford!

Does anyone still play?

I am really no fan of MMORPGS or such things (and, well, even the time of ruthless pc game-playing is behind me), but I actually have tried LOTRO a long time ago, around the time the Mines of Moria came out, as a trial thing for a week... Given my general restraint towards any depictions of Middle-Earth in the "wide public", I found it quite good still, and now that the announcement about it being free came to me, I have sort of randomly returned to try it again.

It is still all brand new to me, so I don't feel any side-effects like those things Kuru and Morth mentioned, and for now I am fine with basically running around for various quests and enjoying the scenery. But if there were some 'Downers I could meet, it would be definitely worth it. I am not sure how much the communities are compatible, right now I have both my old and my current (both rather low-level) characters on the Meneldor server, so if anybody was there... or at least let me know on which server should I make my future characters, if it came to that. (Although maybe I won't know that the game exists anymore after some time... but if I got hooked, for instance by other 'Downers...)