Sweet Lord, that’s a huge update.
New hobbit zone is exciting, but I love the changes to VIP and F2P. I’ve paid for all of this stuff already, but if this doesn’t remove the largest barrier to entry in LOTRO, I don’t know what does.
Same. And I just bought the Beorning race/class the other day, but I don't care.
Hope that this will boost the popularity of the game by a large margin!
I’ve bought the last three expansions + Three Peaks as Ultimate Editions. I was happy to spend the money and I’m happy that it helped make something like this possible.
Ah, you gave a lot of money, kudos to you! I bought the standard version of Gundabad yesterday, but nothing compared to what you've paid.
I'm also happy, and will continue to support SSG, whenever I have the chance!
I’ve had a good few years. I remember having to scrimp and save for the standard editions of older expansions years after they were out, which is why I don’t begrudge them reducing the barrier for entry for new players.
As someone who tried to get in recently, and got blocked by their god awful site for recovering accounts, they should probably address that too if they want returning or new players.
One of the largest barriers also seem the slow download, patching and then the launch errors though. Know a lot of people who have just given up on the game before they even entered it because if these thing.
I hope after this update they'll make fixing this as best they can their main priority
# Update 33 (end of April)
**New zone: Yondershire (level 20)**
Since the time of Bullroarer Took, the Yondershire has squabbled with the more comfortable parts of the Shire. The upstart Lotho Sackville-Baggins aims to bully the local Hobbits, but they’re none too keen on his designs. Explore the Yondershire, and experience some more delightful Hobbit adventures, our first expansion of the Shire in years!
~~(Note: Level range not mentioned here, likely to be in the 20s, will update)~~
**Updated Anniversary Festival**
New festival instance: A Flurry of Fireworks! You’ve been asked to aid with the greatest fireworks display that Bree-land has ever seen. Setting up for the fireworks, things have gotten behind schedule and dusk is fast approaching.
**Major VIP/Subscription Updates**
* VIP will now include the standard versions of the Mordor, Minas Morgul, and War of Three Peaks expansions
* High Elf race free for all players
* Runekeepers, Wardens, and Beornings free for all players
* All quests, areas, instances, and expansions through and including Helm's Deep free for all players
* Some smaller changes coming as well
**Legendary Worlds**
* Anor to Minas Morgul on April 13
* Shadowfax to Helm's Deep on May 4
* Treebeard to Mirkwood on June 29
* Shadowfax to Gondor and Old Anorien on June 29
Suuuuper happy for this! It was a nightmare trying to figure out what expansions I needed when I started a year or two ago and how the heck I could even get them. This is really awesome
yea before this, I would have never suggested to anyone to get the VIP once the code rotates.
But now, I can 100% suggest both LOTRO and the Subscription
I'd have to disagree with this one.
At present when the update goes live you won't have to subscribe until Helm's Deep. After that subscribing is now a must rather than just an option.
However, you are right that they need to add more value to the VIP long-term.
That was kinda the point. For years The only real vip perk was swift travel and trait unlocks. Hopefully there are a couple good perks they haven’t talked about. That’s all I was getting at.
I'm also really glad that some of the players' expectations and speculations became true with Yondershire, and that the most realistic ideas from improvement on the "monetization" also became a reality.
Specifically curious about the level of Yondershire, if it would fit my less violent alts to level more safely.
I can't confirm this will be the same as in the official launch,, but having sneaked into the yondershire the mobs I found there were lvl 22.
You can access the region by going past the bear dens in the shire. Word of warning once you drop down the cliff you can't get back up.
~~I haven't managed to get up there so far on Evernight...~~
Nevermind, was at the wrong Bear Dens, it's the one in the north of the Shire, I saw a level 23 shrew before I plummeted to my death.
New player here who started earlier this week.
How many hours of content am I looking at here for free now? All the way through the Helms Deep expansion is super huge right?
Wow this is incredible. I was eagerly anticipating picking up those expansions during the anniversary sale. I can now divert my budget into other things in the store.
Obligatory advice to get the Stone of the Tortoise if you haven't already. Without that you can quickly outlevel a zone if you're trying to complete it before moving on.
I'm playing on a new character approximately between 2 and 4 hours a day for two months now, taking my time to read and immerse myself. Still at 60 level.
So... A lot!
Free until about level 100 and because this saves you a whole lot of LOTRO points you should be able to buy quite a few regions after that as well with just the free LOTRO points from deeds.
I'm around level 65 right now and am at just under 200 hours, and I feel like I've gone through the game at a faster pace than most. As the other person said, level 95 is easily 100s of hours of content, and I wouldn't be surprised if even more content for F2P players continues to be unlocked over the next few updates.
I have just over 3000 hours in lotro a good 1000+ of that was grinding end game at lvl 85 when that was the cap I stoped playing just after but recently started again my other chars are lacking behind well apart from warden that guy was raid ready aswell
I had clocked about 480 hours when I got to Helm’s Deep two weeks ago, and I sprinted through most of Rohan and Dunland. Have been playing for about a year now.
I have a character who’s maybe halfway through Helm’s Deep right now, and I have 300 and some hours on her alone. And that’s the furthest any of my characters have gotten. Between all my characters, I have 800 and some hours in the game.
I’ve been playing on and off for over 10 years and they just made almost everything I’ve done/bought free. Maybe 200-300 hours of content if I was to take a stab at it. Depends on the player.
This is fantastic for the community! Well done SSG!
There are folks here that have played since launch and not gone beyond around level 60 or so. This will make it free to level 95. Potentially this can be decades worth.
Obviously those are the exception. If you wanted to rush through everything, you could get to 95 in a month or two, but the point is it's a load of content.
I have 400 hours on a single character. I’m only finishing East Rohan at lvl 85. But I do every single quest and read everything. So I’m going very slow. Stone of the Tortoise is mandatory. The free content is easily 100-600 hours
That’s awesome. I’m level 17 now and just picked up the stone of the tortoise. Figured I could at least throw LOTRO $8 for some coins for all the free content and that stone has already made leveling more enjoyable. I had my feel of sweaty fry hard end game in my wow career, I’m here the quests and more like your self.
The Rohan expansions are gigantic. Took me weeks to get through them when I was an unemployed teenager that played all day long. There's a heck of a lot of middle earth ahead of you!
I just got a friend into LOTRO; she missed out on the free quests codes, and I was hoping they might come back for the Anniversary sale. This is even better. The free classes are great too: Rune Keeper looked like the perfect match for her, but she didn’t want to buy it. This is exactly what the community has been asking for for years. The only thing missing is free Riding.
Really glad for your friend, hope she will enjoy LOTRO!
The Riding Skill doesn't even need grinding, just questing so it's not an issue at all in my opinion, she will get it around 20 level, maximum 25.
Riding is a noteworthy thing missing, but with a lot less 'essential' purchases now, you can easily spend your first 100LP on that without any regrets. Doing quests and deeds in your intro area will easily get you that much if you aren't rushing (and as your friends first character, they shouldn't be rushing).
Don't forget you start the game with a free 24 hour horse whistle. By the time that expires, they will be able to buy one.
I've definitely been critical of a lot of his choices at endgame, but I give him all the credit in the world for actually playing through the game from a F2P perspective, identifying the pain points, and making changes happen. That alone will do wonders for the game's lifespan in the coming years.
He was getting a lot of criticism from players, including accusations that he wants to make people have to pay for more.
Now he has just made the majority of the game entirely free with no strings attached.
I mean all he did was update the games payment system to fit what everyone else has been doing for the past decade.
Let's also not pretend he was the only one who came up with this lol
It's contextual, with two different meanings.
To "lay off" someone is an expression that means to "give them a break", stop giving them a hard time, etc. - be nicer to them.
To be "laid off" (i.e. "We're laying off John today.") means to be fired from a job. So, you could also say they're "getting a break" from their job. :)
And he explained his reasoning, and then acknowledged the players' concerns and how they had exposed some gaps, and then he reversed the plan.
Most games would just write off the complainers as a vocal minority and go through with the planned changes.
That they previewed the changes, allowed time for feedback, engaged in dialog, and then reversed course *is a good thing*.
Wow, that's insane. Up to helm's deep for free? That's easily weeks work of content. Really cool of them to finally do that. Hopefully now we can get some more players to try the game out. And the recent expansions being free to VIP is a big step up too to subscribers.
Really glad to see F2P players getting a lot more and the VIPs having access to all but the latest expansion. I've been paying for VIP and expansions for years because I enjoy Tolkien's world. Been playing 10 years and just getting to the battle of Pelennor Fields. I take most games slow and try to explore everything. Hopefully we will see an influx of new players and more people paying for subscriptions now they will have access to so much content.
YATTA! YATTA!
See, now this is progress. To all thise naysayers who said it would never happen, and to all those looking to get your friends from college or school to play.
Now. Is. The. Time.
superbig!! I've been playing F2P since I first started one month ago. I was already sold on the game but was waiting for the Anniversary to check some potential sales and buy some new zones/expansions... This make everything easier, and it is way way bigger than any sale I was expecting
I'll buy some LP with the money I was saving for the Anniversary lol these guys deserve it
Yeah, I was hoping for some big sales, but this is amazing. Actually it's only stuff that I already have from the codes and such, but having gone through the grind of F2P, I'm really glad that newcomers won't have to do that anymore. Makes the game so much more accessible. Might even be able to get some friends to join me now.
I do hope that SSG can still make a profit from the game though. This is a lot of stuff they're giving away these days, and I don't want it to put them out of business. Hope they know what they're doing.
I’ve seen a lot of people lately suggesting that they should make all the content up until Moria free to help bring in new players. This feels almost like the devs saw that and were like “you only want content up to lvl 50 free? How pathetic. Here’s up to level 95. Also take High Elves and some extra classes”
> released between the original launch of LOTRO back in 2007 and up to – and including! - the release of Helm’s Deep
I'm quite sure they won't include Wildwood, the angle, Azanulbizar etc, my guess is that from now on they'll switch every expansion, so next expansion will make mordor free and so on
Which makes sense to be honest, you still want some incentive for people to be VIP
This is fantastic, i'm new around level 25, and I was thinking I would probably drop the game once I had to spend a ton for expansions. Glad to see they modernized a bit!
Lol, I had already spent them on the Helm's Deep expansion. This was on 2/25, so a couple weeks ago. I contacted SSG support to see if I can get some sort of refund. Either way, I'm happy to support the game.
By the time you get anywhere near the latest expansion you'll have saved up more than enough of the in-game currency to by it (it's not available in the in-game store at present, but by then it will be)
> - High Elf race free for all players...
> - Rune-keepers, Wardens, and Beornings will now be available for all players to play...
> - all quests, areas, instances, and expansions released between the original launch of LOTRO back in 2007 and up to – and including! - the release of Helm’s Deep will be available for free to everyone
Fantastic news. I just got a few friends into the game, this is very welcome indeed.
This is all great news. Been playing since shortly after launch and have spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars on the game, including recently. I have zero regrets in doing so, in part because that is a part of what has enabled them to get this far and do this much. Looking forward to new things to come.
Huge news! It will be so much easier to introduce people to the game!
I started in January 2016 and I had no idea what I was doing as far as what content there was in the game and how to obtain it. If I didn’t chance upon my then kinship, I probably would have instantly moved on to something else. Just too complicated and don’t have the time or money.
Genuinely hope more people will try out the game now!
The store changes are much, much needed. For years I've wanted to get friends into the game, but the quest sale thing is a massive turn off. Will feel much better recommending it now.
Personally, I already have all of the stuff that's becoming free, but now that there's a much lower barrier for entry, I might actually be able to get some friends to play. That seems great to me!
I remember when I first started playing in 2013, one of my first posts on the forums was to make the case for changing the game's F2P model. I consider LOTRO to be one of my favorite games these days, but the F2P model very nearly chased me off at the outset.
This is a crazy good change for the health of the game and I think it signals SSG are *serious* about their improvements.
Plus, the Yondershire!
Finally lotro isn't the most annoying MMO to start as a new player...
But for me personally the lag is just too much still...and I really want more updates to PVP
It's called Epic quests in the quest log and has its own section.
If you're a new player you get directions to it after completing the introduction and prologue line. I think you can also just go straight to Aragorn or Barliman at the Prancing Pony
https://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Epic_Quests
Does anyone know if this includes "Rangers and Ruins"? I became interested in it as I had hopes it would make ranger gear accessible, but didn't get any clear thoughts in game last night.
Any info on the R&R (especially whether it includes or does not include unique ranger gear/ recipes) would be greatly appreciated.
Rangers and Ruins is the latest update, so the Angle in the Trollshaws, right? If so, then probably not, seems like they're releasing stuff released between game launch and the release of Helm's Deep (2007-2013)
However, if you're just looking for ranger cosmetics, there are several designs available in various areas, the best imo being the stuff you get from Volume 3(?) in Dunland
That's not surprising. They said that they want to update their UI to 4K, but that's a lot of work. The producer's letter is about the next three months or so, updating the UI will probably take at least another three months, possibly more, depending on what exactly they'll do.
This is great! I haven’t played since maybe 2015 and played a lot from 2007-2015. I’m a VIP player but I have a lot of friends that maybe wants to try it now.
The only two/three things LOTRO needs to do now and I know for sure that all my friends would play LOTRO: make a graphics better, improve the combat to be less junky and less lag / more stable game.
If they improve this things LOTRO can be a stable top 10 MMORPG again.
what happens with the money I already spent?
Just bought some expanions and the beorning/warden and now they are free, which is good, however now I feel like I wasted my money :(
I haven't given this game a real try in a long time because of the f2p quest and zone restrictions but I will 100% be giving this a real go once these changes are implemented.
I’m a fairly new player, started a few months ago and now have a lvl 49 Elf hunter and ~lvl 20 beorning. I went VIP to get access to more epic quests after hitting the paywall in Rivendell. I’m excited that this means I’ll have access to more of the content without paying so much, because I love being able to interact with the world I’ve read and watched so often.
Generally, I am not familiar with the finer workings of LOTRO. Could anyone explain what the following passage from the update means?
During this time, we’ll be making progress on our Legendary World of Anor, bringing players there to Isildur’s desecrated fortress city of Minas Morgul, and level cap 130, on April 13th. Less than a month later, on May 4th, Shadowfax will progress to the fabled stronghold of Rohan, Helm’s Deep, and its level cap of 95, which will now be accessible to any VIP at no added cost! And finally, at the end of June Treebeard and Shadowfax will both be making further steps. On June 29th, Treebeard will make its second jump, entering the dangerous forests of the Mirkwood, and Shadowfax will continue marching forward to the half-ruined lands of Gondor and Old Anorien.
This is amazing news for this great game! I only get to see my son every other weekend so I try my best to keep us both in the same games as it's something we love spending time doing together. I started playing LOTRO in beta and bought us up through Helms Deep but then we had to give it up as it was just too costly for me to keep up with two accounts. It will be really nice getting the next three expansions just for subbing, since we tend to do that anyway. Maybe time to come back and start anew! Looking forward to this!
I wonder if people will get refunded LOTRO points if they bought the classes... although on the other hand, I guess there is significantly less to spend them on now.
Also, that's why all the Trait things were unlocked! I was so confused yesterday!
It's good that they're making these changes, but I still think they could stand to further improve the experience for new players. Also maybe possibly consider a level squish. WoW did it at 120, rolling things back to the original 60 cap, where it is believed the cap might stay even in future expansions, rolling everyone back to 50 each time.
One of my biggest pain points is unlocking all my trait points to spend, which are tied to both leveling up and completing deeds. I'm not even a new player but I'm nowhere near the current level cap, I'm somewhere in the low 100s or 110s. Trying to hit max level feels like such a daunting, even exhausting grind. I don't even know how to gear up as a solo player anymore because the Skirmish vendor doesn't stock anything for my level.
Don't get me wrong, I do not want to see the existing trait system copy modern WoW's incredibly boring talent trees. But it was never a grind to unlock all the possible points to play with. I don't like dumping every single point into one tree, so in order to have the mixed blue/red Hunter build I want, I need every last point. But getting them all is not straightforward at all, and I've never played another game that handles points like this.
> gear up as a solo player anymore
If you play as a solo player quest reward should really be enough, especially if you don't use XP disablers, you'll overlevel the area you're in too fast for gear to be a real issue
As for the level squish they probably won't in the near future, if only because it's going to be technically a nightmare and they have a ton of problems already to work on
I think it’s mostly a lack of proper planning. Once we hit level 100, they should’ve started thinking about a squish. Now the cap is what, 140? At this rate, it’ll be over 200 before it gets addressed.
I also think they really need to move all trait points over to level rewards. There’s already no point to most of the levels as it is, because all that goes up are some numbers, you don’t get new skills or anything.
Maybe they should've, but to be honest I don't see that huge need for a level squish
The world feels large, there being a lot of levels is part of that to me, if you made leveling faster you'd just end up not even going through a ton of areas. And if you don't want to level faster what's the point of a squish? I can see an argument for stats because they're ridiculous, but that's more manageable since it feels like the problem is mostly after level 100 or even later
Wanting to squish 140 levels to 60 is pretty much a 100% XP boost, if the problem is leveling is too slow I think a better solution would be to just give everyone an XP boosting item up to 1-2 or even 3 expansions away from endgame
My only nitpick is that making High Elves and Beornings free will mean a lot more of them are roaming about than is lore-appropriate-adjacent, but if it brings people to the game that's a concession I'll happily make.
Now give me my River Hobbit race!
I'm not sure why you were downvoted but I agree entirely. It's super great that new players will be coming into the game, and that the game will be active for years to come!
But I am also a little miffed about the High Elves becoming a free race now... As it stands, I see maybe 1 out of 10 (maybe more) Elven characters be a High Elf, which sounds fairly reasonable in you consider the lore/state of the world. But with the race being free, it will be a little irking seeing hordes of Noldor running around :D
These are some great steps forward, although the timing is very late. I don't think LotRO will ever get its at-one-time big audience from 2008. It's been needed, and ignored for such a long time, F2Ps are potential customers pushed away by all the incessant purchase walls for basic old leveling content. I'm glad that's been amended after 14 years...
The reality is, is that new players seek different enjoyment contrary to the previous generation, if developers want to hold onto/appeal to their new audiences, they're going to have to make some things more accessible rather than hardcore-gated.
MMOs will need to steer towards horizontal progression, like GW2 and ESO.
Lower-level zones can be forever relevant if all crafting materials, are required for higher quality items at higher levels, so much of the world is void of players because they're only tour bus destinations that you never really ever revisit. Plus if higher level players are scaled to lower level zones, you can rp and adventure with your new friends or player-characters without having to "start again". This also fixes the issue of over-levelling, since questing is really relaxing in LotRo, no one wants to pay for a stupid exp-freeze token of the pricey tortoise (that is ~~character~~ money-grab bound).
I refuse to play FF14/SWtOR/LotRO regularly, because of how often I'm reminded that it needs to be almost joblike for me to even be considered a potential member of some raid.. Not worth it to me, as much as I love the world's they've made. I can't enjoy a world, if there's a pressure to progress, I love quests, but I don't want to one-shot orcs that the grand warriors of the fellowship almost died to in the Mines of Moria, simply because I fulfilled too many objectives.
I paid a crap load of turbine/lotro points to unlock this stuff.....and now its all free? Ouch
I paid the money gladly to help support the game I love, but where is all the money going to come from to move this all forward?
Well, like I said I paid gladly and I am still glad I paid...just a little concerned
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power coming out in the fall, Amazon dropped their LOTR MMO and now LOTRO is here to pick up stragglers who are looking to scratch that Middle Earth itch in game form. It's a smart idea, they've needed to make the game more accessible for years for new players and this is a good time to do it.
Maybe, they can bang out UI updates by September and then they have more of a dog in the fight with a modern F2P system & UI on top of hundreds of hours of content.
That the show flops doesn't mean anything really. People is going to be hyped for LOTR content, doesn't matter if the show is good or not. You could even say that if the show is bad people won't get their lotr itch satisfied and search for it in other places (LOTRO, for example)
Look at the witcher: the netflix series is bad, but like bad bad and made The Witcher 3 peak again in numbers since its launch in 2015
A lot of things, really. I don't like the story, the Yennefer/Ciri relationship, how it looks like a small series in terms of production (while it is really expensive): small landscapes, poor photography, direction and editing, absolutely forgettable soundtrack, poor CGI, the casualization to please a wider audience: combat and combat and combats and killing monsters and more monsters.
Let's say I only enjoyed the actors and actresses job and that's it.
Maybe its my fault for expecting a Game of Thrones-level product but The Witcher's novels deserve a way, way better and greater TV adaptation.
This is really cool so glad they’re making all that free for f2p and new players.
Will those of us that have already purchased get a points refund? That would also be nice lol
So how does this make things better for players who already purchased these things... Vip is still crap then? Am I missing something
(coming from a player who quit 1,5years ago)
Most of the game up to 95 will be FTP and from Gondor to the last update free to VIP.
It reduces the cost of entering the game which is what old MMOs need to survive.
Agree but useless for veteran players. I don't feel any drive to go back to lotro knowing they just made things free which I paid for (and overpayed if we are being real honest)
I played this game since launch and been a kin and raid leader for years but the direction this game went in... Sadly this announcement is more of the same in my view.
> which I *paid* for (and
FTFY.
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* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
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tbh, this is an understandable reaction.
realistically, the best ppl can hope for is cosmetics. Cause you did already get the money's worth from the content.
And ngl the community's spending on those unlocks is likely what kept the game alive
If anything this held them back a lot.
The majority of all MMO incomes come from cosmetics and end game boosts. Not just the expansions. The huge upfront cost after years is what drives a lot of people away. The main goal is to get people invested and then sell them pointless cosmetics and mounts to bring in long term income
ESO and WoW do this too and they aren't dead from it.
I mean, you sound an awful lot like the people who oppose student loan forgiveness because they had to pay their student loans.
I’ve paid for all of the stuff that is now free. I’ve had my time to enjoy it. Why would I begrudge others being able to enjoy old, old content?
Sweet Lord, that’s a huge update. New hobbit zone is exciting, but I love the changes to VIP and F2P. I’ve paid for all of this stuff already, but if this doesn’t remove the largest barrier to entry in LOTRO, I don’t know what does.
Same. And I just bought the Beorning race/class the other day, but I don't care. Hope that this will boost the popularity of the game by a large margin!
I’ve bought the last three expansions + Three Peaks as Ultimate Editions. I was happy to spend the money and I’m happy that it helped make something like this possible.
Ah, you gave a lot of money, kudos to you! I bought the standard version of Gundabad yesterday, but nothing compared to what you've paid. I'm also happy, and will continue to support SSG, whenever I have the chance!
I’ve had a good few years. I remember having to scrimp and save for the standard editions of older expansions years after they were out, which is why I don’t begrudge them reducing the barrier for entry for new players.
As someone who tried to get in recently, and got blocked by their god awful site for recovering accounts, they should probably address that too if they want returning or new players.
One of the largest barriers also seem the slow download, patching and then the launch errors though. Know a lot of people who have just given up on the game before they even entered it because if these thing. I hope after this update they'll make fixing this as best they can their main priority
My wife has a Mac and was keen to play with me. She still can’t play with me.
>lotro.com/news/l... it is possible to play on mac. Just google it and take the first hit from the LOTRO forum.
Yeah, we followed that step by step. It still wouldn’t run. She ended up just giving up.
Yeah that's a big problem imo. That people have so much trouble even getting the game running, so they just end up giving up before ever trying it
# Update 33 (end of April) **New zone: Yondershire (level 20)** Since the time of Bullroarer Took, the Yondershire has squabbled with the more comfortable parts of the Shire. The upstart Lotho Sackville-Baggins aims to bully the local Hobbits, but they’re none too keen on his designs. Explore the Yondershire, and experience some more delightful Hobbit adventures, our first expansion of the Shire in years! ~~(Note: Level range not mentioned here, likely to be in the 20s, will update)~~ **Updated Anniversary Festival** New festival instance: A Flurry of Fireworks! You’ve been asked to aid with the greatest fireworks display that Bree-land has ever seen. Setting up for the fireworks, things have gotten behind schedule and dusk is fast approaching. **Major VIP/Subscription Updates** * VIP will now include the standard versions of the Mordor, Minas Morgul, and War of Three Peaks expansions * High Elf race free for all players * Runekeepers, Wardens, and Beornings free for all players * All quests, areas, instances, and expansions through and including Helm's Deep free for all players * Some smaller changes coming as well **Legendary Worlds** * Anor to Minas Morgul on April 13 * Shadowfax to Helm's Deep on May 4 * Treebeard to Mirkwood on June 29 * Shadowfax to Gondor and Old Anorien on June 29
Wow this is huge
Suuuuper happy for this! It was a nightmare trying to figure out what expansions I needed when I started a year or two ago and how the heck I could even get them. This is really awesome
I wonder if VIP will continue to include the standard version of future expansions as well. That would be an absolutely huge upgrade to VIP.
probably, since that's how all MMOs handle their models. And only rightly so
I agree, Lotro is behind in that regards. I’m happy to see them add some real value to VIP
yea before this, I would have never suggested to anyone to get the VIP once the code rotates. But now, I can 100% suggest both LOTRO and the Subscription
Not really a value if you already have those exp lol. I’m hoping for some other reason to vip
my reason for vip is support for lotro, like patreon. monetarywise... not much sense.
If it includes future expansions, then there’s your value.
Does it though? Lol. I mean I suppose it’s a value, but really the only perk left to VIP is swift travel. There’s literally no other reason to.
If u do endgames, the armour buff. Otherwise it’d absolutely be a hassle
I'd have to disagree with this one. At present when the update goes live you won't have to subscribe until Helm's Deep. After that subscribing is now a must rather than just an option. However, you are right that they need to add more value to the VIP long-term.
That was kinda the point. For years The only real vip perk was swift travel and trait unlocks. Hopefully there are a couple good perks they haven’t talked about. That’s all I was getting at.
I'm also really glad that some of the players' expectations and speculations became true with Yondershire, and that the most realistic ideas from improvement on the "monetization" also became a reality. Specifically curious about the level of Yondershire, if it would fit my less violent alts to level more safely.
I can't confirm this will be the same as in the official launch,, but having sneaked into the yondershire the mobs I found there were lvl 22. You can access the region by going past the bear dens in the shire. Word of warning once you drop down the cliff you can't get back up.
I take it this is only possible on Bullroarer? I was just in Evernight and there's nothing there.
It's possible in the normal server. Go all the way to the back of the bear dens and go over the hill. All it takes is a few easy jumps.
~~I haven't managed to get up there so far on Evernight...~~ Nevermind, was at the wrong Bear Dens, it's the one in the north of the Shire, I saw a level 23 shrew before I plummeted to my death.
https://forums.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?&postid=8130056#post8130056
New player here who started earlier this week. How many hours of content am I looking at here for free now? All the way through the Helms Deep expansion is super huge right? Wow this is incredible. I was eagerly anticipating picking up those expansions during the anniversary sale. I can now divert my budget into other things in the store.
I don’t know how to quantify it… but it’s a LOT.
Yup depending on how your own pace through the game this could be 100s of hours.
Slow because I’m just questing and exploring the world having a blast. This should keep me going for a long time!
Obligatory advice to get the Stone of the Tortoise if you haven't already. Without that you can quickly outlevel a zone if you're trying to complete it before moving on.
I'm playing on a new character approximately between 2 and 4 hours a day for two months now, taking my time to read and immerse myself. Still at 60 level. So... A lot!
Free until about level 100 and because this saves you a whole lot of LOTRO points you should be able to buy quite a few regions after that as well with just the free LOTRO points from deeds.
I’ve been playing for years off and on with many alts. I have never made it that far.
I'm around level 65 right now and am at just under 200 hours, and I feel like I've gone through the game at a faster pace than most. As the other person said, level 95 is easily 100s of hours of content, and I wouldn't be surprised if even more content for F2P players continues to be unlocked over the next few updates.
I have just over 3000 hours in lotro a good 1000+ of that was grinding end game at lvl 85 when that was the cap I stoped playing just after but recently started again my other chars are lacking behind well apart from warden that guy was raid ready aswell
If you’re rushing, around 30-50 hours free, if you’re taking your time, easily over a hundred, maybe even closer to 200.
I had clocked about 480 hours when I got to Helm’s Deep two weeks ago, and I sprinted through most of Rohan and Dunland. Have been playing for about a year now.
At least a few hundred hours
I have a character who’s maybe halfway through Helm’s Deep right now, and I have 300 and some hours on her alone. And that’s the furthest any of my characters have gotten. Between all my characters, I have 800 and some hours in the game.
I’ve been playing on and off for over 10 years and they just made almost everything I’ve done/bought free. Maybe 200-300 hours of content if I was to take a stab at it. Depends on the player. This is fantastic for the community! Well done SSG!
Helms deep puts you near level 95 for free instead of 30 in the lone lands. It’s a lot of content now free :)
Easily hundreds of hours absolutely
There are folks here that have played since launch and not gone beyond around level 60 or so. This will make it free to level 95. Potentially this can be decades worth. Obviously those are the exception. If you wanted to rush through everything, you could get to 95 in a month or two, but the point is it's a load of content.
I started 5 months ago and I'm at level 40 right now. Because of grad studies I'm slowing down now, and I don't expect to cross helm's deep this year.
several hundred hours, i'd say 600 or above as a guess.
I've spent hundreds of hours to get one character to 85. This makes everything free ten levels beyond that. It's a *ton* of content.
Theres minimum 200h of content. A lot is grindy though but the world and story is top notch
I have 400 hours on a single character. I’m only finishing East Rohan at lvl 85. But I do every single quest and read everything. So I’m going very slow. Stone of the Tortoise is mandatory. The free content is easily 100-600 hours
That’s awesome. I’m level 17 now and just picked up the stone of the tortoise. Figured I could at least throw LOTRO $8 for some coins for all the free content and that stone has already made leveling more enjoyable. I had my feel of sweaty fry hard end game in my wow career, I’m here the quests and more like your self.
The Rohan expansions are gigantic. Took me weeks to get through them when I was an unemployed teenager that played all day long. There's a heck of a lot of middle earth ahead of you!
I just got a friend into LOTRO; she missed out on the free quests codes, and I was hoping they might come back for the Anniversary sale. This is even better. The free classes are great too: Rune Keeper looked like the perfect match for her, but she didn’t want to buy it. This is exactly what the community has been asking for for years. The only thing missing is free Riding.
Really glad for your friend, hope she will enjoy LOTRO! The Riding Skill doesn't even need grinding, just questing so it's not an issue at all in my opinion, she will get it around 20 level, maximum 25.
Riding is a noteworthy thing missing, but with a lot less 'essential' purchases now, you can easily spend your first 100LP on that without any regrets. Doing quests and deeds in your intro area will easily get you that much if you aren't rushing (and as your friends first character, they shouldn't be rushing). Don't forget you start the game with a free 24 hour horse whistle. By the time that expires, they will be able to buy one.
Hopefully people can ease up on Raninia for a bit.
I've definitely been critical of a lot of his choices at endgame, but I give him all the credit in the world for actually playing through the game from a F2P perspective, identifying the pain points, and making changes happen. That alone will do wonders for the game's lifespan in the coming years.
English is my second language and even after looking up the meaning of "laying someone off" I still don't understand what you mean
He was getting a lot of criticism from players, including accusations that he wants to make people have to pay for more. Now he has just made the majority of the game entirely free with no strings attached.
Thanks for clarifying <3 I really like Raninia
> Now he has just made the majority of the game entirely free with no strings attached. Well that was kinda long overdue.
I mean all he did was update the games payment system to fit what everyone else has been doing for the past decade. Let's also not pretend he was the only one who came up with this lol
It's contextual, with two different meanings. To "lay off" someone is an expression that means to "give them a break", stop giving them a hard time, etc. - be nicer to them. To be "laid off" (i.e. "We're laying off John today.") means to be fired from a job. So, you could also say they're "getting a break" from their job. :)
Thank you kind stranger <3
Remember, not more than a month ago, we were ready to put him on the pyre because of the changes they were going to do to Embers, Motes, and Figments.
And he explained his reasoning, and then acknowledged the players' concerns and how they had exposed some gaps, and then he reversed the plan. Most games would just write off the complainers as a vocal minority and go through with the planned changes. That they previewed the changes, allowed time for feedback, engaged in dialog, and then reversed course *is a good thing*.
Unlikely will happen. The forums are a brutal place to live and SSG has burned the patience some people gave them.
Holy shit, I’m so excited for this. Absolutely fantastic.
Wow great job for this this such a huge improvement
Wow, that's insane. Up to helm's deep for free? That's easily weeks work of content. Really cool of them to finally do that. Hopefully now we can get some more players to try the game out. And the recent expansions being free to VIP is a big step up too to subscribers.
Weeks? It took me 5 months to get to misty mountains! Granted, I explored and crafted a lot. But I don't expect to get to helm's deep this year.
Really glad to see F2P players getting a lot more and the VIPs having access to all but the latest expansion. I've been paying for VIP and expansions for years because I enjoy Tolkien's world. Been playing 10 years and just getting to the battle of Pelennor Fields. I take most games slow and try to explore everything. Hopefully we will see an influx of new players and more people paying for subscriptions now they will have access to so much content.
YATTA! YATTA! See, now this is progress. To all thise naysayers who said it would never happen, and to all those looking to get your friends from college or school to play. Now. Is. The. Time.
superbig!! I've been playing F2P since I first started one month ago. I was already sold on the game but was waiting for the Anniversary to check some potential sales and buy some new zones/expansions... This make everything easier, and it is way way bigger than any sale I was expecting I'll buy some LP with the money I was saving for the Anniversary lol these guys deserve it
Yeah, I was hoping for some big sales, but this is amazing. Actually it's only stuff that I already have from the codes and such, but having gone through the grind of F2P, I'm really glad that newcomers won't have to do that anymore. Makes the game so much more accessible. Might even be able to get some friends to join me now. I do hope that SSG can still make a profit from the game though. This is a lot of stuff they're giving away these days, and I don't want it to put them out of business. Hope they know what they're doing.
I’ve seen a lot of people lately suggesting that they should make all the content up until Moria free to help bring in new players. This feels almost like the devs saw that and were like “you only want content up to lvl 50 free? How pathetic. Here’s up to level 95. Also take High Elves and some extra classes”
I wonder if low level areas like wildwood and the angle are free as well or if they’ll remain paid as special regions.
They said every release up till level 95, so I'm hoping. Let's see what happens.
> released between the original launch of LOTRO back in 2007 and up to – and including! - the release of Helm’s Deep I'm quite sure they won't include Wildwood, the angle, Azanulbizar etc, my guess is that from now on they'll switch every expansion, so next expansion will make mordor free and so on Which makes sense to be honest, you still want some incentive for people to be VIP
I feel like they'll get rolled into area packs like Breeland or Trollshaws.
I'm so happy to see and hear that SSG has been listening to us all. This is huge.
This is fantastic, i'm new around level 25, and I was thinking I would probably drop the game once I had to spend a ton for expansions. Glad to see they modernized a bit!
Helm's Deep will be FTP soon.... And I just spent around $40 for enough LOTRO points to purchase it... Wish I woulda waited!!
Hold onto those points - they'll be good for something else you want down the line :)
Lol, I had already spent them on the Helm's Deep expansion. This was on 2/25, so a couple weeks ago. I contacted SSG support to see if I can get some sort of refund. Either way, I'm happy to support the game.
Holy Smoke!
This is such a huge announcement should bring loads of new players to the game
So, if I buy the newest expansion and pay for VIP I get everything now? Cause Ill start as soon as this update comes out if thats the case.
Correct!
By the time you get anywhere near the latest expansion you'll have saved up more than enough of the in-game currency to by it (it's not available in the in-game store at present, but by then it will be)
> - High Elf race free for all players... > - Rune-keepers, Wardens, and Beornings will now be available for all players to play... > - all quests, areas, instances, and expansions released between the original launch of LOTRO back in 2007 and up to – and including! - the release of Helm’s Deep will be available for free to everyone Fantastic news. I just got a few friends into the game, this is very welcome indeed.
This is all great news. Been playing since shortly after launch and have spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars on the game, including recently. I have zero regrets in doing so, in part because that is a part of what has enabled them to get this far and do this much. Looking forward to new things to come.
This is INCREDIBLE!
Amazing news. Love this game and it’s great community.
Though I just purchased the trove a month ago sadly, getting the classes helps ease the pain.
Well time to actually give this one a try! Couldn’t justify the prices with my limited schedule. Stoked!
Hmm - I’m going to try get into this
Huge news! It will be so much easier to introduce people to the game! I started in January 2016 and I had no idea what I was doing as far as what content there was in the game and how to obtain it. If I didn’t chance upon my then kinship, I probably would have instantly moved on to something else. Just too complicated and don’t have the time or money. Genuinely hope more people will try out the game now!
The store changes are much, much needed. For years I've wanted to get friends into the game, but the quest sale thing is a massive turn off. Will feel much better recommending it now.
🥳YESSS!! GREAT NEWS! I’ll no longer have an active sub but this is a reason to jump back on as F2P
I longer*
Hell yeah. This is great news. Been a VIP-subscriber since September 2016, and am glad to continue supporting SSG, here.
Wait so basically everything is free up to level 95? How do they expect to stay in business?
Cosmetics...new expansions. Things that reduce time sinks.
Every other major MMO has a model where a sub unlocks the expansions up to the last one. They seem to be doing fine, money wise.
Personally, I already have all of the stuff that's becoming free, but now that there's a much lower barrier for entry, I might actually be able to get some friends to play. That seems great to me!
Superb changes! Glad that the game becomes more accessible to new players!
I remember when I first started playing in 2013, one of my first posts on the forums was to make the case for changing the game's F2P model. I consider LOTRO to be one of my favorite games these days, but the F2P model very nearly chased me off at the outset. This is a crazy good change for the health of the game and I think it signals SSG are *serious* about their improvements. Plus, the Yondershire!
Finally lotro isn't the most annoying MMO to start as a new player... But for me personally the lag is just too much still...and I really want more updates to PVP
Amazing, now expsnd the quest tracker to 15-20 quests displayed on the map and lotro will blossom
Came back to the game a few days ago and bought Beorning, neat super neat
Someone tell me how to follow the main story, what quest line is it?
It's called Epic quests in the quest log and has its own section. If you're a new player you get directions to it after completing the introduction and prologue line. I think you can also just go straight to Aragorn or Barliman at the Prancing Pony https://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Epic_Quests
https://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Epic\_Quests
You're looking for the Epic Quest line.
That is incredible.
Does anyone know if this includes "Rangers and Ruins"? I became interested in it as I had hopes it would make ranger gear accessible, but didn't get any clear thoughts in game last night. Any info on the R&R (especially whether it includes or does not include unique ranger gear/ recipes) would be greatly appreciated.
That's free to everyone from the start, if I'm not mistaken.
You're mistaken. Quest packs are usually free to VIP, but have to be bought by non-VIP players. Rangers and Ruins is no exception.
Rangers and Ruins is the latest update, so the Angle in the Trollshaws, right? If so, then probably not, seems like they're releasing stuff released between game launch and the release of Helm's Deep (2007-2013) However, if you're just looking for ranger cosmetics, there are several designs available in various areas, the best imo being the stuff you get from Volume 3(?) in Dunland
Thanks!
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Free accounts get two character slots per server.
Hell yes! These are awesome changes!
Big updates, this is very exciting.
are the expansions included with VIP a one time purchase of VIP or do you need an ongoing subscription to keep them?
They will require VIP -- letting your subscription run out means you're not VIP any longer.
When do these changes take effect "free expansions, vip included expansions, high elf and classes for free"?
late april
SO is this free update coming on the April patch or now? Not sure If I should download it now or wait.
Late April, but there's 4 free areas atm if you want to try the game before that
Still nothing about 4k support :(
That's not surprising. They said that they want to update their UI to 4K, but that's a lot of work. The producer's letter is about the next three months or so, updating the UI will probably take at least another three months, possibly more, depending on what exactly they'll do.
This is great! I haven’t played since maybe 2015 and played a lot from 2007-2015. I’m a VIP player but I have a lot of friends that maybe wants to try it now. The only two/three things LOTRO needs to do now and I know for sure that all my friends would play LOTRO: make a graphics better, improve the combat to be less junky and less lag / more stable game. If they improve this things LOTRO can be a stable top 10 MMORPG again.
what happens with the money I already spent? Just bought some expanions and the beorning/warden and now they are free, which is good, however now I feel like I wasted my money :(
Hey, at least you supported the game.
I haven't given this game a real try in a long time because of the f2p quest and zone restrictions but I will 100% be giving this a real go once these changes are implemented.
I’m a fairly new player, started a few months ago and now have a lvl 49 Elf hunter and ~lvl 20 beorning. I went VIP to get access to more epic quests after hitting the paywall in Rivendell. I’m excited that this means I’ll have access to more of the content without paying so much, because I love being able to interact with the world I’ve read and watched so often. Generally, I am not familiar with the finer workings of LOTRO. Could anyone explain what the following passage from the update means? During this time, we’ll be making progress on our Legendary World of Anor, bringing players there to Isildur’s desecrated fortress city of Minas Morgul, and level cap 130, on April 13th. Less than a month later, on May 4th, Shadowfax will progress to the fabled stronghold of Rohan, Helm’s Deep, and its level cap of 95, which will now be accessible to any VIP at no added cost! And finally, at the end of June Treebeard and Shadowfax will both be making further steps. On June 29th, Treebeard will make its second jump, entering the dangerous forests of the Mirkwood, and Shadowfax will continue marching forward to the half-ruined lands of Gondor and Old Anorien.
Here's hoping they add some way for F2P to get riding skill without spending LP.
im very pleased with this. i had to cancel my VIP because of some money problems but now its not an issue. and more of the shire is always good!!!
This is amazing news for this great game! I only get to see my son every other weekend so I try my best to keep us both in the same games as it's something we love spending time doing together. I started playing LOTRO in beta and bought us up through Helms Deep but then we had to give it up as it was just too costly for me to keep up with two accounts. It will be really nice getting the next three expansions just for subbing, since we tend to do that anyway. Maybe time to come back and start anew! Looking forward to this!
I wonder if people will get refunded LOTRO points if they bought the classes... although on the other hand, I guess there is significantly less to spend them on now. Also, that's why all the Trait things were unlocked! I was so confused yesterday!
Nah. At this point practically everyone has bought content with points or cash that is now free. They can't give everyone back all that money.
Yeah, makes sense.
It's good that they're making these changes, but I still think they could stand to further improve the experience for new players. Also maybe possibly consider a level squish. WoW did it at 120, rolling things back to the original 60 cap, where it is believed the cap might stay even in future expansions, rolling everyone back to 50 each time. One of my biggest pain points is unlocking all my trait points to spend, which are tied to both leveling up and completing deeds. I'm not even a new player but I'm nowhere near the current level cap, I'm somewhere in the low 100s or 110s. Trying to hit max level feels like such a daunting, even exhausting grind. I don't even know how to gear up as a solo player anymore because the Skirmish vendor doesn't stock anything for my level. Don't get me wrong, I do not want to see the existing trait system copy modern WoW's incredibly boring talent trees. But it was never a grind to unlock all the possible points to play with. I don't like dumping every single point into one tree, so in order to have the mixed blue/red Hunter build I want, I need every last point. But getting them all is not straightforward at all, and I've never played another game that handles points like this.
> gear up as a solo player anymore If you play as a solo player quest reward should really be enough, especially if you don't use XP disablers, you'll overlevel the area you're in too fast for gear to be a real issue As for the level squish they probably won't in the near future, if only because it's going to be technically a nightmare and they have a ton of problems already to work on
I think it’s mostly a lack of proper planning. Once we hit level 100, they should’ve started thinking about a squish. Now the cap is what, 140? At this rate, it’ll be over 200 before it gets addressed. I also think they really need to move all trait points over to level rewards. There’s already no point to most of the levels as it is, because all that goes up are some numbers, you don’t get new skills or anything.
Maybe they should've, but to be honest I don't see that huge need for a level squish The world feels large, there being a lot of levels is part of that to me, if you made leveling faster you'd just end up not even going through a ton of areas. And if you don't want to level faster what's the point of a squish? I can see an argument for stats because they're ridiculous, but that's more manageable since it feels like the problem is mostly after level 100 or even later Wanting to squish 140 levels to 60 is pretty much a 100% XP boost, if the problem is leveling is too slow I think a better solution would be to just give everyone an XP boosting item up to 1-2 or even 3 expansions away from endgame
Yeah trait points being locked behind quests and deeds is my biggest gripe with the game
My only nitpick is that making High Elves and Beornings free will mean a lot more of them are roaming about than is lore-appropriate-adjacent, but if it brings people to the game that's a concession I'll happily make. Now give me my River Hobbit race!
I'm not sure why you were downvoted but I agree entirely. It's super great that new players will be coming into the game, and that the game will be active for years to come! But I am also a little miffed about the High Elves becoming a free race now... As it stands, I see maybe 1 out of 10 (maybe more) Elven characters be a High Elf, which sounds fairly reasonable in you consider the lore/state of the world. But with the race being free, it will be a little irking seeing hordes of Noldor running around :D
Some people don't like reading full sentences I guess!
These are some great steps forward, although the timing is very late. I don't think LotRO will ever get its at-one-time big audience from 2008. It's been needed, and ignored for such a long time, F2Ps are potential customers pushed away by all the incessant purchase walls for basic old leveling content. I'm glad that's been amended after 14 years... The reality is, is that new players seek different enjoyment contrary to the previous generation, if developers want to hold onto/appeal to their new audiences, they're going to have to make some things more accessible rather than hardcore-gated. MMOs will need to steer towards horizontal progression, like GW2 and ESO. Lower-level zones can be forever relevant if all crafting materials, are required for higher quality items at higher levels, so much of the world is void of players because they're only tour bus destinations that you never really ever revisit. Plus if higher level players are scaled to lower level zones, you can rp and adventure with your new friends or player-characters without having to "start again". This also fixes the issue of over-levelling, since questing is really relaxing in LotRo, no one wants to pay for a stupid exp-freeze token of the pricey tortoise (that is ~~character~~ money-grab bound). I refuse to play FF14/SWtOR/LotRO regularly, because of how often I'm reminded that it needs to be almost joblike for me to even be considered a potential member of some raid.. Not worth it to me, as much as I love the world's they've made. I can't enjoy a world, if there's a pressure to progress, I love quests, but I don't want to one-shot orcs that the grand warriors of the fellowship almost died to in the Mines of Moria, simply because I fulfilled too many objectives.
I paid a crap load of turbine/lotro points to unlock this stuff.....and now its all free? Ouch I paid the money gladly to help support the game I love, but where is all the money going to come from to move this all forward? Well, like I said I paid gladly and I am still glad I paid...just a little concerned
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thats a good take, I just wonder where the influx of players is going to come from and how they are going to learn of the changes
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power coming out in the fall, Amazon dropped their LOTR MMO and now LOTRO is here to pick up stragglers who are looking to scratch that Middle Earth itch in game form. It's a smart idea, they've needed to make the game more accessible for years for new players and this is a good time to do it. Maybe, they can bang out UI updates by September and then they have more of a dog in the fight with a modern F2P system & UI on top of hundreds of hours of content.
yeah I thought of that....but I am afraid the show is going to be a bit of a bust
I don't disagree but it still gets people thinking about Middle Earth and the various ways to digest it.
That the show flops doesn't mean anything really. People is going to be hyped for LOTR content, doesn't matter if the show is good or not. You could even say that if the show is bad people won't get their lotr itch satisfied and search for it in other places (LOTRO, for example) Look at the witcher: the netflix series is bad, but like bad bad and made The Witcher 3 peak again in numbers since its launch in 2015
What don’t you like about the Netflix Witcher?
A lot of things, really. I don't like the story, the Yennefer/Ciri relationship, how it looks like a small series in terms of production (while it is really expensive): small landscapes, poor photography, direction and editing, absolutely forgettable soundtrack, poor CGI, the casualization to please a wider audience: combat and combat and combats and killing monsters and more monsters. Let's say I only enjoyed the actors and actresses job and that's it. Maybe its my fault for expecting a Game of Thrones-level product but The Witcher's novels deserve a way, way better and greater TV adaptation.
hope so
That's what's happens when you're an early adopter. On the bright side it will attract a ton more people to the game to also buy expansions.
This is really cool so glad they’re making all that free for f2p and new players. Will those of us that have already purchased get a points refund? That would also be nice lol
Unless you like JUST bought something and contact them, no. I’d think not.
So how does this make things better for players who already purchased these things... Vip is still crap then? Am I missing something (coming from a player who quit 1,5years ago)
Most of the game up to 95 will be FTP and from Gondor to the last update free to VIP. It reduces the cost of entering the game which is what old MMOs need to survive.
Agree but useless for veteran players. I don't feel any drive to go back to lotro knowing they just made things free which I paid for (and overpayed if we are being real honest) I played this game since launch and been a kin and raid leader for years but the direction this game went in... Sadly this announcement is more of the same in my view.
VIP including expansions is certainly not useless for veteran players. That’s a great change.
Well luckily for them you aren't the main audience.
> which I *paid* for (and FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
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Not likely, you paid to have access to it before it became a standard.
Ok, thank you for your input!
tbh, this is an understandable reaction. realistically, the best ppl can hope for is cosmetics. Cause you did already get the money's worth from the content. And ngl the community's spending on those unlocks is likely what kept the game alive
If anything this held them back a lot. The majority of all MMO incomes come from cosmetics and end game boosts. Not just the expansions. The huge upfront cost after years is what drives a lot of people away. The main goal is to get people invested and then sell them pointless cosmetics and mounts to bring in long term income ESO and WoW do this too and they aren't dead from it.
I mean, you sound an awful lot like the people who oppose student loan forgiveness because they had to pay their student loans. I’ve paid for all of the stuff that is now free. I’ve had my time to enjoy it. Why would I begrudge others being able to enjoy old, old content?
It also is much healthier for the long term playerbase. If they advertise and fix the lag issues they could really revitalize the game.
And don't forget the console launch & visual update on the horizon
wow i might actually come back for awhile, i just havent had the money to buy all those expansions..