Great Disappointment

[bowise]

Today I received an email telling me that my house and hall is being foreclosed if I don't pay the upkeep fee. Now mind you I have no problem with having to pay the upkeep fees if I want to use my house and hall again. I completely understand however my wife and myself paid $199.99 each for a lifetime prescription. Do the math that's $400. A few months after we paid they came out with the free to play. Now this! You would think they would allow us to keep the places so when we do come back after paying that much money the houses will be there. All we would just have to do to reuse our homes is pay the upkeep. I feel and I guess I am absolutely screwed over and you know it didn't feel good! Just had to vent and hopefully enlighten some players.

[Runesi_EU]

You can pay rent up to 26 weeks in advance
You have 6 months after those 26 weeks before you will get the foreclosure notice
You have 60 days after that to pay the rent

Thats over a year from paying rent to foreclosure.

The game is F2P, just log in and pay rent for the next 26 weeks, problem solved.

I'm afraid I'm with Turbine on this (and I don't say that often) clearing unused houses is a good thing.

http://www.lotro.com/en/game/article...escrow-changes

[0Pinger]

So for the sake of some silver possibly a bit of gold you are complaining you now have to play it to keep it, in a game where it is very easy to make gold. If you are that inactive that you never saw the notices about this coming, where have you been. As there will have been others wanting that plot/s you have been neglecting

Us lifers get the game until it dies but even what you are expecting is not reasonable. You have rent to pay which means you have to play to make the silver/gold pay it, its that simple.

[enginekid]

i agree with the TS on this. if him and his wife both have lifetime accounts, then why would Turbine ever foreclose on their houses? it's the same question i have with subbed accounts. as far as i am concerned if you are subbed (lifetime accounts are perma-subbed) then your account should be considered "active" regardless of whether you logged in recently. why can't all "active" accounts not be foreclosed on. ok sure, if you were on holidays and forgot to pay the upkeep, then by all means, send the automated in-game email reminding them to pay upkeep, and lock the doors of the house until upkeep is paid. but don't foreclose and put all their decorations and stuff into escrow. one account can only have one house, and one kinhouse. it's not like that subbed player is buying all the houses everywhere, it's just their one house. not a big deal.

[Nymphonic]

I'm with Turbine on this one. Housing is at a premium as it is. Gold is so easy to make now I cannot see how this can be an issue. Heck, the gold I've gotten from hobbit presents is enough to pay my rent.

[Avarune]

i agree with the TS on this. if him and his wife both have lifetime accounts, then why would Turbine ever foreclose on their houses? it's the same question i have with subbed accounts. as far as i am concerned if you are subbed (lifetime accounts are perma-subbed) then your account should be considered "active" regardless of whether you logged in recently. why can't all "active" accounts not be foreclosed on. ok sure, if you were on holidays and forgot to pay the upkeep, then by all means, send the automated in-game email reminding them to pay upkeep, and lock the doors of the house until upkeep is paid. but don't foreclose and put all their decorations and stuff into escrow. one account can only have one house, and one kinhouse. it's not like that subbed player is buying all the houses everywhere, it's just their one house. not a big deal.

The problem is not whether they're considered active accounts or not. The game isn't looking at whether they've logged in lately or not. The problem is that they haven't paid their maintenance for long enough that the house(s) are being foreclosed.

I'm on a lifetime account too. I took two years off from playing LOTRO at one point. I always knew I'd likely come back, so every month I logged in and paid the maintenance on my house.

Sure one or two lifers aren't a big deal, but how many more of those unpaid houses belong to lifers who might just decide to come back one day? That's one big reason there are so many "dead" houses in most older neighbourhoods. Someone, someday "might" decide to come back. The backlog of "dead" houses has gotten so bad that on at least one server they've reached the limit of new neighbourhoods that can be started. Meaning that current players who are logging in regularly have no chance at all of getting a house on that server.

[MarkoftheRealm]

Turbine is doing an update to Housing at the end of the year, which will be the first major update to it really since it was introduced. They're probably thinking that more people will be spending time in the housing community after the update and it would be nice if these communities weren't just ghost towns with 2/3 of the houses virtually abandoned. Some players have been asking for a long time now to open back up these houses so they can have a chance to move into the same community as their kin hall or as a friend or spouse.

I'm a lifetime subscriber too, but that lifetime subscription never said it included not having to pay housing upkeep nor did it say that internal game policies couldn't change overtime.

As others have said, you really only have to log in about twice a year to keep your house out of foreclosure.

[ReadStar]

I think you`re forgetting a LOT of things that YES the game is probably the most free F2P game OUT there also you`re forgetting that VIPs get 500TP a month whenever a new class or region comes out you get it for FREE!!! It`s about 5.00 for 500TP and you and your wife are getting 500TP a month EACH so you`re basicly getting 10.00 a month...So by TP standards Turbine LOST money on you...so by getting the lifetime VIP was actually a great idea...and like everyone else is saying...yeah...you can just pay your rent up to 6 months! So nothin` to worry about...poeple are buying lifetime VIP accounts (Sold not by Turbine but other players wanting to make money) for about 3,000$ for ONE ACCOUNT!!! So beleave me...you n` your wife got a great deal! ;D

Keep those swords swinging and those spells casting!

[chrisli]

The thing is that housing isn't a special VIP/lifer bonus. Yes, you have to have the gold cap removed to buy a house, but you can get that relatively easy by grinding tp. You're still getting your 500 tp a month. You'd still have access to quest packs if you logged in and started playing. And so on. A reserved housing spot is not part of being VIP, and, like other posters have said, the housing foreclosures will benefit players who currently want to purchase a house. So I think Turbine's policy is pretty reasonable. If you still want your house, why not just log in and pay the upkeep?

[EvAmy]

I find it very hard to decide where I stand here.
1: F2P should get that foreclosure warning, no matter what.
2: current paying subs shouldn't, they are active, or they wouldn't pay.
3: Lifers shouldn't pay at all, but the problem is, you cannot see if they gave
up on LotRo (or even died), or if they will return after a year.
They really need to get the housing sorted, they cannot expand forever.
Maybe they could get a Lifer-only housing zone?
Maybe get an every-6-month email asking the player if they are alive
and expect to become active in the future again?
Maybe Lifer-rent being zero, paid to the max after every login?
Anyway, as Runesi_EU stated: over a year time to lose your house?
HAS to be enough, if you do not play during that time you either wasted
good money on Lifetime, or you are a very special case...

[Lohi]

I'm on the fence about this once. First, when housing was first introduced in the game it was said that they'd never remove our houses for failure to pay. That was one of the reasons I used to justify purchasing a house; I was relatively low level and I had no idea if this hefty price for me was worth it or if the upkeep would be affordable until I got to a high level; I also thought I might want to leave the game temporarily and come back later without having my house vanish in the mean time. So the assurance that the house wouldn't be removed nice.

On the other hand, you really don't lose anything here except the house and the cost of it, which in hindsight really is not that expensive at all. I had been worried about losing my stuff in the house, but that all goes in escrow. It went into escrow before this new policy was added. The stuff goes into escrow a very long time before the house itself is removed and put back on the market. Everything you had in the chests is kept, everything you had as a decoration is kept. If you do come back to the game you will be able to buy another house to put that into. So all you really lose is the cost of the house and possibly the position/neighborhood you were in.

Now going back to the other side again... This possibly is unfair to people who have no control here. Not everyone with an abandoned house is really abandoning it. There are people who through no control over their own can not play the game for an extended period of time. They may be on active military duty for a year or more, they may be in a temporary job in a country without good internet access, I know someone who had to quit because of accepting a government position that prohibits accounts with aliases. Having the house removed, even though you keep your stuff, sends the message that you're persona non grata.

So now that the original poster got the message, and does not want the house to be abandoned, the solution is easy. Log in and pay the fee and log back out, and do this once a year until finally returning. The policy is basically about people who are NEVER coming back, and this includes a lot of lifetimers.

[Schmidster]

While I agree it is disappointing, I agree with the process of what they are doing. It is a choice, really, not an invoice or extra charge. You can leave the home and never look back, or keep it by way of paying what was agreed when we first "purchased" the home. Nobody was lead to believe that our house would continue its own upkeep without any assistance from the owner. So by not paying, there is a big bill to pay.

I too am a Lifer and never expected to get a free house. There wasn't housing when the game started. This process will hopefully clear up some homes from players who have neglected, yes neglected their end of the agreement to own a home. It has been known for a long time that this would happen and I think it's actually a nice bonus to receive an email to notify players.

[Hetweith]

just pay the money and quit cryin, you knew you need to pay and you dont. it is and always has been on you. what next? i'm vip and want a Porsche? you get more than enough already. adult up.

[djheydt]

I'm with Turbine on this one. Housing is at a premium as it is. Gold is so easy to make now I cannot see how this can be an issue. Heck, the gold I've gotten from hobbit presents is enough to pay my rent.

I agree. And whh and I are both lifetimers.

[Sapience]

poeple are buying lifetime VIP accounts (Sold not by Turbine but other players wanting to make money) for about 3,000$ for ONE ACCOUNT!!!

I feel bad for those who do this. Not because of the extreme cost, but because once discoverd they are likely to be banned permanently as they have violated the terms of service and our policies.

[Armaius]

Today I received an email telling me that my house and hall is being foreclosed if I don't pay the upkeep fee. Now mind you I have no problem with having to pay the upkeep fees if I want to use my house and hall again. I completely understand however my wife and myself paid $199.99 each for a lifetime prescription. Do the math that's $400. A few months after we paid they came out with the free to play. Now this! You would think they would allow us to keep the places so when we do come back after paying that much money the houses will be there. All we would just have to do to reuse our homes is pay the upkeep. I feel and I guess I am absolutely screwed over and you know it didn't feel good! Just had to vent and hopefully enlighten some players.

I'm sorry, but I can't take this seriously. It's complete and pure whining. You're already lifetimers. You have permanent VIP status that's likely paid for itself several times over by now. You have it made! And you want more? You were never promised to have permanent access to your houses. Nowhere in the VIP or Lifetimer benefits does it say that VIPs and Lifetimers are excluded from paying the upkeep. Deal with it.

And judging by the fact that you received an email over this, instead of an in-game message tells me that you are inactive players who left the game for whatever reason. You were part of the problem that people kept complaining about prior to the foreclosure change: new players who wanted houses but couldn't get one because they were claimed by players who had left the game. I'm sorry, but no! If you're not playing, you don't really need your house, do you? On top of all that, you don't lose your stuff - it goes into permanent escrow instead.

If you want to keep your house log in and pay your upkeep like the rest of us. You just said it wasn't that big of a deal. You'll get no sympathy from me.

[Nymphonic]

...poeple are buying lifetime VIP accounts (Sold not by Turbine but other players wanting to make money) for about 3,000$ for ONE ACCOUNT!!! !

But couldn't you just pay a few hundred bucks for everything at the store like quest packs, character slots, etc. and have a legal lifetime account that way?

[whheydt]

The "Great Disappointment" was when the world failed to end in 1844.

This is just a minor inconvenience.

Bear in mind that originally you would lose your house if it went unpaid for six weeks. That was changed to "never foreclose" for reasons that were good at the time.

There have been extensive threads for years asking Turbine to free up unpaid houses. While I--personally--think that 6 months is too short, at least for an initial set point, it is not an unreasonable one. At that, the change was announced AND a two month grace period was added on for those houses already six months in arrears...and that two months has been extended by about 2 additional weeks. Turbine is leaning over backwards to give everyone effected by this change a chance to escape the consequences.

The problem is particularly acute on Brandywine, where house areas have actually run out of houses altogehter.

If the OP is just now being notified, it means that his house was already at or near the official foreclosure point when the change was made. He wasn't paying the upkeep on his house for months before the change, didn't notice the change, and is now complaining that Turbine has sent him individual e-mail telling him about the change and his need to take action. Just how much hand holding do people need?

[RavnDottir]

The "Great Disappointment" was when the world failed to end in 1844.

Whheydt .. I really do look forward to your responces on so many things.

Wyllo


PS: I mean that in all honesty .. no sarcasm here .. only the need for more tissues to clean off my monitor

[MarkoftheRealm]

only the need for more tissues to clean off my monitor

----
O.o

[MithrielWielder]

First, allowing these houses to sit unused is out of the question because it locks real players out of housing and its a blight on the neighborhood for my house to be the only one in the neighborhood not in foreclosure.

Second, it is false that the game went ftp mere months after anyone bought a lifetime account. The opportunity to obtain a lifetime account ended fairly soon after game launch and well more than a year before ftp.

Third, $199 is not a lot of money compared to what others had to pay who didn't get in on the lifetime deal. In fact, that's why they ended lifetime. You are already getting the sweetest deal out there, why should you get even more free stuff that was never even part of the deal. Taking away stuff from VIPs accounts is one thing, but VIPs never had a housing benefit.

Fourth, ever since shared storage and the proliferation of travel options, housing doesn't really have a purpose anymore.

You have no case.

[SilverHug]

You have no case.

'nuff said!

[Mandella]

I'm on the fence about this once. First, when housing was first introduced in the game it was said that they'd never remove our houses for failure to pay.

We have *very* different memories here. From my recollection, when housing was first introduced failure to pay for a few months lost you the house and dumped all your stuff into the Escrow Venders (that's why they are there). They changed that after a while largely because of concern over losing returning Veterans (real Vets, the military kind).

Even at the time I remember wishing instead of just eliminating foreclosure they'd just extend the time to a year or so.

But anyway, thank you Turbine for clearing out the old neighborhoods again!

[Fortinobrand]

(Sold not by Turbine but other players wanting to make money) for about 3,000$ for ONE ACCOUNT!!!

Ok, that's mind-boggling.

[Krindus]

Just throwing this out there. As a life-time member I make enough gold off the daily hobbit presents to cover my housing each month anyway. I understand it might be inconvenient for some, but lets wait and find out what they do with the housing update before we start worrying too much. After all, it'll be good to get a few houses back on the market.

As for selling lifetime accounts for $3,000, seriously? Because for that kind of price, maybe Turbine should reconsider selling them again, eh?