LOTRO Referral Program Feedback

First and foremost yes it is optional and I WILL NEVER USE IT AGAIN. The implications of this type of scheme are what should concern ALL of us. Too many have tunnel vision at this time because of the new content, it is overwhelming right now with the new LI system, awesome instances and other changes but others simply don't care because it doesn't affect gameplay. I care because I care about this game, maybe too much I'm beginning to think. That being said it is the business practice and lack of ethics many of us are seeing in this new model of the old program that is disconcertting. Come on the privacy issues raised above and the fact that it causes one player to profit from anothers spending on TP is SICK! I would refer players to LoTRO because I love the game not with some sort of "join for my profit" intention. But I will refrain from my continued Joe McCarthy-istic rant and sit tight because SW: TOR and Neverwinter are on the horizon.

Sadly I'm sure J. R. R. Tolkien would be turning over in his grave right now and I can't imagine the Tolkien Estate or Middle Earth Enterprises would be pleased to see the name associated with this matrix scheme / program.

Ok, so how is this different than almost every other referral opportunity out there? Hell, WoW uses ones very similar and yet I don't see the up-in-arms over that, matter of fact I actually see quite the opposite, why? Because they also give you nifty things like rockets that you can take your newly referred friend on with you!!:rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by DarkCntry

Ok, so how is this different than almost every other referral opportunity out there? Hell, WoW uses ones very similar and yet I don't see the up-in-arms over that, matter of fact I actually see quite the opposite, why? Because they also give you nifty things like rockets that you can take your newly referred friend on with you!!:rolleyes:

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It's different because the referrer-to-referee account linking is very explicit and obvious in those situations, and the benefits to each party are clearly spelled out. The method of linking also requires a unique one-time identifier specific to both the referrer and referee.

In Turbine's implementation, there is no benefit at all to the referee, and it can be totally unclear to the referee that his or her information is being shared with someone else. It can take effect by a new player simply clicking a generic link, like the one you see in my forum signature.

Turbine's new LOTRO Referral Program lacks a degree of transparency, especially to the new player being referred. I don't think the program is necessarily a bad idea. However, I think its implementation could benefit from several improvements or refinements.

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Originally Posted by DarkCntry

Ok, so how is this different than almost every other referral opportunity out there? Hell, WoW uses ones very similar and yet I don't see the up-in-arms over that, matter of fact I actually see quite the opposite, why? Because they also give you nifty things like rockets that you can take your newly referred friend on with you!!:rolleyes:

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Ehm, the differences are:

Both get a timed reward - like porting to each other and increased xp and such.

You get a one time reward, obviously Wow does not sell TP (or WP's) so they can't reward 10% each time your friend hand's over his credit card.

It does not show the real name either.

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Originally Posted by Rouven

Ehm, the differences are:

Both get a timed reward - like porting to each other and increased xp and such.

You get a one time reward, obviously Wow does not sell TP (or WP's) so they can't reward 10% each time your friend hand's over his credit card.

It does not show the real name either.

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It shows no difference, only in that the end-result of what you get out of it are. The actual referral is no different.

Do people really have to focus in on something that they don't like, pick it apart to the point that it's one tiny aspect of it, and then state as a whole that the system sucks?

If you don't want to refer someone, don't. If someone wants to refer someone else, they're not less of a human for doing so.

I do, however, agree about the real name thing...but in the grand scheme of things, you shouldn't just be going out and referring strangers in the first place, nor does it really do anything outside of knowing the person's name.

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Originally Posted by DarkCntry

I do, however, agree about the real name thing...but in the grand scheme of things, you shouldn't just be going out and referring strangers in the first place, nor does it really do anything outside of knowing the person's name.

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Yes and unfortunately Turbine needs to assume that their dangling carrot of cash rewards will drive greed.
Greed will drive people to do things "you shouldn't be doing".
So people will indeed refer random strangers. They will set up sites with elaborate schemes to scoop as many people up as possible and make them referrals. They will try to trick them.

It is only the hard limits of the system that Turbine puts in place that will keep people from exploiting it. This is an example of how one small piece of the system being wrong can ruin the entire system.

The system was not well thought out. There is not enough privacy. And it is sleezy and taps into greed of players to go out and be multilevel marketers for them and talk people into buying $100s or $1000s worth of stuff they may not really need in game just to make a small profit off of their "friends" (and for Turbine in hand to reap the actual profit)

I thought today's accounting system upgrades might have added new options, but I still can't find any way to change my privacy settings as described in the FAQ:

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I’m seeing my friends’ real names in the transaction history. Is this right?

By default, when a friend signs up their name will appear in your LOTRO Referral profile. In general, we expect you to know the names of your friends already, and seeing that information will allow you to connect with them after they sign up. Of course, any player who is referred can also choose not to share their name with you during the signup process, and may show up as anonymous, or under an account name.

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How exactly does the player who is referred choose not to share their name with me during the signup process, and show up as anonymous or under an account name?

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Originally Posted by Crell_1

my listed referral link doesn't actually work, (logged in or not.)

http://my.lotro.com/referral/[TurbineUsername] gets it to prompt to log in to check on my referrals
while Using
http://my.lotro.com/referral/Crell_1 Just spins endlessly. The latter is what the page prompts me to give out (My Community name).

Ok. I can get it to work something like 40% of the time this morning for once.. Still, frustrating for a program designed to encourage our friends to join a game.

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I have the same situation as Crell_1; my community name and account name are not the same and the link generator uses the community name, which yields a link to a page that cannot be displayed. A link using my username instead goes to a page saying you must be logged in to use the referral program. But if my friend makes an account to log in, then they can't create an account using my link and I never get credit for them? What am I missing?

-Grin

I was going to recommend LOTRO to a number of my friends anyway so using teh referal on Facebook woudl have made this easier but like others have said the link doesnt work.

I keep getting a message saying the link is broken........

Same here. My referral link is http://my.lotro.com/referral/Meerborn - and it doesn't work at all.

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Originally Posted by Meerborn

Same here. My referral link is http://my.lotro.com/referral/Meerborn - and it doesn't work at all.

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Your link works just fine for me.

The only things these named links do is redirect players to the main www.lotro.com sign-up page, with a marketing campaign tag and a referral code linked to your subscription.

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Originally Posted by Fredelas

Your link works just fine for me.

The only things these named links do is redirect players to the main www.lotro.com sign-up page, with a marketing campaign tag and a referral code linked to your subscription.

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I actually didnt have the link work.. it seems to be an intermittent problem on turbine's backend. If you generate the longer-referral link and share that you should have no problems.

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Originally Posted by Fredelas

Your link works just fine for me.

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Fredelas, thank you for testing it from outside; if it works some of the time, that's already better than having it work none of the time.

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Originally Posted by Meerborn

Fredelas, thank you for testing it from outside; if it works some of the time, that's already better than having it work none of the time.

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Yes, after further testing, it does appear that it may just be another server load or scripting issue on my.lotro.com that is preventing the redirects from consistently going through.

Meerborn, if you want to give your friends a direct link to the sign-up page (which bypasses the my.lotro.com redirect), with your referral ID included, you can use the following:

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http://www.lotro.com/home.php?signup_details=ftui%3DLOTROFTP%26referral%3D1002630218%26utm_campaign%3Dfbrsb%26msc%3D1337

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Once again, Fredelas, thank you. I've made a note of the link, and I appreciate your kindness and clarity. And on a Monday! Surely that's beyond the call of duty.

Ok I have made some progress but still havent been able to do what I wanted which is use the Facebook referral.

I can get to the page that says add more friends, and then to teh one that says share and add to facebook but when I click on teh Facebook button I get page not found.

I did find a LOTRO Referral app on facebook but when I tried to use it it wanted me to sign in with my account details (even though I was still signed in here) and I wasnt going to do that until I was certain that is the official app and not a scam to get account details from the unwary.

I don't understand why so many people are so upset by this. To me this just seems like a nice way for Turbine to give a "thank-you" to loyal gamers for referring other potential loyal gamers.

This is not a pyramid scheme because this bonus only comes from direct referrals, not from referrals of referrals and so on.

As to people harassing their referrals to buy points so they can get free ones is between them, and not Turbine's business unless the referee wants to report harassment by the referrer, in which case I am sure Turbine would address the problem.

I also don't understand people jumping all over Turbine for trying to make money. Isn't that the point of any business? If they don't make money, we don't have a game to play - for free if you choose. Any promotion to get more people into the game in my opinion only gives Turbine a more successful game, which in turn should give us a better game. If Turbine ever stops fulfilling that end then we have a right to complain.

I only have a couple of slight complaints with this program. One is that there is no way to get credit for referrals made before this program was activated. After the free-to-play launch I referred several friends and family members, some of whom are now playing actively, and I have no way of getting credit for those referrals since this program only applies to new accounts. I'm not going to even ask these people to create new accounts just so I might get a few free points down the road since they have gotten well into the game already.

The second is that there is no current reward for a referral going VIP, which is the ultimate goal for Turbine. They pay $10/month, get 500 TP/month and the referrer gets no bonus from that. Whereas if they remain premium and bought 600 TP for $8 every month, the referrer will get 60 TP/month for them spending less money.

The third I am not even sure if I am correct in this yet as I don't have a referral, but I think that the referrer should only be able to "track" bonus points as an ongoing total, not as this many points from this person on this day. That does border a little on too much personal information from the referral.

None of these are serious problems in my opinion - even though these are things I would like to see changed - and they will not hinder my from playing or recommending this game or using this program in the future.

Thank you Turbine for providing one of the best and most affordable games available.

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Originally Posted by ret_ed

I don't understand why so many people are so upset by this. To me this just seems like a nice way for Turbine to give a "thank-you" to loyal gamers for referring other potential loyal gamers.

This is not a pyramid scheme because this bonus only comes from direct referrals, not from referrals of referrals and so on.

As to people harassing their referrals to buy points so they can get free ones is between them, and not Turbine's business unless the referee wants to report harassment by the referrer, in which case I am sure Turbine would address the problem.

I also don't understand people jumping all over Turbine for trying to make money. Isn't that the point of any business? If they don't make money, we don't have a game to play - for free if you choose. Any promotion to get more people into the game in my opinion only gives Turbine a more successful game, which in turn should give us a better game. If Turbine ever stops fulfilling that end then we have a right to complain.

I only have a couple of slight complaints with this program. One is that there is no way to get credit for referrals made before this program was activated. After the free-to-play launch I referred several friends and family members, some of whom are now playing actively, and I have no way of getting credit for those referrals since this program only applies to new accounts. I'm not going to even ask these people to create new accounts just so I might get a few free points down the road since they have gotten well into the game already.

The second is that there is no current reward for a referral going VIP, which is the ultimate goal for Turbine. They pay $10/month, get 500 TP/month and the referrer gets no bonus from that. Whereas if they remain premium and bought 600 TP for $8 every month, the referrer will get 60 TP/month for them spending less money.

The third I am not even sure if I am correct in this yet as I don't have a referral, but I think that the referrer should only be able to "track" bonus points as an ongoing total, not as this many points from this person on this day. That does border a little on too much personal information from the referral.

None of these are serious problems in my opinion - even though these are things I would like to see changed - and they will not hinder my from playing or recommending this game or using this program in the future.

Thank you Turbine for providing one of the best and most affordable games available.

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Your questions are in conflict ret. You asked what's wrong with a company wanting to make money? and why only tp bundles is giving reward instead of Vip. That's the reason. They want to make money with you profiting as little as possible. Also this is the problem because your friends will try to make you buy a lot of stuff from Store telling you it's worth and blabla instead of telling you to go Vip(at least for some people). Therefore it's gonna end friendships just because of a stupid referal program which not only is bad but potentially harmful for everyone except for the Ceos of Turbine.

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Originally Posted by thekane14

Also this is the problem because your friends will try to make you buy a lot of stuff from Store telling you it's worth and blabla instead of telling you to go Vip(at least for some people). Therefore it's gonna end friendships just because of a stupid referal program which not only is bad but potentially harmful for everyone except for the Ceos of Turbine.

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Doesn't sound like you've got a good choice of friends. If someone isnt being honest with you about what you need and discussing what's right for you in terms of VIP vs Premium, they're not doing you any favors. Check out http://lotro.mmorsel.com/2010/09/bes...ount-type.html

I followed the directions on the FAQ page to refer a friend through Facebook to the letter, and neither does my account here nor the Facebook App acknowledge that said referral ever happened. This friend is my roommate, and I watched him with my own eyes receive the Facebook referral, click on the referral link, install the game, and create his account here and at Turbine. He absolutely did not create a free account on his own, it was done by following links provided by the referral app. It apparently still doesn't work, and I will apparently not be receiving my bonus. We've just finished subscribing this evening for a month, having joined as Free to Play a week ago, and am still happy to do so and will enjoy the game. We do feel cheated nonetheless...... It's very disappointing to go to the trouble in hopes of getting a perk, only to find out promises most likely won't be honored because of a technicality.

I can't say i would agree with such a scheme as it would feel like your exploiting friends and family for the sake of increasing your in game currency and saving yourself some money. It also will be encouraging players to try convince their friends and family to spend money in the store. That does not seem right at all.

If you gained a random in game fluff item for Referals then that i could agree. The ability to gift them points would also be a selfless way of encouraging them to play.

To be honest though if you want to increase player populations then schemes are not the way. Putting more time and staff into development of Lotro's weaker features are how you get more customers. (Housing, PVMP, different server types, dynamic pve events, etc)

Hello,

I referred a friend of mine to LOTRO about a month ago using your referral program link, and supplying his e-mail address. The referral then thanked my for referring him. Since he has joined the game and has spent $20 buying Turbine Points for his character (during a 2x bonus TP sale, I might add). I see him all the time in-game. It is my understanding I was supposed to receive 10% of those TP myself, but have not received any TP, nor any further notices recognition that my friend has bought TP, or even that he has accepted my referral and joined the game. Did I do something wrong? I could certainly use those TP. Please let me know what else I must do.

SBMaestro
Server: Riddermark

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Originally Posted by Maestero

Hello,

I referred a friend of mine to LOTRO about a month ago using your referral program link, and supplying his e-mail address. The referral then thanked my for referring him. Since he has joined the game and has spent $20 buying Turbine Points for his character (during a 2x bonus TP sale, I might add). I see him all the time in-game. It is my understanding I was supposed to receive 10% of those TP myself, but have not received any TP, nor any further notices recognition that my friend has bought TP, or even that he has accepted my referral and joined the game. Did I do something wrong? I could certainly use those TP. Please let me know what else I must do.

SBMaestro
Server: Riddermark

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You are going to need to contact Turbine account support. It reads like your friend's account is not linked to your account. In other words, he is not registered as your referral.

OK thanks--will do!

SBMaestro

Personally, trying to turn the referral system into a lateral marketing scheem seems wrong. I know many would love to earn TP from their referrals's purchases from here on out but I think the better method would be to make the system as it was before but addapt it for the TP.

Adapted:
If you refer someone and they
1. buy a subscription for at least one month -or-
2. buy $15 worth of TP(equivelent of 1 month's subscription) from the TP shop

then give the referrer 1500TP onto his account.

The one thing they need to fix in the current system is that if someone gets a referral, they follow the link and get a popup about making themselves "Anonymous" on the referral list of the referrer. If they DO NOT set the flag to anonymous at that moment, they pretty much loose the option all together because there is no way currently to set the flag after the fact. There is no way to set the "Anonymous" referral flag from within an account after it's been created.

As for the tracking situation, they should just change that to a total amount of TP earned to date. There should be no tracking of individual referral's contributions, period.

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