Should LOTRO be more Account friendly?

[TTempest]

Am I the only one who has a ton of alts and wishes LOTRO had more Account-bound stuff instead of Character-bound? Whenever I unlock certain things in the game I feel like they are not as rewarding as they should be, and doing festivals has become a bit of a chore for me as I feel inclined to get the new mount for all my alts. I get the feeling that I'm side stepping and not actually progressing foward, at any point I could start a new character and lose all my mounts / pets / emotes / war-steed cosmetics.

Why don't we have a "Stables" feature that allows us to share mounts between characters? Just like a shared wardrobe, you could even charge us for it. Same goes for pets.

Who realistically buys war-steed cosmetics and colours from the store? I don't have the statistics but I don't think many of us do. We're paying 5€/8$ (595 LP) for 4 colours for our war-steeds for ONE of our characters, and nobody even cares that much about war-steeds anymore. Why not make these 25%-50% more expensive, but make them Account-wide. People would eventually want to collect them all. Same goes for war-steed cosmetics, they should be shareable.

Who realistically buys store mounts too? I don't see many around. Their cost can go from around 12€/14$ to 20€/22$ (1200 LP to 2000 LP). This is for ONE mount for ONE character, that's usually just a horse with some outdated blanket over it. Which I would still happily buy for the sake of completionism, if it was account-bound.

Same for emotes. I'm pretty sure they cost around 300 LP for tiny little emotes that you will never even use most of the time. Most people would still buy them over time if they were account-bound.

Does SSG make more money from "whales" (a small subset of the playerbase that pours an ungodly amount of money into the game), do they purchase these Character items more than once? Or would they profit more by making all these items more expensive and account-bound to appeal to your more average spender?

Edit: Reminder that all these items I mentioned are cosmetic and don't affect your character's power level. I'm not advocating for shared stat tomes and such other items that are related to character progression.

[miriadel]

for just cosmetics? yes. The only mount I recently bought (recently one or 2 years ago) was the Steed of Rivendell because it had account option. Take warsteed colors. Overpriced and in a pack of four, so you gotta buy for colors you don't want to get the one you want. But at least if it was account bound, I could use those 3 colors I don't want for my main's horse on an alt horse. But let's face it, why buy one item account bound, when by having it character bound we'd spend more if we want that same item on an alt. Character bound has the potential to make ssg more money. In theory.

[Thornglen]

I make a point of not buying character-only items (with the exception of the Stone of the Tortoise). I would definitely buy a Stable, though, that worked like the Wardrobe and could be used by all my characters.

[TTempest]

In theory.

That's what I'm getting at. In theory it should make them more money but in reality it's different. How many people buy these items? And how many of those buy them more than once? On the flip side of that, how many people are avoiding these items because they are character-bound?


Buying character items feels like a commitment to one class and one race, preventing you from fully enjoying the game. Buying account items feels like progress. You know that no matter how many characters you create afterwards, they will all have those items.

I make a point of not buying character-only items (with the exception of the Stone of the Tortoise). I would definitely buy a Stable, though, that worked like the Wardrobe and could be used by all my characters.

So do I. I don't play a fixed character, I get bored and change classes a couple times. I would be ok with them charging 995 LP for 10 Shared Mount Slots. 20 if they're feeling generous. Since there are 130+ mounts in the game, I'd say they can make some nice money.
Either that, or they increase the prices of Store Mounts but make them Account-wide, but then you still have this problem with the festival mounts.

[MithrielWielder]

Yes, it's way past time for some relief for alts. It doesn't make any sense that they are removing content from the game like this. Most other games are more alt friendly. Make deeds completed for all alts once completed on one char, or something. Anything.

[kickman77]

I have been saying this for ages. I know quite a few people who would instantly drop cash especially for the warsteed stuff if it was account bound (and would buy steeds if account bound as well) but Lotro has always seemed to look at short term gains instead of long term.

[Aelfir]

I don't know the cost benefit (i.e. how much $ would be lost from players not needing to buy multiples for alts) but my posse is 100% on the "buy no char based stuff, but completely willing to drop some coin on account based stuff".

It would certainly be worth doing the math for Standing Stone.

[Echoweaver]

I make a point of not buying character-only items (with the exception of the Stone of the Tortoise). I would definitely buy a Stable, though, that worked like the Wardrobe and could be used by all my characters.

I think this is a great idea.

[Derquin]

I make a point of not buying character-only items (with the exception of the Stone of the Tortoise). I would definitely buy a Stable, though, that worked like the Wardrobe and could be used by all my characters.

A stable for the account would be great.

I keep to account-versions of steeds. Bought the Rivendell one for several accounts. And the different class mount packs back in the day with that second website market from Turbine because they were account-wide. Or the larger expansion pack versions where they had mounts and cosmetics for all chars.

In the beginning with just few chars slowly reaching the warsteed age I checked the colors, found my favorite ones were spread over several packs for just one char. Sorry, but no. I don't have a main and I refuse to let the game press me into defining one.

[Nymphonic]

for just cosmetics? yes. The only mount I recently bought (recently one or 2 years ago) was the Steed of Rivendell because it had account option. Take warsteed colors. Overpriced and in a pack of four, so you gotta buy for colors you don't want to get the one you want. But at least if it was account bound, I could use those 3 colors I don't want for my main's horse on an alt horse. But let's face it, why buy one item account bound, when by having it character bound we'd spend more if we want that same item on an alt. Character bound has the potential to make ssg more money. In theory.

There are a few account wide mounts but the nice ones are account only. Like you, the last mount I bought was the Steed of Rivendell.

One feature that I’ve asked for in the past is an account wide purchase to make all mounts 250 health, like the 78% speed I bought some time ago.

[Teyaha]

mounts should be account wide. cosmetics already are to a point thanks to the wardrobe.

titles and what not should be player based.