Lifetime Account Members Thread

[ConstantiaChlorus]

I'm starting this thread for any lifetime subscription members to speak.

[ /Edit

Current perspective: Optimistic but not entirely pleased, not yet convinced, waiting to see, undecided, giving the benefit of the doubt
Deleted most of my comments since this thread took on an unexpected life of its own.

If you purchased a lifetime account how do you feel about the announcement?

/End Edit]

[rhegan]

You're overreacting - go take a look at how DDO works. If anything, the Free stuff here seems even more restrictive, and the subscriber level seems to stay exactly the same (with some new stuff to purchase - which you can use the points for (wardrobe slots? likely potions and other consumables, like DDO)). (My reaction has been kind of "oh, I wish I bought a lifetime now ")

A better analogy is: You have a lifetime membership to your health club, but anyone can come in and look at the lobby and play darts in it.

[Dragaan]

Yeah...
I am done with Turbine.
They will never get another dime out of me for this game or any other they develop in the future.

So, anyone have any recommendations for another game to play?

[Sapience]

I'm starting this thread for any lifetime subscription members to speak.

As for me...
Forgive me but I'm not taking this well.

I've spent a fewhundred dollars on two lifetime accounts. I've been a loyal paying customer since the first day I could get my hands on a box.

I read your press releases and I can see you are going to give me store points as compensation for your change. I don't know enough right now to decide how I feel about that. Maybe it is a just compensation? I really don't know yet. I suppose it depends on what these points will do exactly.

But my first reaction is, I feel cheated. I paid a lifetime membership to join a club that you're now letting anyone into for free? I know how I would take this if my college, landlord, or healthclub suddenly went free to anyone After I had dished out money to them. I'll wait to see how this goes but really, right now my inclination is to file a fraud complaint with my state government's Consumer Commission. But I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, you've been good to me so far.

The FAQ can put things a bit bluntly and maybe doesn't get to the meat of things, so let me try and explain a bit better.

As a lifetimer, you entered into an agreement that you would never pay another subscription fee with us again. You still won't. For you, nothing has changed. You will not be billed a subscription, your status and access to the game will not change. You will be getting an additional benefit, however, in the form of Turbine points.

[Siegfriedpf]

What Sapience said. Read it carefully--you don't lose anything you already bought. Take a few deep breaths and relax. And then think about what spiffy outfits you'll buy with the free points.

[Forjo]

One thing I noticed is that expansions will be purchaseable via points. So what it means to me is that when the next expansion comes out, I can use my unspent points to get it.

That's a win for me. No more purchasing expansions if I'm willing to wait long enough.

But I still think this is going to tick off a good portion of the community and cause turnover. But that's not really anything new. Turbine has done little if anything to foster subscriber loyalty. They seem more interesting in getting new subscribers at any cost than finding ways to get more while keeping the veterans who signed up hoping to see Mordor.

Either way,

lifetime=the great safety net.

-Forjo

[ladylore]

Sapience, I read in another thread something about even with Lifetime members that at least a minimum play session login per month would still be required to maintain:

a) was that information correct;

b) if so, what consitutes a "minimum play session"?

I couldn't find this in the FAQ.

Right now I'm doing ok with play, but sometimes a session in a night is only 30 minutes or less for days due to work or other RL life constraints, and this summer I only see that getting worse. Now I know these changes aren't until the Fall, I'm thinking more next summer...

Thanks in advance.

[Kril]

One thing I noticed is that expansions will be purchaseable via points. So what it means to me is that when the next expansion comes out, I can use my unspent points to get it.

That's a win for me. No more purchasing expansions if I'm willing to wait long enough.

But I still think this is going to tick off a good portion of the community and cause turnover. But that's not really anything new. Turbine has done little if anything to foster subscriber loyalty. They seem more interesting in getting new subscribers at any cost than finding ways to get more while keeping the veterans who signed up hoping to see Mordor.

Either way,

lifetime=the great safety net.

-Forjo

Until we find out that the V3B2 content and access to Enedwiath is 3000 Turbine points, while our monthly allowance is 500/month and a possible 1000 extra for loyalty...

[lordofaffliction]

pretty poor show by turbine,but with wb wanting there grubby hands on our cash its not a surprise,after the last microtrasaction that was mirkwood,most knew it was coming,i just dont know why they lied about it,although there track record is dont let the truth out at any cost,if anyone is in any doubt about how badly treated lifetime subs are , read the posts at ddo,pretty sad day really

[honoure]

This is a slap in the face. Even as a lifetime member, so nothing will change? I call shenanigans on that. I went through a major overhaul of a game I loved once before, and I saw the downfall, I do NOT want to go through that again.

[NowhereKS]

As a Founder/Lifer, I'm kinda split on the whole thing. First reaction to the news this morning was, like someone else suggested, to look at the calendar to see if I'd missed that it was April 1st. Then, yeah, I was a little disappointed, but just gonna have to wait and see what this brings.

I am a Premium Player in DDO. I let my subscription drop shortly after launch. When it went F2P, I started dabbling in it again occasionally. I have spent a bit of money there, buying Adventure Packs, but nothing else. And to be honest, I haven't seen much in the DDO Store that concerns me. I think there are some XP Tomes or something like that that get me a little bit, but still, those items seem to be relatively few.

If the LOTRO Store has similar stuff (character and bank slots, access to stuff that people who purchased MoM/SoM get anyway), then I won't mind too badly. If you can start buying Mithril Flakes, First Age Weapons, Skirmish Points and the like, then I'm definitely going to be a more disappointed in the whole deal.

As for the community aspect, that'll remain to be seen. I mainly play DDO solo, and haven't played recently before the F2P change, so I don't know how the community has changed between P2P and F2P - hopefully a DDO veteran can fill us in there. I would imagine the lower areas will get more crowded, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. If the gold spammers start to become a real problem, and the community in general starts to go to hell, then it really might be time to move on. But that all remains to be seen.

I remained cautiously optimistic with the news of WB buying Turbine a while back. While I am a little disappointed in this turn for LOTRO, I'm trying to remain cautiously optimistic here, too. We'll just have to wait and see, and hope this brings more good people to the community.

[Ehra]

Honestly, this looks like it'll be saving me more money. I got my lifetime account at release, so it's definitely payed itself off by now. And now since I'm getting a free 500 points every month, I should never even need to pay real money for any "expansions." I'll just buy new Adventure Packs (or whatever they're going to be called in LOTRO) as they're released.

The DDO store has been handled extremely well, imo (well, outside of some horribly overpriced items. But these are new items, wouldn't surprise me to see a price drop in the future).

[Sapience]

Sapience, I read in another thread something about even with Lifetime members that at least a minimum play session login per month would still be required to maintain:

a) was that information correct;

b) if so, what consitutes a "minimum play session"?

I couldn't find this in the FAQ.

Right now I'm doing ok with play, but sometimes a session in a night is only 30 minutes or less for days due to work or other RL life constraints, and this summer I only see that getting worse. Now I know these changes aren't until the Fall, I'm thinking more next summer...

Thanks in advance.

Loging in and playing the game at least once a month between now and launch is all you need to do to get the bonus 500 points per month. Your 30 minutes every few days would absolutely qualify.

[Kamindra]

Think about it this way - lifetime subs are only valuable as long as the game survives and grows. This is going to help that happen

[Reonath]

I can't speak for every lifetime member but my reaction was the same as the OP...but only briefly. After a bit of consideration I am mostly now very curious to see what the items are that are available through use of the points. I did read the FAQ and all of the currently available free-to-play threads and found actually very little to be concerned about. The way that I am seeing the future outcome is that hopefully we will end up with a much larger player base and a lot more content a lot more often. That being said if the store EVER changes to including game breaking items such as legendary items or radiance armour or anything that you would normally have to work for I would be pretty disappointed. I imagine that it will be something equivalent to the gear purchasable with skirmish marks which, while better than most quest drops, is considerably poorer than any of the crafted or bartered items and thus not really all that great.

I am very hopeful that the marketing push for this is MASSIVE in order to get a tremendous interest in the game and a whole rush of new players. I also am hoping that the account tier structure is effective in motivating people to upgrade their subs once they realize the restrictions placed on them due to their type of account impede their ability to advance and play the game.

[LordRingz]

Lifetimer/Founder/30+ year Tolkien fan here.

Well, I can't say I wasn't shocked at this news, even though there have been rumors about F2P, as well as the success that DDO has had financially with the F2P model. However, I can't get angry at Turbine for doing what a business needs to do, which is make money for themselves and their owners/shareholders.

I have read through the FAQ carefully, and it looks like there will be NO changes for me and other Lifetime subscribers. It looks like I will still have access to all of my 9 characters, all classes and races, with all of the content I now enjoy (Eriador, Moria, Lothlorien, Mirkwood, shared bank storage, house, etc). I will also be getting 500 of these Turbine points a month, for free.

I am concerned about an influx of teens and pre-teens (I'm 43), but not overly so. That's what the Ignore macro is for. Plus, all of my toons are level 56+, so there's no great need to spend much time in the Shire, Bree, and Ered Luin anymore. If you're concerned about the influx of F2P players, create alts in all your slots and level them to the Lone Lands or higher!

My main concern is wanting to see as much of Middle Earth as possible. If this is what it takes to provide Turbine with the cash flow and stability to allow them to develop the content to take us to Mordor and beyond, then so be it. It's not the end of the world. I am more concerned that the next expansion will not take place until Fall. I was expecting Vol. 3 Book 2 and the Enedwaith zone to be implemented in the summer, with a major expansion in the Fall/Winter. This announcement pushes back the expansion into next year. This disappoints me more than the F2P announcement.

[sapman]

Lifetime was never promised as "pay nothing forever".... You just avoid the monthly . subscription. We still payed for Moria and for SOM. Nothing changes with F2P you will still pay for major expansions. If they price the small stuff like a new skirmish or dungeon so that I can save up my 500 TP/month for two or three months and get those for free I will be thrilled.

[LordKyro]

The way I still look at it is that I saved a TON of $$$ by getting my lifetime subscription when I did and enjoyed the game from day one that I joined. I will still continue to enjoy the game and will still have all that extra $$$ that I saved - this news basically means nothing to me.... now back to the game

[0rdinary0wl]

***! I just went lifetime around last Feb. I am not happy about this at all.

[carlosjuero]

Sapience, I read in another thread something about even with Lifetime members that at least a minimum play session login per month would still be required to maintain:

a) was that information correct;

b) if so, what consitutes a "minimum play session"?

I couldn't find this in the FAQ.

Right now I'm doing ok with play, but sometimes a session in a night is only 30 minutes or less for days due to work or other RL life constraints, and this summer I only see that getting worse. Now I know these changes aren't until the Fall, I'm thinking more next summer...

Thanks in advance.

I got a reply by Patience via Twitter on that very question - her response to my question "What constitutes a play session?" was "Logging in"

[Norowen]

I can't speak for every lifetime member but my reaction was the same as the OP...but only briefly. After a bit of consideration I am mostly now very curious to see what the items are that are available through use of the points. I did read the FAQ and all of the currently available free-to-play threads and found actually very little to be concerned about. The way that I am seeing the future outcome is that hopefully we will end up with a much larger player base and a lot more content a lot more often.

We about had a heart attack when we first read the news, thinking the whole game was getting a reboot!

But then blue name Tarrant said, on another thread, "all is well", what you have now as a current lifetime subscriber is what you will continue to have, with more available.

Now, like most of y'all, we're cautiously optimistic.

[ladylore]

Loging in and playing the game at least once a month between now and launch is all you need to do to get the bonus 500 points per month. Your 30 minutes every few days would absolutely qualify.

So it is a one time thing for a bonus? <big sigh of relief> It sounded like it was something I'd have to do monthly after launch to maintain my account. I didn't catch on it was for a bonus. I was concerned about getting demoted to Premium without proper maintenance.

[ibilisi]

Loging in and playing the game at least once a month between now and launch is all you need to do to get the bonus 500 points per month. Your 30 minutes every few days would absolutely qualify.

Sapience, is there an official FAQ entry for this? I'm a founder/lifer but have been on hiatus due to RL issues. I don't want to loose any potential benefits due to the lack of or misinformation.

THanks

[Deryk_Son_of_Aelric]

Yes, please lifetime subscribers, PLEASE take a deep breath and relax. Nothing will change for us from a financial standpoint. We will even get more enhancements than we had previously!

So, let things settle, get the TRUE facts by educating yourself, and most of all relax!

I'm going to remain neutral about this and just move along as if nothing is changing in the game, because essentially, nothing really is when you stop and look at it from a game perspective.

[Pyroburn]

The FAQ can put things a bit bluntly and maybe doesn't get to the meat of things, so let me try and explain a bit better.

As a lifetimer, you entered into an agreement that you would never pay another subscription fee with us again. You still won't. For you, nothing has changed. You will not be billed a subscription, your status and access to the game will not change. You will be getting an additional benefit, however, in the form of Turbine points.

So if I understand this correctly....

I am a lifetime founder... so I get

Anniversary (3 years @ 500 TP each) = 1500 Points
Founder Status = 500 Points
At launch I get Lifetime = 500 Bonus Points
And current sub = 500 Points

So I get a total of 3,000 Points at launch?

Also as a lifer, I continue to get 500 points per month without paying anything?

I keep all 9 Character slots/Shared/RK (and warden I suppose) on all servers (cause I have Adv Pack/MoM/SoM)?

So nothing changes at all, period except I would have to buy the new stuff with points at a later time?

Loging in and playing the game at least once a month between now and launch is all you need to do to get the bonus 500 points per month. Your 30 minutes every few days would absolutely qualify.

I assume < 1s will suffice?