The 600 pound gorilla in the room: What is the future of Lotro

[HardestyGrimwall]

I get a bad feeling now that I just discovered my new favorite game......it might not be around very much longer

like a ranger on the trail....I am reading signs.

1. World Consolidation.....I missed the hoopla on that but I still get a title gift every time I run a new character. When you take down the ribbon from the party tree what your left with is the reality that they are reducing the servers because there are less players (that could be a good sign - trying to stay healthy, or a bad sign)

2. Poor moderation on the forums, especially when it comes to including new but proven members into the other forums. It is by the bumping efforts of the members that seem to get topics back above the spam fray...rather than active moderation

3. On a related note I sent a message to Frelorn a week ago which is still sitting in my sent box waiting to be picked up..... these both point a reduced staff and an overworked staff (unless he's on vacation )

4. I heard rumors that the license with The Tolkien people expires next year, and if the business is not thriving will they renew?

It kills me that this game has been around for 8 years and I am just now discovering it, it would twist the dagger if it were to go away just when I found it.


On the plus side the one time I did have a support issue it was promptly answered and fixed, so that made me feel good.


This is a game with an amazing atmosphere. I hope it sticks around

[Boskone08]

Just my opinions here, but...

1. World Consolidation - It has been both good (larger populations on each active server) and bad (performance declines, naming issues, just the pain and agony of 'losing' your home server), but it's pretty much a necessity in a mature (read 'older') MMO. While Turbine has been far from perfect here, I think they have done about as good a job as any, considering that Turbine is part of WB and significant aspects of the datacenter builds/server closures have 'Big Company' fingerprints all over them. Turbine has not, IMO, been calling the tune on many of these decisions.

2. Poor Moderation - One of the things that can fall away quickest when human resources get stretched, and Turbine has definately been in that situation.

3. Frelorn has been out sick, and I expect he has also been flooded with various messages and priorities. Delays should be expected.

4. The license does expire next year, but I seriously doubt there is a firm (let alone more than one) ready to launch a multi-million dollar (and multi-year) campaign to "Do LOTRO Right", assuming there was a real 'right' version - each of us have our own 'right and proper' version in our minds, and no two are in full and complete agreement. Even if Turbine/WB made it clear that revenues had dropped too far and license fees had to be adjusted, almost any revenue from LOTRO would beat what a hypothetical New Firm could offer at start. Any such New Firm would face outrage from the former LOTRO players (a huge percentage of their likely client base) for 'killing' LOTRO, no matter how quickly or smoothly (neither likely to be 'very') they brought out a New Version. Add in that no matter how much they tried to 'borrow', WB would be after them for copyright violations, adding more millions in legal expenses to their development costs and delays to their product release.

I just do not see the license being much of an issue, especially if WB wants (as they seem to) to tie up the complete IP under the WB corporate umbrella. Unless a very devoted (clinically obsessed?) LOTRO player wins a huge PowerBall jackpot, WB/Turbine's LOTRO will be here.

Even then, the smart thing would be to try to buy Turbine from WB...

[Olgomil]

like a ranger on the trail....I am reading signs.

HardestyGrimwall, with all my respect for your opinions, if you read old forum post you will know your "signs" are present, in a manner or another, from the beginning of the game, nothing really new in the last batch of "doom" threads and comments.

LOTRO state is not the best right now, true, but imho not significally different from the last years.

Sergio :-)

[HardestyGrimwall]

HardestyGrimwall, with all my respect for your opinions, if you read old forum post you will know your "signs" are present, in a manner or another, from the beginning of the game, nothing really new in the last batch of "doom" threads and comments.

LOTRO state is not the best right now, true, but imho not significally different from the last years.

Sergio :-)

Yeah, no doubt I am a noob, so I will take your word here as a reason to be hopeful

thank you

[Vilan]

In my opinion, server consolidations are a sign that Turbine intends Lotro to be going for the foreseeable future. If they planned on letting the license expire in 2017, they would've just staggered along with the old servers until the lights went out. But they spent time and money to bring stuff onto new servers. That's hopeful to me.

[Garan]

I don't usually bother with these threads as they are as often as not just doom and gloomers. Since the OP seems to be honest and open minded, I'll pitch in my two cents.

On the surface, server consolidation doesn't bode well for any game, but if you look at the history and other events surrounding it, you'll realize that it isn't quite so bad in this case. Most of the low population servers were added when the game went F2P and they were expecting a large influx of short-time casual players. Well, they got the large influx of short-time casual players, the majority of whom no longer play so all those extra servers are just wasted resources. That combined with the fact that Turbine has just acquired new hardware and moved to a new data center means that they aren't just consolidating, they are evolving.

Forum moderation has been an ongoing balancing act problem since day 1. Sometimes it's too loose and people complain about the chaos. Other times it's too strict and people complain about "tyrannical" moderators. I keep hoping they find a better balance but I suspect they've pretty much thrown in the towel and decided to focus their resources on something that isn't a no-win situation.

The mail in your sent mail folder is simply a copy of what you sent and is no indication of whether the recipient received or read your message. Freelorn doesn't have time to answer every message - although he does make an effort to try - I've even had a couple responses from Vyvyanne the Executive Producer so the staff do try to respond when they get a chance. I wouldn't be too concerned if your message doesn't ever get a reply.

The license thing isn't even an issue. It's a renewable license. They expire. They get renewed. It's business as usual and as long as the company is making money they will continue to renew the license.

End result? The future of the game will be decided by the bottom-line. As long as Turbine can show a profit the game will continue.

EDIT: FWIW, I've noticed a continued interest in plugins by new players so there is certainly a small but steady stream of new players trying the game. Not nearly as many as when the game first went F2P, but still a steady stream.