Lifetime Account Members Thread

[SaintBass]

Guess that you expressed exactly my concern, A+

The other issue here is that nobody wants their money back; I played not too much but i enjoyed the past 3 years, so to me is not a matter of asking money back; but to be shielded by the mass of people that will ruin this community; this doesn't sound as a crazy request i think.

This concern I get... however, I have to take exception to this perspective because 1) it is the kind of elitism that will foster discontent once the F2P elements go live and 2) Overlooks the very real contingent of unfriendly, trollish players that are already in game. We have tools to deal with the latter... staying out of global chat channels or simply putting people on ignore are all it really takes to avoid those you do not wish to deal with.

Fostering a culture of discrimination against people who would not otherwise try the game is very wrong-headed as it will encourage confrontation and poor behavior right out the gate.

[ArahadEketta]

It all depends what those points will buy you. You may discover that 500 pts per month is nowhere near enough to buy access to new zones or the like. That is the case in DDO where you can only unlock some parts of the game by paying for it.

Us players with VIP access will never have to use any of our Turbine Points to unlock any content given to us via the quarterly updates. That is what our subscription is for. The only content we will ever have to pay for (I will be using Turbine Points) is for expansions.

[darshie76]

This concern I get... however, I have to take exception to this perspective because 1) it is the kind of elitism that will foster discontent once the F2P elements go live and 2) Overlooks the very real contingent of unfriendly, trollish players that are already in game. We have tools to deal with the latter... staying out of global chat channels or simply putting people on ignore are all it really takes to avoid those you do not wish to deal with.

Fostering a culture of discrimination against people who would not otherwise try the game is very wrong-headed as it will encourage confrontation and poor behavior right out the gate.

I can understand your concern, and there are ways to deal with them nowadays, but with a huge amount of new players, it will be worst and worst; and in the end whoever plays other free games knows what kind of environment you get.

Is not discrimination, is the will to preserve what was built in the past 3 years

[imptown]

Guess that you expressed exactly my concern, A+

The other issue here is that nobody wants their money back

i may be alone in this but, yes, i do want my money back or a pro-rated quantity of it.

then if i decide to play the free version, that's my decision.

the free version may be all some of us really want to play anyway, especially if money is involved.

[darshie76]

i may be alone in this but, yes, i do want my money back or a pro-rated quantity of it.

then if i decide to play the free version, that's my decision.

the free version may be all some of us really want to play anyway, especially if money is involved.

I don't think that you are alone in this; I just don't understand or approve the will to ask for a refund, but i respect it (and i guess many people too)

[GalateaOrea]

I can understand your concern, and there are ways to deal with them nowadays, but with a huge amount of new players, it will be worst and worst; and in the end whoever plays other free games knows what kind of environment you get.

Is not discrimination, is the will to preserve what was built in the past 3 years

Ya, it is discrimination, especially as it is being expressed on these forums by a lot of posters. Some comments I've seen include 1) don't let them into our chat channels; 2) Wow ***** will ruin the game; 3) requiring them to wear a badge clearly marking them as unacceptable F2P accounts; and 4) things I won't repeat. Frankly, if you're so afraid of other players, what the heck are you doing playing an MMO? Yes, I know, immature bullies and epeen elitist destroyed WoW. Ya, I was there.

Well, there are elitist in this game, too, who some how feel they are more entitled to play this game then anyone else because they were here first. To which I say, get over yourselves. Just how do you think this flood of stupidly boorish players is going to ruin the game for you? By acting like jerks in chat? We already got that. By being idiots in PUGs, ya we got that too. By acting better than anyone else or wanting to marginalize part of the player base because they are different? Ya, we got that, too.

[darshie76]

Ya, it is discrimination, especially as it is being expressed on these forums by a lot of posters. Some comments I've seen include 1) don't let them into our chat channels; 2) Wow ***** will ruin the game; 3) requiring them to wear a badge clearly marking them as unacceptable F2P accounts; and 3) things I won't repeat. Frankly, if you're so afraid of other players, what the heck are you doing playing an MMO? Yes, I know, immature bullies and epeen elitist destroyed WoW. Ya, I was there.

Well, there are elitist in this game, too, who some how feel they are more entitled to play this game then anyone else because they were here first. To which I say, get over yourselves. Just how do you think this flood of stupidly boorish players is going to ruin the game for you? By acting like jerks in chat? We already got that. By being idiots in PUGs, ya we got that too. By acting better than anyone else or wanting to marginalize part of the player base because they are different? Ya, we got that, too.

do you understand that this is a game right? do you understand that this is not real life, this is not what happened with minorities?

the moment that you start to talk with this tone like if someone is starting to fabricate lager or ghettos where to put people with a star on their coat; this is the scariest part of all.

I hear many things, but for 2 people that say something i don't go to the supreme court and start to accuse people for racism or discrimination; let's be serious and let's respect what other people think.

Do you want to share your experience with others? Go ahead, you are free to do what you want with your account, but you cannot criticize who wanna have some nice fun with his mature friends, without hearing elvish rap eminem style, or profanities and other stuff like that, and click the ignore button every second, between a request to do a quest and a couple of nice jokes with other nice players.

I am not saying that all the players are like that, just that if i can choose, i prefer to play with my fellow kinsmen and also with other nice people, instead of living a hell like being on a WOW server....there is a reason why people goes to a library instead of a club; because you know what kind of people you find in a library, if you don't wanna be with the kind of people that are in a club.

And i play MMORPG because i can choose which are the people that i want to interact, and just cut the one that say something that i don't like; God bless America for freedom.

have a nice evening.

[SaintBass]

I can understand your concern, and there are ways to deal with them nowadays, but with a huge amount of new players, it will be worst and worst; and in the end whoever plays other free games knows what kind of environment you get.

Is not discrimination, is the will to preserve what was built in the past 3 years

You can preserve that without discrimination. I have no problem telling people to "Be nice or leave." or "You are an idiot and are going on ignore." As an in-game friend once said, "If you don't shame them, they won't learn to not fail." I have even gone so far as to tell someone that I cannot heal stupid.

But to automatically assume that all F2P players will lower the discourse is something that can be circumvented... and sadly, it is an attitude that cheapens the discourse here and now, long before the game goes F2P, not to mention outright ignoring the existence of the dredges that are in-game here and now.

[darshie76]

You can preserve that without discrimination. I have no problem telling people to "Be nice or leave." or "You are an idiot and are going on ignore." As an in-game friend once said, "If you don't shame them, they won't learn to not fail." I have even gone so far as to tell someone that I cannot heal stupid.

But to automatically assume that all F2P players will lower the discourse is something that can be circumvented... and sadly, it is an attitude that cheapens the discourse here and now, long before the game goes F2P, not to mention outright ignoring the existence of the dredges that are in-game here and now.

accept my apologize if i cannot see the things in the positive way that you have; I quit 3 games already when the air was too heavy to breathe; and just I don't wanna leave this one, unless i am forced to.

My hope is that we will still have a choice for a change and that nothing is final; that's why i am still here writing, instead of just saying "who cares, i get the same stuff that i had before plus free credits"

Maybe i am wrong, so forgive me for being wrong then,because i cannot find any other feeling other than the ones that i have expressed.

[Lohi]

give me my refund i need the money back.

You're saying you had zero fun all the time you've been in the game? Otherwise it makes no sense to get a refund on past play time just because you feel you won't like future play time.

[Lohi]

I can understand your concern, and there are ways to deal with them nowadays, but with a huge amount of new players, it will be worst and worst; and in the end whoever plays other free games knows what kind of environment you get.

The new players who are here only because it is free will mostly not be at mid or high level. They'd need either money to get there, or patience, and the types of players people are worried about will have neither. The griefers will be a non-issue there too, they won't have the patience really to stick around long.

[SweetyHobo]

So with F2P coming is the next book going to be called "The return of the Gold Sellers"?

A thousand F2P accounts with 2 Gold per char makes a good bank for them.


Oh well, I guess the WB buyout and F2P explains the stalled and limited content over the last few years. Turbine has been wanting the sell!

[darshie76]

The new players who are here only because it is free will mostly not be at mid or high level. They'd need either money to get there, or patience, and the types of players people are worried about will have neither. The griefers will be a non-issue there too, they won't have the patience really to stick around long.

Your analysis make sense; but you didn't considered professional gold spammer; for them time and money is not an issue, when they can open X persistent accounts for free

[darshie76]

So with F2P coming is the next book going to be called "The return of the Gold Sellers"?

A thousand F2P accounts with 2 Gold per char makes a good bank for them.


Oh well, I guess the WB buyout and F2P explains the stalled and limited content over the last few years. Turbine has been wanting the sell!

I hope that you are not right; but if the economy is a concern, this means that making profit to improve your gear crafting and selling is basically about to end with the gold spammers.


If you read the faq, it says that there are limitations for gold, items and what you can sell on AH; but then 2 lines after it says "the limitations can be removed buying the related objects"...the irony is that Turbine was so concerned about gold spammer in the beginning; and now is like to give them a "get out of jail free" ticket as far as WB gets money from GS, they don't care

Maybe i am just paranoid; hope so...

[SaintBass]

Your analysis make sense; but you didn't considered professional gold spammer; for them time and money is not an issue, when they can open X persistent accounts for free

There are throttles in place currently that have kept the gold farmers out of the game and the spam non-existent, or close to it. There is no reason to believe that those measures won't continue to be effective. Similarly, I haven't seen any gold spam in DDO either.

[Garethporlest18]

Arthad is right really, this isn't too bad. I mean I'm a bit shocked and it kind of feels like our Middle Earth is being opened up to people who will abuse and do mean things to it.. but if the point system works like it does in DDO, then those of us who will be keeping a sub or are a lifer..will most likely not have to buy an expansion again. We can just use points..or well, for the first new expansion at least (probably won't be able to make enough points to buy more than one). That's actually pretty cool.

My worry is that Turbine drops the founder pricing and charges me more for my 3 month sub.

[crazyaddict]

Us players with VIP access will never have to use any of our Turbine Points to unlock any content given to us via the quarterly updates. That is what our subscription is for. The only content we will ever have to pay for (I will be using Turbine Points) is for expansions.

I was wondering where you got this information from. I had assumed that new updates (like forochel during SoA) would be new content that needs to be purchased with points.

[curzon176]

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.

thats how i see it too. DDO gets a lot of updates since it went f2p (though not sure about beforehand admittedly), i'm hoping the increase in player base and profits in LOTRO which WILL happen, will result in updates more often as well.

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 agree but i don't think it will happen. A DDO veteran would have to say for sure, but i don't think they did a similar thing with the store in that game.

I bought my lifetime about 2 months ago, but i'm not at all bothered by the new format. Like others have said, my gameplay experience is still the exact same as before, and its still lifetime. The only difference is that i get points to buy stuff and potentially new expansions, and i'm now also considered VIP and if other people can have a watered down, restricted, free version of my experience, i'm alright with that.

[Garethporlest18]

I was wondering where you got this information from. I had assumed that updates (like forochel in SoA) would be new content that needs to be purchased with points.

Nah, if you look at DDO, VIP players get access to all their episode type things for free. We'd only have to pay for things like Moria and Mirkwood.

The only thing that is changing for all of us now is: we'll have a new point system in place..future expansions might be free because of that, we'll be getting in a new crowd and through store items..certain things might be easier to get.

[alahrissa]

I might feel betrayed as a lifetime member if I hadn't played so many RPG's in the past and weren't therefore so well aware that it is a gamble on both sides. When I chose to pay that one-time fee, apart from anything Turbine (or God, or gremlins in the computer) does I might not want to play LOTRO in a year or a month. Or (highly unlikely but possible) the game might go out of business before I re-couped the monthly fee I *would* have paid. (That time has come and gone.)

I didn't sell or buy anyone's soul here.

I paid to have fun in the hope that it would continue to be fun - but if it's not I'm not going to make myself more miserable crying about it.

There is an intrinsic value in me having fun and choosing to continue to play which kind of strikes at the heart of the perceived threat. Because for Turbine's part on a purely financial level they might prefer if I paid once for a Lifetime Membership and never log in again and use my account for only coming on the forums and writing long meandering posts.

By continuing to enjoy the service they provide one way or the other they are receiving a far more valuable service from me: my time. For which my employer on a bi-weekly basis pays me more than enough to afford video games and other recreational activities. And for which they can feel satisfied that all that work that they put into it is worth something to someone. They get (yay) the satisfaction of knowing that years later it's still fun.

What I paid for was a fun, laid-back everybody just relax kind of game, and I don't really see that going away. No matter how hard corporate land may be trying to make that happen.

Because if we spent a few hundred (or however much, but point is we could afford it or we wouldn't have paid right?) on something which - worst case scenario - fails and just isn't fun anymore. And the world comes crashing to an end, and there is rioting in the streets. It could still be worse, I'm sure.

Just my two cents. I'm curious to see how this will all play out, especially this new 'point' system, but I'm personally okay so long as from the sounds of it I'm not going to lose any content AND Turbine/WB isn't going to try to metaphorically close down the club re-open it under a different name and charge me, which would be illegal. It looks to me like they are playing fair, and even a bit more than fair with all the incentives. Even if possibly not making a wise move. But I'd rather watch a video game company do something stupid than a good friend take a few hundred dollars and use it to ruin their life on alcohol or whatever. All in all, I'm pretty okay with my life choice in this matter.

At this moment in time this continues to be the most fun MMORPG I've ever played - for the things I like, which are not the things everyone else likes. Oh well. I was going to say except maybe Simutronics text-based games which are a LOT more expensive but on third thought, being able to come in for fifteen minutes after a busy day at work and craft or do a little mini-quest and NOT get into some weird drama scene in an environment with no chat channels or ignore, where everyone is just *there*. That kind of tips the scales that little bit for me. Also, no PVP.

Um ... are we allowed to say 'can I have your stuff'? For anyone who wants to go? Or is that dating me.

Okay maybe the irony of having paid a lifetime membership for a game which will now be free for everyone just hit me all of a sudden. It is kind of funny. I'd be upset if they said the game was going away. Although even then I read the fine print that said No refunds.

It's funny because, well on one hand everyone can now 'play for free' as I effectively have been for some time, and on the other hand I also get extra goodies on top of that. I know it's that my game style has never been Build Super Character, End Game, etc, but more casual. But for someone like me it's kind of so ... I get to keep my cake AND get ice cream too. For no extra charge right?

Also cautiously optimistic to see how this all works out. But I'm kind of hoping it turns out to be the silly, power-hungry people pay for my game. Which happens a lot in the real world too. It's even in the Bible.

[crazyaddict]

Nah, if you look at DDO, VIP players get access to all their episode type things for free. We'd only have to pay for things like Moria and Mirkwood.

This sounds good, almost too good. But I suppose this is a good way to entice people to subscribe instead of pay as you go. Would like to see a blue name confirm this though.

[Krakenheim]

So Turbine is cheating on us AGAIN.

I played AC2 even bought the expansion and yes ppl told to be carefull.

Then comed DDO free-mode and I shivered things were looking grim for LOTRO.

When I paid for the life subscription I did made some math to see how long the game should last to make it worth and in that point of view it did even after paying for the Moria expansion and Mirkwood "thing".

Now we have a "bonus" and "minimum playing time"...

MINIMUM PLAYING TIME ?????

Where did I EVER signed for that part ???

I normally give ppl 2 chances Turbine just lost them.

[Ehra]

Nah, if you look at DDO, VIP players get access to all their episode type things for free. We'd only have to pay for things like Moria and Mirkwood.

The only thing that is changing for all of us now is: we'll have a new point system in place..future expansions might be free because of that, we'll be getting in a new crowd and through store items..certain things might be easier to get.

The problem I have with this is that DDO's VIP program flat out says that you get unlimited access to all content:

http://www.ddo.com/vip

The LOTRO VIP deal is missing that in the chart. It seems like a pretty big thing to just forget to mention, so it makes me figure that we might not be seeing that feature here. Hope I'm wrong, though.

[Akaara]

I have a small kinship because I wanted the house. How does this affect my small kin and my kinhall?

[Unique]

Now we have a "bonus" and "minimum playing time"...

MINIMUM PLAYING TIME ?????

Where did I EVER signed for that part ???

I normally give ppl 2 chances Turbine just lost them.

If you're talking about the "Play Session" requirement

A. You only have to log in 1 character, once a month to qualify
B. If you don't, you only lose your bonus points for that month - nothing else

So it's completely up to you - want the bonus points? Take 2 minutes to log in. Don't want the bonus points? Don't log in.