Lifetime Account Members Thread

[Lashley93]

I wish I had a lifetime account

You guys are so cool

[Vardiel]

I wish I had a lifetime account

You guys are so cool

Honestly, the only thing separating VIP's from us Lifetimers is that we don't have to pay anymore for each month played. Which means taking breaks feels more relaxed.

Actually, the amount of money I have saved is not that much, if I had stopped paying when I took breaks from the game...

[NumenorLord]

I came back to LotRO after a two year break to find that I had about 10,000 Turbine points. Needless to say, I was pretty surprised and happy with that revelation. Was it worth $200? I've been playing the game since open beta, but I didn't buy the lifetime subscription until about a year before the game went free to play. That saved me about $120, but the savings each month are certainly lower than they would be if the game was still subscription based. It should definitely pay for itself within another year though.

[Elyphor]

I came back to LotRO after a two year break to find that I had about 10,000 Turbine points. Needless to say, I was pretty surprised and happy with that revelation. Was it worth $200? I've been playing the game since open beta, but I didn't buy the lifetime subscription until about a year before the game went free to play. That saved me about $120, but the savings each month are certainly lower than they would be if the game was still subscription based. It should definitely pay for itself within another year though.

I'm with you, the lifetime was a nice deal, and even with the switch to f2p it still is a good one. 500TP/month for free, now it feels like Turbine is paying me instead of that I pay them

[Elwene]

Lifetime was a nice deal for us players, but not so nice one for Turbine. That is probably why they removed it, it didn't bring enough profit when you could just buy it off and never pay any monthly VIP costs. Most big MMOs have never had lifetimer payment option, I was a bit amazed when I first time heard LotrO had one. So of course I bought it and it has already paid itself back, many times.

[Spydre]

I bought my lifer a few months after open beta. Best $200 I ever spent.

[ikystiky]

Bought 3 lifer accounts for the family - me, my dad and my bro. Best $600 ever spent - can return to the game whenever I want and dont have to worry about the subscription!

[imptown]

thread still chugging along after all this time...

are there any other lifetimers still here that feel F2P for this game is not a good thing?

[Hezak]

thread still chugging along after all this time...

are there any other lifetimers still here that feel F2P for this game is not a good thing?

I think it was a necessary evil...what really irks me is the MASSIVE slowdown in new content releases and book updates, especially when considering how much more money they're bringing in now as opposed to 2 years ago or so.

[Mark_J]

thread still chugging along after all this time...

are there any other lifetimers still here that feel F2P for this game is not a good thing?

I think most of the predictions and speculations in this thread about how great F2P was going to be for Lifetimers and how we have it made have clearly been proven wrong.

It doesn't even look like we'll be able to use our TP to purchase Expansions without possibly paying more for them than we used to...

[novaslady]

I bought the lifetime when it first came out and never looked back.

I think F2P is great as it brings new people to the game.

[Leinad312]

I think I like my lifetime more now than before f2p. I've been able to get maxed shared storage, maxed wardrobe, cosmetics, and deed accelerators without buying TP. I am happy with how Turbine handled lifetime members with the transition to f2p, the possibility was there for them to really screw us over.

[Arrabell]

I still cant believe that I didnt buy lifetime when it was available, especially as I play so often and have since beta. I console myself though with the thought that putting money monthly into this game costs very little for all the entertainment it has given me and helps the game grow.

[Crell_1]

Hi!

Can i Sell Lifetime Vip? A Buddy will sell it.

No. It is a violation of the EULA /TOS to sell your account. You'll just wind up getting it perma banned

Watch for security to start looking at your IP logins like a hawk because you even posted this here.

[KeskaRayburn]

thread still chugging along after all this time...

are there any other lifetimers still here that feel F2P for this game is not a good thing?

As a lifer, I didn't care either way until Turbine changed the way LI decons worked and put the relic removal scrolls into the store as a TP purchasable only item. The merits of that particular item is debatable, but it sets the HUGE precedent for complete reversal of their stating that items in the store would also have a *realistic* way to achieve them in the game.

(emphasis mine since if the method is not realistic, don't even try to claim it exists)

[Nymphonic]

thread still chugging along after all this time...

are there any other lifetimers still here that feel F2P for this game is not a good thing?

I'm a lifer and I think F2P is a great thing. I have my lifetime account and F2P account for no extra cost. And before F2P came, my stuff never sold on the AH. Now it flies off the AH.

I nerd raged when F2P came but I was wrong. I'm happy with how Turbine took care of us with F2P. They could have screwed us over and gotten away with it. They were more than generous.

I play for free, get free TP every month, and I sometime feel like I should buy a TP card from guilt because I'm such a freeloader.

Some folks feel that Turbine doesn't give us recognition. I say they have treated us more than fairly.

[Beschutzer]

I was a bit worried when the announcement came out so long ago.
But I think it's great,..

as others mentioned, there's people around,..the AH sells more..etc..

I have been trying out DC Online lately for kicks and such,...I wouldn't even glance at it if it wasn't.

honestly f2p is a great way to get people 'into' your game,..and it's almost to a point where it would be weird to pay a monthly now. I mean the game better be something stellar for 13-15$ a month( I am looking at you Spacey war game!)

I don't feel like a freeloader as a lifer,..I'm that dude that will buy TP if I need it, so Turbine is getting some cashes.
Oddly enough, I haven't bought any since Roi. More so to the build up of it's release.

[Hammerfast]

I can't believe this thread is still running.

I saw Nyphonic's post a couple up from here. I'm sorry, I don't feel that way. I'm not unhappy about the lifetime accounts - I will never regret those. But F2P is not a good thing.

I noticed today that the crafting mastery item drops are WAY down. See, my main is an explorer. It used to be that when he went out and spent two hours gathering, he came back with enough mastery items to fill a chest or sell for 3-4 gold. I came back today after two hours and had 335 silver worth of those mastery items.

Why? Well duh! So that you can't just go out and FIND them! You see, it's no longer a convenience item when you HAVE to buy it.

Potions. Haven't seen a potion drop in days.

The ENTIRE focus on this game has become a way to force you into the lotro store.

My nephew pulled his kids from the game. This game teaches some things he doesn't want to teach his kids. Things like "the whole game of life is a shopping spree." Buy your way through. Earn nothing because there is no point to it, and somebody is going to defeat your hard work anyways.

Then he pulled himself from the game.

I don't like the LOTRO store. I don't like what it has done to this game. And the only people who now have anything to show, bought it. Outright. Plain and simple. And those who didn't? Well, who cares? Being able to buy everything has totally devalued any effort you might have put out.

I haven't quit yet. Dunno why. I just know you couldn't hand that 'expansion' to me and I'm not ever planning to buy another product Turbine produces no matter what the IP is. New product, but same old greedy company. It makes me feel dirty to hand them money.

[imptown]

i wish i had never given Turbine my lifetime money.

some players had been asking Turbine on the forum boards early on if the game was going to go F2P/pay to win.

we were emphatically told no.

Turbine continued to lie to everyone, even after Massively caught them trying to hire an RMT manager.

that they lied was bad enough, but then when the market started, it was obvious that other than cosmetic items were going to be sold.

it's not a matter of what you can buy in this game, it's a matter of what you can't buy.

we all have our own way of viewing this pay to win method, but it's a dishonest way to run a game in my opinion.

and i find the company to be dishonest in the way lifetimers were treated.

for lifetimers who did not want to be involved in this money sink, we should have been given the option to cash out.

yes, there are many lifetimers still here; but many others just walked away when the change came.

i haven't really played since the game went F2P/pay to win.

[Jadzi]

For what it's worth? I still have fun in LOTRO, and I'm quite happy with my investment (four years ago). I get full VIP status without having to trifle with much more than an annual expansion pack. I might not agree with every decision, and yeah, there's mistakes being made (even ones the devs themselves admit) and things that break and some things just make you wonder. Yet I enjoy exploring this world, and following the story, and just generally participating in the community in some small way.

Ultimately, as always, Your Mileage May Vary. Others will take any given decision as an insult, or a cardinal sin. They'll use Turbine as a cautionary tale - they'll tell their kids not to do what those bad, bad people did. Some will rage, and rant, and carry on. That's their feeling, they should be true to them. And at the same time, others will laud and cheer and find all sorts of things to amuse themselves with. That's their feeling, and they should be true to it too.

[GreyArea1966]

I'm a very happy lifer. Best decision I ever made...still playing now, just not as much (real life sucks).

[Constrictions]

I'm a very happy lifer. Best decision I ever made...still playing now, just not as much (real life sucks).

No, this game sucks big time compared to real life, I really don't know how turbine managed to keep me logging in for so long after i'd realized this and stopped having fun.


I'm a lifer, and f2p does more for us than any other player.

When i come back for ####s and giggles, i expect to have 15,000 turbine points to go crazy with!

[Nymphonic]

Well, I'm having fun. As I write this post I'm currently smelting ore into ingots and after that I'm going to log on my Hobbit and quest in Forochel.

After all these years I still have a blast. I don't agree with some of the devs decisions and some of them are bone headed but thats the way of MMOs.

I disagree with people that say you have to buy stuff from the store to play. I have not once HAD to go to the store in order to play.

[UnlikelyBeing]

We have two lifetime accounts and a premium account (was VIP). We only bought the lifetime agreement around the time F2P was announced so haven't really broken even (prior to that we were monthly subscribers since a few months after launch).

I do feel that Turbine lied to us in the reassurance they offered when F2P was first announced. If they had been honest and said that they would be putting advantage in the store and taking away things that used to be part of gameplay and charging as part of their F2P model then I probably wouldn't have got the lifetime subscriptions.

I was actually supportive of F2P based on the hybrid model they talked about at the time. I made a point of telling my kin that it was a good thing because it would offer other ways of paying and encourage new people into the game but also because some players would invest more money in the game on the 'fluff' stuff and therefore we would get more content etc.

I would still support the hybrid model they told us about back then but I do not think that is what we have been given. With each update we see lotro going a step further towards a full on MT model and that isn't a game I signed up to play. I think the F2P model as has been implemented has diluted gameplay and devalued the subscription package signficantly. If someone plans to play for more than a year then buying content as a premium player is cheaper than paying VIP subscription and if they are willing to plan ahead a bit and purchase what they want on sale they can do it in 9-10 months.

The cash value of SoA content is $45 without taking into account TP being on sale or regions being on sale - if you take sales into account it would come down to about $30 which is about the same price as the original box was that we bought pre-F2P. When F2P was launched VIP subscribers who had the box were told (at least by some forum community members, not sure about blue names) that we are out of line to expect SoA content to be included for those who had bought the box and paid for a subscription for years if we drop to premium based on the assumption the SoA content is worth more than the box etc. Clearly this is not true. Subscribers who previously bought the SoA box for $30 who drop to premium are still expected to pay the $30 for access to exactly the same content. I like lotro but think Turbine have treated their most loyal customers appalling.

So I guess we would fall into the 'unhappy lifers' category, simply put if I could go back in time knowing what I do now, we wouldn't have bought lifetime and would have gone premium instead. The only drawback would have been not being able to access EM but I wouldn't pay a monthly sub just to go to EM from time to time.

Do I think F2P is a good thing? No I don't, I have seen no evidence of the increased revenues that have been hyped about, I feel the quality of the game has dropped and am far from convinced that the number of players coming to the game and paying money towards it has not been sufficient to make up for the loss of subscribers that have left the game. I don't think this is all down to F2P though, I think it is down to a change in philosophy or approach to lotro by management that took place around the time F2P was implemented.

I do think F2P has brought some good stuff, but I don't feel it outweighs the damage I consider its implementation has done to the game. I would go back to the subscription model in a heartbeat!

[Aneres]

As a f2p/premium account player, I have found nothing in the Store that gives others an advantage over me. Yet. This is the first and only MMO I've been associated with that doesn't sell god mode in-store.

The only necessary Store purchases my Premium account sees is Virtue and Trait slots. This game appears to be built to be playable at the basest of abilities. Frankly this game is on the easy side, as MMO's go. All VIP/Lifetime does (in my perception) is reduce the time needed to achieve. Which already is amazingly fast. Seriously... I spent 3 years on a game where 3% of an experience bar a DAY was a good day.... I've only been playing LOTRO for 4 months and I'm going to be lvl 75 after dinner tonight, with part of my Draigoch set already waiting for me and enough gold to buy a Worn Symbol...

Store sells what? Cosmetics? Mounts? 10 stat points on top of my 1200? Yeaaaaah not god-mode... lol

/end my f2p 2cents