Festival pay-to-play

[Trusilver]

I'm really getting annoyed with every festival having multiple events that you can only participate in a small handful of times a day without buying extra festival tickets from the LOTRO store. I have been a VIP member for years and I am finding Turbine's incessant money-grubbing to be downright obnoxious. I'm certainly aware that Time-Warner/Turbine is in business to make money (as though they would ever let us forget it...), but when I pay my fifteen dollars a month for this game, I should be able to play it without constantly having the company rattling their tin cup in front of my nose every ten minutes.

What's next? Raid instance reset tokens?

[Sir_Thorblod]

haven't checked out the Summer Festival yet, but I agree, it's becoming very annoying...

+rep for writing the truth...

[Draculetta]

Um, last time I checked you don't have to buy extra tickets...
Just wait for the timer reset...

I have not bought a ticket and never will.. but I still enjoy all the festivals.. Yes, the Store Pop up get's annoying as all get out.. but other than that....

[Eartholloth]

You can earn tickets every 2 hours....

Guess that is not good enough for some...

[Trusilver]

Until the last two festivals, there was NEVER a cooldown for anything except horse races. Then some bean counting weasel realized they can make money by limiting the number of times someone can do festival events and making them pay for more. It is akin to them putting a cooldown on levelling. (You can only level twice a day BUUUUUUUUUT! for a mere 100 tp you can unlock your levelling cap....)

[zalladi]

For some festivals it is acceptable for Turbine to earn more money for development (To get our expansions faster) but for some (The Anniversary Event) it is simply NOT acceptable, as the Anniversary Event should have been a real-life time for celebration, and Turbine should have noted that and given more than they did with the festivals.

It should not be annoying if you are not buying.

[Mirarian]

I guess I just can't understand why folks get so bent about this. It is a festival not a serious game element. Also I have yet to experience a festival where I didn't have ample time to get pretty much anything I wanted from it without buying tickets.

Are people really getting upset because some people who don't have the patience to get the tickets the free way choose to pay? I myself figure more money than they know what to do with. Let em be.

The popup gets annoying but it isn't game breaking.

[Halath]

I have multiple alts so I just collect my festival tokens from them and send them to the toon I want to get the most festival experience. Since these tokens are not bound, I rotate who gets what festival horse so every toon has a special horse. The pop up does get annoying but I have the patience to ignore annoying or I wouldn't play any MMORPG as I find some people (teens especially) generally annoying

It's a game, the festival is on for over 2 weeks so chill, enjoy the dancing and drinking and get your fest on.

Mae Govonnan!

Celebrine

[Krindus]

Until the last two festivals, there was NEVER a cooldown for anything except horse races.

Forgive me as I'm mistaken, because I haven't been able to explore all of the festival quests yet, but are you talking about the Dwarf keg races and the Hobbit eating contest? If so, I'm about 90% positive that these two events have had the same two-hour cool-down ever since they were instituted two years ago.

The only new addition is now we have the option to purchase additional tickets. If I'm not mistaken, this is actually an improvement over previous years, as before there was never an option to buy additional tickets.

[Eartholloth]

For some festivals it is acceptable for Turbine to earn more money for development (To get our expansions faster) but for some (The Anniversary Event) it is simply NOT acceptable, as the Anniversary Event should have been a real-life time for celebration, and Turbine should have noted that and given more than they did with the festivals.

It should not be annoying if you are not buying.

Given more???? Boy there is no self entitlement there....

[Thodorin]

Until the last two festivals, there was NEVER a cooldown for anything except horse races. ...

This ist not true. The Quest for the Tickets for the competitive drinking and eating have since the initial introduction always a 2 hour cooldown. Even before F2P.

[Brandon_Blackbird]

Until the last two festivals, there was NEVER a cooldown for anything except horse races. Then some bean counting weasel realized they can make money by limiting the number of times someone can do festival events and making them pay for more. It is akin to them putting a cooldown on levelling. (You can only level twice a day BUUUUUUUUUT! for a mere 100 tp you can unlock your levelling cap....)

The festival is exactly the same as last year. This includes daily quests and getting tickets every 2 hours. It has not changed from last year EXCEPT that tickets are now also available in the store for those where 2 every 2 hours isn't good enough (possibly 4 every 2 hours if you time the broken keg horse right), and the food and keg races are instanced.

What cooldown are you talking about that's new?

I have multiple alts so I just collect my festival tokens from them and send them to the toon I want to get the most festival experience. Since these tokens are not bound, I rotate who gets what festival horse so every toon has a special horse. The pop up does get annoying but I have the patience to ignore annoying or I wouldn't play any MMORPG as I find some people (teens especially) generally annoying

It's a game, the festival is on for over 2 weeks so chill, enjoy the dancing and drinking and get your fest on.

Mae Govonnan!

Celebrine

Both tokens and tickets are bound so I'm not sure how you're sending anything to your alts.

[techknowrat]

... It is akin to them putting a cooldown on levelling. (You can only level twice a day BUUUUUUUUUT! for a mere 100 tp you can unlock your levelling cap....)

you know they did try that with ddo at first. every 4 levels you had to find (rare drop) or buy a sigel (sp?) to level if you were f2p or premium, it did not go over very well, and caused some unforeseen issues with players that went back and forth between vip and premium. so thankfully they did away with that system not long after f2p launch.

unfortunately not that many people seemed to be that bothered with the festival tickets, and from what I can tell people are buying them, so I think its here to stay

[mjk47]

I don't have a problem with this mechanism as there need to be ways for Turbine to get some revenue from non-VIPs and this one doesn't impact things very much. I'd much rather they did this than do something that adversely impacts regular game play.

[Brandon_Blackbird]

unfortunately not that many people seemed to be that bothered with the festival tickets, and from what I can tell people are buying them, so I think its here to stay

I always see people complaining about the high price of stuff on the AH (1 gold for a stack of tin, for example) and the problem is that people are willing to PAY that much, so of course people are going to sell it for that much. So there you go. Don't blame Turbine for selling the tickets, blame the people actually spending the TP on them haha

[Crell_1]

This ist not true. The Quest for the Tickets for the competitive drinking and eating have since the initial introduction always a 2 hour cooldown. Even before F2P.

This is accurate, these are the only ticketed events and the CD is not different than past years.

Other festival quests have always been dalies.

[SalionOfBrothers]

What's next? Raid instance reset tokens?

/signed

er, that is not what the post was about, huh. Nevermind.

[Dunford]

If the goal was to obtain more revenue from non-VIP accounts, then why did they release it with the unlock mechanism for all account types?

I think the intent was exactly as the OP stated, to obtain more revenue from ALL accounts.

I agree it is not a big deal for festivals and there is precedence, but I have to admit I am starting to dislike the trend. When Turbine announced their F2P model, I was initially a bit concerned, but I figured as long as it did not affect my VIP game experience I could just continue to play as usual. There has been a slow but sure nibbling away at VIP 'content', for lack of a better expression. Before F2P, if you had a valid subscription, you would always receive updates/content for 'free'. Unless it was a paid expansion, you knew that whatever got released, was yours to fully enjoy.

It is not that Turbine is taking much away from VIP's, they are just not giving as much to VIPs. More and more releases provide the bare minimum for VIP accounts, and push the rest of the 'optional' content to the store. Sure, most of it is fluff, but we used to get that fluff with our subscription, now we don't.

I am well aware that VIPs get 500TP per month. It is supposed to be one of the perks for having a VIP account. But 500 TP/month is not going to purchase all of the content provided only via the store. One possible conclusion is that Turbine/WB has determined that they make more money via F2P accounts, otherwise why 'reduce' VIP content and make it less attractive?

I'm not a Turbine/WB employee. I do not know what their numbers tell them or the direction they intend to go. I understand corporate decisions. Like many of us, I deal with it every day. I am not angry with Turbine/WB and still enjoy their version of Middle-earth very much. But, I am concerned about what I perceive to be a trend.

[Lohi]

What pay? Tickets are free. I don't know about summer festival yet, but the farmer's faire I just had my alts collect tickets which I did once (only once because I had plenty already). If you don't have an alt create one. If they're bound instead, then just wait until they reset. The only reason to pay is if you want the tickets NOW instead of being patient and getting a few each day. Save up the tickets until later when the crowds are smaller.

And it's only "pay" if you have no TP saved up, or decide you must have these fluff items instead of using TP on more useful things.

[Jayvani]

i agree with the OP... game is turning into a real money grab... which actually in and of itself I dont mind... but give us some value for our money... we are really being ripped off imho... and a big part of the problem is that lotro passes on easy things where they could make money...

for example... make 62% and 68% mount speed a player skill and not a mount trait... then sell mounts... yes oyu already sell them but you would sell a helluva a lot more imo... and while some may say "they are sure that lotro did market research"... you are not going to get me to belive that... they just suck at making money and we get to suffer for it...

[zombie3000]

I'm really getting annoyed with every festival having multiple events that you can only participate in a small handful of times a day without buying extra festival tickets from the LOTRO store. I have been a VIP member for years and I am finding Turbine's incessant money-grubbing to be downright obnoxious. I'm certainly aware that Time-Warner/Turbine is in business to make money (as though they would ever let us forget it...), but when I pay my fifteen dollars a month for this game, I should be able to play it without constantly having the company rattling their tin cup in front of my nose every ten minutes.

What's next? Raid instance reset tokens?

Just as with my post on a simular topic, people arent seeing his over-all point.. The incessant money-grubbing! as he put it, either way its annoying and ruining the game.. and all of you who dont think it is, will eventually, when you start seeing Billboards in game, (okay i may be exaggerating a bit... oh wait no im not! Cosmetic dummys!!!)

[Eartholloth]

i agree with the OP... game is turning into a real money grab... which actually in and of itself I dont mind... but give us some value for our money... we are really being ripped off imho... and a big part of the problem is that lotro passes on easy things where they could make money...

for example... make 62% and 68% mount speed a player skill and not a mount trait... then sell mounts... yes oyu already sell them but you would sell a helluva a lot more imo... and while some may say "they are sure that lotro did market research"... you are not going to get me to belive that... they just suck at making money and we get to suffer for it...

Well lets see, if I buy a membership it is usually for 3 months at 30.00. I can spend that in just going to the movies with hubby & get around 1 1/2 hours of entertainment. Getting ripped off, I dont think so.

[Eartholloth]

Just as with my post on a simular topic, people arent seeing his over-all point.. The incessant money-grubbing! as he put it, either way its annoying and ruining the game.. and all of you who dont think it is, will eventually, when you start seeing Billboards in game, (okay i may be exaggerating a bit... oh wait no im not! Cosmetic dummys!!!)

I bet though if Turbine just handed everything over on a silver platter & you didnt have to pay a dime for anything you'd be jumpin for joy.

Oh & yeah you are over exaggerating.

[Brandon_Blackbird]

If getting tickets was ONLY available on the store, I might agree with the "money-grubbing" sentiment. But the fact is the festival is exactly the same as it was last year, and the year before that, AND the year before that! The tickets for the runs are not new. You can get 2 (or 4) every 2 hours simply by clicking an NPC, exactly the same as in the past (this is the FOURTH YEAR with these tickets). Making the tickets available on the store is simply ANOTHER avenue, not the SOLE avenue.

[Tarmas_Eldar]

What's next? Raid instance reset tokens?

Good idea!

Wait, what, you were joking? Oh...sorry.