I have a Question for somebody a Turbine to Answer

[robbie1435]

Dear Frelorn,
How much longer will you keep us waiting?

Until they know that they'll be able to do everything they promise.

[Frelorn]

Dear Frelorn,
How much longer will you keep us waiting?

As long as I want!

All kidding aside, we are nailing down as much info as we can, and there is quite a bit of it. We will post info as soon as possible.

[Giliodor]

Until they know that they'll be able to do everything they promise.

Untill they are done "seriously investigating a new PvMP map"? That's all we've heard so far. No official statement concerning anything PvMP-related.

As long as I want!

All kidding aside, we are nailing down as much info as we can, and there is quite a bit of it. We will post info as soon as possible.

Thank you for your comment.

I feel like I should say this, though:
If the team truly intends to implement a new PvMP map, you could've let us know that by now. The longer without any new information, the more skeptical people become.

[siipperi]

Untill they are done "seriously investigating a new PvMP map"? That's all we've heard so far. No official statement concerning anything PvMP-related.



Thank you for your comment.

I feel like I should say this, though:
If the team truly intends to implement a new PvMP map, you could've let us know that by now. The longer without any new information, the more skeptical people become.

Maybe their secret plan been consulting pvmp council? Or did that even happen yet? just kidding. Like I said earlier they had internal meeting concerning this about a month ago, so dont expect them to announce it as soon as it have been decided internally. Or if it even happens...


Frelorn, you are such a tease...

[HeirOfNumenor]

Originally Posted by xdjxzxde
"I have loads of school friends who play various MMO's. For most of them, pvp is a big part of why they play and the evenings pvp events are usually discussed during break times at school the next day. There is a huge pvp market out there, and I just don't know why Turbine have never realised or tapped into it. Sadly, its hard to convince and sell LOTRO to my school buds when the pvp cannot match the games they do play, and pvp is a big part of why they play online games. Sad but true."

If you're pvp focussed, this is the wrong game. Lotro was originally planned to have no pvp; it was introduced at a very late stage of development and provoked several massive flame wars on these forums at the time. I believe that one of the license condition is, in fact, that the game will never have open-world pvp. It also explains why freep/creep balance is unlikely ever to happen, because to do that would distort pve balance too much. If massive pvp is what your friends want/need, I fear they will be doomed to disappointment.

I was playing EQ2 in 2007 when my coworker began playing LOTRO. I bought LOTRO and was surprised that the game was designed so that you can only play the good races.... Coming from EQ2 I found this a bit odd, since many players like to play the evil races/side (Freeport). On EQ2, I normally played the good guys, but occasionally rolled an an evil toon and was turned off by the generally ugliness/meaness of the NPC dialogues in the quest arcs. I suspect that a similar feeling about glorifying evil was probably in the minds of the family members that control the Tolkien Estate. Having tried a Creep myself a few times, while the NPC dialogue isn't as mean/ugly as EQ2, I can imagine that the Tolkien family being traditional and old-fashioned would want to limit how evil was portrayed/enjoyed. Unfortunately, PvMP is directly impacted by this - as alluded to by Beorthnoth's comment about the license.

Turbine had to balance making a financially viable game vs the Tolkien Estate's severe reluctance to license the works of Middle-earth. Remember that Christopher Tolkien has said quite clearly that they regret the Professor being cornered into selling the film rights to pay taxes, and that if they had to do it again, they would NEVER allow anything to be made of Middle-earth, except the books being published.

Sadly for PVPers and PvMPers, this is the end result that they have to live with. In the main, the game was designed from the start to be primarily for the good guys to fight (alone or in groups) against NPC's - NOT other players.

[HeirOfNumenor]

The answer to all your questions about the Server Move to NJ, Transfer System, PvMP, and probably other issues are as follows:
Turbine does not, at this moment in time, have an engraved in stone, definitive, conclusive and all-inclusive plan on what exact steps will take place and exactly when in time they will occur. Please stand by... indefinitely.

Give Turbine a break. They cannot provide you with info when they do not have definitive answers themselves. Turbine is working on gaining those answers, but programming is a strange thing and a minuscule change (let alone an error), can have bizarre results in unrelated areas.

Monday, May 18ths maintenance was probably a major effort to not only back-up the files and generally get things ready for the server move, it was also a period when Turbine could run a number of new and unique reports and perform several test runs, getting real world (as opposed to theoretical) results. They've still got to look at those results, correlate data, and form an opinion on how to move forward from there. And then test that resulting answer to make sure that it does what was expected.

Turbine is doing the best that they can to resolve these issues - and probably others that we're completely ignorant of. While I don't like waiting any more than any of the rest of you, demanding an answer when there is no definitive answer yet, is not going to help. That is tantamount to a child having a tantrum because they are not getting their way. Yes, I realize some may find that comment offensive, but it is accurate. Play the game, or not, as you find most appropriate for yourself and your circumstances.

Please re-read the topmost red paragraph again. That is the only absolute answer we have at this instant in time.

Thank you for this....

I look at the situation as this:

Turbine finally acknowledged that there is a severe issue with low server populations, and decided to publicly announce they were going to deal with the issue by eventually closing some servers. They did not provide a timeline, though it was strongly suggested it would be later this year. They also said (in various statements) that they did not know how it would take place (at the time of the announcement), but that once they determine and resolve all the issues and policies involved (including server technical issues, transfers, kins, items/inventories, housing items, naming rights, etc), develop a plan of action, AND PROVE THAT IT WILL WORK RELIABLY - THEN they will be able to give us a specific timetable - BUT NOT UNTIL THEN.

I play on Vilya and Nimrodel, and it is highly likely that at least one of these will be closed. My wife wants to start playing with me, but I don't want to add to the hassles of transferring her new toons (and possibly renaming) to a new server also. I would love for Turbine to give us some hints as to which servers are likely to close, though that might deaden the game play on those servers even more (as someone above said that Riddermark has been dead since the server closing announcement).


So while it can be aggravating that we don't know which servers will close, and if we'll have to transfer and to where (which servers will be left open)...the reality is that all we can do is wait....So I will keep playing my main toons...

[AccessDenied]

HeirOfNumenor,
You're very welcome. I'm glad you found it helpful/informative.

[mistrel1970]

- Your internet shuts down, you do every troubleshooting step you know, and yet it still doesn't work. You call your ISP and they tell you it's down. You ask them why, and they tell you 'they don't know'. What do you thinks happens then?.

I am usually a quiet observer for these issues on the forums, but when I saw this as an example, I had to respond. As someone who works in tech support for an ISP, I work with customers everyday, and frequently have to tell them, "We don't know at this time, but we are working on it." This is because before our maintenance and service technicians and engineers can fix a problem, first they have to find out WHAT and sometimes even WHERE the cause is. I've had experience with some issues where it took several days to even locate the cause of a breakdown, let alone start repairs on it.

With something like the planned server transfer changes, first they had to determine what, if anything could be changed and then start the process of determining the best way to make the changes with the least downtime and loss of assets for the players (account and wallet-based items, housing items, ranking, names, etc.), then plan how and when to actually implement the changes, then start the actual change process. Even with my limited coding knowledge, I know it can take several months for these processes to be completed.

I have most of my characters on Nimrodel, which many have said is one of the worlds likely to close, so I too am eagerly waiting for information regarding the transfer changes. However, I am determined to be patient, since I know these kinds of changes and processes take time to perfect and implement.

[Valamar]

Do you realize most of us still pay for this game? Some pay in forms of TPs, and some still pay subscriptions.

Now that is an idea!

Any new PvMP map should be a separately charged for item, just like an expansion.

That way Turbine will get an accurate count of how many people want PvMP enough to put their money where their complaints are.

And those of us who want no parts of PvMP won't have to shell out hard earned dollars for something we will never use.