As far as I understand it, codes are given away to some individuals who have been instrumental in putting Lotro in the spotlight on platforms like steam, Youtube, etc.... Bludborn is one of those individuals. I watch his streams with some regularity, and he always draws a crowd. I think that if you are in a similar situation as Bludborn, and stream Lotro a lot, and as such is promoting the game in many ways..... you may ask for some give-away codes, and they may or may not grant it.
They are, however, not going to give away codes to every streamer with 2 viewers and every youtuber with 50 subscribers.....or give away codes as gifts for kinships, etc.
I would like to see the return of gifting though: In the past, I have BOUGHT several $6.99 codes from the Lotro store in order to use them as give-aways in our kin, as well as use them to support the kinship leader in buying a Premium kinship house. Cordovan promised that when they took away the codes (allegedly because of gold spammers) that they would look into a gift solution, but so far that has not come to fruition. And considering the work load they are under, I do not think we'll be able to give people christmas prezzies of the new expansion in 2022.......
More than anything, I want an easy way to support the kinship leader in purchasing a premium kinship house. He/she should not have to burden the cost themselves, and at this point we have to get a little klutzy with Paypal, which is not something everyone has or can use (internationally). So it would be good for Cordovan to confirm whether a gifting option is still being looked at, or whether gift codes for certain things will ever make a come back in some way.....
Moved from Riddermark to Arkenstone on 9/29/2015!
-----
Disclaimer: The definition of "Soon™" and "In The Near Future™" is based solely on SSG's interpretation of the words, and all similarities with dictionary definitions of the word "Soon™", "Near", and "Future" are purely coincidental and should not be interpreted as a time frame that will come to pass within a reasonable amount of time.