LOTRO Goes Free-to-Play

[Mania]

If you've ever wanted to try Lord of the Rings Online for more than a couple of days, but didn't want to pay a subscription fee, you will soon have your chance.

Turbine announced today that starting this fall, LOTRO will be completely free to play. You can play as long as you like for free (although there are some limitations) and won't even need a credit card to try it out. If you like the game, you can upgrade your account by buying Turbine Points from the LOTRO store (via credit card, PayPal, or other methods) or pay a monthly subscription fee.

http://www.lotro.com/news/709-announcin ... ee-to-play

It's interesting to see Turbine move towards F2P stable of games. DDO is already F2P and I wouldn't be surprised if AC1 went that way eventually.

[Saturo]

Hmm, sounds interesting...

[Vephriel]

Hmm, interesting.

I tried out LOTRO when it first came out but it didn't really click with me at all. As much as I adore Lord of the Rings, the game itself just seemed bland somehow.

Perhaps I might try it out again if it'll be free though. Then again, I wonder if it will be more of those 'freemium' type of things where it's not quite worth it to play for free when most of the features are by paid subscription.

[Gala]

yeah, i might actually try it again now. when i first tried it my poor stock computer didnt do so well, so hopefully it should look a bit better now.

always fun to try something else, right?

[cowmuflage]

can you be a bady guy? i like bad guys in LOTR i have a prettty big army in the gamesworkshop tabletop game of it.
(heck most of my warhammer armys are evil too. cept for good old lizard men O.o)

[Chrizesu]

I guess I'll try it. Don't see any pets though.

[Gala]

can you be a bady guy? i like bad guys in LOTR i have a prettty big army in the gamesworkshop tabletop game of it.
(heck most of my warhammer armys are evil too. cept for good old lizard men O.o)

i could have sworn there was a "Forces of Sauron" or some such as a play mode. I think you have to unlock it though. I could be wrong. I cant really remember.

[Chrizesu]

Logging in to the Ettenmoors

Players who wish to jump into monster play must level up a regular character to level 10 before the monster play button will become useable from the character selection screen. Hit that, choose a class and off you go into the Ettenmoors! Unlike the PvE side of the game, when you first log into your monster player character you will notice that you are already level 50. You are not however as powerful as you will be able to become.

To make your character become more powerful, you will need to gain Destiny Points and Infamy. Destiny Points are gained by killing creatures or players and by completing various quests throughout the region. Destiny Points are used to purchase various traits and skills that will become unlocked as you gain more Infamy. There is only one way to gain Infamy; by killing players of the opposing side. Depending on the rank of the player you kill, you will gain different amounts of Infamy per kill and as you gain more infamy, you will gain ranks, which will unlock more skills and traits for you to purchase and use.

http://www.lotro.com/gameinfo/monster-players?start=2

[Arwyn]

Interesting. Now if it was Star Trek...

[Arisia]

meh... I recently tried LoTRO and was really really unimpressed. There were some "pretty" parts, but the type of character closest to a hunter has preassigned pets-- you start with a raven, and can move up as you level.

The pet 'pathing" sucked and so the pet often got lost, and rarely held aggro, and in truth, did nothing to make it worth having (I did better fighting without it!)... and it was just that one pet... a raven. There were three or so different amulets you could buy to color it, but you only had the pets they give you as your character gains in levels.

I found the starter area almost dreadfully dull, quest-wise-- it was sad, as they text for the quests was well done in many places, and you WANTED to feel like you were part of something grand, but it never really clicked. ::shrug::

Others have really enjoyed it-- and I will admit to finding the online talk channels really friendly, with little to no trolling, and honest offers to help. It just wasn't enough for me to want to go back-- even for free. Even the really WONDERFUL ideas (ability to "paint" your armor to make it more uniquely your own, "thinner" or "fatter" characters ((to a really limited point)) to make your toon more individual, houses you could buy and decorate, etc) were not really enough to grab and hold me the way WoW has managed to do for all these years.

[Mania]

Monster play -- possibly the worst use of development time ever.

The pet class is a traditional MMO pet class -- no pet choice and extremely fragile. I didn't much enjoy it. My Man Hunter was kind of fun, though, if only because I got to run around playing a "Man Hunter".

In my opinion, LOTRO is the best of the not-quite-WoW games. If I couldn't afford WoW for awhile, I'd try LOTRO for free. But as soon as I had money again I'd switch back to WoW, because if I want to play a WoW-like game then I'd rather be playing WoW.

[Chrizesu]

Well what about Guild Wars?

[Saturo]

Well what about Guild Wars?

You can't jump. Nuff' said.

[Azunara]

Eh. Guild wars isn't that bad. I like running around with my flamingo named Kevin. They do have limited pet choices, but they're not THAT bad. You have 26 choices or so, but it's very narrow in the beginning. The not jumping is annoying though. >.>

[cowmuflage]

You tryed war? I had a squig herder on it basicly a hunter there was like 4 differnt types of squigs to choose from one each were good at one certan thing etc then there was the high elf white lions. I preferd the table top game to it tho.

[Palladiamorsdeus]

I love WAR, but only for the PvP. It's free to play for Tier1 right now, which is still really fun if you are interested in trying it. I beta tested this. It's really come a long way.

I was a beta tester for Lord of the Rings Online, and I played for a good six to eight months after that. I could never quite get into the feel of it. It was great running around Middle Earth, seeing famous characters, sometimes interacting or fighting beside them. But you most often just felt like an observer there, and I think that was a large part of the problem. You were in Middle Earth, but you weren't really participating in any of the major events that everyone know's. So while you may have been around when Aragorn was trying to find the Hobbits, it ended up feeling wedged in. The combat......hm. Playing as a captain was interesting, but I was never really...fond of my squires. Course you can change the look and even the sex of your squires if you like, but.....yea. It was just different. Not bad, but I could never get into the swing of it.

[cowmuflage]

I might go back to war if they make beastmen or lizardmen playable. I love those races to bits.

[Tygamoon]

Warhammer rvr was so fun in the low teirs from what I recall. If it's free at that stage I may go back into it agine for something to do when I'm burned on wow. I really enjoyed seeing the white lions get armor as they leveled. I rocked the Sword Master and felt really good about that character. Sword dances ftw!

Guild Wars is alright but the no jumping is kinda a damper. I have this awful habit of jumping around like an idiot just before dieing and not being able to do that messes with me. I do like being able to pick up a second class though. Some combos were just awful but I still did em for the dress up lol.

Lord of the Rings was pretty neat. The look of the game was very nice (hobbit area was the best imo) I liked farming at the farms hehe. Having a house was really cool at first but then after a while I realized that it was pretty limited in what I could actually do with it. I've never played a game with player housing so I had no grand expectations. Story lines were neat but a little forced. Best thing in that game was being able to name your rock on the Runekeeper haha. Mine was WorstOffTankEver. I put that little bugger through hell.

As to all their pet classes....yeah they are not like our hunters. Very weak pets (in the lower levels, can't say anything about later) and the pathing on them was pretty clumsy. It kinda reminded me of trying to get a very eager puppy to go one way and it wants to go the other. Not to mention the 'feel' of your own character. I'm very stuck on wows feel. I can enjoy other games but after a while of having a toon that didn't feel all that solid started to spoil the rest of the game.

[Palladiamorsdeus]

I freaking love the Swordmaster, and even the Black Orc. It's the flow of the sword dances, WoW has NOTHING like that, no offense to it. And come on, Black Orcs have an ability called "Right in da jibbiles" that does just what it says. That is so many levels of awesome. I wish the White Lion really got started sooner, but even low level they are a lot of fun.

[cowmuflage]

Warhammer orcs both 40k and fantasy are the best orcs of all IMO the way they talk,look,act its just so damn cool. I have been thinking of starting an orc and goblin army as i do find there playing style fun even the rule were they just fight with them selves and not there foes is pretty cool.