Tag: Turbine

Trolls Beware: Lord Of The Rings Online Is Thriving


You have defeated a level 20 troll.

There is still a group of players who cling to the old ideology that free equates to terrible community, imminent shut down, and dying developer. I don’t think I need to count out how many people were screaming on forums before the Lord of the Rings Online free to play shift about how this would ruin the game, and that current subscribers would drop the game like a sack of rotting flesh-bricks, and how the community would be inundated with children and social deviants who would do nothing but grief (read: making Chuck Norris jokes over region chat).

So when I forward Turbine’s announcement at GDC that their revenue has doubled, with over half of players using the Turbine store, I recognize that people will simply deny this information as Turbine misrepresenting facts to inflate their figures. There is no convincing someone who flat out denies Turbine’s figures of the free to play launch having a bigger reception than the game’s original launch, or that 20% of past subscribers have returned to the game, or that peak player counts are triple their previous level.

I personally have a premium account, seeing as I bought the Lord of the Rings special edition for $1 in a Christmas sale some years ago, but I have yet to put any money into the Turbine store. One can argue long term stability, but ultimately all we have to go on is speculation as to whether or not the game will sustain these figures. Over half of your game’s population using the cash shop is an incredibly high figure, however, presuming Turbine doesn’t include the VIP subscribers who receive an “allowance” of Turbine points each month.

Perhaps this is just a boom for Lord of the Rings Online, but Turbine can worry about how the population levels out as it happens, rather than listening to screams more frantic than the children playing in traffic outside my window.

Codemasters: No F2P Yet, No More Welcome Back


No Dice, Europe

It’s time for another weekly “When Is F2P Coming To Europe?” update. Unfortunately, not only is there still not estimated time, Codemasters announced last week that they would be unable to sustain the Welcome Back promotion that LotRO Europe had been enjoying up until this point, although the 5% bonus promotions will still pop up from time to time. The following was posted today on the European forums.

Dear players,

Whilst we don’t have any dates or concrete information to share with you as yet, the good news is that it looks like the major challenges we were facing are nearly resolved and we will be moving forward with the next step of Free to Play implementation for the European service shortly.

At this stage we are optimistically looking to have plans finalised sometime next week at which stage we will be able to give you more solid dates of when we hope to proceed with the launch.

As always we thank you for your patience and do apologise for the continued delay of this launch.

You can sticky up that link for direct updates, and hopefully Codemasters will remain on track for next week’s burst of information. MMO Fallout will continue your weekly updates on Codemaster’s transition to free to play. In the meantime, European players have been playing on the North American servers. There are, as of yet, no IP restrictions on creating an account and signing in, although you will need the North American client.

Sorry Europe, Still No LOTRO F2P For Now…


Barcodemasters

Earlier this month, Lord of the Rings Online went hybrid-cash-shop in North America, with Codemasters’ European venture trailing behind due to perceived issues regarding preparation for this enormous event that would undoubtedly bring a major influx in population to the lands of Middle Earth. Earlier this month, Codemasters issued a release stating that they were aiming for the end of the month (September), but not to quote them on that estimation. Until that time, however, Codemasters has opened up all old accounts, granted a 5% experience boost, and have opened up free travel.

Well the end of the month is here, and if a notice from Codemasters is anything to go off of, the free to play launch is not coming today. Earlier last week, Codemasters updated their thread once again with a statement that the transition will not be coming for another couple of weeks. Until then, of course, European players can still enjoy either their own servers, or playing on North American servers.

More on Lord of the Rings Online as it appears.

Quote of the Week #2: Explaining LOTRO F2P To Non-Payers


Cheapskates will not enjoy F2P hybrid games. The point is not to make a quality product that costs millions to make and then allow everyone to run through it for free like charity. It is designed to make money.

You can either sub and avoid all the hassles. Or you can pay here and there to get past certain hassles. Or you can grind points in game to not pay a cent and get past hassles. The choice is up to you. But people expecting to have a game that they could just run around in and level all the way up etc. without having to either pay or grind are insane.

From the MMORPG.com forums, this one has been passing around for a couple weeks now, but I’m going to attribute it to user Snarlingwolf. Why? Just because.

Codemasters Wants Some Well Deserved Hate


So maybe not that brutal...

If you are a newcomer to Lord of the Rings Online, and live in Europe, chances are high that you are currently playing on one of Turbine’s US servers. When Turbine launched the US-based servers last week, they did so with foresight, preparation, and server queues. Lots and lots of server queues. Codemasters, on the other hand, opted to delay the launch to an unknown date, so they could get some kinks out of the system.

Naturally, players are annoyed, and Codemasters wants to validate your anger through an inbox/contest.

The community liaison officers will be your target/punch bag/stress ball and welcome you to throw things at us. The choice of what you throw and how you throw it is yours but you have to be creative: describe it in a text, record a video, draw something or take a funny screenshot – there is no limit to your imagination! You can even bake a custard pie and we will administer the confectionary as requested. The ten most creative and/or funny submissions will receive a Codemasters Goodie Bag and we will feature them on our May Contain Gamers community blog.

PS: Don’t poison the custard pie. Who could say no to a goodie bag? Vent your frustrations and get rewarded for it. Granted, it might have just been easier if Codemasters hadn’t delayed yet another Turbine F2P venture…just saying.

More On LOTRO Europe


Sorry Europe.

“Hi folks,

Following our announcement on Wednesday regarding the delay of Free-to-Play in Europe, we can now provide you with a further update as to its status. It’s not good news I’m afraid. We are currently anticipating a delay of more than a week, potentially launching around the end of the month, and are still not in a position where we are able to confirm an exact date.

As you know, we were tracking a launch date of 10th September and up until recently thought this was still achievable; however, due to some major obstacles this date is simply not possible. Many of you have asked for a detailed explanation as to why this has come to be and why there wasn’t very much notice of the delay. Regarding the implementation challenges we talked about, the good news is that our Store and new servers are just about ready to roll, barring some final, live stress testing that needs to be performed.

We understand this is disappointing for you, more so because of our lack of communication in the earlier part of the week coupled with the last minute bad news. As the situation was changing literally from hour to hour, we weren’t in a position to tell you anything with any stability to it.

As we work to bring Free-to-Play to launch here, all eligible players will still continue to accrue loyalty rewards as per the rewards table on the website. We’re also laying on a bunch of your favourite live events on all servers starting next week and we’re introducing a community competition to allow you to take out your frustration on us and win some great prizes in doing so. We know this won’t substitute for the new Store and Enedwaith, but maybe it will make things a little more fun for you as you wait. Look out for announcements on all of these things within the next few days.

As always, thanks for your support and patience and a particular thank you to all of you who took the time to send us personal messages, those were awesome and really appreciated!”

So no free Lord of the Rings until possibly later this month. Isn’t it about time Turbine took Lord of the Rings back under their watch?

Lord of the Rings Online Free! [Not For Europe]


NSFE: Not Suited For Europeans

Just a friendly reminder to those of you who haven’t been enjoying the head start: Lord of the Rings Online goes free to play today! Well, freemium is a more accurate description. Either way, if you haven’t already been downloading the client, you may want to start it this morning, as the seven gigabyte (ten gigs for the full high-definition client) download is going to take a while, and Turbine’s download servers will no doubt be hit by the sudden rush of players.

Turbine is fixing a bug where players are being shown too many/few Turbine points compared to what they should have. The points may take a couple days to register, for those who obtained them either through Turbine’s subscription promotion, subscription “allowances,” and lifetime subscription allowances.

Reminder: Loyalty rewards may take 7-10 days to appear in your account after the launch of Volume III, Book 2. VIP Points should appear within 2-3 days after your billing date.(Click Here) for more information on account status, points, or other Free to Play related questions.

Still no word on Lord of the Rings Europe. To those player in the US, expect major queue lines (unless you’re a VIP) for the next few weeks.

Lord of the Rings Online: Europe F2P Delay


European.

Even solely a subscription game, Lord of the Rings Online ranks in the higher tier of games that are not World of Warcraft, in terms of population. Turbine has been setting up for the past few months in preparation for the transition to partially free to play, doing everything from beefing up existing servers to adding in new servers. With today’s launch of the head start, Codemasters is having stage fright.

Unlike the United States servers, where the transition went live today, the European servers have been delayed for a yet to be announced time.

“Given the complexities and challenges faced in the preparation and implementation of the new store to work within our infrastructure, we feel more time is needed to deliver the high level of service our players have quite rightly come to expect. As a result, we have decided to delay launch to ensure that we can support the massive increase in players that we are anticipating and deliver them a Free to Play experience like none other.”

I feel bad for the European Turbine fans. I mean, sure the delay may only be the rest of tonight, or it may be next week, but it seems like the European players always get the short end of the stick. Look at how long it took Dungeons and Dragons Online Europe to transition to the free to play model after its much more Yankee counterpart.

I, on the other hand, will be downloading the client off of Turbine’s website, as my special edition (seen below) is so out of date that the client it installs won’t even update.

I used my scanner this time.

Turbine Trucking In 8 New Servers: LOTRO


Are you an ex-Lord of the Rings Online player who enjoyed the game but couldn’t pay for the subscription for one reason or another? If so, you are very likely aware of Turbine’s highly popularized moved to free to play (with cash shop) that is coming soon, so soon in fact that many of us former players are waking up with the taste of ale and hobbit foot shampoo on our teeth. Current and former subscribers will have access to the head start on September 8th, with everyone else allowed in on the 10th.

I knew Turbine was adding new servers in preparation for the flood of new players, and eight new servers sounds much more logical when broken down across regions.

US:

  • Riddermark
  • Crickhollow
  • Dwarrowdelf
  • Imladris

EU:

  • Anduin [DE]
  • Gwaihir [DE]
  • Withywindle [EN]
  • Celduin [FR]

By former subscribers, I should point out Turbine includes beta testers in that category. So if you’re returning for the sweet free to play action, you should be downloading the client now (to beat the rush) and gearing up for the 8th when you can reserve your username on one of the new servers (free players aren’t stuck on these servers, it’s a matter of preference). Turbine, to my understanding, is not allowing transfers to these new servers.

More on Lord of the Rings Online as it descends into free to play.

Atari Vs Turbine: The Aftermath


Well someone had to do it.

For people like me, lawsuits are a swing and a miss, mainly because after all of the legal jargon, reading long court documents to figure out what is happening, and trying to get both sides to speak on the case, there comes the inevitable deal breaker: The settlement. A settlement, often out of court, is generally always secret, none of the agreements are released to the public and neither side can talk about who was wrong on what accord.

So you’ll have to accept my apologies when I tell you I was well aware that the Turbine/Atari lawsuit ended, not only that but it ended four months ago, around the time Turbine was acquired by Warner Brothers. The major changes? Not much to speak of, aside from Turbine reacquiring their publishing rights in Europe, although this could be a decision under the new ownership.

The lawsuit went out with a fizzle and not a bang, and it’s anyone’s guess who won, if there is a “winner.” I’m removing the lawsuit category at the end of the month, as it will no longer be needed.