LOTRO – “F2P” business must be good

· by · in LOTRO, MMO. ·

I’m increasingly grateful that I bought Angmar/Moria/Mirkwood before LOTRO’s F2P model went live.

For one thing, it’s now almost impossible to find a copy of Moria outside major metropolitan areas (and Albuquerque apparently doesn’t count) or eBay – aside, of course, from the LOTRO store where it now costs 2495 Turbine Points. A few weeks ago I’d have said that was about $24.95, but that was back when 1 TP was worth $1.

The F2P launch must have gone really well, because all of a sudden Turbine Points aren’t worth 1:1 anymore. It’s more like 1TP = $1.5, which to me is just shy of highway robbery. I liked the 1:1 ratio, it’s easy to remember and easy to apply when you’re looking at stuff in Turbine Points — and it doesn’t make things seem all that expensive.

I’m rather shocked at the sudden 50% inflation in the cost of points. Shocked, but not all that surprised.

It also seems to be entirely impossible to find any copies of Siege of Mirkwood, anywhere, unless my Google-fu really has deserted me. Not even in the LOTRO Store and I’m very confused about that, but I could probably find an answer to it if I trawled through the forums a bit. Naaaah.

I’m loving LOTRO, yes. Loving how the spousal unit is getting fleeced because I didn’t get my ducks in a row before “F2P” went live? Not so much.

+ Gratuitous Basenji pic because we have one and they’re AAAAWWWESOME! (Ours is brindle though.)

Basenji duz not approov of fleacing playas!

 

4 responses to “LOTRO – “F2P” business must be good”

  1. They for sure drag in a lot of people now. But I wonder how many will stay and SUBSCRIBE past the Lone Lands.

    I wonder that nobody wrote how much it would cost to unlock all the non-free content if one does not purchase the boxed SoA/Moria/Mirkwood boxes.

    For me at max level it seems that I am simply better off with a subscription. Why? I can’t even fast travel without paying a fee in the shop. There are many more nag-screens for non-subscribers in the new area (Enedwaith).

    But I will reserver further judgement till LOTRO EU goes F2P. So far I get the impression DDO’s shop >>> LOTRO’s shop. Why? DDO encourages people to buy stuff, LOTRO punishes and nags players for not subscribing later on. It is more a first areas and levels free demo than F2P IMO.

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  2. The point thing is as expected for veterans of FtP DDO. Fear not, though – Turbine will put up a big points sale again sooner rather than later – just hold off on buying a big load of points until then, or drop the money on the $50 package (where the ratio is still about 1:1,) if you can’t You’ll then have a nice pool of points that should hold you over for quite a while, considering the leisurely pace of the game.

    Big-box retailers and EBGames/GameStops have been out of Moria boxes for a while. A dedicated computer store (i. .e not a place like Best Buy,) might still have copies. I found Moria at the local (Columbus, Ohio) Micro Center about a week ago – similar luck might be had at Fry’s, for example. No idea if either store is to be found in NM. (Just checked, and the answer’s no.) Amazon had them in the $10 range as of fairly recently as well.

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  4. Mines of Moria is apparently still only ten dollars on amazon (just checked).

    I will certainly say that I like the store in LoTRO better than the one in EQ II. Compared to DDO, I’m not sure. It’s somewhat hard for me to judge because as a lifer with both expansions the launch of FtP affected me little, and the impacts it did have were all positive. I’m currently sitting on close to 5000 Turbine points I didn’t have to pay for, and haven’t had much urge to spend them on anything so far.

    And what Ardwulf said, if you can stand to wait it out buy points when they go on sale. If it’s like DDO it will be the difference between 6000+ points for $50 and 5000.

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