E3 '10: Turbine's LOTRO Beta & FTP
After this month's announcement that Lord of the Rings Online was going free-to-play, it was not a big surprise that when I walked in they announced they had opened up the beta for its next expansion today. While there is no firm release date, they are anticipating a release window in the fall of this year.
We discussed the decision to put forth this pay model on both DDO and LOTRO, which was informed by moving to Asian markets and then realizing they could either bring back a game from there, or just use the pay models. So far the latter option seems to be working for them quite well, and they pride themselves on making that so by listening to the community and not making it pay to have fun, but pay for luxury or convenience.
As it was described to me, there will later be sections, for instance, where you can explore, but you cannot, for instance, get quests from that region without unlocking it through the store. If you are a VIP member, you earn those monthly points, and have access to them, and if you are just playing, you can also earn points and decide where to spend them yourself. One example of this was in the Deed Book, where you could achieve finding certain locations, mark them off, and then when you had a set completed, you earned Turbine points.
The store itself can be brought up in the game, through a browser it launches. They have tailored it so that it will only open up items that your particular race and class are capable of using.
I mentioned how many of our commenters here felt it was generally a more mature space, and one where they did not often encounter flame-baiting and anti-LGBT behavior, and they said they hope they fostered such a community, and that there should be no concerns that opening the game up will create unfriendly elements.
VorpalBunny
Posted to E3 on 16 June 2010
· Comments (2)
Other stuff like this: free-to-play, lord of the rings online, turbine, warner bros. interactive entertainment
I bought the lifetime subscription of Champions Online and I'm not playing that much, I always get tired so quickly of MMORPG's. But hey! If it's free I will have to check it out!
The effect of a major LGBT guild in reducing anti-LGBT unpleasantness can never be underestimated. Just having one on the server makes a massive difference to the attitude of other players, even if the GMs don't do anything about harassment and bigotry in chat - and in LotRO, the GMs are pretty good as well.