[Updated] Lord of the Rings Online F2P launch date announced

Nice, Jade. That is the overall question the industry is looking at, and I think the major source of the debate that will settle it as a successful business model. If it succeeds (which I hope it does... LotRO is a good game whether its ftp or not, and it'd be a shame to see it tank), then you can probably expect to see a lot of other games start following the model of purchasing content as you go along, selling boxes and micros, and all the elitists whining about it. If not, then we'll expect to see a lot more of the same we always have... $15 subs, WoW remaining on the hill, and other great titles having a very low population.

That is... until GW2 comes out. A game that you buy the box once that looks amazing with no sub fees... it'll be in a class unto itself. You have to love the strategy of (most likely) releasing when they expect WoW to be in its mid-expansion lull, too.

Yes, you "real" gamers are just so much better than the rest of us. Let us bow down before you!

Isn't that Warcraft thingie even older?

I agree I would certainly throw a few dollars here and there at several different games but to commit to a 15 dollar per month charge for several games is just too much to ask I feel. Since I have had the lifetime sub since release this change does little to affect me but it will be nice having more people to play with.

The community I don't think will change much at all as I play on one of the lesser populated servers and still see a fair amount of "kids" in the global chat system anyway. Its like a personal blog for some people I think and I can't imagine it being much better or worse when FTP comes.

In short I feel that this is a genius move by Turbine as it is better to have a few million paying $5 per month (average) instead of a few thousand paying $15.

I just have to laugh at the posts of "Turbine is going to make so much money on a F2P game".

Apparently the absurdity is lost by all.

There are various reasons people might not like a change. I for one have several reasons why I do not like the switch to F2P.

1) I simply do not like cash-shops. I play MMOs because I love to immerse myself into a relaxing game. When I play a P2P game, I just sign up, pay for the month, log-in, I am never bothered ever again by anything and I just enjoy the game. I like the separation from real life.

I don't mind F2P if it stuck to an unlock-based cash shop that isn't accessible in game, or hidden and only usable through the character selection screen, a bit like guild wars. I actually like a system that is F2P, but offers things like character slots, content unlock, even as far as class unlock. The biggest part of the LOTRO cash shop is that and I am fine with it. The biggest turn-down is the rest of the cash shop. In my eyes, it simply devalues everything in the game. If someone worked his ass off and got Valour 10, I'll be proud to fight along side the person. Post-F2P, some guy with full 10 virtues will only bring to mind "He probably bought them all.../used deed boosting items".

2) LOTRO's past change turned it from an adventure game into more of an arcade game. Although this isn't recent, it started with Mines of Moria's release which was more focused on instances and raids. They added Lothlorien when they realized they completely forgot about the casual adventurers. Even the latest change that turn old instances into "skirmishes", with the complete removal of item drops. Just reminds me of old arcade games where you'd play that game, beat it, gain 30 tickets, rinse and repeat on other games until I have 450 tickets to turn in for a watch. I feel as if they drastically altered the game for marketing over the original feel the game had, which I felt was really in sink with how I felt when I read The Hobbit. It's still LOTR, there are lots of content based off Tolkien's work, but it's not done in how I would imagine Tolkien's work, which was how the original game was released.

BTW, nothing I said here took into account PvMP, never touched it, and don't find it very fitting in the game.

I did what you just did, but replaced F2P with P2P and the phrase "cash shop" with the word "subscription" or variations of it, with a couple minor edits to allow for making sense grammatically. Let's see what happens, shall we?

"The only way subscription games are successful is if players spend money [on] the subscription. Therefore, a lot of P2P games will come up with methods to drive players to subscribe. In the P2P games I've played, I always begin to notice the game driving me to subscribe, and this eventually breaks my immersion in the game and I move on to a new game. It's like playing a commercial for the subscription. So I'm worried about how the presence of a subscription will affect my immersion in LOTR[O]."

Yep, still makes sense.

My point is two can play that game, and that either way you look at it, in the end, it's all in the name of business and game developers are owned by companies that seek to make profits. How they profit has changed a bit in the past few years and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. For me at least, this change is good because it gives the gamers choices in how they spend their money and how they play their games. However, I am guessing that your main point is to bring attention to all of the in game advertising directing us to the in game cash shop? If so, I can understand how that may affect immersion. It would be great to see the cash shop done in a way that allows for a more immersion friendly game, so I'll give you that.

I don't think your rewrite makes sense. Since I am talking about immersion, I am talking about what I experience in game. I can't recall any subscription MMO that has methods in game to drive players to buy a subscription. Even the ones that offer free trials, will let you play the game without driving you to subscribe.

"My point is two can play that game"
I wasn't playing a game in my post. I'm genuinely concerned. LOTR is one of the most immersive MMOs out there.