LotRO reverses policy, plans to sell PvE stat gear through the store [Updated]

@J45neoboy

It is amazing how everytime people shouted from the hills how great F2P was and how it would be the future, they would yell at you when you would say "Every F2P game will end up selling items that improve the character/stats instead of just cosmetics."

I've made that argument for years and everytime F2P fans yell at me and say I'm wrong and that companies will only sell cosmetics so why do you care. It is inevitable that they will always end up selling stat increasing items at some point to maximize profitability. There have even been whole research papers based on what sold in the asian f2p market (before that market started to be targetted in the western markets) and they always came to the same conclusions. Items which give the character a benefit (or allow them to shame another opponent, think about what that says about society) will always be the best selling items.

Battlefield Heroes started out as a cosmetics only browser based F2P shooter. It didn't take them long to realize they needed to sell stat boosters to make money. Once they started doing that their profits soared even though the size of their community drastically decreased.

This is the inevitability of all F2P with microtransactions. Stop pretending it isn't.

@SnarlingWolf

Well, you can have an apology from me, if that helps.

@J45neoboy

What I want to know is where are all the Turbine fanboys? Those people who keep harping on about how LOTRO has the best free to play model and how you don't have to spend a cent if you don't want to... blah blah blah.

The slope is slippy and Turbine have been sliding down it fast, it isn't much further to the bottom where they can join Bigpoint.

@bobfish Given that what they're offering is crap that only noobs would waste money on -- still best f2p model. :p

@Plastic

Yeah, a little. Just need about a hundred other people now.... and Beau. Although sadly I think I remember him writing about how he even though pay to win was a great idea.

@(Unverified)

uh yeah im sure you were going to play it anyways

@(Unverified)

"And there goes my desire to play LotRO :/ "

Oh, so sorry to here that I am going to miss playing with you in the game so much.

@Dril Well, we posted about the issue and stated that we've contacted them. Since none of us live in Boston and can't hop a cab and bust into their office, that's about the limit of our capability at this particular moment. ;-)

@Dril

Why should it have to be the case that Mass "do something"? What happened to journalism as a neutral information channel? Why do we have to put the boot into their crotch too, just for doing their job? Did they make Turbine say 'No stat gear' on Monday, then turn around and say 'Stat gear hooo!' on Friday. No, they didn't. They just reported these things to us.

You want to be angry and cynical about something, go and jerk your knee at Fox News or The News of the World, or one of those morons. Sheesh.

@Dril

I'm not sure what exactly you're expecting. News articles like this are meant for exactly that; reporting the news. That's not the proper format to "put them in their place," all they SHOULD be doing is asking Turbine to explain what they're doing and why. I think that people seem to expect personal opinion to be injected into their "journalism" goes to show just how corrupt it is no matter what industry it is.

One of the members of the staff does do a (weekly?) LOTRO article. That's where things like what you're suggesting should be kept. Not leaked into news articles. I'm sure the readers are big enough kids to form their own opinion without being told how to feel about a particular bit of news by whoever's posting it

@Dril

I enjoy your comments Dril, but I am going to add my two cents in with the chorus and it's not just directed at you, but similar comments elsewhere that talk about the "ethics of journalism".

Massively has stated before, it's just a bunch of hired guys that give their opinion about stuff. This ain't the New York Times. It's basically a Blog. I've known folks that have blogged about subjects, like movies, and they get famous. Sometimes they can be critical and sometimes they are "kiss-ups", mostly to get all the free swag and paid airline tickets.

Massively doesn't have any of those benefits and doesn't accept them. So, good on them to be more honest, but really, it's a collection of fans. They've had articles before questioning stuff, they've had articles that just present things and leave it at that and they probably have had some favoritism. What you are asking is akin to a hobby magazine, like based on remote control airplanes, to ask riveting questions. Maybe they will, maybe they won't. The *important* thing is they've laid this on the table. It is for us, the readers/customers to decide, comment, and spread the word if we like it or hate it. Sure, it's nice to see an article slam something and we nod our heads and feel vindicated, but really, let's be thinking guys and connect-the-dots. We are given the information, time to asses and see if it fits our interpretation of right/wrong/indifference/fill-in-blanks.

Sure, it's easy to remember when someone pokes a stick at us constantly and forget the times they may've given us cake and ice cream or a nice gift. I feel sometimes this happens here ("Too much SWTOR articles!!"), but really, weight the bad with the good and consider Massively's position and what other gaming-blogging sites do (which is basically, kiss up all the time, just to get preferred treatment; Massively has none of that).

This is not a the New York Times and really, even that journalism needs to be unbiased and just lay ALL facts out there (which were mentioned here) and let the reader decide.

@Space Cobra
While I enjoy your comments as well, I feel the need to point out that much of the time it feels like there's a strong push from Massively to make us swallow F2P as a fair and equal, if not superior business model to subs. It may just be certain authors or it may be because it's easier to remember heavily slanted articles, but that feeling is there (for me at least). It would be nice to know that at least a few of the Massively staffers that are fervent F2P champions acknowledge the progression of LotRO from cosmetics towards P2W.

@laelgon
Exactly how I feel. It was hard to leave my kin and lotro behind, but after WB purchased Turbine and a new producer moved in the writing was on the wall.

It seems SWTOR has been a neutron bomb for the mid sized mmorpg's. Rift is closing servers, Aion is going f2p, EQ2 is selling wings, and now LotRO is selling gear.

@laelgon

Well said. As I said earlier, the whole F2P conversion absolutely destroyed LOTRO for me.