BryanG

When Turbine first promoted LI's, prior to the release of Mines of Moria, they said they were going to be weapons that "grow with you". They were NEVER weapons that "grow with you". A weapon that grows with you is a weapon you keep from level 50 onward.

Instead, we got throw away, random selection via some RNG junk weapons that you constantly have to deconstruct. Furthermore, they go against the very definition of being "legendary".

Of course, to "fix" it, they add scrolls to the store to sell to you.

I believe it was on this website where I read something once where it was stated something along the lines of "instead of ACTUALLY fixing things in the game, they'll come up with items to sell in the store to alleviate the problem", which is exactly what Turbine is doing.

They've actually added an additional layer of grinding by adding Seals. Before, all you needed was Skirmish Marks and another type of mark from what is now the "Medallion" list. Now you need Skirmish Marks to turn into Medallions, and you also have to grind more medallions that you need for items AND the new Seals. Additionally, you can't upgrade marks either (say turning in 500 Marks for a Seal). You can only turn Marks into Medallions and Medallions into Marks. On top of that, they've increased the cost of the gear, so you're going to have to do many more runs than before to get it.

Furthermore, UNLESS you use the pug-generating random instance/skirmish system they have implemented, you are going to be PUNISHED when it comes to obtaining marks and medallions or running instances and skirmishes that you actually want to run. They give bonuses for using the system, but they've lowered the amount of Marks and medallions you get if you don't.

And, finally, Turbine stated a few months back that solo players will be able to acquire some of the raid gear going forward. Now, that's no longer the case. In order to obtain any raid gear, you are going to have to run 6 and 12 man instances or raids. And to FURTHERMORE go back on their word, when Update 6 comes out, this will also apply to the Draigoch gear as well.

Oh, but I'm sure they'll have something to sell in the sore to alleviate all of these issues.

LOTRO gets worse and worse with every update.

@Cassius81 I'm going to say all of it considering Book 5 is a total of four chapters and can be completed in about 20 minutes. The instances, if they work (one was still broken during the public beta a few weeks ago) will get old after the first run. Other than that, there's nothing else in Update 5, unless you're into joining random pugs in instances you don't care for.

Book 5 consists of a whopping four chapters, three of which you are saying goodbye to the Rangers. No LI Update - Part 2 as promised. No new content for casual players. They've completely changed the skirmish token system and, by doing so, have now added a new layer of grinding. When Update 6 comes out, solo players will no longer be able to get the Draigoch 4 piece set - Turbine has already gone back on their word there. I've stopped playing, stopped paying, and stopped buying any TP. Good thing SWTOR is coming out...it will fill my time until GW2 gets here. Turbine has ruined LOTR for me.

@JaySpeed
Ever hear of "creative marketing"? They also said that switching to F2P "tripled their revenues". What did we get out of that? A very lackluster year of releases.

Of course Turbine is going to say that everything is peachy-keen. To say otherwise would be like shooting themselves in the foot, and lord knows they are doing enough of that already.

Book 5 is a whopping four chapters, the first three of which you spend saying goodbye to the Rangers and the last of which you go through a multistage, but incredibly easy, instance. Took me all of 20 minutes to complete the whole book. And, unless you're into running instances over and over again, that's the extent of the content for casual players.

The re-configuration of the mark system has actually made it harder to get gear now, and you're going to have to do even MORE grinding to get it.

The instance finder drops you into random instances, so you'll never know what you're going to get. They should have held off until it was complete, as they should have held off on ROI until December as well.

Skirmishes drop fewer marks now, I got a whopping 14 marks for completing the Bree instance, Thievery and Mischief. I used to get about 150+. Of course, as mentioned earlier, you now need medallions and seals to get armor, and you can't up-convert from medallions to seals, only marks to medallions (eg. an additional layer of grind has been added). I also got about 7 total medallions off of the T&M skirmish, 4 from the two bosses and 3 for finishing the instance. Considering you need 1,200+ medallions (if not more) PLUS seals to get one piece armor now, that's going to be a LOT of skirmishing/running instances.

All I can say is ... Good thing TOR is coming out next month. LOTRO is done. And don't believe their 2012 marketing crap.

@Stickypurplecat
Where to start. PvP, housing, hobbies, the Pit of Iron, skirmish bugs (Battle of the 21st hall comes to mind), instance bugs (Draigoch comes to mind), forums (have had major issues since they re-launched them), pet pathing issues (and they want to add cosmetic pets?), exploits that never get fixed. This is just a very short list. Given time, I could come up with pages full of issues. Turbine's seemingly lack of desire to do anything with the aforementioned, and the fact that they keep coming out with trivial, "store related" crap tells me that they care more about the store than they do the game itself. LOTRO was a good game, but started falling apart after Seige of Mirkwood, and REALLY started going downhill after it went F2P. Don't get me wrong, I love LOTRO, I just hate what Turbine is doing to it.

@aurickle
Ok, lets look at it from a monetary standpoint. Turbine is putting WAY too much of its budget, resources and and even emphasis into the store, and not enough into the game itself. Having a horse that can rear up is of no use when the game itself is broken in so many places. But, it seems that Turbine would rather have the "quick cash" from store buyers than the long term income from subscribers and VIP's. The #1 rule of business is to focus on the 20% of the customers that account for 80% of your income, and I don't think fly-by-night F2P players fall into that category.

@aurickle

1. Emotes involve programming as well as it involves animation of the character itself. The art team takes care of...art.

2. Engineers are engineers, whether they work on the game servers or the forum servers.

"We can't fix bugs in a timely fashion, we don't know how to properly secure a database, but - Hey, we have lots of time to put emotes together to sell in the store!!!". WTG, Turbine. Foot meet gun.