JeremyR

I will them sit in my account, since I rarely play anymore.

Heh, just wait until the uproar when the Anniversary horse ends up in the store.

Which I'm sure is the real reason for the massive grind required to get it for free.

This also indicates the direction of the game ---> monetization at all costs.

Grind grind grind (but with the item mall to help a little). And jetison the casual gamers, it's the hardcore that spends the money, so it's all about raids and giving raiders uber gear to stroke their e-peen.

And in LOTRO, we get nothing.

For me, it's when you reach a point where you can't really progress in the game any further, either because the XP requirements are insane (common in many F2P games) or you need to spend a lot of time and effort to get gear just to do the level of content that you've reached.

The game turns more into work than fun, because it gets balanced for the people who spend 20 hours a day playing. Not the average player.

Atlantica is really a very good game, but it's really hurt by two issues:

First, it's got by far the worst cash shop of any game. Blessing LIcenses + Hero Packs are really needed (once you hit 100 or so) and those run $30 a month

Then you've got mounts/wings/clothing. You can't buy these. You merely buy a chance to win them from a gambling box. Odds unknown, but reckoned to be about 1 in 25. And these boxes cost $10 each (for mounts/wings). You can spend $100s and not get a mount.

And like many F2P games, upgrading gear is also based on the cash shop. High level gear (113 and up) is so rare that you need to use Atlas Ore to "enhance" your gear. But you have a 50%/50% chance of it working. So chances are good you won't actually end up improving your gear. It really depends on streaks.

They also introduced cash shop only mercs. These start at $50 each, and that doesn't include the books needed to improve their skills.

I'm sure I'm missing some things. But it's bad. Very very bad.

Secondly, content development pretty much stopped at high level. There isn't much for people who are 115 and up.

What they did though is decide to start making a different sort of gameplay, TBS, sort of like a turn based wargame. The catch here is besides it being so different than the rest of the game, it's poorly balanced. Since you play on a huge map with a lot of room, and move your mercs around, melee characters go from very useful (in the regular game) to completely worthless, as they attack only one square away. While ranged can attack from several away.

And since all new content is like that, unless you are a ranged main (or have good ranged mercs), then you might as well quit the game (or start over). It's also so different, you might not like it. (I don't really).

Switching to F2P really only nets a short burst of new players.

What it does though, is get the remaining player base to pay more and more money, more than they would on a sub.

So it ends up being worse for the dedicated players.

Meh. They only seem to be interested in making content for raiders, which is probably what, 1% of the population of LOTRO?

But I'm sure they spend a lot on store potions (and scrolls to improve their LIs), so I guess that's who they will cater to here on out...

And let me add, the minor update to LOTRO was only the 2nd content they've added in two years. There was a year before F2P hit of no new content at all...

How was that a major patch in LOTRO? They didn't add anything except a raid cluster and a minor revamp of one of the areas.

Unless you mean the 450 items they brag about adding to the store (most having to do with upgrading your legendary items...)

You know, people joke about games like LOTRO being "Theme Parks". But the way they keep adding more and more "Buy Now!!" buttons to the interface and pop-ups for the store, it really does feel like one.

I too have a lifetime sub. I barely play anymore and can still keep up with the glacial pace of updates. I'm guessing all the money the F2P switch has gone straight into Warners (or the Paizs) pockets, not back into the game.