Help a Journo - thoughts on F2P

[Abarax]

Hail Raiders!

Some of you will know but, for those of you who don't, my day job is being a consumer tech journalist.

Anyway, I'm currently researching a feature on the shift of MMOs and MMORPGs to F2P and would be very keen - and grateful - to hear your views on what Codies/Turbine has done with LOTRO.

Good or bad, it's all of interest.

Naturally, there is a chance that I might use your comments in the feature, but I will ask before doing so. I will also ask - via PM - if you wish to use your real or character name, or a pseudonym.

Cheers, Ab.

N.B: For those interested, the magazine I work for is called Micro Mart, and is distributed UK-wide to around 70,000 readers a month - just so you know how many people might read your words :)

[Raedwulf]

Initial thoughts:

There's certainly been a surge in activity, but how much of that is to do with F2P, how much is just new content? As all my alts are at the cap, I can't say too much about incoming new players. I've heard there is considerably more activity in lower level areas, but obviously only witness it indirectly. I've been bumming around some of, what are now, the mid-level areas such as ND & Angmar, doing slayer deeds. Wouldn't like to talk it up too much, but yeah, maybe there's a few more bodies about the place. I did see a couple of low-level dwarves being inducted into Baruk Khazad the other day. There were indications that they were new to the game. Yeah, maybe then.

The slicing of areas - I don't know whether this is a good thing or not, and since there's no choice over its operation, it's impossible to make any comparison. Even with it, I'm still getting bits & pieces of lag / stop-motion moments. I wasn't really on at the much-delayed launch, and things have calmed down a bit now. Nevertheless, one or two choke-points on quests were still subject to feeding frenzy i.e. many people competing to kill not-very-many quest mobs. All-in-all it looks much as it ever did with new content - if you weren't there right at the start to get ahead of things, or happy to lag behind the (c)rush, I imagine it was the usual piranha pool!

LOTRO shop & Turbine points - There are some little bits & pieces of interest in there, but on the whole, the entire concept, which is at the core of F2Ps business model, is rather like cosmetic items to me. Occasionally I see something that sparks a bit of interest (yes, I bought all the available shared vault upgrades), but frankly, I wouldn't notice if it went, and wouldn't care if it had never been implemented. They'd have made the bits that I'm interested in (see above) part of the new content anyway if F2P had not been implemented, so I've spent points that cost me nothing to get something that I would have had anyway. Let's face it - I'm a Lifer; I'll get free points every month (if they ever get it working properly) that will almost certainly accumulate beyond my ability / desire to spend them. Resoundingly indifferent (if that's not an oxymoron).

Launch - crap. Utterly, utterly crap. CM & Turbine between them made a complete mess of this. Horribly delayed, with no proper information to the customer; then rushed out with very little notice. Since it's gone live, it's seems to be fine, apart from teething troubles with the issue of free T.points, but the whole way it was handled only cements CMs dire reputation for communication & giving a toss about their customers that seems to prevail amongst the LOTRO player-base. I don't doubt there are worse games companies about (I still remember the moderately farcical launch of AoC), but that doesn't that mean CM shouldn't receive due criticism for their lack of customer care.

Pro's:
New area. With sunlight, yet!
New skins: They've re-skinned some mobs, such as the Eregion Dunlendings, which look much better now. Some of the new mobs look good too.
Classic Instances: I've heard comments / complaints that Hele is too easy (even easier than before), and some of the classic instance "wings" are horribly difficult, but on the whole, it seems to have been well-done, well received, and it's good to be able to go back to some of the older, fondly remembered content and have it be a challenge again.
Improved questlines. As someone said yesterday, the storylines in many questlines are rather better than normal. There again, they've been so poor at times, this isn't necessarily saying much. The Epics have always been a particular bugbear of mine. Definitely not as ghastly this time.

Con's:
Improved questlines? There's still stuff that makes me wince, and other bits, such as the 10 minute listen-to-the-NPCs-waffle quest, that make me want to bang my head against a wall in bloody frustration. Come on, Turbine, what might be mildly interesting the first time through is just a nuisance second time, and an increasingly irritating time-sink ever after. You gave us multiple alts, remember? Do you think we really want to sit through this tripe time after time after time?!
Expansion-lite: I can't help feeling there isn't enough to this expansion. Again. The Classics just mean everyone is doing them instead of the regular skirmishes, and ultimately will be as bored. Without trying particularly hard, I've already gone through most of the new area, and am already starting to dread the thought of drudging through it another 8 times. Turbine are relying too much on Classics & repeatable q's to keep people interested. Not gonna work.
Stablemasters. Why are you suddenly not able even to talk to these guys when mounted? You always had to dismount to buy a ride, no problem. But you used to be able ride into a new location & just click on the stablemaster to register the new location. Now you have to get off, click on him, & remount. A pointless, petty, and wholly unnecessary irritation!

[Grimdoin]

Well since the focus of your article presumably is the shift from a subscription to a f2p model I'm not going into content details. As if there was any grass left after the first reply ;)

Pro:
+ There is an influx of players on the servers; both old and new.
+ Ability to introduce friends to the game and have them play occasionally (every few weeks, months some hours, LAN party anyone?)

Con:
+ World drops and kills have turned into money. Imagine looting an instance boss and going "Wow! €5,-" (the stat Tome drop)
+ Annoying "Buy Me Now!" buttons everywhere which cannot be hidden
+ Development/store focus on f2p players and their position in the life/level cycle.

There are some other things which can be mentioned like "f2p incoming will boost content development" and "f2p'ers are pre-mature noobs without $$$ and are spamming around". While I really hope the first one will become truth and the latter I haven't experienced so much, I don't think it would be fair to take these things which might come to pass into account.

[Derigar/Tarinas]

Some extra things that won't be rehashing the same territory as the previous posters.

F2P has ironically proved truthful for lifetimers - whereas previously they would have to spend money on new expansions, they can now just accumulate the free monthly Turbine Points, use that for future expansions and finally never have to pay anything again.

The fine balance of the F2P store is always a tricky issue. While i agree with some decisions (removing reputation mounts from the store and all ones purchased will be weaker than ones aquired ingame), there are some that i am less comfortable with (buying stat tomes is the major one - under 3% droprate ingame and they provide an actual boost to your character, however it would cost over £100 to max out, it feels much like what happened in other games where the store offered an item that was too good to pass up for a lot of people - can't remember the game, but one offered +X% run speed as a permenant buff). At the very least nothing game breaking is up for offer and they thankfully left radiance out of the store, although for those with deep, deep pockets the new morale/power pots on offer would provide a fairly noticable advantage over others.

As for the business model itself, early LOTRO numbers indicate that revenue is following a simliar upwards movement that DDO (Turbine's other MMO that went F2P) saw a while back. Following this move updates followed much more often, something i am hoping to see reflected here over the next few months.

[Grimbos]

To me personally, the whole thing is making me feel like I'm playing in a shopping mall. While I can see the benefits of the business model over the old subscription-based model (and reports from Turbine suggest that the change has resulted in an increased revenue), I'm altogether unhappy with what it has done to the game. Minor annoyances like repositioning buttons, so that the "store" button is now conveniently placed at the spot where the "accept" button used to be (DP buff window), all add up to a major annoyance with the shop as a whole. It feels like every action and every window is designed to lead you into the shop. A major example of this can be seen in the dev-diary for the new crafting window. Yes, the new window has significantly improved in both clarity and ease of use, but it's also designed to lead you straight into the shop.

Before I bought my lifetime account, I happily forked out the €12,99 each month. Now, I find myself refusing to spend any cash in the store, except when it'd be for actual content. The more they push the store in my face, the less inclined I will be to actually use it. Lucky for me, Creepside is still untainted ;)

[Abarax]

Thanks all. I'll give your comments a read and be in touch if I want to use anything.

If anyone still wants to post, please do. I've some days left on this.

Cheers!
Ab.

[Abarax]

Okay, thank you all....three of you ;)

As there are only three of you, I would like to use comments from each of you - though perhaps not all of them (sorry Raed! :D).

Can you just post here to say if that is okay (or PM me if there are any you would prefer me not to include) and whether using your forum names (so there is some culpability ;)) is okay (or not, up to you)?

Cheers!
Ab

P.S: I should point out that Nimminas and RRUS will remain nameless in the piece, though I am referencing their existence.

[Grimdoin]

Fine with me... is there an online version of the mag as well?

[Abarax]

Thanks Grim. Unfortunately not, but I'll see what we can do if you'd want to read the article?

[Raedwulf]

Quote freely. I do expect you to post a copy of the article by way of payment! :P

[Grimbos]

what raed said :)

[Derigar/Tarinas]

Fine by me, let me know if theres anything else you need specifics on

[Grimbos]

Oh, and there's 4 of us.... Raedwulf, Deri/Tari, Grimdoin and Grimbos. I can see where possible confusion might come from... ;)

[Grimdoin]

People with double names?!? Make up your mind Tari!

:D

I beat you with signing up by 6 months so Grim is mine! *my preciousssss* ;)

[Raedwulf]

He's a journalist. Surely you don't expect accuracy?! :+ ;)

[Abarax]

Four it is. Apologies to Grimbos who I didn't see had posted after "Derinas" ;)

I will see what I can do re: copies of the mag/article for all. Thanks for taking the time to vent a bit!

Ab/Kev

[Grimdoin]

A link to a scan of the article would be fine... No need for hard copies ;)

[Rhyaehar]

Hmm.. perhaps I should send an invoice for the commercial use of this forum :P

[Abarax]

Ah, perhaps I should have asked your permission, sorry mate!

If you want, I can actually name RRUs? :)

[Rhyaehar]

I was kidding Ab. As long as you're not making a daily habit of it, by all means, ask us idiots for input. Credits are due to the people who help you, if any.

Ah heck, even if you make a daily habit of it.. Go ahead and write good stuff (just post the articles will ya? :))

[Grimdoin]

Dailies? Credit? Rep!