LOTRO to relaunch as free to play?

Gigglemoo · 2014-11-05T14:28:43.000Z

awdougherty:

Out of curiosity, as someone who didn’t love all the horse stuff that got added, does the questing tend to phase that out at all from level 85 up or is that always a big component to the quests? I jumped in for a bit the other day after a hiatus and I felt like I barely recognized half of my level 84 warden.

I can’t speak about after, but that stuff is still the main playstyle in the level 85 Wildermore region.

charmtrap · 2014-11-26T12:49:29.000Z

If you’re missing any of the expansions, they’re all 75% off today.

http://store.turbine.com/store/turbine/en_US/list/categoryID.58516200

biosc1 · 2014-11-26T13:20:23.000Z

charmtrap:

If you’re missing any of the expansions, they’re all 75% off today.

http://store.turbine.com/store/turbine/en_US/list/categoryID.58516200

That’s a great deal…now I just have to remember how I go about seeing which I own already…

charmtrap · 2014-11-26T13:25:15.000Z

I’m pretty sure just logging in to your account on Turbine’s site will show a list of which ones you own.

biosc1 · 2014-11-26T14:04:45.000Z

You are correct…strangely, I have Helm’s Deep and not Rohan for some reason…

Gigglemoo · 2014-11-27T12:26:40.000Z

There’s also this on sale for 5$, which includes 2000 tp and several quest packs.
http://www.gamestop.com/pc/games/the-lord-of-the-rings-online-mithril-edition/97978

instant0 · 2014-11-27T12:40:00.000Z

Nice time to upgrade then =)

scharmers · 2014-11-28T11:59:51.000Z

Yeah. No matter what, I always go back to LOTRO, even if it is getting a little long in the tooth. Three expansion packs snagged.

Knightsaber · 2014-11-28T12:21:57.000Z

Yeah I got them all. I’m not sure when I’ll sub-up and go at it again, but I couldn’t pass up xpac’s on the cheap. They’re rarely on sale.

ineffablebob · 2014-11-28T15:16:52.000Z

Likewise. I haven’t played LOTRO in forever, but all those expansions for $30 is about as good a deal as we’re liable to see. Unless, of course, they decide to make them all free to access in the near future. Well, if that happens, I figure my $30 is still a nice donation to the folks who built up a nice version of the LOTR world.

mrcjhicks · 2014-11-28T15:45:44.000Z

It can help to take a look at amazon or steam before pulling the trigger on some of the full expansions.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/258800 - Moria, Mirkwood, Isengard, Rohan for $10- a little cheaper than buying direct from Turbine.

Razgon · 2014-11-28T23:13:02.000Z

Just remember to play it a bit before 2017 where their Lord of the Rings license apparently runs out.

mrcjhicks · 2014-11-29T11:07:50.000Z

Razgon:

Just remember to play it a bit before 2017 where their Lord of the Rings license apparently runs out.

On the other hand, Warner has been pretty aggressive about buying up and holding on to all the video game LotR licenses. I think they’ve got the book and movie franchises both now, and I believe that’s why they bought out Turbine in the first place - to get a hold of the MMO license. Maybe wishful thinking on my part that it stays open longer than that - this game will be ten years old by then.

SlainteMhath · 2014-11-29T17:35:00.000Z

mrcjhicks:

Maybe wishful thinking on my part that it stays open longer than that - this game will be ten years old by then.

Maybe not so much wishful thinking. As you say, Warner media owns pretty much all the LOTRO rights now, including both film trilogies. They purchased Turbine in 2010, and they published War in the North and Shadows of Mordor in addition to all the games based off the films. With the last of the Hobbit trilogy coming soon, they’ll be looking to cash in on Lord of the Rings in other ways. While it’s too much to expect them to overhaul a 10-year-old MMORPG, it’s not too much of a stretch to think they might look to utilize their license to develop a completely new massively multiplayer game based on the property.

Razgon · 2014-11-29T22:45:31.000Z

I do think that’s wishful thinking. Any kind of MMO would come out way later than the last Hobbit movie, thus missing the window of opportunity completely. Also, I doubt anyone really wants to spend AAA money on MMO’s anymore.

biosc1 · 2014-11-29T23:03:01.000Z

Razgon:

I do think that’s wishful thinking. Any kind of MMO would come out way later than the last Hobbit movie, thus missing the window of opportunity completely. Also, I doubt anyone really wants to spend AAA money on MMO’s anymore.

Pffft…you fail to recognize the potential of a Silmarillion movie / MMO :P

malkav11 · 2014-11-29T23:26:04.000Z

I think it’s way more likely that they’ll continue to develop a proven, lasting MMO like LOTRO than that they would spend a lot of time and development money on a new one in an age where MOBAs are now the must-have hotness (and hey, they already have a LOTR MOBA!). LOTRO’s certainly got room for a fair number of additional expansions left, storylinewise.

instant0 · 2014-12-03T23:54:11.000Z

Would be nice with a tech update at some point as well.

charmtrap · 2015-01-18T13:06:48.000Z

I’ve finally gotten a character above 80 and hoo boy do I hate mounted combat. I’m hoping that’s not all the game is from this point on or I may finally have found my endpoint with LOTRO.

mrcjhicks · 2015-01-20T17:53:06.000Z

I sunk all my horse skill points into movement/agility/speed whatever and it got a bit better for me. Didn’t feel like riding a dump truck at least. The horse itself levels up pretty quick so maxing those out isn’t so hard, and I remember the experience only being pretty terrible in that first introductory zone, and just a rather middling experience afterward.

I found it was easier to do mounted ignoring the mouse entirely and steering with the wasd keys with one hand, using tab to target, and binding the skills I used often to the rightmost number keys.

There are actually some instanced quests where you are in a band of npcs riding around killing things and those are kind of fun, but they are few and far between. There’s a bunch of horse stuff you can do in the western half of the Rohan expansion (I don’t remember how much is necessary though), and there’s a zone in the Helm’s Deep expansion that seemed to have a bunch of it, but it seems to have been pushed into the background with each expansion. I don’t really do any mounted combat in Gondor - I just use it for commuting.