LOTRO going F2P

Turbine have recently announced that following the success of DDO moving to F2P then LOTRO is going to follow it this fall/autumn.

There has been quite a bit of discussion down in the LOTRO division but I thought I should mention it in here as well

 

Thanks Markan.

I had read elsewhere that Warner Bros. owns Turbine Entertainment and the decision came from Warner Bros for the change of business model for LoTRO.

I guess those with Lifetime subscriptions to LoTRO will get extra goodies when the change takes hold.

 

It's actually only about a week away from beta. If anyone is interested in seeing it then the beta signup link is below.

LOTRO Goes Free to Play!

It looks like the decision was Turbines though as its way too close to have been a WB decision. I think the turn around of DDO was too much for them to ignore - and if they can recreate that on LOTRO which is far from in the doldrums like DDO was then they may be onto a real winner.

And yes for people like me with lifetime accounts we continue to get free access to the game and get a monthly stipend of points to spend in the shop They have similar deals for people on recurring subscriptions as well - so if you pay a sub you get more but you can still play free.

 

I dont understand why there is a beta for this - its just a change to the payment structure isnt it?

 

The beta includes some changes to zones and quests to accommodate F2P, some more changes to the initial zones, an in-game store, DX11 support, a new region (Enedwaith) and some changes to the way storage is handled

 

Fair enough - I'm just keen to try it out

 

Talk about slow I nearly missed this thread.

Sent me request. Thanks for posting mate.

 

If you want to get a bit of a look at what you can expect from LoTRO under Free to Play mode you can head on over to my little LoTRO Beta Blog.

There are plenty of screen shots and hopefully is pretty easy and quick for folks to follow.
:smile:

 

The adventures of Guzzlin enter a new Chapter.
The Lonely Mountain is reclaimed and Guzzlin is set a task that will reverberate for decades.
Head on over to the new post to find out how he fares. :smile:

 

Thanks for the blog Moza. Would you mind answering just one question please, how do you move your character? Is it keyboard only (wsda) or hold down mouse button and use w key to go forward, or can you point and click ( point curser to a spot on the ground, click and character moves to it).
The answer to this is whether I can play the game or not.
I did apply for the beta but unfortunately it looks like I've missed out. Never mind, I guess it will be open soon.

 

You can hold down the right mouse button, then click the left mouse button to move forward so you only need one hand to move around. I don't believe there's a way to click on the ground and move to it though.

 

You can do this as well

Finally you can press the Autorun key (Default is Insert) and just steer with the mouse.

The only one you can't do is click on the floor.

Oh and most of the keys are re-mappable as well.

Hope that helps

 

Thank you both, if I can move with the w key and steer with the mouse that should be fine. I can control the speed and the camera that way. I hope it goes open beta soon, I'd like to try it.

 

It actually goes live on the 10th of this month so there isn't long to wait

 

In 6 days!! Excellent, time to get the download running. Thanks

 

Free players to get 2 Character Slots.
Quote below from Sapience the Lotro Community Officer on the Lotro Forums.

 

BIG download... looks like this is going to take awhile.

 

How big is it ?

 

It must be about 10Gb by now, particularly if youre downloading the hi resolution version. I have a retail copy, and patching that takes a while.

 

That sounds about right.