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If I hear one more person say LOTRO was saved by the f2p switch Im going to explode.
jamesharv2005ub17_ESO
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LOTRO was decimated by the f2p switch not saved by it. They are closing servers and the population that is left is under 100k. They used to have over a million people playing it. I hope ESO doesnt end up the same way. Selling cosmetics doesnt pay the bills.
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Xsorus✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭The fact that you think LOTRO would of survived this long without f2p is pretty funny.
Oh...they should of closed servers years ago, because only Brandywine actually had populationhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXpX7JMwRXtczc5GTrIYRIw
ESO and GW2 PvP videos10 -
jamesharv2005ub17_ESO✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭I have played LOTRO since two years before it launched. There were a LOT more people before the f2p switch.0 -
Darlgon✭✭✭✭✭
✭F2P brought in a type of player base that was poison, first to the starter zones, then to the forums, and finally to the game in general. The community as a whole went toxic after the people who had paid subs got fed up and took their money elsewhere.. Watched it and lived it.
That said.. this is the ESO forums. ESO is B2P or Freemium after one-time purchase. Heres hoping it does not start down the same path.Edited by Darlgon on February 2, 2015 10:28PMPower level to CP160 in a week:
Where is the end game? You just played it.
Why don't I have 300+ skill points? Because you skipped content along the way.
Where is new content? Sigh.6 -
Tapio75✭✭✭✭✭
✭I play on Laurelin and there is always lots of people.. But no stupid names you hear!>>PC-EU Mostly PVE. Played since BETA<<0 -
VictorBrav0✭✭I may help to remind people that ESO won't be F2P but P2P. Look at Guild Wars. They are doing great and have a good population base.Eromir Stark - Ebonheart Pact, NB Breton VR 85 -
Rescorla_ESO✭✭✭✭As a lifetime LOTRO subscriber, I disagree with your first sentence. The lifetime subscription was a bad financial decision by Turbine because their most loyal customers were not generating any monthly revenue for them. By the time the F2P version went live, Turbine actually lost money on players like me who played the game at launch and who would have ended up paying significantly more in monthly subscription fees at $15 per month but instead only ended up paying $200.
Once the game went F2P, at least then there was a chance Turbine might get some revenue from their lifetime subscribers by enticing them to buy items from their cash shop.2 -
Nazon_Katts✭✭✭✭✭LOTRO was saved by the F2P switch!
"You've probably figured that out by now. Let's hope so. Or we're in real trouble... and out come the intestines. And I skip rope with them!"3 -
nimander99✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭xsorusb14_ESO wrote: »The fact that you think LOTRO would of survived this long without f2p is pretty funny.
Oh...they should of closed servers years ago, because only Brandywine actually had population
This is exactly the point I was making in an earlier post today... the game would no longer exist without F2P, I cant understand why peeps cant wrap their head around this very basic and very very very obviously simple fact.I AM UPDATING MY PRIVACY POLICY
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"moar!" = £10 palomino horse,
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"MOAR!!" = Charge for DLC that subs had already paid for,
"MOAR!!!" = Experience scrolls and riding lessons,
"MOARR!!!" = Vampire/werewolf bites,
"MOAARRR!!!" = CS exclusive motifs,
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Bouvin✭✭✭✭✭
✭nimander99 wrote: »xsorusb14_ESO wrote: »The fact that you think LOTRO would of survived this long without f2p is pretty funny.
Oh...they should of closed servers years ago, because only Brandywine actually had population
This is exactly the point I was making in an earlier post today... the game would no longer exist without F2P, I cant understand why peeps cant wrap their head around this very basic and very very very obviously simple fact.
I don't know. It was actually doing pretty well before F2P.
The biggest reason Turbine went F2P with LoTRO is they saved DDO with F2P. But DDO is a totally different animal...
What works for one MMO doesn't necessarily work for all. F2P took LoTRO into a long downward spiral. It seems like a good thing at first, but after about a year you could see the signs how it was hurting the game.1 -
jamesharv2005ub17_ESO✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭Rescorla_ESO wrote: »As a lifetime LOTRO subscriber, I disagree with your first sentence. The lifetime subscription was a bad financial decision by Turbine because their most loyal customers were not generating any monthly revenue for them. By the time the F2P version went live, Turbine actually lost money on players like me who played the game at launch and who would have ended up paying significantly more in monthly subscription fees at $15 per month but instead only ended up paying $200.
Once the game went F2P, at least then there was a chance Turbine might get some revenue from their lifetime subscribers by enticing them to buy items from their cash shop.
This is nonsense. Very few people paid the $200 for lifetime. It hasnt been available since two years before the f2p switch. Turbine has lost revenue and subscribers every since. They also promised no advantage on the store. They quickly learned that people dont spend the kind of money on cosmetics they do on advantage items.2 -
jamesharv2005ub17_ESO✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭nimander99 wrote: »xsorusb14_ESO wrote: »The fact that you think LOTRO would of survived this long without f2p is pretty funny.
Oh...they should of closed servers years ago, because only Brandywine actually had population
This is exactly the point I was making in an earlier post today... the game would no longer exist without F2P, I cant understand why peeps cant wrap their head around this very basic and very very very obviously simple fact.
You are crazy. LOTRO would be doing far better today had they not went f2p. There was no reason financially for them to do it other than they thought (wrongly) they could make more money that way.
If UO is still around and still sub based only then lotro also has lots of life to go and would have been far better had they not went the f2p route.2 -
DanielMaxwell✭✭✭jamesharv2005ub17_ESO wrote: »LOTRO was decimated by the f2p switch not saved by it. They are closing servers and the population that is left is under 100k. They used to have over a million people playing it. I hope ESO doesnt end up the same way. Selling cosmetics doesnt pay the bills.
just to see the OP explode
LOTRO was saved by going F2P
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Dracane✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭LOTR was saved by the f2p switch.Auri-El is my lord,
Trinimac my ward,
and Magnus my mind.1 -
Cogo✭✭✭✭✭
✭Oghur Hatemachine, Guild leader of The Nephilim - EU Megaserver
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Cogo✭✭✭✭✭
✭Oghur Hatemachine, Guild leader of The Nephilim - EU Megaserver
Orc Weapon Specialist and Warchief of the Ebonheart Pact - Trueflame Cyrodiil War Campaign
Guildsite: The Nephilim
"I don't agree with what you are saying, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it"
-Voltaire
"My build? Improvise, overcome and adapt!"2 -
NobleX35✭✭✭✭Who the hell would say that Lotro was saved by f2p? It completely ruined the game!"Only the dead have seen the end of war."2 -
DanielMaxwell✭✭✭GothicPython wrote: »Who the hell would say that Lotro was saved by f2p? It completely ruined the game!
mainly those of us who want to see the OP explode , which he did imply would happen so we are now waiting for the OP to explode .1 -
Jeremy✭✭✭✭✭
✭✭✭✭✭jamesharv2005ub17_ESO wrote: »LOTRO was decimated by the f2p switch not saved by it. They are closing servers and the population that is left is under 100k. They used to have over a million people playing it. I hope ESO doesnt end up the same way. Selling cosmetics doesnt pay the bills.
I agree with you. LOTRO went downhill like a roller coaster after it went F2P. Which was sad - because the game in it's original state really was something special and one of the best MMORPGs I ever played. Now it's awful and like slow torture to play.
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I hope the same process isn't repeated here because Elder Scrolls is a great game. Unfortunately - it is mostly a great single player game. That probably hurt it among MMO fans and the reason it failed to sustain a subscription base.
The best outcome is the free to play status brings new life into the game. I'm dubious though, and think the game is now on a path to ruin. I definitely hope I'm wrong though.Edited by Jeremy on February 2, 2015 11:58PM0 -
Vis✭✭✭✭✭
✭jamesharv2005ub17_ESO wrote: »LOTRO was decimated by the f2p switch not saved by it. They are closing servers and the population that is left is under 100k. They used to have over a million people playing it. I hope ESO doesnt end up the same way. Selling cosmetics doesnt pay the bills.
Amen!v14 Sorc Vae Exillis
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v14 NB 'Vis
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Karnus✭✭✭✭Explosion was promised, everything else is secondary.Formerly Karnus, the Marauder in Warhammer.0 -
Rescorla_ESO✭✭✭✭
Conversely, the OP has no way of knowing whether LOTRO would have survived without going FTP. In the guild I was in, at the games height we would have about 50 members on during prime time. Almost all of them had lifetime memberships thus by the time the Moria expansion came out Turbine was losing revenue on them.0 -
SteveCampsOut✭✭✭✭✭
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All games start off shiny and new and fun, even those that start out as F2P. It wears off! You can blame f2p all you want, but every MMO I have ever played eventually just got tiresome, some faster than others. Nobody but those with the most severe cases of OCD will play an MMO for the life of the game.
Edited by SteveCampsOut on February 3, 2015 12:14AM@ֆȶɛʋɛƈǟʍքֆօʊȶ⍟
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Koloki✭✭✭Only Turbine knows if LOTRO was going to survive without free-to-play, and they are not telling us, so that is that.
But for what its worth, i kept playing for 3 years after the F2P change and it was tons of fun.
I only left because o the style of gameplay that LOTRO has (very much like WoW) started to loose the appeal for me; i also know friends that still play it and still love it.☙ War Dogs ❧MMO, lore, quests, diversão, cerveja, mulher, carros, barcos, iates e outros tantos prazeres da carne!Rage. Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles,
murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses,
hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls…1 -
Lord_Kreegan✭✭✭✭✭Okay, here's reality (info available at the time from investor web sites):
(1) No, they never had over a million subscribers. They never hit their subscription goals at release. It was a disappointment because, quite frankly, it was a very good game. But, it was too much in the "WoW mold" to pull players from other games, espcially WoW.
(2) Turbine borrowed a LOT of money for the Moria expansion with the expectation that it would bring in a lot of new players. It didn't. Layoffs followed of some "nonessential staff".
(3) The next expansion (Mirkwood) was a "mini-expansion", arguably not worth the asking price ($45 if I remember correctly). That didn't buy them any good feelings from their existing subscriber base and didn't bring in new subscribers, either. Personally, I thought it was decent in terms of playability, but it was very obviously crammed into a small area compared to other zones. It was certainly not on the scale of the Mines of Moria.
(4) The community management team was then "compromised"; that is, they began using phony posters as viral marketing. It was stupidly done since it was obvious to anyone with half a brain that new forum posters nobody had ever seen before with super high forum ratings and post counts -- who all wrote like professors in English Lit -- weren't kosher. That left a bad taste in many people's mouths and the forums really started going down hill. Their best CM, Patience, left because of that. Turbine's integrity had gone to hell in a handbasket as they started converting to their hybrid model.
(5) The hybrid model did bring in some temporary increases in players, but not an increase in subscribers; that number continued to decrease. The revenue from the store at first more than compensated for that, but their free-play restrictions didn't exactly encourage those players to stick with the game.
(6) They had further layoffs. I left at that point, even as much as I enjoyed the game, after well more than four years (not counting Beta). There was a STEADY deterioration in the quality of new game material and a constant attempt to nickel-and-dime players for money. The very good community that had been there disintegrated into whiney little kids, not the Tolkein lore enthusiasts that had been there as the core group of players.
During the life of the game, only Brandywine was ever a "full" server.1 -
ZOS_MichelleA✭✭✭✭✭Hey there, folks. We ask that all threads be about ESO, rather than other games. As such, we will be closing this thread. Thank you for your understanding!4
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