Lord of the Rings Online - Lifetime membership

Exedor

Exedor

CAGiversary!
Feedback
3 (100%)
Right now they are offering the option of a lifetime membership which if you're into MMORPG's (think WoW or Everquest) could end up saving you hundreds of dollars. Most games like this charge ~14.99 a month. So it's basically like pre-paying for the first years subscription gets you all subsequent years for free.

You have to pre-order ($49.99) and subscirbe ($199) before they pull the offer if you want to take advantage of it. Pre ordering also gives you access to the beta that's already going on so you can decide if it's worth the investment to you.

I'm in the Beta and it looks like a really solid effort. The landscapes are beautiful and the way they integrate storyline into the gameplay is very impressive. Combat is also far more interesting that WoW or EQ (which I played for years.)

Edit: Almost forgot the link!
http://www.lotro.com/index.php?page_id=100
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
[quote name='Roguestriker']$200? Hell no[/QUOTE]
considering that it is an MMO $200 isn't that much at all...but it's kind of hard to throw down that kind of money on a game you haven't played yet.
 
Honestly...this game has nothing going for it besides the LOTR fanboy-isms, and I think the company realizes that. By making people pay $200 (which is 20 months of that $9.99 a month rate), they essentially take your money upfront, piddle around with it by launching a new patch or something once in a while, and they know they have your money, so its really an end of the road for them.

Oh well, the game will make back development costs at least, then a bit more, but it will be...guess what, ANOTHER MMO to add into the already huge pot.

One day when someone reinvents the wheel...someday.
 
[quote name='vienge']considering that it is an MMO $200 isn't that much at all...but it's kind of hard to throw down that kind of money on a game you haven't played yet.[/quote]

Well if you pre-order you get instant access to the beta that's already going on, which gives you some time to try it out before you decide if you want to subscribe.
 
[quote name='TehMuff1nM4n']It is normally $10 a month, so you have to make sure you at least play for 2 years. I would also do the $10 a month route.[/quote]

Not exactly, it's only 10 bucks a month if you take their alternate pre-order subscription deal. $9.99 is a special price that goes away when the game releases if you haven't already locked it in. That price rate, and the $199 lifetime price are both part of their "founders program" which is only available to pre-orderers.

Chances are the normal monsthly rate once this deal expires will be closer to 15 a month than 10.
 
This sounds way too much to me like they know they have a turkey on their hands, and have decided to try to get as much cash as possible for it now before people KNOW its a turkey. They figure they can at least sucker a few thousand LOTR fanboys into paying $200 now, then dump some half-finished, barely-working 'game' on them and claim their end of the bargain is filled.

Maybe it'll turn out to be a really great game - but from the sound of this offer, I think it would probably be wiser to bet the money against the game. at this point.
 
this game looks and sounds like a bomb, any time an MMO says you can keep your character from beta into the retail game its like they know that those same people wouldnt buy and regrind it again into retail if they couldn't hook them in, seariously this game looks like an EQ1 clone too, all signs point to mediocrity.
 
I think the lifetime fee is a real vote of no-confidence in the game itself, that the developers aren't thinking people will find enough worthwhile content to play it as long as $200 in monthly fees would last, month to month.
 
There is a reason why World of Warcraft did not do this- 800,000 of their subscriber base would have done it at least, and they would have lost money since they charge 15 bucks a month.
 
"Play As A Monster!" LOL

DDO was pretty crappy IMO, so I'm not expecting this title to be much better. If they eventually offer the game as a free download, I might pay the monthly fee for a month or two to try it out though.
 
[quote name='redline']"Play As A Monster!" LOL

DDO was pretty crappy IMO, so I'm not expecting this title to be much better. If they eventually offer the game as a free download, I might pay the monthly fee for a month or two to try it out though.[/QUOTE]


Exactly, Everquest did that whole "Play as a Monster" deal and that was when they started reaching to the bottom of the barrell to keep subscribers, this game just looks downright pathetic.
 
Man, why do people pay for MMORPG's each month......... I mean I can't imagine paying a monthly fee to play a game I already had to buy........... That's why Guild Wars was so successful...............for those who pay that monthly fee, you guys must be loaded
 
[quote name='bostonfrontier']Man, why do people pay for MMORPG's each month......... I mean I can't imagine paying a monthly fee to play a game I already had to buy........... That's why Guild Wars was so successful...............for those who pay that monthly fee, you guys must be loaded[/QUOTE]
That's kind of how I feel, you should either have to buy the software with no monthly fee OR get the software free and pay the monthly fee, but not both. It's like renting Vs. buying... you wouldn't rent and buy.
 
A friend of mine is participating in the beta testing, and speaks highly of this MMO.

That having been said, I agree that paying for an online MMO feels like a waste. A year at even $12 a month (and many are higher) amounts to a lot of money. I know some people argue that some people play MMOs instead of renting movies... but those people end up doing both, it seems.

I played Guild Wars when it first game out. It wasn't quite the level of WoW, but I got four hundred hours out of it and paid only $40 for the game itself. I would have played $150 at minimum for the same time frame on WoW.
 
[quote name='bostonfrontier']Man, why do people pay for MMORPG's each month......... I mean I can't imagine paying a monthly fee to play a game I already had to buy........... That's why Guild Wars was so successful...............for those who pay that monthly fee, you guys must be loaded[/QUOTE].

Quite the opposite. Those who play MMO's play it almost exclusively. Therefore its like they spend $10 bucks a month on videogames. Thats $120 a year, the cost of 2 current gen games.

I know for the 3 years-ish i played ffxi i played almost nothing else(although i still did buy other games that i found deals on from CAG).
 
[quote name='Weedy649']Quite the opposite. Those who play MMO's play it almost exclusively. Therefore its like they spend $10 bucks a month on videogames. Thats $120 a year, the cost of 2 current gen games.

I know for the 3 years-ish i played ffxi i played almost nothing else(although i still did buy other games that i found deals on from CAG).[/QUOTE]

This was it exactly. During the 3 years I played FFXI, I rarely if ever bought any other games at all. I haven't played FFXI in about 5-6 months so now I'm feeling the sting of buying more games again :(
 
Yeah I really want to pay for 20 months on a game I haven't touched with the likelyhood of being like 95% of the MMORPG, aka crap no one likes. There are only two that EVERYONE knows / plays, Everquest and WoW.
 
[quote name='Weedy649']Quite the opposite. Those who play MMO's play it almost exclusively. Therefore its like they spend $10 bucks a month on videogames. Thats $120 a year, the cost of 2 current gen games. [/QUOTE]

Exactly. I probably paid about $200 in monthly fees for WoW during the year or so that I played it, but if I hadn't been playing WoW, I almost certainly would have spent several times that buying other games during that time. MMOs seem expensive, but when you factor in how much time they tend to eat up, they're actually pretty damn cheap.
 
Reminds me of the deals TiVo used to offer. Except TiVo is a success and will definitely be supported for the forseeable future.
 
[quote name='gunm']Reminds me of the deals TiVo used to offer. Except TiVo is a success and will definitely be supported for the forseeable future.[/QUOTE]
Are you saying that you don't think this will be a success?
 
I've played this game in Beta and hated it. I felt like it was an incomplete WoW. it seems like all the quest are extremely repetitive and the only they have thats decent is the craftin system (which still isn't that great)
 
Played the beta as well and was disappointed :\ I had a chance to play the game at E3 and thought it pretty fun in the short time I had to play it, but the fun wore off pretty fast once I had more than 10 minutes to play. I've been meaning to try it out again, since I still have beta access, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

I would be REALLY hesistant to cough up $200 up front. I think the last game I spent that much money on was probably Dark Age of Camelot. AutoAssault was another MMORPG that pushed a lot of pre-pay stuff and founder "specials", and it was clear why they did that after about a month when the game turned out to be a flop.

Edit: I should also mention that I didn't level my beta character very high because I got bored with the game pretty quick. It's entirely possible that it gets more fun as you get further in the game. Running around killing boars, wolves, spiders and bandits got old very fast in the early levels.
 
[quote name='gofishn']This game is being developed by Turbine. Didn't they bail out on Asheron's Call 2 after about 2 years or so?[/QUOTE]

It was closer to 3 years, actually, and the situation was a bit more complex than that: Asheron's Call 1 and 2 were actually owned by Microsoft, who hired Turbine to develop them. Shortly after AC2 launched, though Microsoft decided it wanted out of the MMORPG market and was about ready to kill both games. Turbine managed to come up with some outside investors and bought the 2 games and kept them running. Turbine really couldn't afford to keep 2 games up and running, though, and AC1 had a much larger player base than AC2, so AC 2 was canceled. AC1 is still up and running, though.
 
I got the ability to play in this weekend's stree test and I've gotta say don't do the 200 dollar thing. At least for me, the game felt like gridning, is that what MMORPGs are? I don't know but I also agree that killing boars, spiders, wolves, bears whatever got old really fast as well. I have the game until today and tell you the truth I havent played it today and don't feel the urge to jump back in. I even explored a large chunk of the game and it just seemed dull and bland, which I thought after playing DDO but maybe it's Turbine's style:p Game reminded me of a wannabe WoW but I'm really spoiled from Guild Wars by not having to run EVERYWHERE!?!?!
 
I would never pay a monthly fee to play a game, personally.
I'm too much of a Cheap Ass Gamer for that.
 
[quote name='Drocket']Turbine really couldn't afford to keep 2 games up and running, though, and AC1 had a much larger player base than AC2, so AC 2 was canceled. AC1 is still up and running, though.[/quote]

AC1 is/was the superior game IMO.

I hope they extend the brand, including the rumored XB360 version.
 
Spybreak, you reminded me of another thing that burnt me out real fast with LOTRO... having to run everywhere. It was really irritating getting to a new area and realizing that you had to run all the way back to the previous area just to turn in a quest (and then you get there and get another quest which requires even more running around). I guess you can get some form of transportation later on (horses?), but it was a real annoyance when combined with the repetitive wildlife slaying and bandit bullying.

To be fair, I'm going to give the game another chance (once I get some time to play). I think that it's a lot more fun when you are playing with a group of people (as I did at E3, where they put four of us through a 10 or 15 minute mission).
 
Turbine is a terrible developer. I honestly wonder how they are still in existence.

And this is coming from a 3-year AC player.

I loved the game at first (MMO's were far and few between in 2000), and it was my first one to boot. Reality hadn't crushed my grandiose visions of running a huge monarchy etc. Despite the fact the game was COMPLETELY broken, I enjoyed it, but eventually it started to wear on me. It had been 3 years and mages were still the best class by far, 60% of the weapon classes were useless, and unless you knew exactly how to make a character, it was vastly underpowered with no way to reverse it. They also removed the spell economy (for reasons I still didn't understand b/c I liked the idea).

When a 14 year old can tell you the huge, glaring issues of your game within one day, you know you have a problem with development.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top