LOTRO Europe still no Free to play

On Monday, Dnote from Codemasters Community Liaison, attempted to allay some of the concerns over EU LOTROs future. I think it is a fair assessment that he was not successful. In the last fortnight, it would seem that Codemasters have lurched from one PR disaster to another with regard to LOTRO. Which is very surprising when you consider their other major franchises and how they effectively manage them. So why exactly is this happening? Unfortunately, there is simply insufficient data to reach any accurate conclusion at present.

The initial delay to the launch of F2P in Europe was quite obvious during the run up to 10th September. Codemasters have usually been very prompt at publicising routine server downtime. The lack of any schedule for the F2P transition was a big indication that there were major issues. Now credit should be given for the subsequent conciliatory events that were hastily implemented. But these again were publicised in a very haphazard fashion. The promotion of the “Welcome back Week” along with the14 day free trial, should have been far higher profile. The current structure of the EU LOTRO forums and website does not exactly lend itself to these campaigns.

The free travel within Middle Earth, 5% bonus XP and the “Welcome back Week”, were introduced as an “apology” for the F2P debacle. Alot of people assumed that these were to remain in place until the revised launch date was announced. Now although this was a mistake on the behalf of many customers, it could certainly have been predicted. So why didn’t Codemasters clearly state the terms and conditions of these two promotions from the outset? There withdrawal this week has not exactly improved community relationships. As for the “Community Therapy” competition, although I can see the humour in it, many haven’t. On mature reflection this may have been another mistake.

As of today, the status quo is as follows. There is still no precise launch date for F2P in Europe. There are no details about the European version of the LOTRO store and the price structure. The events and promotions that were introduced over the last two weeks have now ended. Any potential new European F2P customer can open a US account. Many have done so. Codemasters are therefore losing business. End level EU LOTRO players have no new content, and therefore potentially little to do. How can any of this be good for business?

From the Euro forums, theyre counting the days, 32 days and counting so far, delay for Lotro euro free to play

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spearo

On Friday we were told that they should have some definate news for us next week (so this week).

Abit more on when this info is to be expected would be nice.

If it comes before Thursday lunch we could even get F2P this week, if its Thursday afternoon or Friday then the next week seems likely, assuming its a luanch date.

I have many enjoyable debates with many people in various forums. Often it will be me and one or two others fighting our corner for what we believe in, while the rest of the forum is against us (politics etc). However, some of those people who NEVER agree with me, I have the utmost respect for and they have respect for me.

Because we can debate things properly.

I have run out of patience on the F2P subject simply because of what appears to be a very irrational fanboyism CM can do no wrong attitude from various people (although the same few in reality) who jump into every single thread where people have valid complaints, and accuse them of moaning etc.

The chances are, if it wasn’t for the people jumping into every single legitimate thread, telling us to go away, stop complaining, or making out that CM have done no wrong, then the amount of threads being produced, would be 1/10 of what are here now.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, whether it’s someone complaining, or someone sticking up for CM, if someone wants to give what they think are valid reasons for CM not being in the wrong and not treating their customer base with contempt, they can go ahead. But when all they do is start whining about the complainers, to me it is getting more tiresome that CM’s silence on the issue.

We are going to continually go around in circles, because BOTH sides of the debate are encouraging it.

Post 1: I think the worlds flat
Post 2: So do I
Post 3: I have scientific evidence that it’s round
Post 4: Why do we have to put up with the whining idiotic ramblings of poster 1
Post 5: Your the idiot
Post 6: takes one to know one
Post 54: Thread closed

Post 1: As the other thread was locked, lets try again, I think the world is flat
Post 2: Arghh not again, cant you shut up
Post 3: who are you to tell me to shut up

etc etc etc etc etc etc etc

I see it as follows.

There are two main camps so to speak active on this part of the forum (yes there’s a few others, but for the sake of simplicity and me not having to list every possibility…..)

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1) There’s the group of players that are happyish with Lotro as it is, wish for new content, but have paid very little attention to the F2P side of things, or have written it off as a bad idea (often without looking into it properly) and as long as they get new content (which I don’t think they will if F2P doesn’t arrive) they don’t see what all the fuss is about.

They’re in kins with like minded folk, all are still on the servers, a lot are in end game, they come onto the forums and see people complaining and wonder what all the fuss is about.

They get more frustrated because it appears to be a small number of people doing all the complaining and join in telling those people to go away if they’re not happy, stop moaning etc etc etc

———————–

2) The group of players that have one or more members of their kin listen thoroughly (often more than once) to Lotro Dev podcasts whenever they are broadcast, people who are actively following the US forum on what’s happening and what’s up and coming.

These people report to their kin members and their kin members on the whole get very excited about it.

My kin for example, from the time it was announced F2P was going live on the 10th, we stopped doing things like GS quest mode, stopped deeding, tried our hardest not to complete any more deeds as we wanted to save our turbine points up. Our decision (based on what we were told) and our choice. My kins owner also took part in the F2P beta and as soon as the non disclosure was lifted, filled us in on all the things we could expect.

We all got very hungry for this update, didn’t plan anything on the kin calendar for the weekend following the 10th etc.

Then to get told at the last hour there’s a problem, well it was a bummer.

——————————–

As the days went on, it became clearer and clearer to us that something much bigger than a simple technical bug was going on.

Yes we can rationalise things until we’re blue in the teeth, but it really doesn’t take a legal solicitor to read between the lines in this particular case.

Some people on side 1 state we haven’t a clue what’s going on and every things pure speculation.

People on side 2 respond with “we’ve seen it all before (not just with DDO either) and the majority are very rational in their responses pointing out quite simply that given the info (or lack of it) from CM, there really is no other logical conclusion other than CM and Turbine are fighting it out and no one can be certain who will win.

As the days turned into weeks, and the info started to repeat that of DDO, people started getting more and more concerned.

But in the real world, if there’s say 400 employees and 350 of them are unhappy, only 1 or 2 will ever want, bother, or have the guts to tell the bosses how everybody feels. Usually such actions end up with those 1 or 2 being shown the door, but it’s still factual from what I’ve witnessed over my lifetime so far (I’m 46).

It’s the same on here. Many people from group 2 are hacked off. Some are angrier than others and refuse to be quite, they are demanding answers. Rather than people from group 1 complaining that they are making yet another thread, maybe group 1 should ask CM to give them the answers they are asking for?

I’ve taken the decision that I’m not going to risk going through all this 6 months or 2 years down the line again when another big update comes, I’ve moved to the US and many of my friends also have. Even if F2P goes live this week, we will not be coming back. This isn’t simply because of the delay, it’s because of the way we feel CM has handled the delay.

I was a little vocal (not as vocal as others mind you) before we moved as I was hoping CM would get into gear and answer the questions properly, making the move unnecessary.

But, even the announcement Friday afternoon actually said nothing if you read it carefully. If I (and others) had given it until this weekend before moving to the US, that announcement is so vague, it would not have given us any hope whatsoever.

Is the EU getting it this month, November, December? It’s looking like the big legendary weapon update will be happening in the US in November. If it’s nearly 1/3rd of the way through October and EU still hasn’t got F2P, what’s the likely hood of them getting this update this year? It’s things like this that finally convinced me and others to move.

I and those in my kin that have moved, all agree that regardless of whether behind the scenes it’s Turbines fault or CM’s fault, at the end of the day, we’re paying customers and our point of contact is CM. CM have given us appalling customer service and if that hadn’t been the case, while we would have wished for the update sooner, we may well still be playing on the EU servers.

Even though I’ve moved, I’m, sad it came to this, and when riding to Rivendale etc, I take a look into the forum to see if there’s any news.

It often looks like a childish exchange between group 1 and group 2. However, I suspect (could be wrong of course) that the people from group 2 that are most vocal, are genuinely concerned for the future of the EU lotro, have seen friends go to the US, don’t want to see any more go to the US, don’t want to have to start again from scratch on the US server, but do want to know when the update is coming.

They post out of genuine interest and concern, not only do they get the cold shoulder from CM, but they get people from group 1 telling them to stop whining, stop posting threads etc etc etc. All this ends up doing is frustrating them even more.

Then the circle starts and you get people from group 2 getting more irate and stating they will not be quite and that the only way they will shut up is if CM ban them.

From my (and the others who are staying on the US servers) point of view, it is now in my interest if Turbine does take back Lotro as there’s a chance they might honour our lifetimes and also when they do finally get around to transferring our characters, we will have two accounts to play on, both with high level characters
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Captainaboo lvl 65 Captain
Ojustabo lvl 43 Hunter
Ojustaboo lvl 38 guardian
Sneakaboo lvl 65 Burglar (best class I’ve ever played)

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