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Geek Culture / Anyone play Lord of the Rings Online? It's free to play and pretty cool.

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Jeku
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Posted: 19th Dec 2010 22:53
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Hey all,

This is the very first MMORPG I've ever tried, and I'm getting quite hooked. It's completely free-to-play, all the way up to the top level. The graphics are pretty good, and the addiction factor is definitely there. They try to hit you up to buy things like extra storage space, which is how they make their money back, but you can absolutely choose not to pay a dime and get hundreds of hours of gameplay.

Does anyone else play this? I've been playing on the Imladris server as Jeku, and am Level 12. My buddy is a level 30ish woodworker so he's been sending me weapons and money to help me out

As far as predictions go, I'd wager that most of the MMOs will eventually switch to free-to-play, with a micropayment system set up for players to get little knick-knacks here and there.


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Dared1111
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Posted: 19th Dec 2010 23:01
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I was going to get it. Then I saw the size and was like..."Oh"

As far as payments go, I think there will be a shift to the F2P method with microtransactions and also towards the pay once mmos such as Guild Wars. If I'm correct, then Champions Online is predicted to go that way.

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Silvester
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Posted: 19th Dec 2010 23:33
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Used to play this during Release of the original version, it was pretty neat back then actually.. Might get back into it some day, the questing was somewhat boring at times.. But the story and roleplay behind it was amazing.

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Fatal Berserker
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Posted: 19th Dec 2010 23:55
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if i remember right LOTRO stores your data on your hdd. (unless they changed it)

Smoke me a kipper, ill be back for breakfast.

MMORPG -- Many Men Online Role Playing as Girls

G.I.R.L -- Guy In Real Life
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Oolite
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Posted: 20th Dec 2010 00:01
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Quote: "As far as predictions go, I'd wager that most of the MMOs will eventually switch to free-to-play, with a micropayment system set up for players to get little knick-knacks here and there."

With the expanse of facebook games like this, i'd be highly surprised if they didn't.

Regarding LOTRO, I'm not an MMORPG player but I might watch a few playthroughs and give it a bash. Can't beat free.

OldmanBiles
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Silvester
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Posted: 20th Dec 2010 00:04
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Quote: "if i remember right LOTRO stores your data on your hdd. (unless they changed it)"

It's never done that. I played the game since early Beta and never had they stored your character progress on your hard drive.

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lazerus
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Posted: 20th Dec 2010 00:25
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I steered off LOTR since it had a subscription, might give it a go if its f2p now ;D

Im on battle grounds which is a microtransaction F2P based RTS. Ive been hooked on that for about 5 months so far. Less hooked now ofc. Surprised though since it was £30 to buy when it realesed and changed to F2p within the year. Still amazing gameplay and good graphics.


http://lazerus-reborn.deviantart.com/
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PAGAN_old
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Posted: 20th Dec 2010 00:50
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WOAH! its actually free now? i wanted to try it a long time ago but i had no credit card and no means to pay a monthly fee. is it actually free?

dont hate people who rip you off,cheat and get away with it, learn from them
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Quik
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Posted: 20th Dec 2010 09:57
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I played the "free" verson, and i Lovethe game, however the freeverson just feels too limited to be worthwhile.

for example, you have to buy all the areas above bree, with turbo points. Yes you can get the points by just playing, but it will be a long, booring farm.
you alsoneed to buy the instances separatly, aswell as skirmishes. for the same price as the area.
Then we got the auction house
you can buy, but not sell.
to sell you need to buy for 200 turbine.
then we got the character slots. you have 2, and if youwant more you need to pay 50 or 100 i think per slot.
then we got the bags, you got two bags. Which is too little, unless u wanna run back to town to sell every 5 minutes.

It is a great game! but the free verson is really simply an trial, if you want to fully enjoy it either subscribe or buy a package of 2000+ points.


[Q]uik, Quiker than most
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Silvester
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Posted: 20th Dec 2010 10:25
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@Quik,

Really? At the time they started going F2P they wanted as much as possible to be available to the player, aside from high level expansion content. Shame they steered off of that and went for the money.

---
I just checked and old subscribers have the entire game they had when they had their subscription..

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Quik
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Posted: 20th Dec 2010 10:38
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yes really... It sucks, the only thing they released free, completlyfree is the storyline quest


[Q]uik, Quiker than most
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Jeku
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Posted: 20th Dec 2010 11:03
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@Quik - I'm pretty sure you're wrong about a lot of those points. For example you have 3 bags, not 2. My buddy told me you can level all the way up and do all the quests without paying a dime... I'll get the info from him.

Also, I was able to have access to the auction, and I don't remember paying anything for that.


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Quik
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Posted: 20th Dec 2010 13:22
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Quote: "@Quik - I'm pretty sure you're wrong about a lot of those points. For example you have 3 bags, not 2. My buddy told me you can level all the way up and do all the quests without paying a dime... I'll get the info from him. "


you CAN grind your way up, but the areas you need to pay for (like i said you can get points for playing, but thats from deeds, and deeds = grinding)


yes i was wrong abut the bags lol, still.
and was you able to put up your own auctions? if so, they changed that =/ (I played for about a month, october to november)


[Q]uik, Quiker than most
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PAGAN_old
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Posted: 20th Dec 2010 13:32
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wow and i was here beginning to think its gonna be worthwhile. all the stuff you have to pay for really turns me off. i would pay but the russian debit card wouldnt accept any american paypal and stuff

dont hate people who rip you off,cheat and get away with it, learn from them
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Jeku
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Posted: 20th Dec 2010 19:14
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Well, you have to pay about as much as you have to pay to play Farmville, which is *nothing* unless you want things faster than regular players. You can see everything and do everything for free, and for me that's good enough.

That being said, if I'm going to put 100 hours into this thing, I have absolutely NO problem spending $10-20 for things that make the game better, like extra bags and things like that. You don't need to do it. It's still a far cry from having to pay $15 a month!


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Quik
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Posted: 20th Dec 2010 19:35
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now while that is true, it is also so very much more time consuming with less payoff =/


[Q]uik, Quiker than most
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Jeku
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Posted: 20th Dec 2010 19:41
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Is there ever a payoff for MMOs? Other than satisfaction at leveling up and kicking butt?


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Eminent
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Posted: 20th Dec 2010 19:50
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Payoff for MMOs = ganking. Unless you actually play with people your level.


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Cyborg ART
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Posted: 20th Dec 2010 20:04
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How much roleplay is there? Can I become a carpenter or something and live on my faction? Or is it just pointless questing and grinding?

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Silvester
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Posted: 20th Dec 2010 20:05
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To those unfamiliar to the term of 'Ganking'.. It's pointlessly slaughtering low level players and camping their corpse to do it over and over again because apparently it's 'fun'. I for one am against this ridiculous behavior and think the people that do this need to grow a pair and get into some REAL PvP environments.

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Jeku
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Posted: 20th Dec 2010 20:26
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Quote: "How much roleplay is there? Can I become a carpenter or something and live on my faction? Or is it just pointless questing and grinding?"


My buddy is a farmer and bought a house. He farms and does woodworking for hours. He sells his wares on the auction and sends them to his friends in exchange for other things. I'm an armsman so I will be crafting weapons eventually.


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Cormorant5
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Posted: 20th Dec 2010 20:53
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Wait, an addictive, free to play MMORPG based on one of my favorite subjects? Holy. Crap. *swoosh*

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SpyDaniel
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Posted: 20th Dec 2010 23:38
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Played this when it was pay to play (14 day free trail). It was fun uncovering story elements, but I found some of the quests later on to be boring and repetitive. Might play it again over the Christmas holiday.

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Ocho Geek
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Posted: 21st Dec 2010 00:01
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Quote: "pay once mmos"


ooh excellent, I avoid subscription games like the plague

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Fatal Berserker
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Posted: 21st Dec 2010 03:25
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guild wars is a good 'pay once' mmo. it only costs like £15

Smoke me a kipper, ill be back for breakfast.

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Oolite
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Posted: 21st Dec 2010 03:33
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Currently downloading the 10 gigs worth of files for LOTRO

OldmanBiles
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PAGAN_old
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Posted: 21st Dec 2010 05:08
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so let me get this straight, you have to pay money to umlock new areas?

dont hate people who rip you off,cheat and get away with it, learn from them
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Jeku
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Posted: 21st Dec 2010 06:26
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I tried to find the info on what exactly is free and what isn't, and came across this:

Quote: "First of all, a few points. Free players have access to all content in the Shire, Ered Luin, and Bree Land. Because of the recent revamps of this content, that easily gets you to level 20. After that you have access too all of the Epic Books in Volume 1, several Skirmishes (a type of instance that scales by group and level), and at least one group dungeon (that will scale with you as you level). In addition, you can earn Turbine Points in game as you level, then use that to buy content. If you mix in Skirmishes, the instance, and the Epic Books, you could easily reach level 50 (the level cap if you didn’t pay for anything). Yes, it’s possible, and the grind wouldn’t be that bad.

I do agree that F2P probably isn’t the best name. Buying the quest packs is more like buying a lifetime subscription to a chunk of content. Pay $5 for the Lonelands and you can play it on all of your characters with no subscription fee until Turbine shuts down the servers. That’s not a bad deal.

Really this is aimed at people who only want to play casually. If you only play a few hours a week/month, then buying a few quest packs is a far better deal than paying $10-15 a month."


Even so, that's a hell of a lot of free content. If I have to pay a few bucks to unlock some content every now and then, it's fine by me if I'm still playing the game up to that point. Right now I'm Level 12 and haven't had to throw in a dime.


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Quik
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Posted: 21st Dec 2010 10:19
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that pretty much sums it up =) I dont like to play games in which iam limited, as i play a lot, but for the casua gamer, it's perfect.


[Q]uik, Quiker than most
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RedneckRambo
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Posted: 22nd Dec 2010 01:31
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I was playing this every day for about a month. I think I got to level 35ish. It was so much fun. I didn't know it was possible for an mmo to have a story--I don't want to hear anything about WoW's "story," even Cataclysm doesn't slightly compare to the story found in LOTRO and don't say I don't know because trust me... I do.

But then my computer went haywire, now I can't play =(

LOTRO is a great game, I fully recommend it to anyone.

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Quik
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Posted: 22nd Dec 2010 07:32
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age of conan had some cool story aswell, too bad it was so long between the story quests...
but iam sure LOTRO was very early on with those questlines=)
and the story in lotro is indeed what makes it interesting


[Q]uik, Quiker than most
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