LotRO re-does Market

Community Blog
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So, here's the deal... The fourth MMO I played, I logged to many hours for me to feel comfortable talking about. That MMORPG was LotRO.

Now, when the game released back in 2007 I was a lot younger. Because it was pay to play, I never dreamt of setting foot in the amazing world Tolkien created. I drooled over the concept of creating my own adventure with the sights and people from the deep reservoir of lore.

In 2010, the game went free to play. I only heard of this half a year later. This is when I joined; I have been playing ever since.

Now I am very skeptical when it comes to free to play games. Turbine, the developing company behind LotRO, DDO, and Infinite Crisis, launched their profits tripled. That's right, tripled. So what was their catch? Well, the first 30 levels were free. After that you could do two things, farm for game shop cash, or pay money. I personally farmed Turbine Points (game shop coin). I was able to play the game to level 50 with out paying a dime. The next 15 levels would require me to purchase two expansions. I was able to get the, at the time, up coming expansion and the two previous ones for 50$. To me that was great. In fact, at this time, I would do it again. I was guaranteed a path to the level cap including end game raids at level 75. I had a blast playing with friends and leveling.

Now the expatiation for level 85 was coming out. I decided to get the lowest price available that was 30$. That expansion was quite amazing too. I have to admit, it fell short of the previous ones, but the standard was really high, so it was extremely enjoyable.

Now to the catch of this blog post. (Yes, it's long, which is why it's a blog post.)

LotRO revamped their whole forum system. Included in this revamp was their Online Marketplace.

Now that really isn't what I want you to know. That's cool and all, but what I really wanted to share is their new payment option.

To quote them exactly: "The Expansion Quad Pack is now available in the new LOTRO Market. Get all four Award-winning The Lord of the Rings Online™ Expansion Packs in a single purchase. Only $39.99!"

Now if you were doing the math, I spent 80$ on those four expansions. This really is the time to give the game a try.

In the fall, they will be coming out with a new expatiation that will involve an epic battle at Helms Deep. So yeah.

Thanks for reading, I hope to see you in game maybe?

Missxu

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Sure they tripled profits since they forced you to either grind or purchase new zones and expansions. To encourage new players Blizzard offered their battlechests for $5 around mop release.

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Well, what I really was getting at in this post was the fact that they've basically became a buy to play game -- with no initial cost. Similar to Guild Wars 2, LotRO hosts a micro-transaction store on top of this model.

Those aren't even the point of this post. The real reason is because, now you can get LotRO for super cheap, and get 96% of the experience. The only things you don't get for 40$ is the new expansion, coming in fall, and PvP (which, let's face it, if you've played, is kinda fun, but not ideal for an MMORPG).

So to sum everything up in one line, you can get 6 years of mmorpg content for a decent price at 40$.