SWTOR: Thoughts on free-to-play

Star Wars: The Old Republic is going free-to-play, and honestly, I'm not surprised. In fact, I had already written half of this post a month ago, and it was just sitting in a box waiting for a suitable moment to be published. Why is free-to-play ("F2P") a logical progression, you say? Because:

1. SWTOR is at that famous point their game lost it 'shinyness' causing the loss of a lot of customers and needs to make sure their model keeps working, and 
2. the F2P model is seen by many gaming critics as the future of the MMO world, whether gamers like it or not.

The only thing that surprises me a bit, is the speed at which F2P is released. Then again, the faster it comes, the less time there is for players to worry. F2P in SWTOR will be available this November.

Different systems

I play two MMO's that are based on different business models. On one side there's SWTOR, which currently works with a monthly subscription model. On the other side there's LotRO, which has a hybrid model of so called "VIP's" (consisting of monthly subscribers and oldschool life timers) who get most content automatically, and F2P players who don't and have to buy individual quest packs.

Free-to-play in Lord of the Rings Online

On first sight, the LotRO system looks the most appealing, and there are many people who praise it. If you haven't played for a while, it's quite easy to get back into the game without having to pay for anything and can just enjoy yourself familiarizing yourself again. If you get caught up enough you can choose to buy a quest pack or expansion, or start subscribing again. This seems to be the way to go for online games in a time when there are very many MMO's offered and an increasing amount of players don't stick to one MMO, but rather 'butterfly' from game to game. Another often heard argument for F2P is that you "pay for what you play": you can carefully pick what you want to do and only pay for that. If you never raid, you don't buy that content and you don't indirectly pay for them through a subscription fee either - at least, that's the idea. In LotRO, it's even possible to receive small amounts of Turbine Points or 'TP' (the coinage used to buy quest packs and other things in the in-game store) by completing in-game achievements ('deeds'). So of course there are people who make a sport out of it and try to progress in the game by only completing deeds and buying quest packs from the TP earned through that. A journal of a LotRO player trying this out can be found at Wynnie goes Free to Play.

Sounds great, right? So would could possibly be wrong with the LotRO system?

Potential free-to-play problems
I guess it all boils down to your own personality. For me, there are several things I dislike about LotRO F2P:

1. Planning ahead and thinking about what to purchase. I know some people are shopaholics, but I personally don't like spending money. I want to spend my time in-game having fun, not thinking about which expansion, quest pack or item to buy. If I pay a monthly fee, I know how much it is but I'm not reminded of it all the time. I'll automatically receive all content (apart from expansions), so I can try everything I feel like without feeling any pressure. Basically, F2P isn't for me. You can subscribe to LotRO, though, so what am I moaning about? Well, there is problem 2:
2. Subscribing doesn't give you everything there is. A subscription used to include everything apart from expansions. This has changed. Store items include things you can only get through the store, and in some cases this are game system things that would've been given to everyone as an update in the pre-F2P era. For instance the barter wallet, that lets you store barter items in there instead of in your bags, freeing up loads of bag space. In practice, this means that subscribers pay the same, but get less.
3. In-game advertisement environment. There is a tendency to trick players into buying more. This is easy to spot for players who have played LotRO since the launch in 2007 and still do as of today. Where the game used to be only about having fun in Middle-earth, now there are buttons hidden everywhere that lead you to the LotRO store. Need to complete a deed to get a virtue sorted? If you click on it, you'll get directed to the store, where you can buy the virtue and don't need to do anything in-game. Recently, festival activities have been introduced with an extremely rare chance to get a certain mount or item. Of course, if you aren't lucky enough, you can always buy it in the store. These are just two examples how sneaky advertisements try to lure people into buying more. For me, they distort immersion with the beautiful world of Tolkien.
4. Distrust in game companies. Many long-term players have become distrustful of Turbine because of not keeping their promises. With the introduction of F2P, players where soothed from their fears by being promised they wouldn't introduce so called "pay to win" (P2W) items. They took this back, and introduced items that give you clear advantages in PvP areas. There's also a history of enthusiastically announcing new things, which afterwards turn out to be only available by paying separately for them when they were implemented (the sixth bag and, again, the barter wallet come to mind). This feels like misleading. It's not fun to pay a company you dislike, and many old time players I know have left because of it.

 Comic of Dilbert, by Scott Adams.

Don't get me wrong, F2P was probably a good thing for LotRO. Without it, it might very well not exist anymore. During the time of the Mirkwood expansion very little people were around, and logging in would really give you the feeling of a dying game. There wasn't that much new content and people were generally disappointed and left the game. It was getting quiet, very quiet. F2P brought an influx to the game that made it thriving again. However, all the marketing of the LotRO store makes me feel sad. It doesn't fit with Tolkien's world at all. I just want to play my elf again, wandering through the woods without being interrupted by some sort of store advertisement every so-many minutes.

Free-to-play in SWTOR
SWTOR still has all options open: F2P could turn out to be great. I'm sure the game will get an influx of players, a boost that could help the game a lot. So far, it looks like they give subscribers full access and F2P'ers limited, which is the common solution that works well. I hope they won't place many attention calling advertisements everywhere, but I suppose they might need that to get money flowing. If they do, I can only hope they will give subscribers a break from it. That would be a great quality of life improvement.

The only reason I still play LotRO is because it has a great community, because the content is good and because I'm a huge Tolkien fan. If SWTOR goes down the LotRO F2P road, I might not have the same patience.

That said, SWTOR now has the opportunity to "do it right", and I genuinely hope they will.

LOTRO: Best advertisement ever

Back when LotRO Europe was transferred from Codemasters to Turbine and our servers had just crossed the ocean, I remember an occasion when my boyfriend was standing in the kitchen and I was just starting up the game. He jokingly said something along the lines of "Imagine seeing an add saying "buy LotRO, now available from Walmart!"" I looked at my screen, turned pale and said "errr... you better check this out..."

We sat behind the screen giggling at the offer. Okay, let's buy a larger pack, that's always cheaper, right? ...right? Not in America!

1000 TP for 10 dollar!

Buy 60% more for 200% of the price! 

Err, wait... typical American business strategy? I sort of thought it was a mistake, but even after almost a year I still see this loading screen from time to time. I can only assume this offer is presented as intended. We all know the cliche of 'Americans being stupid', but surely even if this would be true, they would be able to make this calculation.

What do you think? Is Turbine incredibly stupid or just absolutely devious?

LOTRO: Last day of the festival

I think most people already have done what they wanted festivalwise by now, but don't forget to also barter any anniversary coins before the festival ends! You know, the ones that drop randomly from landscape creatures. Yes, you're right, I'm just writing this because I almost forgot to do so myself. Today is the last day of the festival and I expect the keepers of gifts to vanish before tomorrow. Not that the boxes usually drop such amazing stuff...

There is a chance to get cosmetic items, which is fun, I suppose, but I've already collected all of them over the past years. If you can get some of the higher tier gift boxes, you do have a chance on a relic, a sigil or even a 2nd age symbol, though. Are you more lucky than I?

I secretly was happy with the fireworks recipes I got, even though it's only from a collector's perspective. I don't really understand why one would actually use the fireworks recipes: they need an item that can only be acquired through bartering anniversary tokens (= more grinding), while you can also just buy the fireworks itself from a vendor. Am I missing something?

Whatever it is, I'm already very happy that I won't get stuck with leftover coins on each character this year, because you can just barter those for marks now. A nice improvement.

Last notification: all milestone skills are on a 25% sale today, costing 263 instead of 350 Turbine Points. I thought about it quite a while, but eventually decided not to do it, as I've heard the skill only gets bestowed on one character. It would be a different story if it would be account wide, but I'm not drowning in TP just yet.

Okay, that was it for now, it's safe to quit reading this blog and log in to go get your anniversary gifts, buy a one-year supply of fireworks or purchase your milestone skill!

LOTRO: On steeds and Shades of the Past

Anniversary grind completed

I'm there, I got the horses I wanted from this anniversary festival, but it was quite a grind. Less horse tokens, but double as many normal tokens, sigh. I'm really happy with what I got though: I love how the Steed of the Dusk-watch fits with my anniversary dress (picture below) - the saddle has the same blue colour, a good substitute for the anniversary azure steed that I missed out on. The Fireworks Laden Steed looks brilliant as well. I love the fireworks that comes out of its back now and then (picture at the bottom of the article)! Luckily I already got the Anniversary Steed of last year - not that I'm particular fond of its look. I do like how the picture turned out (above). If you'd still like to get some anniversary stuff: the festival is extended to May 9th.

Weekend of steeds

Steeds are hot! If you're into it, this weekend is your chance to buy any Store exclusive steeds. Apparently, all steeds that are usually only temporarily available can all be bought in the Store this weekend. In addition, most servers have steed themed community events planned - see the Lotro Reporter website for a roster. There's also a contest, for which you can submit your best horses-in-action screenshots.

Source: Official Lotro Website, Lotro Reporter

Update 7 announced

Also, news has been released of the next update, called update 7 "Shades of the Past", which will hit before June the 5th. The exact date is not clear, but this is a lot sooner than expected, at least for me! Don't worry you don't have to grind through another 10 levels just yet, the cap raise is not expected before this fall. Update 7 will embody some content upgrades:

• Fornost will be overhauled, so that it:

- can be played at a chosen level between 30 and 75
- is divided in four parts (each for a full fellowship)

Fornost isn't my favorite instance, but this does sound like a good idea. Do you remember the last time that you cleared the whole Fornost instance on-level? I've been playing for over four years now, but I think I've only done the thing in one go once, and it took me a whole afternoon and evening. And then I'm not even thinking of all the times you went in there and there was always one person who had not done the quests in the first area - resulting in not having enough time left over to do the quests the other five needed. It will be fun to play this again for good old time's sake.

• Moria areas will get a revamp

Both the looks and the quests will get attention. I didn't think there was much wrong with them as they are, but I found the previous area revamps they've done quite nice, so I guess it can't hurt. Who knows, I might level my level 48 champion a bit to try them out.

• New skirmish raid: Storm of the Methedras

Yay, new content! Less yay: why is it a skirmish? I shouldn't complain too much though, as I think people have seen most of the Tower of Orthanc by now. It is time to give us something new to keep us quiet before the big autumn update. The title sounds as if it will involve the Rohirrim, which certainly will excite my captain Ravenwyn, having Rohirrim roots.

Overall, I am looking forward to seeing this new update getting implemented. If you can't wait: Bullroarer will be opened soon.

Sources: Lotro Forums, A Casual Stroll to Mordor

Edit: check out my first thoughts in Update 7: first impression.

LOTRO: The sad story of Ravanel and the evil wallet

I'm not into negativity. No matter your age, gender or profession, you're playing a game to have fun. The many traps of MMO's (feeling too responsible for people, regarding your game time as a job instead of free time, clashes with people...) should be avoided at all costs. If something happens after all it's best to take a deep breath and look at things in perspective: it's just a game and you're there to have fun. So now I'm experiencing a feeling that is very unlike me, namely, I feel seriously annoyed. I need to vent a little about Turbine's newest creation of evil: the barter wallet. 

A short history of the barter wallet

Oldschool players will remember those days of Mirkwood when we were running around and noticed that, besides the Moria and Lothlórien medallions, silver branches and golden leaves, we now also had to gather bronze feathers and golden star emblems. It was all getting a bit much. Perhaps we could get an in-game feature that would store these barter items out of our inventory, like a wallet? The developers reacted positively on this idea, but nothing was yet to be seen. They liked the idea, but could not promise a Soon™. Then this new 'revolutionary' system was introduced. No instance would ever be the same again! You would get rewarded with marks, and each cluster had their own type, and stronger enemies would also drop other special marks and... they would all go into your inventory. The horror. These were dark days for people gathering stuff, especially for people with a weakness for cosmetic appearances...

But then there was hope! A barter wallet was announced, and we all eagerly awaited its implementation the next update. Imagine the anti-climax when we found that only (a part of) the skirmish marks went in there. Sure, in time the other marks were added to it as well, but the barter items we had wished for were still in our inventories. Time went by, free-to-play and the Store were introduced and now we got our wallet... but we have to buy it.

Depicted above: a very sad lore-master without premium barter wallet

Like a virgin

Now I'm not the only one being deeply disappointed in this, but the past has taught me one thing: you cannot win from the greed of the Store. The barter wallet is a game-changing thing that every regular player should have. It's not a stupid invention such as stat tomes or store pots that you can simply ignore. Something needed to be done, I needed to get that thing, but... I did not have enough Turbine Points to purchase it.

A distinct lack of currency marks Ravanel's downfall into grinding deeds for Turbine Points

I had heard stories of people grinding Turbine Points before. Apparently there are even people who refuse to buy anything from the Store and spend half their gaming life killing mobs to buy quest packs. But not me, I had avoided the Store at all costs. Until now.

With the store coupon I wrote about on March 28, I would be able to buy the wallet for 697 instead of 995 Turbine Points. That meant I had to grind 90 before the coupon would expire that evening. Would that be possible?

As this was my first time, I decided I could just as well do something useful with my deeds. I had always wanted to complete all deeds on my main character, but never put much effort into it. I now found that I had many deeds open that were almost finished, especially exploration deeds. So I headed north into Thinglad, where I was supposed to find a location called Foulmaw's Den. Now there's another thing you need to know about me: I don't like spoilers. If I haven't done something yet, I refuse to look it up at the lotro-wiki or another website, no matter how long it takes. I thus spent quite some time running in circles, expecting a wolf den of some sort, before I saw a tiny icon in Thinglad on the map, that looked like a beast. Heading in that direction, I soon found a...

...that someone with a lack of imagination had called Foul-maw. I mean, he's sitting (can one not feel anything else than adoration when seeing sitting bears?)! All alone in those big woods...

I left the bear, the deed was completed, and I went on with an astonishing amount of deeds of which I won't bore you with the details:

You have discovered Uflûmp-mur - hell yeah!

• Explorer of Thinglad (5)
• Zirakzigil (5)
• Western Durin's Way (5)
• The Waterworks (10)
• Explorer of Khazad-dûm (15)
• Rath Teraig Exploration (5)
• Orc-slayer & Orc-slayer (Advanced) in Bree-land (5 + 10)
• Nemesis of the Fallen & Nemesis of the Fallen (Advanced) (5 + 10)
• Stronghold Exploration (5)
• Warg-slayer (Advanced) in the Lone-lands (10)

= 90 Turbine Points!

The end was fun, as I grouped up with some lotro-wiki friends, who happened to be doing the very same thing. We made it into some sort of match. I lost from my German wiki-colleague, who managed to complete his last deed five minutes before I mine. I bought my wallet right on time and... there was much rejoicing! Twenty-eight spots saved, and that is only for one character.

Afterwards I visited the lonely bear again, to show my boyfriend the last location of his exploration deed. It was time for act two, and this act didn't end so well for the bear...

I won't post any details or pictures here, as this blog is supposed to be kid-friendly, but one can guess the ending of this story. I did tell them the bear was cute, but it was no use. He had an ugly name, he might be dangerous to wandering elves, he smelled etc etc... and oh, detail, he had a gold token hidden in his stomach.

Today's sad events teach us a true thing: greed always wins. 

...not that I mind that, though, I'm going to enjoy my premium barter wallet!

LOTRO: A precious clasp

An acidic delusion

Last night was raiding night with my kin. We were ready to take a deep bite into Acid T2. The group was looking good, that is, we only had one lore-master and one burg, but we had three guards to make up for that. Only... it didn't exactly work out as intended.

While we took down the Acid trash on T2 the previous lock and had some good tries on the boss, it just didn't want to work this night. I'm not even sure what was going on. We had experienced people, good DPS... you name it. Do you know that feeling? One night you take down Lightning T2 Challenge and Fire & Ice T2 in one go, the other night you're banging your head against the wall and don't know what's going on. This night fell into the second category.

It's not that much to be ashamed of... right? I mean, look at those freaking things, they got three eyes!

Oh precious clasp

With the upcoming lock reset in our minds, we decided not to bang until our brains fell out, so we resorted to T1 instead. The only downside for me (personally) was that I still was needed on my lore-master even though my rune-keeper has been needing to complete the T1 deed for acid and shadow for months now. Soon the vent chatter filled with remarks of typical high standard. This approximately went as follows:

Upon Shadow T1:

Player 1 (tank): "Hey guys, I just activated the fight so I'm going to tab out."

Player 2 (quasi-shocked): "What?! I mean, nooooo, you can't do that!"

The raid watches as Saruman starts a pep talk to his soon-to-be-lost minion and, after what feels like ages, slowly dodders off to his tower. Yes, you should think hey had fixed that. But no, it was actually working as intended. Aargh.

And a few minutes later, after Bukot lost some illusions (and his life):

Player 1: "<Player 2> , would you mind healing up there?"

Player 2 (rune-keeper)'s vitals suddenly show a distinct lack of morale.

Player 3: "<Player 2> just jumped off the tower, man!"

This is no source of concern, though.

Player 3: "Don't worry, I know he bought 1h FAIL immunity from the Store..."
"Wasn't that obvious?"

It might not sound as a surprise that our Saruman take-down wasn't flawless. On our first try, one of the tanks decided to crash right when the last phase started. On our second try, we were so deluded by our one hour fail immunity that we bluntly forgot to pop our wtf-skills and big heals alltogether when that same phase started. We realized this when we suddenly had two dead tanks, one dead healer and someone running around with nine Sarumans after him. This was a moment of fun though, as I could go crazy on dazing Sarumans all around me. My moment of glory arrived when I could root almost all of them with Cracked Earth, because they were finally neatly grouped up. Stated like this, it sounds like I saved the day, but this was not the case. Everyone kept their heads cool and, last but not least, we got that 1h fail immunity...

This time we made it, and I got my favourite reward:

... a free lift from Gwaihir, the giant eagle! Really, I cannot resist that feathery thing of cuteness. Especially when it just saved me from certain death. Nevertheless, we also got a more mundane reward: our kin's first clasp! We figured the whole fight out, killed Saruman (T1) as first of the server... but never got a clasp. Ordering everyone to wear that lucky horseshoe surely did the trick, and our guardian could go home in a very happy mood.

30% off Coupon

Last but not least, as I was told by my raid-mates, you should use a coupon if you plan to buy something at that filthy Store. It's only valid these coming days, but you'll get 30% off for whatever item you pick. Just place your order in the snail basket, go to the purchase window and enter the following code:

30LOTRO

Be fast though, I heard it expires on Thursday.