LOTRO F2P

The day is here and Lord of the Rings Online is now officially a free-to-play game. As I had received an email on the matter from Turbine, I decided to see how the game would change.

After downloading the patch, I entered LOTRO. I managed to enter without problems and the change to free-to-play seems seamless. I tried out all 5 of my characters and while there are some changes in the skills, the changes are minor in the gameplay. I heard of the new man and hobbit starting areas, I may try that later but for this review I will speak on the changes I had noticed.

First thing of course, I am playing the game. As a free-to-play game, there is no need for me to pay a subscription so that’s great. I also get the try the skirmish, a new feature introduced in the latest expansion “Siege of Mirkwood,” which I never got. Overall, things were pretty good.

Then I hit the first problem. One of my alt is at North-Downs and I got this screen that says to access the content of North-Downs, you need to buy the content from the Turbine store. Any quest I currently have in the North-Downs is also gone. However the main thing is that I can safely tell you there is no way I am going to pay for the content in North-Downs.

This is the big problem I have with LOTRO going F2P; the content for North-Down is good but it is also not necessary for me to advance in the game. I can easily skip North-Downs and go to other areas to gain xp. It might be a bit of a grind but I can power myself out of the area easily enough.

I love the fact I can now play LOTRO without a subscription but letting gamers play a sandbox game like LOTRO without a subscription is a risk and I do fear for the long-term future of the game. Hopefully, I am wrong.