Thread: LOTRO is in danger!!! save LOTRO TODAY (RIDDERMARK)

The starter areas or anything that isn't a L75 area (for now, soon to be L85) are going to be pretty vacant no matter what server you are on. The whole push is to move folks to L75 and get them out of the starter areas asap.

We have inspired-greatness, uber store pots, armour and buffs all designed to get you out of the Lone Lands and into Stangard asap.

The overall server populations will fluctuate depending on:

1. finance of the player base
2. work/school or other obligations
3. new content or games elsewhere
4. contentment with the state of LOTRO

and a lot of other reasons can cause server populations rise and fall.

It maybe be that SWTOR has low populations on servers but they have a lot more servers then LOTRO. Players come and go. Raiders run to max level (75 lotro / 50 swtor) and leave. They only log in to run the 1 or 2 raids they can do per week and logout until their locks reset. So, many raiders have multiple games and Monday night it might be LOTRO but If It's Tuesday, It Must Be Belgium er... <any other game>.

Originally Posted by UwS-Harledir

get your facts straight

Posts like this crack me up. Not only does he not get the reference (though it's quite old now, it's certainly a classic!), it's also obvious he didn't read much of the thread - but he still felt necessary to add his "contribution" hehe.

Back on topic - Landroval seems to be doing pretty well. I'd say it's been stable for the last few years. My friends list is full, and even the ones at the bottom of the list (sorted by when they last played) have all played fairly recently.

I started a new captain and a new warden recently, and ran into plenty of people in all areas. The Treasure Hunt mini-festival was way too crowded if anything (even instanced).

But if you're feeling lonely, your best bet (as always) is to join an active kinship. It doesn't take thousands of players to make an MMO feel alive - just a few dozen can do so.

Originally Posted by MoonwalkIntoMordor

The majority of active players are at or around the level cap. It would surprise me more if I see Bree-land full of people these days, because I don't expect a huge influx of new players anytime soon.

<snip>

That's odd, I could have sworn I saw Sapience post just this past January "but the fact is that we get thousands of new players in LOTRO every single day" , wouldn't all those new players be in Breeland and other starter areas like that?

Originally Posted by Mark_J

wouldn't all those new players be in Breeland and other starter areas like that?

They are ... but not on Riddermark

Not sure why Turbine doesn't believe that people starting on servers with only five people in the area are very likely to quit the game rather than switching servers.

If you don't want to shut down or merge the inactive servers because that would scare your shareholders then allow people to switch their servers for free *ONCE*

Originally Posted by LeonardoB

How can it be that one of the greatest MMOs of all time is lagging in population??!?!

Because this falsely named "Free to play" game wants to charge an arm and a leg for the expansion packs?

Originally Posted by Mark_J

"but the fact is that we get thousands of new players in LOTRO every single day"

Equally true is that Myspace is getting 50 million new subscribers every hour too.

Originally Posted by Pentegarn

Which is sad, Animal House is one of the 5 best comedies of all time. Anyone who has not seen it has denied themselves a basic building block of comedy (and movie history as well, for example Donald Sutherland was given the choice between a lump sum payment and the residuals from the movie profits, and he chose the lump sums in one of the all time bad choices made by any professional). Like not watching the Marx Brothers or Looney Toons

Dare I ask what the other four are?

In no particular order...
Caddyshack
Animal House
Airplane
Old School
??? too many to pick from (Jerk, Beverly Hills Cop, Stripes, Spies Like Us, Fast Times, Blazing Saddles, Young Frank, the list goes on.


Oh, and for the record:
http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/gall...funniest?pg=26

Note the ranking, please.

this thread is so awesome i want to cut it open and crawl inside like a tauntaun

What is the internal temperature of a tauntaun?


...
...
...
...
...
Lukewarm

Riddermark were crowed at bree and that areas because the server was "new" and that's the keyword there. We didn't have top levels, i remember doing lvl 50 raids and we were the top guys.

Now there's a lot of lvls 75, wich keeps bree and that areas non played so much as they were at the beggining.

Also F2P were launched and a lot of people tried the game in ridder, maybe they liked, maybe they don't, but they were here, now there's not that much of that.

A lot of reasons that made imposible to track the numbers of players Riddermark has.

Now, as i've seen in the lately days, "the old players that were here" are leaving lotro, but i'm leading raids where i always pug 7-8 new lvls 75 players with shiny items. That keeps the server alive. There's still people coming here.

The fact that the OP feels that way it's i assume that his/her friends left the game, but there's still a lot of us playing, growing up.

Originally Posted by Serees

Because this falsely named "Free to play" game wants to charge an arm and a leg for the expansion packs?

Somewhat off-topic, but have you seen the price for the upcoming DDO expansion? USD$80 for a digital "collector's edition". Ouch! I hope LOTRO does not follow suit with RoR.

This is a very complicated thing to judge without population tracking tools that only Turbine can use. I do believe there has been some loss in player base but it is incredibly hard to tell if there has been and by how much because there is so many places for players to go in the game world now.

With the down turn in the economy, many people have been losing access to the internet. Also there have been many new MMORPGs coming out lately and of course people would want to try them out.

Turbine mean while has been focusing on adding new content to the end game for long time players. This is not a bad thing, in fact it is nessecary to grow the limits of the game. The problem with this however is that they are neglecting new players who of course will not be able to use this content for a long time.

If I was asked, which I have not been......I would recommend a multi part process to try and attract new players, from most important to least.

1. Fix the launcher, it not only looks unprofessional but it has many bugs that prevent it from working on some computer systems.

2. Improve support. Turbine is notorious for its poor customer support that I am sure has cost it many players over the years.

3. Update the maps. The maps not only look like they were drawn by 5 year olds but they often have mistakes, roads in wrong places, showing passage where no passage exists, showing no passage where passage exists.

4. Upgrade and lower level requirements for skirmishes and dungeons. Add new skirmishes and dungeons and drop them to level 10 accessability. Add new types for skirmishes like escort or assault (attack escort). Fix pathing bugs for soldiers and balance them better. Add some interesting things like breakable doors and traps to dungeons. Make dungeon options more like skirmishes with solo playability and level varability for all dungeons. One of the crown jewels of Lotro, that Wow and probably many other MMORPGs do not have, is its skirmishes and the level varability of its dungeons. Ignoring these and starting them at level 20 is like Mcdonold's not advertising thier fries and requireing you to spend $20 in other products before you can buy them! You want to put your best foot forward.

5. Improve personalization. A player's ability to personalize thier character and enviorment is very important as can be seen in many of the face book games. Put your peronal stamp on things as it were. Lotro dose a very good job at that already with the cosmetic clothes, dyeing, house, titles, traits, legacies, etc. However a little more would not hurt. Two dye colors for clothing for instance and housing sure could use an update.

6. Add new low level areas. It would be nice to see a few new low level areas. Maybe a new area for a couple new races and a new 10-20 area so one can do something other then bree-land.......yet again.......

7. Add a couple new races and classes. I know it is hard to add new races when one is resticted by lore but the game could really use a few. Maybe split the man and elf races (High/Wood) for instance or add young Earth-kin or Half-orcs. Also it is hard to add new classes when your old ones are still......unbalanced....but a couple new ones would not hurt.

8. Balance classes. I know the hardest thing to do in an MMORPG is getting classes balanced but I have the feeling that Turbine is not even trying...... They really need to spend some effort in this.

Well these are my recommendations. If Lotro did things like this then they could adverties the new changes and try to bring in new players and recapture old ones that left for some reason. But if all they plan to do is add new content on to the end game then the future of Lotro is pretty bleak.

Originally Posted by tongra

Dare I ask what the other four are?

In no particular order...
Caddyshack
Animal House
Airplane
Old School
??? too many to pick from (Jerk, Beverly Hills Cop, Stripes, Spies Like Us, Fast Times, Blazing Saddles, Young Frank, the list goes on.


Oh, and for the record:
http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/gall...funniest?pg=26

Note the ranking, please.

Father Goose
Arsenic and Old Lace

and my all time favorite, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.
"How many times have I told you, never fan the girls when they're wet! But you'll never learn, you'll be a eunuch all your life!"

Originally Posted by Nymphonic

What? Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!

Germans? Pearl harbour? what?

Can't tell if trolling or not.

There are a fair number of games that will hammer the player base. Sure, every time a game comes out we say that, but with a string of good titles ready on deck we're going to see an impact.

Hell, U6 did a good enough job trimming people and that was their own product.

Originally Posted by PANZERBUNNY

Germans? Pearl harbour? what?

Can't tell if trolling or not.

There are a fair number of games that will hammer the player base. Sure, every time a game comes out we say that, but with a string of good titles ready on deck we're going to see an impact.

Hell, U6 did a good enough job trimming people and that was their own product.

Have you read the replies? Nymph was quoting a rather popular comedy movie.

On the population, most servers now have low pops in starter areas as noted above. Generally populations fluctuate around extra content, been on Elindilmir since the start and still very healthy in all the lvl 60+ areas.

Yep, and it's only going to get worse. The more the developers find creative ways to keep punishing players for their loyalty i.e incessant grinds, lack of creativity (ever notice that it's always the same kind of quests - of course you have! level 75 and the only thing that different is that I'm not picking up orc poop this time), and a general emphasis on making in game rewards frustratingly difficult to get without a little help from the LOTRO store, the more people will bail. Half my kin will be gone when GW2 hits. oh, and did I mention....LAG????????????? But don't worry everyone, because everything is working as intended!

Originally Posted by Pentegarn

Which is sad, Animal House is one of the 5 best comedies of all time. Anyone who has not seen it has denied themselves a basic building block of comedy (and movie history as well, for example Donald Sutherland was given the choice between a lump sum payment and the residuals from the movie profits, and he chose the lump sums in one of the all time bad choices made by any professional). Like not watching the Marx Brothers or Looney Toons

The two guys stealing the wrong answers to the test was hilarious!

The population will likely only decline from here, how much will it decline? I don't know.

On another note, Animal House sucked.

Originally Posted by ImirielOfTheNorth

The population will likely only decline from here, how much will it decline? I don't know.

On another note, Animal House sucked.

That's, well...I mean, NOW you're just being CONtrary.

And wait for the 3D version.

To be honest, i have played on Brandywine, Landroval and Laurelin and Bree almost always has | a lot of | players around
Not all servers have the same high population

But Turbine expects a new massive wave of new and old players in LotRO, with the 'Hobbit' movie and 'Riders of Riddermark' expansion later this fall. So the overall pop of the game will only grow. And if they advertise more, then that will only add up for sure

Originally Posted by Tiamo

Removed comment because of negative rep.

Plus Rep Just to offset thse that cant take a comment for what it is and give out neg rep like candy for no reason.

Originally Posted by NickStern

Plus Rep Just to offset thse that cant take a comment for what it is and give out neg rep like candy for no reason.

Heh, appreciated though unnecessary.

Is it just this server? Or is every server like this? I haven't played in a while..

Originally Posted by LeonardoB

My dear dwarfs, elves, hobbits, and men,
about two years ago I quit LOTRO due to school and at the time LOTRO had a great community/ population; people were helpful and fellowships were everyday things. As I was bored over the summer the pull of LOTRO came back and I fell in love with Middle-Earth again and I decided to return. when I did I was SHOCKED to see that the population had greatly decreased. The forsaken Inn in the Lone-Lands had truly become FORSAKEN as well as other places which were once crowded with players!!! Even Bree town was empty. PLEASE, I play on Riddermark and if this is not true of the other servers then please tell me! How can it be that one of the greatest MMOs of all time is lagging in population??!?! in comparison with WoW we have a tiny amount of players!!!! My brothers. "I see in your eyes the future of a forsaken MMO. A day may come, when the epicness of LOTRO fails, when we forsake our beloved games, and break all bonds of role-playing. An hour of facebook, and shattered shields, when the Age of MMOs comes crashing down. But it is not this day, this day, we PLAY!!"
SPREAD the word!!! LOTRO is too awesome to become a forgotten game; spread the word and let the adventure go on!!!!
P.S. WHO'S EXITED ABOUT THE HOBBIT?

If it makes you feel better, I'm a returning player who is planning on VIP on payday.

Hello Everyone

When I started just over a year ago, it was because of a Yahoo fluff piece on the best free online games, and LOTRO was one of them. Perhaps I wasn't the only one that read it.

In my beginning, Combe was a happening town, full of lower toons and you just kept hearing the sounds of toons leveling all the time. I was surprised when I went back one time and there were only two or three there. But I figured it was because when I started the server was rather new and new folks were being steered towards it. Now, those people have leveled up and while some of the toons in Archet are new people, I've found that many are alts of other, established accounts.

On the matter of the off-topic postings, Blues Brothers is also ranked in my top five, along with A Fish Called Wanda.


Have a great day everyone...

Hey guys thanks for addressing my concern (and adding a bunch of junk on comedies and who bombed Pearl Harbor)
So for the most part I am happy with what I have heard; I kinda hope that when the population goes up for whatever reason (like new Hobbit movie coming out) that the population will go up and STAY UP! the last movie of LOTR came out in 2003 and LOTRO didn't come out until 2007 (I think...... ) so I hope that while the movie come people will renew a hunger for LOTR lore. I think one of the main reasons WOW has a bunch more players than us is that it had a social scope while (in Riddermark anyway) its kinda a surprise to see someone wandering along in Erid-luin while in WoW there are tons of people, even in the starting arias. Im just hoping to meet more people once I get to the top lvls.
~Thornen of Riddermark (lvl 21) ~

Originally Posted by Mark_J

That's odd, I could have sworn I saw Sapience post just this past January "but the fact is that we get thousands of new players in LOTRO every single day" , wouldn't all those new players be in Breeland and other starter areas like that?

Borrowing a phrase from that guy (Yogi Berra) who said things like this:

"Nobody plays LOTRO anymore; it's too crowded."

Originally Posted by UwS-Harledir

get your facts straight

Get some culture. This was very clearly an Animal House reference. Got to love people and their high horses. >_>