Thread: Haven't played for years and not since it went F2P - are my characters still around?

Hi,

I played LOTRO a long time ago (bought the double pack with the game and Moria), and I haven't logged in since the game went F2P. Are my old characters still around? I think they'd be on this account (although I did find another account registered to my email, I think I took advantage of a trial at some point) but I can't seem to find them and going through the servers one at a time to check is a bit annoying.

I thought they were on Snowbourn, but I don't have any characters there. If they've been deleted, is it possible to have them restored?

Thanks!

Edit: I just checked my other account and it says "The username entered does not have an active "LOTRO" subscription. Please try another username".

If you played on Snowbourn, you would have been a Codemasters customer.

The relationship between Codies and Turbine ended last year, and Turbine took over running the former EU servers. Because of EU privacy laws, they could not just copy over the account information without a specific authorisation from the account owner.

There was a (roughly) 6-month period during which you could request the migration of your account, which ended last November. It sounds as if you did not go through that process, and thus I'm afraid that your account information is no longer accessible, and thus you will be unable to play your old characters.

They exist somewhere in the database, so you will not be able to re-use the character names, but as your account information is now gone, they will be forever inaccessible.

But your forum join date is May 2009. Are you sure it was Snowbourn?

It comes down to if your original account was with Turbine, then yes your characters should still be available, but if it was with Codemasters, then no they're not.

Since you're logging into the forums with a Turbine account that shows a join date of May 2009, that indicates that you had a Turbine account prior to when Turbine took over the European servers. It doesn't tell us, however, whether this Turbine account was your primary account where your characters are, or perhaps a trial account you used only briefly before. (The Snowbourn server would have been managed by Codemasters at the time.)

I'm not sure in all honesty, I tried logging into the other account but I received an error message. If I log into the website account page it only mentions D&D:O, nothing about LOTRO.

Is there anyway I can contact Turbine to find out if an account is registered with my CD Key, just to make sure I'm using the right one? I don't mind loosing the characters but I'd love to be able to keep the bonuses I had (e.g. the cloak at level 1 that looked awesome).

Thinking about it, part of the problem might be that I bought the original LOTRO game close to launch, then bought the LOTRO/Moria pack when Moria launched because it was a good deal, and it's possible I created another account rather than using my original - would that fit with the 2009 registration date, or would that have been earlier? I'm sure I was either on Snowbourn or that it was an option. There were only 4 or so servers at the time IIRC.

Thanks for the replies so far

Contact Turbine account support with all the information that you can remember such as key codes, your name, billing address ... I would look at your boxes to see if they are Codemasters boxes or Turbine boxes. If there is a Codemasters logo anywhere on the box - that is EU box for the Codemasters service - Turbine will not have any record of that key usage or the associated account unless you went thru the migration process during the open period in 2011.

Do you live in Europe or in the US? That would be significant in determining where you account was.

UK. I'll have a look, thanks.

I just tried creating a character and it says the Rune Keeper is locked, so it obviously doesn't have my Mines of Moria cd key registered - unless that doesn't "count" anymore?

Edit: The compilation pack box has the Turbine logo on it. I'll see if I still have the original.
Edit2: Seems I don't, although I'll have a more in depth look tomorrow when I'm not as tired. I've submitted a ticket.

Originally Posted by Vandros

I just tried creating a character and it says the Rune Keeper is locked, so it obviously doesn't have my Mines of Moria cd key registered - unless that doesn't "count" anymore?

It would count, so yes, rune-keeper being locked means this account didn't have the Mines of Moria key added.

Originally Posted by Vandros

The compilation pack box has the Turbine logo on it.

All the boxes, no matter their origin, have the Turbine logo. What is important is if there is also a Codemasters logo on the box (usually in the lower right corner).

Ah, I see - it does have a Codemasters logo actually, yeah. Does that mean that they're likely going to try and force me to buy all the content again?

I think what must have happened is that my other account (the one that doesn't work), was my proper account and for some reason isn't working (perhaps because it hasn't been migrated to the new servers), whereas the one that does work must be for a trial I created.

Originally Posted by Vandros

Ah, I see - it does have a Codemasters logo actually, yeah. Does that mean that they're likely going to try and force me to buy all the content again?

being as the boxes have a codemasters log on them means the codes could only be used by the codemasters servers, they were or still are incomptable with turbines system.. that is if the codes were unused but codes can only be used once

I think what must have happened is that my other account (the one that doesn't work), was my proper account and for some reason isn't working (perhaps because it hasn't been migrated to the new servers), whereas the one that does work must be for a trial I created.

this will deffinatly be the case, unfortunatly because you missed the migration you will need to start fresh. but on the plus side you can play for free and earn TP ingame to buy what you had previously if you can bare the grind of it

Originally Posted by Vandros

Ah, I see - it does have a Codemasters logo actually, yeah. Does that mean that they're likely going to try and force me to buy all the content again?

I'm sure they won't use force, but I'm afraid that it is your only option.

At least now you do have the option of purchasing it using in-game earned Turbine Points.

Originally Posted by Vandros

Ah, I see - it does have a Codemasters logo actually, yeah. Does that mean that they're likely going to try and force me to buy all the content again?

I think what must have happened is that my other account (the one that doesn't work), was my proper account and for some reason isn't working (perhaps because it hasn't been migrated to the new servers), whereas the one that does work must be for a trial I created.

That Codemasters code would be fine, assuming you had migrated your Codemasters account to Turbine's servers during the 6 month migration period. Turbine made numerous attempts to notify players of the need to migrate. If you didn't migrate, there is nothing Turbine can do, they no longer have access to your Codemasters account data. After the migration, Codemasters codes were considered invalid, because the only servers they ever worked on, which were run by Codemasters, no longer existed. The reason for the migration was specifically so that you wouldn't have to buy anything over again, or start over again. If you didn't migrate, you'll have to start from scratch. Your old code in that case is A. Invalid and B. Used, either one of which would prevent it being useable.