Thread: Turbine: Read this if you want to make your customers happy!

Alright guys, let me start by saying I have played this game since beta in 2007. I love this game, and I really don't want to have to look for another MMO to play. I have always been a fan of JRR Tolkien, and getting to see his works come to life has been great. Over these 5 years, I have taken breaks... but I always come back. So far, I have pre-purchased every single expansion pack to date.

I know everyone has been complaining about the price of this pack. And it is true, in this global economy... $70 is a LOT to spend on anything nonessential for a LOT of people, let alone an expansion pack, not even a full game. Let me reiterate the general consensus: We the players could leave and buy into a whole NEW MMO for less money than one expansion pack. You can say it is 3X the size of Moria all day, but it will NOT have as much content as a full game. And we could get full games cheaper.

I understand that it takes money to develop content, but this is NOT the way to go about getting it. Let's put it this way. You are driving off some of your most loyal customers. LOTRO's only appeal at this point would be to those who have friendships in the game, and serious Tolkien buffs. By raising prices to an exorbitant amount, you are causing people to leave. That will cause a snowball effect, because people play MMOs to interact with people. Less people = more people bored = more people leaving.

That's not even the part most of us seem to be most upset over. It is the general lack of solid information. The attitude that Turbine as a company does not OWE the players any real information on what we are getting for our hard earned money. You seem to have assumed at some point that we will all blindly buy. Yes, that may work. But not forever. Keep playing games like this, Turbine and I will leave. And I'm not the only one. Tons of people are very upset.

The way I, and from my reading, most of the forums posters see things... Turbine needs to do 3 things.

1. Release total information on everything. Answer every last question you guys get asked. Provide us with EXACTLY how much play time we are going to get from this. Give us details on how mounted combat is going to work, what is going to keep us busy. HOW MANY QUESTS ARE THERE? If it is really 2X-3X the amount of Moria, you should have no reason NOT to release that number. If you don't know, give us a ball park. I'm sure someone knows how many quests are in Moria. We can then verify if you are telling us the truth.
2. ADD Turbine Points into the top tier deal. For free. Don't make us pay extra for more points unless you've already given us some free. Give us 1500 points for the legendary, and I would probably buy it tonight. Give us 2000, and I'd delete this post and buy it now. Give us 2500 and I'd sing Turbine's praises. And recommend LOTRO to friends. Which means more money for you Turbine.You could also easily give the same amount of points to those who have already purchased the expansion, thereby avoiding stepping on any toes.
3. START WORKING ON END GAME RAIDS. NOW. Get them done ASAP. But don't make them buggy. If it takes a month after release, fine... But don't NOT start working on it. Start now. AND INCLUDE IT WITH THE EXPANSION PACK, AT NO EXTRA CHARGE. If you make us pay extra for these instances, then stop calling ROR an expansion pack. Call it what it is. A quest pack. A $40-$70 quest pack, depending on how naive the buyer is. If you don't include those instances at no charge, then give us all TP to make up the difference in price, or refund the amount to reflect what it actually is you are selling, which at this point is a quest pack with mounted combat added in, which, as I noted in point 1, we know almost nothing about.

I feel that if these 3 things were done, we'd have an expansion that people could buy into. I know I would. I'd feel a lot more confident in the direction this game is going.

Think about this Turbine. You are only about half way through the books, if that. You have many more expansion packs you NEED us to buy. That is, if you want this game to continue. Do you really think that being miserly on this expansion and losing half or more of your LOYAL player base is going to net you more money in the long run?

Here's the thing, Turbine. I'm WILLING to spend money in this game. If you add actual stuff that I feel will be useful, I will more than likely buy it. If you had just made the prices of the expansions more reasonable and developed some other "extra" stuff for the store, I probably would have spent more money anyway... but as it stands I refuse to spend ANY more money on principle.

Let me put it more simply for you. If you had made the price of the top tier expansion pack, say... $50 and added some other non-essential items to the store, I would have probably spent close to $20 in TP anyway. And I'm not alone. I'm willing to GIVE YOU MY MONEY. But you have to actually work for it.

Finally, let me end by saying I'm not even angry. I'm sad that this game is not going to last long enough for me to see all of Middle-earth if Turbine keeps this kind of practice going.

That's my two cents. Anyone feel free to add their own opinions. I really hope this gets somewhere Turbine will see it.

And let me add just one more thing to get Turbine's attention.

If you see this post, and you agree with me, then you need to tell everyone you know in game, and out of the game NOT TO BUY THIS EXPANSION. Tell your kinmates. Tell your friends list. Tell GLFF. Tell the new players asking for advice. UNTIL WE GET WHAT WE DESERVE.

THIS DAY WE FIGHT!




Since the devs say they look at forum posts, they should have seen this by now. 2,500 views in 24 hours, Turbine. If someone hasn't seen it by now (Sunday, June 10 2012) they will definitely see it Monday when they get back to work.

At the very least, can we get some kind of official response and acknowledgement?

Okay guys, I've gone through most of your posts and I'm going to try to put the main points up here for everyone to see. If I missed something important, feel free to let me know!

Stuff others have mentioned

CLARIFICATION: On everything really. Make things less confusing. A good example would be on the question of whether VIPs will have to pay extra for the Instance cluster due to come out. Another would be whether the land size is "nearly 2X the size of Moria" or "3X the size of Moria." Currently, Turbine has said both. One of those has to be untrue. HOW MANY QUESTS? (Obviously there are more confusing parts, but you get the idea, right Turbine?)

TRUST: Maybe if you guys would admit to us that ROI was a failure to us, we would be more willing to trust you now. You guys were saying ROI was WONDERFUL too a year or so ago... and what did we get? A disappointment. Maybe if you would just admit, "Hey, we let you guys down with ROI." We would be more apt to trust your word this time that ROR won't be yet another let down.

In general, the sentiment is that there has been a serious erosion of both quality and quantity in this game, as well as a serious increase in pricing. To put it simply and bluntly, the players feel like this game is going down, Turbine. Do something about it.

Other things due for a long time that need to be addressed to make this game competitive again: PVMP Overhaul, new PVMP areas, and more hobbies. Obviously, this list is going to grow as more people comment.

Okay, here is the biggest complaint I am seeing... Turbine originally said in the FAQ that the instance cluster would be free to everyone who purchased the expansion. After presumably hundreds/thousands bought on that notion, they then EDIT the FAQ to remove the part about getting it free. THAT IS DOWNRIGHT FALSE ADVERTISEMENT. And guess what, Turbine. It is a purchase made outside the game, so those nice agreements we make not to sue, they don't apply here. Give the refunds to people who ask for them. You might be in trouble otherwise. You guys operate in the United States of America. And there are such things as "Consumer Laws." I don't care if you agree with me and this post or NOT, but this part is just downright morally wrong, and ILLEGAL.

So, can we get a response now Turbine, or do we need to get to 10,000 views?

Update: I noticed Turbine sent out an email offering an exclusive mount for those of us that refer our friends, and they asked us to Like them on Facebook on the launcher. Now, I've been gone for a while so this may be normal practice. But if it isn't a normal thing for them to do, then this means we are getting to them. People are leaving and their numbers are down. If this is abnormal practice, we may be getting somewhere guys. Keep strong.

Thank you so much for taking the thought and time to post this! I share your love of the game AND your frustration with the recent actions of Turbine. I'll make it short: I agree with you on Every point!

Originally Posted by Eloro

Finally, let me end by saying I'm not even angry. I'm sad that this game is not going to last long enough for me to see all of Middle-earth if Turbine keeps this kind of practice going.

Same boat here, today after I read the instances won't be included after it was stated in blue they will, I had a bad feeling about RoR content.

All I know is I was thinking in renew my subscription and buy the steam pack (even I dont need any of those) and now I decided to not spend more money in this game until I see good signs of repentance

Originally Posted by Ithranden

Thank you so much for taking the thought and time to post this! I share your love of the game AND your frustration with the recent actions of Turbine. I'll make it short: I agree with you on Every point!

Ditto for me as well...A money making machine that has totally gone astray, does this mean we will stop getting nickeled and dimed to death?

/signed

totally agree, im a f2p that wanted to turn VIP and also buy the new expansion but these guys are just not letting me to

/signed
Agreed

/signed add me to the sad list

/signed...

Abit off topic, has turbine released any news on the new pvp zone they said they would put in RoI and advertised for about a year ago?

I also agree that the top tier of the expansion pack is too expensive but the thing is that 2 and 3 on your list will not encourage me to purchase the expansion and I dont think that Turbine can really do #1. And thats one of the main problems we are seeing different groups want different things and there is no way to make everyone happy.

Here is why your requirements will not make a difference to me.
#1 I would love more information but I dont think Turbine can really state how much play time people will get out of the expansion. Everyone levels at a different rate. Since it is 10 more levels my guess is that it will take me about 15% longer to get from 75 to 85 then it did to get from lvl 65 to 75. I make that guess on my play rate but until Turbine starts the beta I dont think they really know how we will react to the added horse combat and how that will effect our leveling rate.

2. I currently have 6500 TP's and will continue to get 500 every month until the update is released which will put me at 8000. The last thing I want is to spend real money on more points. I am interested in the basic expansion pack and the 6th bag. Thats all. It looks like I will be able to spend some of my accumulated TP to get the 6th bag account wide so I am happy.

3. I am a lifetime member so I wil always be VIP. That means that I will not have to pay for the instance cluster. I would rather they spend the next few months on ironing out any bugs in the expansion. Since we know that there will be an instance cluster by the end of the year I am sure they are currently working on the design of these instances in between fixing issues that the alpha and some time latter this month the beta finds in the expansion. This is what I want them to do. I want the focus on making the expansion as good as it can be, then once the expansion goes live change focus to the next update with the instances. What I do not want is another round of the buggy content we got with the RoI expansion. That would be the fastest way to drive me from the game.

Did they mess up on communication, yes very much so, but as unhappy as I was when they first released that only the $70 package had the 6th bag now with more information on the cost of obtaining it in the store I am fine with the pricing. For $50 I can get the expansion and the bag and for $10 of it I can use tp's. I had budgeted $50 for the expansion and its coming in right where I felt it should be.

For me as I look back over the last two years or so since F2P went live I am finding that I wish they would release an expansion every 18 months instead of yearly. We will have to see how the new expansion turns out but I think that a yearly expansion is rushed and to much of the content added with updateds does not get done because everyone knows the items you get will have little use in a few months. I would have loved to see the OD raid be the top raid for an extra 3 to 6 months. The Driagoch raid would have been nice to see added as an update instead of as part of the expansion package. An extra 3 to 6 months would have given more time to test both Driagoch and instance cluster. Also the extra time would have meant the instances were added with the expansion since they were priced as part of it.

I don't ask for much. Just want to log in and have a fun game to play, with stuff to do. With this "Expansion" if you can call it that, I just don't see it. Maybe I do need to take a break for a year, so when I do finally log in, ill have two weeks worth of content to do ;?

Hear Hear! (Hear what I have to say!)
Hey Turbine! This is the first time in 5 years I didn't jump at a pre-order! Wake up and smell the torches being lit!! $70 for fluff and promises? No thanks!

Very well said I agree 100%. I dropped my VIP and if I get the new pack it will be because I ground out the TP to buy it. I do not understand how you can not release an instance cluster with this new expansion, seeing as how it was one of the biggest complaints about ROI.

And yeah I am sad to see what is going on too, I love tolkiens work and have really enjoyed playing around in his world. I hope to be able to continue to play in his world as long as it is economically feasible for me. 70$ and no instance cluster or TP? Just does not work for me. Hopefully they see this and try to straighten this whole thing out.

Originally Posted by Eloro

Alright guys, let me start by saying I have played this game since beta in 2007. I love this game,

If you really loved this game your pre-order would'nt depend on TPs included.
It would depend on Turbine bringing back the quality into this game.

/signed.

Aragorn speech is a nice touch ^^
/swordsalute

Sadly I already pre-ordered it at the first day but I totally agree on every point. /Signed

Never put a game in the hands of a Disney company.

I already voted with my wallet last year right after the RoI expansion. I bought the Legendary edition and was highly dissapointed in the expac as a whole.
Have been Premium ever since and not spend a single dime on this game anymore.

And by the looks of it and how they mananaged to screw up yet again with this expac, learning nothing from the debacle last year, they will never get another dime for me.

I think, after being with this game for 5 years, the time has come to move on. Looking forward to The Secret World more than ever now.

A real shame, as I am a huge Tolkien fan and loved the game a lot, but I have drawn a line for myself last year and Turbine has crossed it. Big time!

There is a limit as to how far you can push your customers! That limit was already reached for me last year.

I agree and I stupidly did buy the ROR already, it's simply not worth it. The low level ROR steed for one thing, what a farce..this is supposed to be a war horse!
Wait until there is a better offer. I sent in a complaint but got a standard reply, not even an acknowledgement of my grevinces! like did they even read what I sent..

I would really like to help and tell my kinmates, but I'm too busy playing Guild Wars 2 Beta weekend right now, sorry. ;-)

Originally Posted by Boomthor

I agree and I stupidly did buy the ROR already, it's simply not worth it. The low level ROR steed for one thing, what a farce..this is supposed to be a war horse!
Wait until there is a better offer. I sent in a complaint but got a standard reply, not even an acknowledgement of my grevinces! like did they even read what I sent..

Request a refund! They are not allowed to deny a refund, as they screwed up with the FAQ, promising content that is now suddenly not included. They cannot simply get away with this and keep to their "no refund" policy! Not this time!

I haven't posted on the forums in ages, but I decided to throw my voice in with the cries of the others here.

I only have one thing I'd like to point out....

The Hobbit movie is about to be released. I'm sure Warner Brothers is expecting that to drive more interest in the game and having a $70 product in the marketplace is going to be a huge revenue driver for them... and I don't have a problem with them taking advantage of the free marketing publicity the film is going to drive at them.

My issue is that it is a slap in the face to already loyal fans to make them pay for your server upgrades to handle the new traffic flow you're expecting, which is the way I choose to see this. People who are already loyal to the brand don't need to be penalized because the company is about to get a major increase in traffic and aren't ready for it.

When ROI came out, I passed due to the cost especially the much higher cost of it with TP ( which is true for non CC buyers ), instead I was able to make it to 73 with both the books that came with it and skirmish and a few other quests, when GR came out I made it to 75 and bought draig, this was a much cheaper and better option imo because at this point there is zero reason to own ROI with ROR so close, because all that cluster gear will be throw away quite soon.

With ROR at 39 I'm guessing it will cost much more with TP, I have no need for a 6th bag as I currently have 2 free and probably more with ROR coming out as alot of past stuff will be thrown away too aside from my wearable gear. I'm also guessing the instances will be around $20 or more.

This is simply getting a bit silly, I was a VIP for a year and now that I finally decided to try out MP I see my 69k DP are no longer useable, this tells me there is zero reason for me to go VIP again since I already buy the odd $20 tp card every few months for things I might need or are much better value that certain other things.

If you made some changes and cut prices a bit so it's more realistic, I would be more apt to advise LOTRO to friends and new customers, as it stands I'm starting to agree with alot of voices in game and on the forum over tactics involved for long term players and loyal customers.

Simply put the cost is no longer worth it at this point, best to stay premium and lvl a tad slower with the options that are available, cause with the current trend I'm willing to get ROR will have a cheaper quest pack that will easily get me to 85 and the books at least will get me to 81 while doing a few gr quests and spamming skirmish.

/Signed, agreed

Originally Posted by sapereaude

If you really loved this game your pre-order would'nt depend on TPs included.
It would depend on Turbine bringing back the quality into this game.

Well, obviously that's the ultimate goal here. But demanding that Turbine "bring back the quality into this game" is a little bit broad. That would come in the future. If they can get a GOOD QUALITY expansion for a FAIR PRICE, we will be on our way to a better game.

The TPs are to lessen the feeling that Turbine is really just taking money from us for nothing. It may not be much, but 15-$20 worth of TP would put this expansion at a place where someone could say... "Well, I'm buying a $50 expansion and $20 in TP." Sure, $50 is still really steep for an expansion, but isn't that better than not getting anything at all? I would ask that Turbine refund $15-$20 for everyone who already bought, but that would take a LOT of work on their part, and they would be losing revenue. They will never go for that.

So I went for something they might consider going for... throwing in some TP to take the edge off this overpriced quest pack. TP don't cost Turbine anything. So they are more likely to give those out than lower the price.

I still think turbine is going to need to do more than simply add turbine points to the bundles. That should be a given that we are getting those. Turbine also needs to actually put the new instance cluster in RoR. I no longer pay attention to these "future" promises that turbine makes. With Rise of Isenguard we were told the the PvMP would be seeing some major changes to it. All that came out of it was the combined currency system (which in my mind actually raised the price of most of the PvMP stuff) and audacity (which is nothing more than a grind to prevent casual PvPers).

I will be sorry not to see this game to the end, but I can't afford to pay $50-$70 for "promises."

And mounted combat... From the little they have given us it is just going to result in 1 more grind that everyone has to do. This game already has too much grinding going on in it. If I wanted a game that I simply spent hours and hours grinding on then I would go play runescape. Its cheaper and at least I can walk away from it without worry while I'm doing it.

I agree with the post. I too have been here since the open beta and have loved the expansions.
They were good new content at a reasonable price. Mines of Moria was definitely worth it's 50 euros.
It has a lot of new area's, it had a lot of instances.

Now, Turbine, you ask 70 dollars for the legendary expac. Let's say 65 euros. And about 50 for the regular one (which is close to what the Rise of Isengard legendary one was).
It has promised new areas yes.
It gives useless fluff.
It gives the promise of mounted combat.
It does not give extra TP.
It does not come with an instance cluster nor is the instance cluster included when it releases.

We get 10 new levels so let's say about 3 weeks gameplay, if you take it slow, in what I assume is going to be mostly solo PVE and a new way of combat.

This I do not deem worth the money.

Originally Posted by ThistleRose3

I also agree that the top tier of the expansion pack is too expensive but the thing is that 2 and 3 on your list will not encourage me to purchase the expansion and I dont think that Turbine can really do #1. And thats one of the main problems we are seeing different groups want different things and there is no way to make everyone happy.

Here is why your requirements will not make a difference to me.
#1 I would love more information but I dont think Turbine can really state how much play time people will get out of the expansion. Everyone levels at a different rate. Since it is 10 more levels my guess is that it will take me about 15% longer to get from 75 to 85 then it did to get from lvl 65 to 75. I make that guess on my play rate but until Turbine starts the beta I dont think they really know how we will react to the added horse combat and how that will effect our leveling rate.

2. I currently have 6500 TP's and will continue to get 500 every month until the update is released which will put me at 8000. The last thing I want is to spend real money on more points. I am interested in the basic expansion pack and the 6th bag. Thats all. It looks like I will be able to spend some of my accumulated TP to get the 6th bag account wide so I am happy.

3. I am a lifetime member so I wil always be VIP. That means that I will not have to pay for the instance cluster. I would rather they spend the next few months on ironing out any bugs in the expansion. Since we know that there will be an instance cluster by the end of the year I am sure they are currently working on the design of these instances in between fixing issues that the alpha and some time latter this month the beta finds in the expansion. This is what I want them to do. I want the focus on making the expansion as good as it can be, then once the expansion goes live change focus to the next update with the instances. What I do not want is another round of the buggy content we got with the RoI expansion. That would be the fastest way to drive me from the game.

Did they mess up on communication, yes very much so, but as unhappy as I was when they first released that only the $70 package had the 6th bag now with more information on the cost of obtaining it in the store I am fine with the pricing. For $50 I can get the expansion and the bag and for $10 of it I can use tp's. I had budgeted $50 for the expansion and its coming in right where I felt it should be.

For me as I look back over the last two years or so since F2P went live I am finding that I wish they would release an expansion every 18 months instead of yearly. We will have to see how the new expansion turns out but I think that a yearly expansion is rushed and to much of the content added with updateds does not get done because everyone knows the items you get will have little use in a few months. I would have loved to see the OD raid be the top raid for an extra 3 to 6 months. The Driagoch raid would have been nice to see added as an update instead of as part of the expansion package. An extra 3 to 6 months would have given more time to test both Driagoch and instance cluster. Also the extra time would have meant the instances were added with the expansion since they were priced as part of it.

I agree completely with the idea that Turbine should take more time in between expansions.

For point 1, I shouldn't have said they should tell us how much time it will take. The idea is they should divulge all the information they have that will not give away huge secrets. They can tell us about how much content we will actually have, and from that point, the individual will be able to decide about how much play time he will get from it.

For point 2, the idea of them giving us TP is mainly just to take the edge of this extreme price. People will still want the legendary edition for the cosmetics, the horse, and just to be able to say they bought the best option because they are hardcore LOTRO players. I don't want to spend real money on more Turbine points either, but if they would add a few to the top tier deal, it would make it easier on those debating whether or not to buy it. It also would cost Turbine nothing, and be very easy for them to do. They could easily give the same amount to those who already purchased. Sure, them dropping the prices would be wonderful, but it is unrealistic with so many people who have already bought it. It would take tons of work to do that, and they would be losing money. That will never happen. Thus, came the idea to just give us a few TP.

As I see it now, if you are a VIP, the only two options are the Basic, and the Legendary. You don't need the other quests offered in the Heroic. So, we are stuck between a rock and a hard place. $40 for basically nothing but an expansion pack we know nothing about, or $70 for that expansion pack and a few fluff items that we might enjoy. Yeah, it would be cool to have the fluff stuff. I like the armor. But not if I am not getting anything else for the money. So a few TP might just convince me that I am making a smart decision money wise. As of right now, anyone who buys the Legendary is just reminded how much cheaper it will be to "part it out" so to speak with TP in 3 months or so. That isn't good for Turbine or us.

I also agree that we as LOTRO players have many differing opinions about what we want. That is why I am posting this. I am trying to get all the voices together, and unify them into one post so that it is clear exactly what our goals are. So, if anyone has good points... thing you want in this expansion, things that need to change, things that Turbine could do to get you to buy this pack TODAY, post them. I will try to read through everything and edit my main post accordingly.

Originally Posted by Reddaevel

I only have one thing I'd like to point out....

The Hobbit movie is about to be released. I'm sure Warner Brothers is expecting that to drive more interest in the game and having a $70 product in the marketplace is going to be a huge revenue driver for them... and I don't have a problem with them taking advantage of the free marketing publicity the film is going to drive at them.

This is very true. However, Turbine isn't seeming to look at the big picture here. People that start playing an MMO just because they liked a new movie, are more than likely going to see other movies, see other games, and move on. Basically, the kind of people The Hobbit movie will bring in will be those unlikely to stay for very long. Sure, you may get the occasional kid who was too young to see LOTR and this movie will make them a Tolkien fan, but I'm sure that isn't going to be the norm. For the most part, I think these will be fair-weather fans. They will leave again.

So yeah, they might make a good deal of cash from these people. BUT, when these people leave again, they will have decimated their supply of LOYAL customers. Those of us that have been here 2, 3, 4, 5 years... many of us will be fed up and leave. And then LOTRO will be royally screwed.

/signed.
If they are going to compare it to MoM then it should have comparable content.
Throw in some TP and the packs become worth it.

/signed
Turbine needs to try a bit harder at looking at what made MoM successful

OP is right on the money.

It's time we prove Mr. Paiz and his "people will complain but never leave" mantra wrong. You have one of the most intelligent customer bases in the MMO community, Turbine. I think you lost sight of that somewhere. I don't need to play this game. Neither do the dozens of my kinmates who once upon a time logged-in for hours a day. This has gone beyond pre-xpac doldrums. People are just plain fed-up with all the shenanigans.

We all (at least used to) love this game, but it's not the same game we fell in love with. Your company is not the same and hardly deserves another sight unseen handout from me. I saw what Moria gave us. Even if there was 3x "less" area, I will go out on a limb and bet there was 50x more substance than we will find in Rohan.

This game will never see Mordor - unless it comes right after RoR.

Originally Posted by Boomthor

I agree and I stupidly did buy the ROR already, it's simply not worth it. The low level ROR steed for one thing, what a farce..this is supposed to be a war horse!
Wait until there is a better offer. I sent in a complaint but got a standard reply, not even an acknowledgement of my grevinces! like did they even read what I sent..

Where did you get the idea that the horse is supposed to be a war horse? That part isn't coming until the expansion is out. There is nowhere on any of the advertising that states the pre-order horse is a war horse.

Originally Posted by GregJL

Where did you get the idea that the horse is supposed to be a war horse? That part isn't coming until the expansion is out. There is nowhere on any of the advertising that states the pre-order horse is a war horse.

I believe he may have meant the fact that this "great horse" is only a 62% speed, 200 HP horse. Won't be used by most people.

/signed and agreed

/signed and agreed

/signed.

Add some TP and assure me that the instance/raid cluster will be free as part of the Expac and I will buy it.

As it stands I'll wait. Seems to me leveling to 85 might be the deal breaker...
This was all way too soon IMO. I'd have preferred another 75 zone and cluster...

Sadly but firmly,

/signed

Though I agree with the OP, I don't think Turbine or WB is going to change their marketing direction where it concerns LoTRO even one degree. I think this game operates on a budget directly proportional to the income it generates. WB has deep enough pockets but LoTRO's base code is already at least 8 or 9 years old. So why invest heavily in something that is constanly becoming outdated?

My guess is that they will continue to operate this game with a more or less 'as is' approach, only giving it enough to squeeze every last dollar of profit out of it. When the day comes that expenses to operate egual or exceed revenues - that will be the day when Turbine/WB takes the initative to move forward more agressively with other projects (if they haven't already).

I personally think it is quite possible that a LoTRO 2 is already being discussed and is in the preliminary planning stages even as I type this out. With the huge hype and popularity of Guild Wars 2 I would find it very hard to believe that they haven't already thought about it.

We live in a age of reboots afterall, just a trip to the local cinema is all one needs to do to confirm that!

I am not that confident that this version of LoTRO will ever get us to Mordor but I am hopeful that a new and improved version will and perhaps..., pick up where this one might have left off?

Welden

I agree with this post.

i will NOT purchase the expansion

and likely quit unless changes are made.

/signed

Thank you for making this post, it totally expresses how i feel.