That is the day that Lord of the Rings Online follows Dungeons & Dragons Online into the land of Free to Play.
Or endless beginner trial.
Or no-money down access.
Or however you want to frame the business model that Turbine is adopting.
But the change is coming. The floodgates will be open. (Current subscribers will get a 2 day head start)
The LOTRO Store will be a fact of the game.
How much the store, and the unfettered access to the the game will change things, we shall see.
Some of it I am quite looking forward to.
Packrat that I am, I will be enormously happy to have many more bank slots available to me. And I am even happier to read that the dev team at Turbine is going to try to make things better for those of us who are very spatially oriented.
But there is a lot more coming, more than I have been able to keep track of, like the new wardrobe system.
Enough changes to get Lady Sinaea out for another episode of RingCast.
And enough changes to keep the team over at A Casual Stroll to Mordor busy indeed.
They have, in addition to their podcast, posts up about:
- Should you buy LOTRO and its expansion now or buy them through the LOTRO Store
- Crafting in Free to Play
- Skirmishes in Free to Play
- Downgrading from VIP (paid) to Premium (free) and what it means
Mordor or Bust has a good post up about the Incredibly Informative LOTRO F2P FAQ.
Meanwhile, over at LOTRO MMOMorsel, they have a Turbine Point finder tool up and running. Yes, you can earn Turbine Points in-game for use in the LOTRO store. This will help you find them.
So there is a lot to catch up on while we wait for the big change to come.