Another great example of how Turbine's censoring on the LOTRO forum works

Ganzor

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I was permabanned months ago for calling them on that lie. Sapience told me it was because they have never lied, and I have repeatedly been warned about saying they have.
 
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Ganzor

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Michael Dorosh

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Read that person's sig line.

"When in doubt, reach for the stars. That way you'll never come up short."
Doesn't that mean, actually, you will always come up short? Given that the nearest star is 93 million miles away, and, like, no one has ever been there?

Actually, the sig line is non-sensical any way I try and read it.
 

Ganzor

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Somebody who isn't banned go to one of the latest big threads turbine is ignoring and tell them about this place. :)
 

Michael Dorosh

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Interesting post on the current uproar...

http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?399932-Any-way-to-purchase-RoI-with-Turbine-pts

Somebody get Hurin over here!
How about another analogy?

•Best Buy decides it will only accept gift cards for goods.
•Before buying anything at Best Buy, you must first purchase gift cards and use those to make your purchase.
•They then have promo events where you're encouraged to "stock up" (phrase actually used in the promotion) on gift cards at an extra value.
•Eight months into this new business model, they announce that next year's television is available for pre-order with many cool add-ons available only via the pre-order. But they will not accept the gift cards as payment.
•When asked why they won't accept their own gift cards (that people have already purchased) for this one item, their answer is merely: "Because it's a pre-order. Silly customer, why would you assume we'd accept our own gift cards for our pre-order?"

One would bet that all hell would break loose.
Nice analogy, but probably much ado about little.
 

Redwolf

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These guys really like to piss off those customers who already gave them their money the most.

Impressive.
 

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Ya know.. what the...?! :mad:

I had assumed in GOOD FAITH that yes I could buy the expansion with the TP's JUST as Turbine said I would & not be ripped off in the process. But for them to say that, "if you want to make sure you get the bonus items pay us real cash now, and oh by the way we aren't telling you how much in TP's it's going to cost you later or if you get bonus stuff..."

That was one reason I never spent any TP's. {I don't know if the bonus stuff is even worth it as you know it WILL BE in the store sooner or later even if they say it won't.}

The guys who don't think anything has changed since WB took over should just read that entire thread and see what the "lifers & vets" are upset about.

Oh and the guy who said "lifers" aren't doing anything to support the game, should have been there 4 years ago, what an A**.
 

Redwolf

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Let's see how long this takes

http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?401323-Here-s-why-people-are-right-about-rejecting-the-Isengard-ordering-process&p=5456223#post5456223

Here's why people are right about rejecting the Isengard ordering process:


Yes I admit, I was tempted to get it, but alas another ### moment.



I know that the non-SSL in the top level page doesn't mean that the pop-up form is not SSL protected and it probably is.

But for the user there is no way to know that. All "Internet security 101 guides" strongly discourage you from putting your credit card number into anything that doesn't have SSL. And the only way to tell in current browsers is the address bar.

You can't be serious?
 

Michael Dorosh

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http://isengard.lotro.com/#

I went to the official website, and noticed a screenshot gallery.

Like - 8 pictures. And all of them focus on - 3D characters. Looking very much like run of the mill people in the game already. Ok.

Why wouldn't they show us some of the new terrain types and scenery? Isn't that what a screenshot gallery is for? What a ridiculous gallery. One shot looks like it was taken in Eregion. Maybe it was.
 

Michael Dorosh

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So I looked at the preorder special - they give you a special title, three mounts, special armor, etc. You get all this just for paying your money?

Would people actually parade around in the game with a special title over their character having done nothing to "earn" it but fork over 30 dollars to Turbine?

And a 25% XP boost. I can't believe that. I was thinking of preordering, but all that is an incentive to just wait until September and buy it then. They've actively turned me off of preordering. The 'Guard of Isen' title just identifies the people who are levelling up with credit card XP boosts as far as I am concerned.

Will these special cloaks/mounts also be available via game play?

What a mess they are creating.
 

Michael Dorosh

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This is what I think they should do for a pre-order instead:

Here is what I would consider something special as an incentive to pre-ordering (by the way, I have a fairly good job, and supporting games I enjoy is not a hardship, so I don't need to worry about shaving 10 dollars off of a preorder deal): if you're going to give me some trinket or title, give me the opportunity to earn it with something other than a real world credit card. Link it to an in-game quest. If you want to make it an easy quest, ok, make it an instance for pre-order customers only, make it a meet-and-greet in an Inn in one of the new area's locations. But just give it more than two seconds of thought and make it something unique and related to in-game play and stop relating all this in-game stuff directly to how much you can extract from my credit card. The game is supposed to immerse me in Middle Earth, not my bank statement.
http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?401329-Please-Put-Some-Imagination-Into-the-Pre-Order-Goodies&p=5456274#post5456274
 

Redwolf

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So I looked at the preorder special - they give you a special title, three mounts, special armor, etc. You get all this just for paying your money?

Would people actually parade around in the game with a special title over their character having done nothing to "earn" it but fork over 30 dollars to Turbine?

And a 25% XP boost. I can't believe that. I was thinking of preordering, but all that is an incentive to just wait until September and buy it then. They've actively turned me off of preordering. The 'Guard of Isen' title just identifies the people who are levelling up with credit card XP boosts as far as I am concerned.

Will these special cloaks/mounts also be available via game play?

What a mess they are creating.
The 25% XP gain is implemented via a pocket item. You can equip or unequip it.

It is a breathtakingly naive hack to this problem and obviously you can't use your normal pocket item at the same time. But at least they made a little step away from their usual insanity.

If I restart playing I might even use the thing when doing the 50ties around Moria because quite frankly that is where I want to spend much less time than in the more enjoyable areas that have superfast leveling anyway (the old SoA areas).
 

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The 25% XP gain is implemented via a pocket item. You can equip or unequip it.
That wouldn't like be an "advantage" over players who don't pre-order or can now NOT use their Turbine Points to pre-order would it? :angry:

"Leveling" was never a main goal for me in this game or getting stuff, experiencing Middle Earth was.

Although as was mention, while running alt numbers 5-8... the grind, oh the grind at times was tough. :laugh:
 
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Michael Dorosh

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http://isengard.lotro.com/#

I went to the official website, and noticed a screenshot gallery.

Like - 8 pictures. And all of them focus on - 3D characters. Looking very much like run of the mill people in the game already. Ok.

Why wouldn't they show us some of the new terrain types and scenery? Isn't that what a screenshot gallery is for? What a ridiculous gallery. One shot looks like it was taken in Eregion. Maybe it was.
Oh.

http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?400897-New-Article-posted-about-ROI!-Check-it-Out!!!/page2

I guess I was supposed to be noticing the "horse animations."

Doh.

Silly me.

Cue Palantir to ask how much they will cost in the Turbine store. :laugh:
 

Michael Dorosh

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People in that thread are seriously not getting the notion that the "Guard of Isen" title you get as part of the preorder is basically like your boss giving you a t-shirt with the company logo on it and insisting you wear it home at night.

Like I said, it's not about the money for me. I am a VIP subscriber and have been subsidizing the developer for three years now on a monthly basis. I just don't see that there has been any imagination put into this. It's all "real world" benefit and practically no "in-game" benefit. Pay your real world dollars, and BANG, there you go. New clothes and a new title your character has nothing to earn.

It's bad enough we have ads for the Turbine Store waved in our face every 10 seconds, that silly "Guard of Isen" title will do nothing for immersiveness. If I see someone come down the road with an Inn League title, I know what he's done to "earn" it. Ditto any other title in the bunch. It's all related to game play.

Why would Turbine even want to conflate the two "worlds"? It's ridiculous. So everytime I see one of these "Guards of Isen", what am I supposed to think? "Wow, he's got a credit card!"

IT'S ADVERTISING FOR TURBINE. It's got nothing to do with the game. It's just more of the hard-sell in the gamespace.

So I reiterate - give me something tangible and FUN in the preorder. Related to gameplay. Not more ways to advertise the product. I've already bought it. I don't want my character to just be a billboard for the Turbine store.
I also added:

You know, other game companies spend a long time developing "demos", small versions of the game before release. A small "instance" could act in exactly the same way - a demo of the new area, grant a small look at some of the terrain, maybe even give a history of the new region, etc. If other companies can afford to build demos - trial versions of games - surely Turbine is no different.
 
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Michael Dorosh

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In case I get deleted, my entire post is:

You just indicated one of the basic truisms. In other words - that's the entire point. There is nothing "special" about the pre-order items at all! That's why I'm suggesting a small instance or quest for the pre-order customers. Something that would give a little more incentive or give that any granted title a little more meaning beyond "I have a real world credit card and I know how to use it."

You know, other game companies spend a long time developing "demos", small versions of the game before release. A small "instance" could act in exactly the same way - a demo of the new area, grant a small look at some of the terrain, maybe even give a history of the new region, etc. If other companies can afford to build demos - trial versions of games - surely Turbine is no different. Only I'm not suggesting an actual "demo" as this would be something you see after you have paid for your pre-order, something available only to those customers, as a 'special' item for customer loyalty.

Someone earlier mentioned expense,suggesting it would be 'too expensive' to offer additional quests to paying customers. I can only presume they're joking. If other game companies can devote resources to offering entire demos for free, surely it would be worthwhile to knock out one or two quests - even if they were just using the existing world - to spice up a pre-order package. Instead of just handing over a set of clothes or a mount, etc., it would be nice to "earn" it or have a backstory to go with it.

If Turbine doesn't want to work to get my money early, I definitely have no interest in handing it over. And I definitely won't be paying for the privilege of advertising for them in the game with that silly title.
 

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Apparently they also screwed up the move of the European players to Turbine's servers big time. Lots of people arrived without characters, lost subscriptions they already payed and etc etc. If you understand German there's nice fireworks to watch. Then to fix it they take down the German server for maintenance - but scheduled the maintenance on what is a holiday in Germany so they have to go out and hang out in the sun :D
 
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