Dr Zaius
Chief Defender of the Faith
- Joined
- May 1, 2001
- Messages
- 8,902
- Reaction score
- 408
- Location
- The Forbidden Zone
- First name
- Don
- Country
Or will it have no effect at all?
I'm with you Ganzor. Lets hope everyone reads this forum and comes to understand that Turbine is not in fact a charity and is in business to make money before they waste years of their gaming time enjoying LOTRO in complete ignorance of that fact.Let's hope it has no effect. I hate seeing unsuspecting people get deceived into giving money to shady companies.
It's possible to be a profitable AND honest company at the same time. Yes, my greatest gaming wish right now is for Turbine to go down in flames. Close the company, fire all the workers. Serves them right.Turbine is not in fact a charity and is in business to make money
Knowing how large organizations work I can promise you that this one currently is in a wedged state. Information from the ground won't reach the decision makers right now.I've kept my VIP membership active because I wanted to send a message - i.e. I am a loyal paying subscriber to Turbine who refuses to pay money to the store but is willing to subsidize the game on an ongoing basis. I'm not a F2P freeloader. I wonder now, though, if my continued subscription isn't doing more harm than good. I was asked on the forum a couple of times how much credibility I thought I had if I was just a freeloader who refused to use the store, and always thought that replying I was a paying customer from before F2P existed put me on moral high ground. Though I don't really believe one has to pay out of pocket just to have beliefs.
So my question to RW, Ganzor, etc. is - what is the better move at this point? Retain my membership and retain my credibility as a paying customer, or withdraw my injection of cash into Turbine's coffers?
Well, one "benefit" is increased XP points.I notice they are now taking preorders for the next module - and offering instant in-game benefits today for doing so. I have to believe they are either very greedy, or very desperate for money, the way they keep hammering home all this advertising and constant barrage of literature regarding sale items, and ways to buy things.
I started many threads about this. Turbine won't have any of it. They force faster leveling down your throat no matter what."For my money", a far better way to keep me interested in the game would not be levelling up faster, nor even for Turbine to spend umpteen dollars on new areas to explore. You could very easily add new content in layers to existing areas. Consider:
The quests in the Ered Luin area are for purposes of discussion in the level 15-30 range. Let's say you level a character up to level 40 and all the quests in Ered Luin now are greyed out. What you could do then is simply add a new "layer" in - make it like a super-instance - where anytime you return to Ered Luin, instead of going back into the original area, you now go into one specific to characters level 40 and up, with brand new quests specific to level 40-50. You wouldn't have to alter the terrain, or model new 3D locations, just put in new quests etc. One of my biggest disappointments with my original character was that I levelled up so fast that I spent practically no time in this very visually interesting region and had practically no interactions there. A set of level-appropriate quests in each region would partially combat this.
That's a personal decision. I wouldn't keep paying as some sort of high ground. If you enjoy the game and the direction they are going with the store, pay them money. If you aren't, cancel.So my question to RW, Ganzor, etc. is - what is the better move at this point? Retain my membership and retain my credibility as a paying customer, or withdraw my injection of cash into Turbine's coffers?