Last one out...

[BlitzCanuck]

You don't see an advantage to players with Healing potions that they can pop every 20 seconds (?) to those "in-game" that have a 1 minute cooldown? Or players that can buy extra legacy slots for their LI's from the store that you can not get by playing the game? Or the Store only mount touted as being the "fastest in the game." (I'll have to check that % speed if I ever get into the store.) Those certainly are an advantage over non-store buyers.

No one is saying (yet) that non-store buyers can't do the content, but using Store items that are designed to help win in the game are a clear advantage. I've yet to spend 1 TP and still played the game a lot and advanced all my alts as I wanted. But, how much "extra" playing was I forced to do compared to the "store buyers?"

I'm a LotR nut and I ignored a lot of content for the sake of gameplay (which was a must to make a game) but when my game play suffers because my Lifetime Accounts (3) aren't good enough for them & they say "too bad pay up" to stay even with F2P'ers & buy store junk something has to give. Most of us tried hard to ignore the in-your-face Turbine Store tactics and sideways direction as long as we could but man, they don't let up with the Store on any screen in the game.

As Ganzor said, just look at the big picture of whats happened in the past & what steps they are taking now to see what has us as disgruntled players.
{Goats in Moria was bad but allowing them to be ridden outside!!!!!}

I'm still posting here because I really want to like the game as much as I used to and still hope something positive will happen to change the direction of the game.

I know I've played the game... since '07.

no, i still don't see it as an advantage. I'm not racing other players or competing with them in any way so i just don't care that someone can level up marginally faster than me or that someone can complete an instance marginally faster than me.
If i want to do things quicker, i'll spend my points and get the same crap.

But, how much "extra" playing was I forced to do compared to the "store buyers?"

That's just it though, you weren't forced to do anything. There just is no need to compare yourself to other players. If i did that, i probably wouldn't enjoy the game much either. But i don't.

 

[Ganzor]

I'm not sure what you quoted from me has to do with this comment of yours about being expansion worthy.

You talked of additions to the game we would have had to pay money for before F2P. Before F2P, that would have been expansions.
There was a day in the MMO world where your subscription paid for more then access to the servers. Things like active development of the game, minor content additions, and fixes. Now turbine wants to charge for every little thing AND remove features to charge for those, even people who already pay. I won't be double dipped.

It's simply not an issue.

Yet. It's an inevitability. It WILL happen.

 

[BlitzCanuck]

You talked of additions to the game we would have had to pay money for before F2P. Before F2P, that would have been expansions.
There was a day in the MMO world where your subscription paid for more then access to the servers. Things like active development of the game, minor content additions, and fixes. Now turbine wants to charge for every little thing AND remove features to charge for those, even people who already pay. I won't be double dipped.

But your subscription does still pay for things like that. As a VIP, you get points that you can buy stuff with, including expansions. Before f2p, you didn't have that option. You had to pay for Mirkwood with real money as i did.

Yet. It's an inevitability. It WILL happen.

You just can't know that. It's absurd to make that statement so emphatically.
I'm not going to worry about what might happen down the road. It's entirely possible that my opinion will change in the future and i'll not be willing to subscribe at some point.
But as it stands now, i think the game is better now than when i started playing.

 

[Ganzor]

You just can't know that. It's absurd to make that statement so emphatically.

It's more reasonable to assume that as more and more advantage gets sold in the store and content gets easier to complete due to the cumulative effect that they'll just let it stay easy?

 

[BlitzCanuck]

You are making the assumption that these advantages are flying off the shelves.
Regardless, I don't think it's reasonable to assume that the game will get significantly harder to play.
People aren't stupid. If they can't play the game as it is without having to spend more than what they already do on the subscription , they will find something else to play. Turbine knows this.