Question: What does Christopher Columbus have to do with LotR?
Answer: Not a dang thing.
So why would Turbine/LotRO be celebrating
Columbus Day?
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Why would they be offering such a "great" deal so suddenly after the Store opened?
It's
exactly the same deal they're offering for Dungeons & Dragons Online (hereafter
DDO) for Columbus Day. So, no great mystery; they've simply set up a model where they offer sales either "in honor of" holidays (like real-world stores) or at a time when they figure customers will have time off and be apt to play the game (like real-world stores and shopping...).
I've never played LOTRO but it's quite obvious from reading the comments here that they're adopting as exactly the same business model for the two as they can, so I'll comment freely from my (similar) DDO experience.
Also, this "Bundle" costs $50, more than the cost to get the game initially or any expansions.
If players who couldn't afford to pay the monthly subscription before are now willing to fork over that kind of money (often) for just "stuff" you'd think there would have been no reason to go F2P because those players could have afforded to play the game already.
At this point I'm heavily invested (timewise) in DDO, but I've been doing it F2P so far; since there is no initial cost for the game for F2Pers, that means I've gotten many hours of play without spending a dime. However, I will be buying DDO's equivalent point bundle this week while it's "on sale". My intention is to go back to never spending a dime on the game after that, though we'll see how well it works out in the end.
From my perspective the $50 is no more than I've paid for any number of non-MMO games that I got an equal amount of enjoyment from. In fact, I realized tonight that I paid $10 more for Starcraft II... and, except for the single-player campaign, have been enjoying it far less than DDO. So I figure I sort of owe Turbine some money for the enjoyment they've provided me -- given that if everyone was F2P they'd go broke in a heartbeat. I would not be nearly so sanguine about finding myself shelling out another $50 in a few months... but it will ultimately be my decision whether to do so or not.
None of this means that I'm wild about Turbine's business model (and I'm even less wild about having it applied to LOTR!). There is no question it is manipulative. At best they will always be holding something back, something which hypothetically should be part of the core game, to get people to shell out some money. In DDO it is the Monk class and the Warforged race. Both of these have a sufficiently high "cool" factor to have played a part in my decision to spend money on the game, so yeah, I've been sucked in by their methods.
However, much of the $50 will go to buying expansion packs that are not part of the F2P experience. I'll wait till the packs are on sale. I'll focus on the ones that get good reviews. It won't be all that different from buying, say,
Company of Heroes: Opposing Forces after effectively having gotten the base
Company of Heroes game for free.
I personally am not likely to shell out real money for "just stuff". One of my friends did, in essence, when he used some of the points he'd purchased to get himself a +3 suit of plate armor and a +3 shield. But then, he could have afforded the monthly subscription... if he had bothered paying attention to the game before it became F2P.
John