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LotRO's Kate Paiz praises community, addresses F2P switch
Over at Mordor or Bust, Lord of the Rings Online's new executive producer Kate Paiz sat down to talk about what's on every hobbit's mind: the transition to LotRO's free-to-play version this fall. Paiz took the reins of LotRO just as the F2P change was announced and is bringing her experience from DDO Unlimited's transition over to LotRO's team. In the interview, Paiz spends a considerable amount of time both praising the community and reassuring it that these changes will benefit the game as a whole. One of the issues she addressed was the lack of Player versus Monster Player (PvMP) combat for non-subscribers, saying that it was necessary for now, but that may change in the future: "While we plan to introduce [PvMP] at some point in the future to the rest of the playerbase, we wanted to first focus on delivering the quality PvE game that we have to players in a way that continued to drive great interest and fun in the game." While she declined to comment on whether Turbine would be giving refunds for lifetime subscribers who purchased that option shortly before the announcement of the F2P change, Paiz did say they'd like to offer lifetime VIP subscriptions again at some point. Paiz also said Turbine has "a lot of ideas" for additional classes, and it is working with the CDC to get LotRO launched in China. You can read the full interview over at Mordor or Bust!
Meet the man who sped up LotRO: José Luis
For all of Lord of the Rings Online's many virtues, a speedy load time is not one of them. Even three years after its launch, players are still struggling to figure out ways to deal with sluggish framerates and lengthy loading screens, which is where José Luis comes in. Hailing from Argentina, José is the creator of two popular LotRO utilities: FlashBoost (which reduces load times and lag with the help of a flash drive) and DefragSuite (which defragments internal game files to speed up the client). These programs have the Turbine thumbs-up of approval, and are featured on the LotRO Lorebook. The blog Mordor or Bust got some face time with José Luis in a rather lengthy interview, covering both of these utilities and his general thoughts on the game. It's a bit technical in places, but José does a decent job explaining just how and why these programs work, and what he has in store for the upcoming FlashBoost 2.0. He also shares his love of LotRO: "The art of the game is amazing, the story arc and quests are very well done and the community is outstanding!" So if you're looking to boost LotRO's performance, it's worth giving FlashBoost and DefragSuite a try.
