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Lord of the Rings: Riders of Rohan delayed until October 15th
For those on their mounts, eagerly awaiting the charge into the lands of Rohan, Turbine has one word for you: Whoa. The studio announced that it is delaying the launch of Lord of the Rings: Riders of Rohan from September 5th until October 15th. Executive Producer Kate Paiz sent out the following letter to fans explaining the delay: We've had a very successful Beta program with some of the largest and most active beta player populations we've seen since Moria. The amount and quality of feedback on our largest expansion ever has been fantastic. Thanks to some great efforts from beta players, we've identified issues that we think need to be addressed before we can launch. In order to address those issues and meet our expectations for quality we're going to need more time. As a result, we've elected to delay our launch to October 15th. Paiz thanked players for their patience and promised a gift for all those who have pre-purchased the expansion. This gift will arrive around September 5th in the form of 500 Turbine Points and a bag of consumables.
Turbine sweetens Riders of Rohan's editions, includes instance cluster
Frustration and confusion have been the name of the Lord of the Rings Online pre-purchase game these past couple of weeks, with some players feeling that the editions were overpriced and others bewildered over whether or not this fall's instance cluster would be included in the cost. Turbine announced today that all three of Riders of Rohan's editions will be boosted with Turbine Points and that the instance cluster will be given to all who buy one. In a forum post, CM Sapience said that the studio is dishing out bonus Turbine Points for all of the editions. Base and heroic edition holders will receive 1,000 TP, while legendary edition purchasers get 2,000. This applies to both players who have already bought the expansion and those who will in the future. He also addressed the confusion over the instance cluster: "While we are still not ready to talk about the details of the cluster, we did want to confirm that we will be releasing a new instance cluster in an update after Rohan launches, and that the cluster will be free to all players who have purchased the Riders of Rohan expansion."
Steam offers Lord of the Rings Online starter pack
Is it one digital distribution service to rule them all? Starting today, Lord of the Rings Online is now available to download from Steam. To add incentive for using the service, Steam is offering a special starter pack for players looking to step foot into the game for the first time -- or free-to-play vets eager for a good deal. The LotRO Steam starter pack will outfit an adventurer with an exclusive mount, an XP-boost token that delivers 25% extra XP on monster kills up until level 65, and 1,000 Turbine Points to spend in the game's store. The deal also includes three zone quest packs -- North Downs, Evendim, and Misty Mountains -- which covers levels 21-50. Currently the starter pack is 50% off at $14.99, which makes the combined offerings a good deal if you lack the quest packs and want to shore up your leveling experience. [Thanks to Brian for the tip!]
Celebrate Lord of the Rings Online's 5th Anniversary with free stuff from Massively!
Exactly five years ago today, Lord of the Rings Online launched to eager MMO fans, bringing J.R.R. Tolkien's world to life in a persistent land for the first time in a video game. The game has enjoyed consistent success since then, keeping the MMO world on its toes with three expansion packs and a move to free-to-play that earned the game several awards and more success than most MMOs are able to enjoy long after launch. To help celebrate this success after five years, Turbine has teamed up with Massively to offer special prizes for three lucky winners: 5,000 Turbine Points, 10,000 Turbine Points, and a Lifetime account! To be eligible, you must reside in North America (these are for NA accounts) and be over 18 years of age. If that checks out, just head on over to our contest post in our forums and leave a reply to the thread letting us know what your favorite moment was from the last five years of LotRO. Be sure to get your responses in before 8 a.m. EDT on Friday, April 27th. We'll then randomly select the first-, second-, and third-place winners and notify them by the end of the day Friday. Also be sure to check out the 5th anniversary video just after the cut below. Best of luck to everyone!
Win a trip to Turbine by making a LotRO fifth anniversary fan video
With the fifth anniversary of Lord of the Rings Online a little over a week away, Turbine has sprung a most excellent contest to reward the hardiest Hobbits and most fanatical Fellowshippers in the community. By creating and submitting a fan video, one lucky player will win a trip to visit Turbine's studio in Boston, Massachusetts. Entering the Who is the Biggest LotRO Fan Contest is pretty simple. To do so, you'll need to head over to the contest site, download a package of assets, and then create your own fan video celebrating the game's big milestone. Each player can submit one entry, due by May 4th, which is then judged on creativity, composition, and appropriateness to theme. While there will be 500 TP daily winners in the contest, the big grand prize is a trip for two to Boston, a three-day stay in a hotel, a tour of Turbine's offices, a lifetime membership to LotRO, and 1,000 TP.
Turbine answers burning questions about LotRO's Landscape Soldiers
Coming with next Monday's Update 6 in Lord of the Rings Online is the ability for players to deploy skirmish soldiers in the actual game world. How Turbine was going to handle the balance of this "soldiers on landscape" feature was up in the air until now, as the company has released a Q&A to hit all of the important points. Basically, players will have to purchase Landscape Soldier tokens with either Turbine Points or a combination of in-game skirmish marks and medallions. A token will grant a player one hour of soldier assistance, although this time can be broken up into non-consecutive blocks at the player's discretion. Soldiers cannot be used in instances and major player hubs (such as cities) at the current time. Other restrictions for Landscape Soldiers include the disabled personal traits (that offer considerable buffs in skirmishes) and no control panel to order them around, as with Lore-master and Captain pets.
The Perfect Ten: Free-to-play shopping strategies
"Nothing is ever truly free," my grizzled Uncle Trigger once told me. "So you got to pay for that there air! Pony up, boy!" While Uncle Trigger was overlooking a few aspects of this philosophy, the sentiment is an important one to grasp, especially when it comes to the growing wave of free-to-play MMOs. Even though the first word is "free," it should be followed up with several paragraphs of tiny lawyer disclaimers that basically say, "Nevertheless, the studio is going to look for other ways to tempt you out of your hard-earned cash." F2P is often funded by microtransactions, which offer players some variety in how they customize their game experience at the expense of a subscription's simplicity. It's often not better or worse; it's just different. Because nothing is ever truly free, and because F2P is loaded with more shopping options than a Walmart supercenter, being a savvy customer is more vital than ever. Anyone who's waded into a F2P store probably has experienced buyer's regret due to a hasty or uninformed purchase, not to mention those who end up going broke because of poor impulse control. So today I'm going to get downright practical and offer up 10 strategies that will safeguard and strengthen your F2P shopping trips (also, random plug for Beau's Free For All column in the hopes that he doesn't get mad I'm treading on his territory here!).
LotRO removes server transfer restrictions
Ever since free-to-play came to Lord of the Rings Online, players looking to move from one server to another have often run into a big, forbidding wall. To keep the server populations from capsizing, Turbine disallowed transfers to select servers for over a year. It looks like this has changed, as Turbine recently posted an update to its paid premium services forum thread. In it, the studio announced that all such transfer restrictions are removed: We are also happy to announce that NA World Character Transfers are now available for transfer between ALL North American servers as of 9th November, 2011! Yes, you may now transfer TO Brandywine, Crickhollow, Dwarrowdelf, Elendilmir, Imladris, Landroval, or Riddermark! European players have access to this service as well. Unfortunately, these transfers aren't free but come with a hefty pricetag. Players looking to move server homes will need to shell out either $24.95, €21.95, or 2995 Turbine Points. There is also an issue with moving a character back to a server that it came from, so players cannot do that until Turbine resolves the issue.
The Daily Grind: Do you play the system in games to get more freebies?
I was chatting with a friend recently about the referral system in League of Legends, debating the wisdom (or lack thereof) of a player creating multiple accounts and playing them to level five in order to get referral rewards. The ease of getting free email addresses makes this a snap -- as long as you don't mind playing levels 1-5 over and over. The argument we've both heard is that this is just how it works -- the developers know that this goes on and they don't mind. It set me to thinking. Whether it's creating multiple characters on every server in Dungeons and Dragons Online and Lord of the Rings Online to rack up Turbine Points, creating multiple email addresses to take advantage of referral programs, or any of the many other ways out there to get more freebies or save some cash, is there a line to what's acceptable? Does it vary with each person's personal comfort zone and the devs' willingness to look the other way or is there a definite list of things that no player should do? Hit the comment button and let us know what you think!
LotRO introduces Mithril Edition, Dwarves swarm local retailers
Every Hobbit and Dwarf knows that, ounce for ounce, Mithril is far more valuable than gold or silver. With a new Mithril Edition of Lord of the Rings Online, Turbine is hoping that players will value this deal just as much. Coming soon to an online or brick-and-mortar retailer near you, LotRO's Mithril Edition is designed to give new players a leg up in the game while perhaps tempting current free players into spending a little something and getting a well-rounded experience in return. Priced at $29.99, the Mithril Edition includes the game discs, starter guide, keyboard map, 2,000 Turbine Points to spend in the in-game store, an exclusive Steed of the Horse-lords mount, and a bundled quest pack covering the Trollshaws, Eregion, Moria and Lothlorien. Turbine claims that this is a $50 value, so it might be worth taking a close look. At the very least, you can keep it tucked inside your shirt for the next time a troll throws a spear your way, as it could save your life!
LotRO dares you to photograph the White Hand of Saruman
Rise of Isengard launches next week for Lord of the Rings Online, and Turbine is trumpeting the expansion the best way it knows how: by encouraging players to dip their hands in white paint and slap everything in the world around them. OK, maybe not that extreme, but close enough! With the studio's White Hand of Saruman contest, LotRO players are tasked with photographing people, objects or environments plastered with the iconic sigil of Isengard's key bad guy. Turbine's not encouraging players to flirt with the wrong side of the law, as it adds the disclaimer "Permanently defacing property or committing illegal acts is not permitted" to the contest rules. Players can download the white hand template from the contest website, set up an interesting picture, and then submit it for a chance at one of several prizes. These prizes include a custom-built Alienware PC, lifetime memberships to LotRO, and in-game Turbine Points. The contest will end on November 15th, after which the winners will be declared.
Turbine unveils LotRO expansion point costs
Those of you who didn't get around to pre-ordering Lord of the Rings Online's Rise of Isengard expansion earlier this summer will probably want to mosey over to the game's official forums. Turbine has revealed the point costs for all of the new content, and due to the variety of items on offer, it may take you a few minutes to piece together what you want (and what it'll cost you). The short version is that the expansion quests and deeds will set you back 3,250 Turbine points, while the new Draigoch raid will cost an additional 1,250 TP. There's also a bindable item called Derudh's Stone that grants a permanent 25% XP bonus on monster kills through level 64, and it is priced at 995 TP. Finally, the new Update 5 instances, currently slated for a December release, will run you 1,495 TP. There's more info, and a load of comments and discussion, at the official LotRO boards.
The Road to Mordor: Power to the levelers
With Rise of Isengard creeping up on us, I've seen an increasing number of people begin to freak out about it, not because they're upset it's coming but because they're not prepared to partake in the expansion on day one. Now, this might not be important to you, but I assure you it's quite important to many -- lots of people like to be in on the excitement from the very beginning, and it's a special kind of torture to contemplate having to sit there and listen to your friends oohing and ahhing over the new zones and content while you're still poking your way through Moria. So because of this, some players really, really want to get a character up to level 65, prepared to do a dive roll right into Dunland when September 27th hits. It's understandable. Even I, a normally laid-back type of guy, am pushing hard to finish up Enedwaith with my Lore-master so that I'll have one character good to go on I-Day (that's Isengard Day). But what about those who don't have a level 65 in their pockets? Is it too late to get your act in gear and get up there before it's too late? Of course it isn't. I'm pretty convinced that you could even roll a fresh toon today and get him or her up to the endgame by I-Day, depending on how much time you can dedicate to it. Today we're going to look at a few leveling tips I've picked up over the years to aid those of you who want to kick in the afterburners of the leveling process so that you can make sure you're where you want to be. It's not even that hard!
Turbine sweetens the deal for DDO subscribers
Dungeons and Dragons Online's free-to-play model has been the belle of the F2P ball since it was released in 2009, but that doesn't mean that Turbine's given up on luring players into subscribing. Today, the studio announced a "summer gift" to those who sign up for VIP status: double bonus points per month from July 11th through September 11th. This means that every month a player is subscribed, he or she will receive 1,000 Turbine Points to spend in the DDO store instead of 500 TP. Turbine's also made sure that the price point for VIP subscriptions is attractive, as it's offered players the ability to sign up for three months at $29.97 (effectively $9.99 a month). By taking advantage of both deals, players can enjoy three months of VIP status and earn 3,000 Turbine Points for just $30. VIP status means that all of DDO's adventure modules are available to enjoy, including the new ones that came with Update 10.
The Road to Mordor: Packing for Isengard
Isengard. Isengard. ISENGARD. It's all I can think about since last week's E3 reveal, and I know I'm not the only one. For some reason, having a firm launch date for Lord of the Rings Online's third expansion feels like a starting pistol's gone off, and we're beginning the race to the expansion in earnest. Of course, we're not in that much of a hurry at this point. We still have well over three months to go, the beta has yet to begin, and something tells me that Turbine's got a few more tricks to pull out of its top hat before all is said and done. Still, I'm officially in "Go!" mode, and I bet I'm not the only one. While I can't make September 27th come any sooner, I can think of six ways that we can prepare for our upcoming journey into Dunland and beyond. Seven, if you include putting together the absolute perfect outfit to slay Saruman in, but that's a given. Hit the jump and I'll walk you through everything you should be doing this summer to get ready for Rise of Isengard!
Moving day: LotRO EU players begin transfer to Turbine's global service
It's the end of one world... and the beginning of another. Or at least that's how it feels for many Lord of the Rings Online players in Europe this week as Codemasters hands the operational baton over to Turbine. Codemasters devs and GMs gave their best wishes to the LotRO players they watched over these past few years with a huge "thank you" notice on the site. Once the transfer is complete, all LotRO players will fall under Turbine's global service umbrella. As part of the move, Turbine is offering EU players a limited-time chance to sign up for a year's worth of VIP status (which includes 500 Turbine Points a month) for £79.99 (or approximately $131.94). Currently the game is down for European players until the process is complete, which Turbine estimates will take between two to three days. Details about the account transfers can be read in the LotRO EU Account Migration FAQ.
The Road to Mordor: Shopping at the LotRO Depot
About 99% of the time I'm in Lord of the Rings Online I never think about the LotRO Store. Ever since the store came online last year, it's been adventure as usual in the Olivetti household. Sure, I mock the "You got 5 Turbine Points! Now you can retire in the Caymans!" popups like everyone else, but I've always felt that Turbine does a good job balancing the store presence between the polar extremes of obnoxious and invisible. That isn't to say I haven't used the store at all; on the contrary, I've been a sporadic if loyal customer of sorts, trundling my shopping cart through the aisles of Shire-Mart looking for a good deal. Thus far I haven't dropped any additional cash into the game, choosing to subsist on my monthly allotment of TP with whatever I earn through deeds. Every once in a while I'll boot up the store and see what niceties I can give to my character as a reward for slaughtering his 5,000th Neeker-beeker. The LotRO Store has two categories of customers: the free-to-players and the upper class. Does that sound snooty? It's not intentional -- all I mean is that some folks use the store to provide basic necessities for gameplay (like quest packs, riding skills, class unlocks) while others are already well-off in the game and shop for luxury items. I'm in awe of the F2P gamers who can get a good chunk of their content by methodically knocking deeds out so they can purchase the next zone, but I'm fortunate enough not to have to do that. So today I wanted to give myself an audit of what I've spent in the store so far and analyze whether they were wise purchases, wasteful frivolities, or overpriced insanity.
[Updated] Celebrate LotRO's anniversary with free Turbine Points from Massively!
Most MMOs had some sort of Easter event happening over the weekend, but there was another set of festivities not to be overlooked: Lord of the Rings Online celebrated its fourth birthday Sunday. Justin took a look back at the past four years, Turbine partied over the weekend, and the celebration is over, right? Not quite, because we've got some party favors for you here at Massively! We have codes worth 500 Turbine Points each for 10 lucky Massively readers. Want one? It couldn't be simpler to enter: Just leave a comment here telling us what you'd do with your prize. Have you been thinking about picking up some extra storage, saving for a cool mount, or considering a color change for your clothing? Let us know before noon EDT tomorrow, April 27th, and we'll draw 10 winners to receive 500 Turbine Points each. Read over our contest rules, watch your email tomorrow, and good luck! [UPDATE: All winners have been selected and contacted. Congratulations!]
The Road to Mordor: Creating your roadmap
I wish to preface this week's column by saying that I'm not advocating just one way to play a game. I think it's equally valid to explore at your own pace, team up as a duo, maximize TP revenue, or set whatever goals you like and pursue them. But after leveling one character to the cap and playing several others, I've begun to develop a roadmap, if you will, that helps guide my progress somewhat efficiently. It's this roadmap that I want to share with you today. The thing is, for all I love about Lord of the Rings Online, the game is definitely littered with timesinks of epic proportions. It already takes a long, long time to get your character up to 65 and through the two expansions, and that's only going to increase as the game grows. There are a lot of distractions and unnecessary grinds (such as virtues you will never use) that can bog you down too long and perhaps dishearten you. So when I created a Minstrel in LotRO a little while back, I decided to map out his progress from level 1 through 65 by creating a broad framework -- an outline, really -- that serves to keep me on track so I don't have to backtrack as much later on to get these goals done. I have a very "two birds with one stone" mentality, so if I'm doing one task in a zone, I'd rather be accomplishing two or three at the same time. So for example, if I'm grinding out a deed, I'd rather do it at level at which I'm getting XP than 20 levels later when I'm not (although the latter has its merits for rapid deed completion). Hit the jump and I'll give you the rundown of how to eliminate some of the confusion and speed bumps of leveling.
The Road to Mordor: My wish list for 2011
January is always a month of denial for me because it usually takes a full 30 days for the reality of a new year to settle into my skull. It can't be a new year! I just, just got used to the old one! I'm going to forget the real year when I sign my checks and then I'll be denounced as a fraud! What horrible teenage fad will be inflicted on us this year? Seriously, Ke$ha was the final straw for me. She's like all four horsemen of the apocalypse melted down and recast as a talentless banshee with an ironic dollar sign smack in the middle of her name. But that's my problem. A new year also means a virgin slate for all of our MMOs. What happened last year was so last year -- now we turn our eyes to the future. We know a little of what's upcoming for Lord of the Rings Online, but that doesn't mean we can't have wishes. You know what they say: If wishes were horses, I'd have the Steed of Night. So in honor of '11, I've come up with an 11-point wish list of what I'd love to see in LotRO this year. I fully expect Turbine to drop everything -- everything -- to get on it!
