Last week, Standing Stone Games stunned Lord of the Rings Online players by announcing a sweeping monetization overhaul that we called a game-changer. In a nutshell, all the quest packs and expansions before Mordor will soon be freely given, while almost everything from Mordor on will be accessible with the VIP subscription. The only thing everyone will need to buy is the latest expansion, Fate of Gundabad. Presumably, that will eventually become “free” for subbers as well when future expansions are released.
Not only will this plan bring LOTRO’s monetization in line with most other top MMORPGs, it also simplifies what had been an extremely expensive and confusing purchasing system for players. Even I’ve have gotten confused about what I still need to buy, and I sub to the dang game!
So I have to wonder what immediate effect it’ll have. Obviously, if you’re already a core LOTRO player, you probably own most of this stuff anyway, but if you’re not, or if you’ve been away for a while, I could see being enticed back by the promise of content that isn’t trying to completely empty out your pockets. Even for a free-to-play player, that is a truly huge amount of free content.
What do you think – will LOTRO’s monetization changes pull you back in? Is there something else that you’d need from LOTRO, or is there nothing SSG could do to get you to give it another look?
Every morning, the Massively Overpowered writers team up with mascot Mo to ask MMORPG players pointed questions about the massively multiplayer online roleplaying genre. Grab a mug of your preferred beverage and take a stab at answering the question posed in today’s Daily Grind!
