There was a time that I was a VIP subscriber to LOTRO. During my first couple of years playing, when I knew I had a long road ahead (level 65-75 back in those days), it was practically a no-brainer to plunk down the subscription fee in order to be able to enjoy a hassle-free gallivant through our favorite fantasy setting.
Financially, I was able to justify it easily. Since I was looking at a long-term engagement I had no fear of springing for the 12 month VIP plan, which is $99 for 12 months. That’s roughly (let’s see, carry the 5, divide by pi, insert quadratic formula…) $8.25 per month. Considering that you are also granted the Turbine Point stipend of 500 TP per month, in my mind I that knocked down the monthly cost down to about $3.25. I know, the economist out there will chastise me for counting TP as actual money, but if it is something that I would have purchased anyway, and using existing TP keeps me from entering my credit card number again, that’s money that never leaves my bank account. That is an actual, quantifiable value to me.
The VIP plan was the chosen path for both my wife and I for 24 months. During which time, we were happily enjoying one of the best values in entertainment (Compare $6.50/month with your cable/satellite bill) accruing TP and spending additional real-life money on things such as the Mithril Edition (2), Steam Pack Edition(2), Mines of Moria expansion (1), Rise of Isengard expansion (2) and Riders of Rohan expansion(2).
At some point, I started looking at all of the LOTRO content that I actually owned, via my various expansion pack and special edition purchases. I also took note of the pile of TP that had accumulated over a two-year period. Not only did I already own quite a few of the zones within the game, but I also had enough TP stockpiled to cover the rest, including instances and skirmishes and craft guild access, and still have some to spare. It was during this stage that I started wondering whether a VIP subscription was actually still ‘worth it’ to me. Sure, it gave me freep access to the ‘Moors, a perk that I hardly ever used. I also got a cool character portrait. That was pretty much it, really.
So I did the logical and fiscally responsible thing and let my VIP expire. I purchased the rest of the content with TP and felt pretty good about myself. Now I own the game that I love (kind of a rent-to-own scenario, I guess), and felt just fine about spending $30-40 a year for a new zone + expac in order to continue to support the game development.
The other benefit that came from cancelling my subscription was that I now have the freedom to jump in and out of LOTRO as I please, without feeling like I have to “get my money’s worth” this month. It frees me up to look at other games, knowing that the content that I “own” will be available to me the next time I pull up the LOTRO launcher. In fact, I’ve recently purchased ESO (a subscription only game) with the express intent to split my time between the two games. It’s nice to have that freedom knowing that I don’t need to subscribe to both games in order to play.
That was all a very long setup that brings me to this question: Where is Turbine really taking the VIP/subscription model for LOTRO? “Free for VIP” can be looked at from couple of different perspectives. Glass half full: Turbine is rewarding it’s faithful subscribers with more value. Glass half empty: Turbine is injecting more value into the VIP in order to drive more players to subscriptions in accordance with current MMO business trends.
Of course, being non-VIP, I’m concerned about the “glass half empty” viewpoint. While there will be no expac for me to purchase this year, I’m keenly watching whether the new class, new mini-zones and other micro-transactions (many of which will be “free to VIPs”) will actually end up costing the non-subsciber more than the historical one zone + one expac model that our budgets have become accustomed to. If they do, then I think it’s fair to say that the “free to VIP” slogan might as well be “time to go VIP, cheapskate” to those of us who have tried to remain supportive, yet fiscally responsible.
Beyond my own selfish reasons, my even larger concern is what nudging players towards subscriptions will do to a player base that is already seeing the allure of newer, exciting sub-only titles. One only needs to take a look at some of the snipping occurring between ESO and Wildstar camps to realize that subscription models force us to take sides. Very few people will pay for more than one subscription for a game, and if they start to feel like VIP is required in order to enjoy LOTRO, I’m afraid they will just stop playing. Please, Turbine, don’t make us choose between LOTRO and the newer titles. I honestly am not sure if LOTRO would win that war at this point of it’s lifespan.
Until we see the pricing of the micro-updates for 2014, it’s going to be difficult to know whether the glass is half full or half empty. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m rather thirsty for some reason.
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Turbine absolutely wants players to sub to the game, that’s always been the case.
Even at the reduced rates you get with the $99/yr, that’s a years worth of revenue from a single player that they may not get all of otherwise. How many F2P players buy $8 worth of Turbine points every month? I’m guessing not many.
That said, I firmly believe that the F2P conversion was needed and is THE reason the servers are still open. The quality of the content over the last few years would not have supported a large enough player base if it was subscription only. I am glad F2P happened because I was able to see the ‘new’ life it breathed back into the game.
I am also glad I bought lifetime accounts back in 07, because the F2P model does not agree with my particular needs, and there’s no way I’d be paying a monthly fee for this game anymore. Had I been a monthly sub, I’d probably have canceled sometime around ROI.
I think Turbine wants you to spend money in whatever way you see fit. That’s why the company has made so many different options available.
There’s a way to pay that fits just about every style of consumer out there. Sometimes I think these options are intentionally confusing and overlap in such a way as to get players to spend more than they otherwise would.
Now that I’ve played several other games where the studios don’t ask their players to pay to either rent or purchase playable content, Turbine’s model seems really outdated.
Granted i don’t know what all is in U13 as i have been taking a little vacation but i read the moors will be open to F2P players too.
With the felt nerf to XP bonuses, mostly removed destiny perks and the Gold present rolling being rather meh and now moors access not exclusive anymore, i’m hard pressed to justify the value of VIP.
I mean i stay subbed cause i’m a lazy hobbit(cancelling would be work!), it’s the most hassle free and the 10$ are not even background noise, but generally it seems there is very little value in being VIP atm.
I doubt the pricing of new updates will really change much to that.
This is a good point. Removing the VIP requirement for ‘Moors access does open up more options for premium players. However, if a player expects to spend any length of time in the ‘Moors, $2 for six hours is going to get kind of pricey. Even if you only spend 3 hours doing PvMP a day, that’s close to $30 for the month, or about twice what VIP would cost. It could be argued that even the ‘Moors pass is an attempt at a “gateway to VIP”.
Ah i think it’s just a way to monetize people that want to dabble a little bit in pvmp freep side but don’t want to go out full VIP or go Monster mode.
Think uh like soccer single game cards being more expensive per game than buying a spot for a whole season.
With the exception of the expansions (other than Helm’s Deep), my general strategy for this game has been the “play to earn” model. I do appreciate that earning the “premium currency” in LOTRO (I am referring to TP, not MC) is generally simple – more so than many other MMOs. I suppose it also helps that I do not participate in PvP combat in RPG titles, so I could care less about the Moors.
Comparing this game with two other advertised F2P MMOs I play, both which do offer their playable content free, the trade-off seems to be in the basic character and storage capacities. Both titles do have the capacity to earn the premium currency free, albeit are much more of an effort with my current playstyle than that of LOTRO’s. Still, I make it work in all games, which is really all you need to do in any F2P title.
At the end of the day, it’s really going to come down to one’s playstyle. While I’d love the ability for quick travel on more characters (about half of my main server toons are in the bubble, rest are out), I do not have the need to sub at the time.
A timely piece…my 3 month VIP runs out this month and as stated above many of the perks of being a VIP can be negated/accounted for by ‘play 2 play’ TP grinding – which I do love and think LOTRO does very well…even generously…EPIC story wobble last year but still going strong…
I think TURBINE would be ill-advised to move again into forcing LOTRO players into subscription models of play but there should be some kind of VIP service that rewards more than just a PREMIUM account with a shine…getting this balance right could really boost revenue.
So far only the landscape postal service has been mentioned as VIP…but maybe the new class or even pets could be VIP only perks… (no the uproar would be too much if these were not available in TP store!) So I really do not know what they could do to attract a F2P or Premium to subscribe, become VIP at the moment and as I have found there is no change to my LOTRO gameplay (I am TP grinding less only as I am frustrated as I cannot spend TP in sales for stuff my VIP status provides…this is a negative for me. Slowly earning TP and ‘buying’ the content adds to my progression within the game.)
I love the game and would like to remain VIP but presently PREMIUM is the best way to go for me…
Short answer: Yes, LOTRO would love us to sub!
Long answer with background, for those who care to read it:
I am a Premium player. I started playing the game when it was first released, but could not justify the monthly cost; when LOTRO when F2P in 2010, I returned and have been playing ever since. Shortly thereafter Amberflower joined me in-game, and we were two happy hobbits running about Middle Earth. We snagged a couple of SoA boxes while they were still available which gave us a little bit of VIP time, then went F2P/Premium after that. As a single-income household, in the wake of the economic recession, it was hard to justify one VIP subscription, let alone two. So we ran around exploring, grinding out TP’s, buying 1 or 2 zones with those TP’s, and generally having a good time. I remember buying the Path of the Fellowship bundle to get Trollshaws, Eregion, Moria & Lothlorien. Then we bought the big RoI pre-order pack, and got a bunch of TP with it which we used to buy even more zones. Rinse and repeat with RoR, and later HD. At some point we we had purchased all available zones with TP from the LOTRO store. Once we had all available zones, we purchased other features from the store; my general rule was to only buy things from the in-game store that would be available account-wide, like character slots, shared storage, wardrobe, premium wallet, etc. As our finances improved, there have been a few times when we have gone VIP, the longest stretch being the 3 months leading up to Helm’s Deep when we were trying to level up to cap. After HD, we both went back to Premium with really no impact because we already “owned” the features of the game which mattered to us.
The current perks of VIP offer no real enticement to subscribe. I have no interest in PvMP; Hobbit Presents and daily XP (instead of banked rest XP) are silly gimmicks; the rest of the benefits I either already have, or can get with little effort. The only things you cannot get as a Premium player are max shared wardrobe, character slots, and a few others. But you can get really, really close. The hybrid model was a good idea — it worked. LOTRO going F2P caused me to return to the game, and in fact I spent *some* money on it since then, whereas if it had been subscription only the whole time, I probably would have spent none. I haven’t run the hard numbers, but I’m fairly certain that we (both of us) have spent less by buying the expansions than we would have if we had both gone VIP for X years. And we’re still here. If the benefits of VIP improve, we will probably subscribe because we love adventuring in Middle Earth.
Turbine needs to revise their business model. They are facing a lot of pressure, from without and from within, and they need to do something to stay competitive. I think they recognize this, or are beginning to, in the wake of Helm’s Deep. Things are already starting to change: Aaron Campbell is back, a number of long-wished-for improvements are being implemented, and communication seems to be flowing a little better now. It’s a start. Who knows what they might do next? It wouldn’t surprise me if they decided to open up all content pre-Moria, as a way to boost interest in the game. Maybe they’ll revise LI’s, or give us war-goats, unlimited wardrobe, or completely customizable housing. Many things are possible, but I think many of us will be happy if we can simply get to Gondor.
Turbine put themselves into an awkward position; there’s been some discussion of “buy vs rent”. What they really need to do change the dynamic and make VIP a “service” that people are willing to pay for. What that service might be, I’m not sure.
Well put Sully…you deserve an article for yourself 🙂
I for one would gladly go VIP again if I actually felt more VIP’ish.
Hah, yeah… in hindsight, I maybe I should have posted a short answer, and left the rest of my thoughts for my personal blog. Oh well.