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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