Last post I wrote about how I found Lotro to be one of the best mmo I’ve played yet how I never finished exploring it. My most advanced character was in the Moria by the time I stopped and I still had tons of contents to see. Thinking this over the weekend, I decided to re install Lotro and begin my travels anew.
I’m not quitting Swtor by any means. Swtor is where all my friends are playing and I’m having a blast with it. That said, Lotro scratches that explorer itch like no other game can and me being a Tolkien fanboy, exploring Middle-Earth will always have a special place in my heart. So instead of leveling an alt in Swtor, I’ll be spending some time in Middle Earth when I’m not saving the galaxy.
Freemium play
Up until now, every time I played Lotro is was on a monthly subscription plan. This time around I wanted to go free to play since I don’t know at what frequency I’ll play yet and I don’t want to pressure myself into playing because I’m paying monthly. I figured that since I was a subscriber long ago and since I had bought the Moria and Lothlorien expansion, I’d be all set on content until level 65 at least. Plus I had close to 5k turbine points stacked up, I felt I was good!
Well, turns out I was in for a few surprises. For started, some elements I took for granted like having 5 bags or all my virtues slot unlocked were not present. Things I thought I already had since I had the full game a while back… well I have to pay for them now. Sure, it’s a one time thing and they’re not that expansive but still… It’s a bit disconcerting to find out that content I had previously access to is now blocked.
To make matter worst I spent most of my points on buying one of the newest expansions so… does suck a bit. I did have to spend 8$ to unlock all my bags. Right now my thoughts on freemium are this. I don’t mind paying for new content but paying for basic character features like bags… not so much a fan. Still, so far I haven’t even spent a month worth of subscription in another game so I guess I can’t complain.
First few steps
I’ll do another post for the actual in-game experiences but so far Lotro did not disappoint. It’s still breathtakingly beautiful and it still scratches that explorer itch like nothing else.
