Turbine dropped a huge surprise on the MMO community this morning with the announcement that Lord of the Rings Online is changing to a free-to-play model. Fan reaction was all over the map, and the announcement predictably spawned a stream of questions from every direction. Everyone was anxious to find out how current accounts would transfer, where the decision came from, what will be free, what won't, and so on.
The Turbine staff have, of course, been incredibly busy since the news went public, but managed to carve out some time to chat with Massively about the future of Lord of the Rings Online.
New raids, class updates, festivals and more are on the calendar.
Now this makes me feel old! I remember playing the beta while I worked at Gamestop. I honestly didn't even know this game was still online! A quick search showed that it's even F2P now, so I may check it out for nostalgia's sake.
I only subbed at launch for 1-2 months bc I was already caught up in WoW at the time. I love the LotR universe though and would like to see how it's being handled these days.
Before the Shadow is the latest expansion to the still-thriving MMORPG, Lord of the Rings Online, introducing new regions and mechanics.
From MMORPG: "Some Lord of the Rings Online players may have been aware of an unofficial rogue server project that was set to release this month called Echoes of Angmar. Aiming to create a true vanilla version of LOTRO, trait lines and map-less Old Forest and all, the server ran the real risk of drawing legal ire down on its head because of the unlicensed use of a very much still-operating and still-in-development MMO.
PLAY LOTRO FOR FREEAnd in fact, the Echoes of Angmar’s team received a cease-and-desist letter from Middle-earth Enterprises today demanding the cessation of all work and operation: “It is thus with a heavy heart that we must ask that you immediately cease all of your unauthorized use of Echoes of Angmar, and all other Tolkien-related IP on all platforms.”
