Amusing LOTRO news.

[Lilica]

Well, my LOTRO account was hacked...sort of.  Someone sat down at my desk, leafed through my password journal, logged into my account information - and bought me a lifetime membership.  I have no idea who it was, and queries as to who did it bring only amused smiles.  So...as long as there is a Landroval server (the roleplay server) and a LOTRO game, there will be a Saga chapter in Middle-Earth.  I don't know if this warrants its own place among the listings for EQ2, AoC, or WoW, but it does give it unusual durability.   

Equally amusing...guilds (known as 'Kinships') have 10 levels.  By virtue of just existing, Saga is already level 8, and rapidly approaching 9.  My online time there isn't what it should be, admittedly, but I'll worry about it more when/if I see another Saga-ite.   

[Lyrima]

<blink>

Um.

Was it expensive?

...uhm....

Congrats?

[Namae Nai]

One of these days I need to play that game!

[Namae Nai]

I do hope you find out who subscribed you! That is a very weird thing to do to someone else. 

[Lilica]

Lifetime membership is $300.00...although I suspect at the time they did it, it was 'on special' (for whatever reason) for $200.00.  So for just slightly more than a year of Star Wars Galaxies (or whatever other games), I get to play for that one-time fee until they take the servers down.  If that happens to be only a couple of years, I'm still ahead.     I imagine I'll get a birthday card at the appropriate time or somesuch.

So far, the game has only two expansions, Moria and Mirkwood ( and I've not made it to Moria, the lower of the two, yet ) - you start out in Bree (Men), the Shire (Hobbits), or Ered Luin (Dwarves and Elves).  The scenery is spectacular, but the gameplay is about what you'd expect from most MMO's.

The really nice thing, this no longer counts against my limit total of subscribed-to games.

[Lyrima]

I'm thinking the person who subscribed you must know you pretty well.

[Titia]

Well considering the game will go free toplay this fall, it might be a short lived gift unfortunately ...

[Namae Nai]

Huh.. apparently it's still free to play, but if you're a Lifetime member you get VIP status and a lot of stuff is free for you that's going to be nickel and dime'ed to everyone else. Interesting...

It would be like if SOE said you could play EQ2 for free, but you can only have one character with 2 inventory slots and 4 bank slots, but you could buy more. Also, mounts have to be bought with real world $$$ and you don't gain rested XP like the VIP paying customers do.

[Lilica]

I know...I'm guessing this will be the kiss of death for LOTRO, as least as far as Saga goes.  I'll have to re-activate the Trial Account I used to actually form the Middle-Earth incarnation of the guild and take a look at the restrictions.

Word has it that levels will be capped unless you are paying (.  I know that 'VIP's' will get a lot of...well...Turbine's version of Smedbucks, and (from what I understand) a monthly allowance of the same.  More than one person has told me I am fortunate to have gotten VIP status - I am not so sure.  All the access, levels, and goodies in the world are useless if the game suffocates from lack of players.