Just what does it mean when Lord of the Rings Online said that they were going free-to-play? We decided to find out!

When Turbine announced that Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) would be going free to play, the general feeling among gamers was one of cautious optimism. While, yes, a move like this certainly felt right, coming from the team that virtually redefined success in the free-to-play market with Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO), there is the obvious fact that Lord of the Rings Online is an entirely different MMO, and so its approach to Turbine's free-to-play revenue model will need to be different as well. But how do these changes stack up to Turbine's original success with DDO, and what, exactly, does free-to-play really mean in Lord of the Rings Online? Thus, it was with these questions in mind that we decided to snag ourselves an account for LOTRO's F2P closed beta to see for ourselves what free-to-play players can expect in Middle-Earth.

For those of you who don't know too much about Turbine's original success in Dungeons and Dragons Online when it went free to play last September, one of the biggest reasons why DDO did so well in the free to play market was because the inherent structure of DDO lent itself so well to Turbine's new revenue model. You see, for fans of the Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) franchise, purchasing new adventures to traverse has always been the norm. If, for example, your group felt that they wanted to venture to the center of the Earth to do battle with the creepies and crawlies of the underworld, then there would be a purchasable adventure for that. Alternatively, if your friends decided that battling on the high seas was more for them, there would, obviously, be an adventure ready and waiting for that as well. In this way, when players came to Dungeons and Dragons Online, purchasing interesting adventure packs to explore just seemed to "fit."

But what about Lord of the Rings Online? There are, obviously, no such "adventure packs" that can divide up the war for Middle-Earth, so Turbine instead chose to base its content packs on regions, with players being able to buy "Quest Packs" for specific regions, to be able to access all of the quests (and deeds) available within a specific region. Turbine made a good choice, to allow the epic quest line to be free at all stages, so players could advance along the storyline without having to pay a cent.

We decided to begin our free-to-play adventures by making a Human, as Turbine also decided to streamline the starting human zone quests. New players will definitely be excited by the addition of Aragorn to the opening scenes (rather than meeting him an hour or two later at the Prancing Pony Inn), and progression was both smooth and enjoyable. In fact, for the beginning levels up to 20, a free-to-play player's experience and a VIP or Premium player's experience are quite the same. Later on, however, we did feel some of those free-to-play restrictions begin to chafe.

For example, if you never spend a penny at the Turbine Store, you will only be allowed to have a maximum of one character per server along with a fairly low two gold cap. Upon spending any cash at the Turbine Store, however, players will see their accounts instantly upgrade from "free player" to a "premium player," where their gold cap will be raised from two to five and they will be able to make three players per server, instead of one. For both free players and premium players, on the other hand, there are a few features that need to be purchased in order to be accessible, including basic riding skills (so no mounts until you pay!), an additional two bags (free players and premium players begin with three bags) and full access to trait slots (both types of accounts have access to only one or two slots per trait). Subscribers, of course, gain access to all the content they want, in addition to receiving 500 Turbine Points per month to spend at the store.