Warner Bros. buys Lord of the Rings Online dev

?????If you are looking to start playing LoTRO, here is something to consider. Since Turbine released Rise of Isengard expansion last year, the game has become unstable and frequent crashes are typical for about half of those that play. I know this because I did a recent poll in my Kinship, which is quite large, and 47% responded to the question: "Have you had frequent crashes to the desktop ONLY since the release of RoI" with a yes. The crashes occur in the zones that were added with the RoI release, which are lvl 65+. It's a real bummer to spend 100's of hours getting to that level only to find that when you enter the post RoI zones, you have a 47% chance of being one of the unlucky ones that expierence problems. Furthermore, with update 6, many players crash to the desktop when logging out, which nerfs any setting changes you made to the game. I have brought these problems to the attention of Turbine, and they claim it's a client issue. Hmmm. Who writes the client software? They do. In short, they have no plans of fixing it. Consider this before you decide to purchase LoTRO. Do you feel lucky?

Games that you pay a $15 sub are better for gamers than companies that charge $10-$15 for a 3 map DLC or whatever. The companies that make those games that are free after purchase are really gettting greedy with their DLC.

@Zloth2 maybe your right but i'm still holding out hope that AC2 will make a come back since it was way ahead of the times when it was first released. much better game play then WoW imho

[This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

@Zioth2 Dude the only reason they charge is cause people will pay it. It may seem like a good deal but it's a rip off. Take WoW for example: 12mil subs @ say $10 a month = $120million a month. You are not getting that much content amigo. I doubt the game plus all the expansions cost that much to develop. Most would say oil companies rip you off as they charge $3.50 while their cost is $.005 cent. "But dude you can drive 350 miles on a full tank of gas"... that is basically the same argument. Anyways I drop hundreds of hours into other games and never pay after the initial purchase.

@Coordin, this will more likely mean the final death of Asheron's Call. @ekultus, $15 per month (probably less if you buy multiple months) is a steal assuming you play more than 15 hours a month.

@wormins I actually think WARhammer is pretty good but I just won't pay $15 a month when I have so many great games that are free after purchase. What's better 4million subs on a f2p game or 50,000 subs for a p2p game? These corporate morons don't even game, they are ruining it for us true fans.

Well i personally hope that with WB buying Turbine it will herald in the resurrection of AC2!

Everyone always says that they are interested in making an MMO for the PS3..yet here we are with no viable MMO's on that console. -.-

WB should also buy the movie rights including all Tolkien literature so they can finally make the Hobbit before I die.

Lotro was never free. You always at some point had to buy a Subscription. They did offer the Lifetime Sub at a discount if you bought the limited edition but still that isn't free.

LoTR online is free if you bought the special edition limited thing which gave you free for life subscription....hmmm i hope this is vegas will be release someday...that game look interesting..

if this does go f2p, i will check it out, but i got too many other games and programs i have paid for lately that i am going to check out.

Hmm rather misleading title there. Shame that LOTRO isn't free to play I would happily return along with numerous friends if that were the case.

LOTRO isn't free unless you're talking about a 7 day free trial. It's a good enough MMO that doesn't need to be free, and much deeper alternative to the raid and gear focused WoW. I hope WB doesn't mess with it.

lotro is a good game, maybe turbine will get some extra cash in there pockets and be able to speed development a little. I'm eager to see more middle earth.

It will be cool if they can make both mmo's look better and turn LOTRO into F2P. :)

Warner Bros. owns online LotR too? I can't tell if this will be good or bad. :?

@ekultus yeah DDO and Warhammer Online have alerady become f2p but some things/areas need to be paid for. Like in warhammer you cant get past level 10 if your a f2p :|

@pajamasammi!! I will be eager to see that happening!! lol!! :-p

LOTRO is a solid mmo as far as pve goes. I guess time will tell if this is good news for LOTRO and LOTR in general. While, no doubt, Warner Bros has a lot of money to invest in projects, that doesn't always translate to good results. We can only hope they stick to quality over quantity.

WBIE better not mess with LotRO. It's one of the few MMOs I've enjoyed enough to play consistently for several years, and I'll be damned if they twist Turbine's arm into doing something contrary to their vision for the game.

@Bobzfamily Yea I did the trial a few times, it's pretty good. What's with the title of this article then? Gamespot might be losing it! I also did a google and there was a few articles saying it may go f2p soon.

Next xpac is gonna be Aragorn meets Bugs Bunny.

ok so is there no monthly fee now? cause then i will get it. please tell me i'm confused

I was subscribed for 4 months before I decided to call it quits. The game faces a serious lack of challenging group content and due to low pop numbers its very hard to get groups going unless you're in a large sized kin. D&DO is a great F2P action mmo though.

a good news. hopefully this will provide Turbine with the funding to produce more quality titles.

LOTRO is NOT FTP. They got sub headline reversed. D&D Online is FTP (so-called).

Ummm, when did LoTRO go FTP?

@Ekultus: I doubt it. I played this game for a year and it is one of the only well done and polished mmorpg's out there that can rival WOW in terms of quality.

Im loving LOTRO lets see what this does to it....

Yeah, well, they better not mess with them too much when it comes to LotRO.It's actually one of the few mmo's out there that is different enough, and polished enough, to be considered a quality game and a good alternative to WoW.There's a reason D&DO uses the payment method it uses, and i will acknowledge it's existence no further than that.

Well, with a push towards being free. I'm SOLD! I know they will charge for other things, but I enjoy the capability of being able to actually play the game for free. "Take note Blizzard/Activision"

Maybe they'll actually make the developers figure out what the hell they actually want LOTRO to be finally. Three years in and they're going in an entirely different direction every update. Played for two years and finally had to quit due to how terrible it had become.

I would give it a go if its free

So lotr online is f2p now? I will def play it if it is. Any one verify this?

I concur

Meh. The only good MMO they've made is Asheron's Call. Unless they make another game with a strong license and let's face it, you'll be hard pressed to beat Lord of the Rings, I don't see their future MMOs doing so well.

awesome, yet no mention of the MMORPG that made them what they are today Asheron's Call