Help Turbine help kids!
On October 20th, Team Turbine will be participating in Extra Life. A 24 hour gaming marathon to raise money for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.
To F2P or not…
With the announcement of Bioware and EA’s joint project going to a hybrid subscription model what does that mean for the world of MMOs?
My first thought is nothing, I really believe that it is up to the developers and the MMO community to make that decision final. I mean as long as games like Rift and WOW are able to function with a subscription model that will still be the main goal for larger studios. After all they have to cover their budgets.
However smaller studios and those who don’t feel they need to be the only game you play will take the F2P or hybrid subscription model at inception.
Let’s talk free to play stigma and why it really shouldn’t be that way anymore.
Stigma part one if a game switches from a subscription to F2P they are a dying game and a last ditch effort to save themselves. I believe that this one mostly came from DDO making the switch because it was floundering. But games like Lord of the Rings Online did it completely to increase revenue. Mostly after seeing what the change did for DDO. Both of these game of course being published by Turbine.
I am sure that the swift manner in which Star Wars The Old Republic has decide to change most people are going to see this as a failure. I believe that in the eyes of the studios involved that may be the case. When your actual goal is to hit 13 million subscribers and take over the #1 spot anything less is a failure.
Next stigma if a game comes out as F2P it is low budget and not well made. Low budget maybe but not well made have you seen Firefall it is well polished, it still has some issues but it is in beta. Although most F2P games are Asian ports that don’t always translate well in the US and Canada doesn’t mean they are also bad games just that we aren’t the right audience for them.
With all that in mind are subscription MMOs dying? I don’t think so with WOW still running things. And games like Rift performing like it has. There is promise in a subscription based game. That being said it is going to take innovations like the ones in Rift and those that are being tried in games like The Secret World for that to remain true.
On the flip side games like Guild Wars 1&2, Firefall and LOTRO that are very solid MMOs. That you can play without spending a dime and they can and will continue to make the money needed to continue to develop content and turn a profit.
So what have we learned? That subscription or no there are all types of very strong MMOs out right now. So find one you might like or a couple and give them a try.
As always comment below, email Bor, or follow me on twitter @Th3B0rR3p0rt & @Bor_Jason and let me know what you think.
Rise of Isengard™ Video Developer Diary : Dunland
Just released by Turbine the video dev-diary on Dunland : In this first Rise of Isengard™ Developer Diary, Senior World Designer Chris Pierson and Todd DeMelle, Director of Production and Concept Art, take you through the region of Dunland, introduce you to the diverse clans who dwell there, and talk about the inspirations and details that helped them to craft the region. Enjoy
Also with German andFrench Subtitles
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Bullroarer Took Screenshot Contest
Yesterday Turbine announced this years take a Tooky picture contest. Winners will receive 500 Turbine points so grab your in game cameras a start clicking :{D
Link to Celestrata’s Post
LOTRO Character Panel
Hey guys just a quick video showing the new character panel coming in the Echoes of the Dead update on the Bullroarer server coming “soon” to the live servers. Hope you enjoy it thanks for watching and I’ll see you in Middle-earth ~ Bor
You can read Tim “Raskolnikov” Lang’s new Developer diary here.
Turbine Store helpful links
Here are some helpful links for some information from the Turbine Stores including the Turbine Tuesday sales from the DDO and LOTRO Stores.
Dual Boxing Experiment
So the other Day I decided to try out Dual Boxing in LOTRO. After some trial and error I was able to get it working using the Lavish Software currently I am only running 2 accounts but I believe you can go as high as 5. You may ask why would you want to dual box? Well there are quite a few answers to this question but my answer is mostly to make it a different gaming experience. I am sure you have seen the videos on you tube of the guy running 5 RKs or Hunters with every key mapped so all 5 characters do the same moves at the same time. I have taken the approach of doing classes to support each other my first attempt is a Guardian and Rune-keeper combo. As of right now I am unsure whether this was a good choice or not but I’ll let you know. So far this has been quite fun although I am only at level 9 on my characters but so far I seem to be doing okay. I believe this may be the way I play from now one but we shall see I still have some more tweaking to do and a lot of experimenting I’ll post my thoughts and suggestions and answers to any questions you may have about this also thanks for reading and I’ll see you in Middle-earth ~ Bor.
Win 100,000 DDO Turbine points
What Would You Do With 100,000 Turbine Points?What would you do with 100,000 Turbine Points? Would you buy every item in the DDO Store? Purchase matching armor for your entire Guild? Upgrade to the biggest Airship in the game? Change your hair color to match every dungeon? The possibilities are endless. You could be the richest player in Eberron! Simply enter today for a chance to win 100,000 Turbine Points!
- What Can I win?
- One 1st place winner for each game get’s 100,000 Turbine Points
- Two 2nd place winners get lifetime subscriptions to either game
- Five 3rd place winners get 1000 Turbine Points
- Do I have to purchase anything to enter?
- No, the contest is free to enter, no purchase necessary.
- Ok great, how do I enter?
- To enter, go to trial.turbine.com between Dec 1 to Dec 31 2010 and register for a free account to become entered in contest.
- But I already play DDO, can I still enter?
- Absolutely! If you already have a DDO account prior to Dec 1, entrants need to go to my.ddo.com/contest Dec 1 to Dec 31 2010 to become entered in contest
- If I enter to win for DDO, do I need to enter separately for LOTRO?
- Yes. Each game will have individual drawings. You may enter to win for each game, but you must sign up separately.
Scheduled Maintenance: Monday 5/17/2010
The LOTRO Game Servers and http://myaccount.turbine.com will be offline for maintenance on Monday, May 17 from 6:00AM to 10:00AM Eastern (-5 GMT). The forums and wikis will remain up, but players may not be able to log in.
Th3 B0r R3p0rt 