Ok, I do love the move to F2P however, this does come with a significant downside – Turbine has confirmed that there will be no new LOTRO content until this fall. I really wish Turbine would’ve separated the Volume 3 Book 2 content out from the F2P switch as we’ll end up going almost 6 months without any new content and even that content was completed almost immediately after it launched. I’m actually thinking we’re looking at almost a one year gap between game content as I don’t think we’ll see this update until the November time-period which would put us just about the same time as the Mirkwood launch.
For much of the player base we’ll be stuck with the same exact content we’ve been doing for the past year. I’m just real worried that this will kill off a lot of people and really sour them on the game in general. I don’t think the prospect of F2P will offset this lack of content for many players. Sure some will come back, but it could be a pretty painful chunk that decide to leave. And it will take a while for the new influx of F2P people to make much of a dent in the higher end (level 30+) player base. Granted, this may give players like myself a chance to get more toons all geared up but without groups that may prove challenging.
Now the beta does provide a bit of a diversion for folks but it won’t compensate for playing on our “real” characters. Certainly I’ll be anxious to see how the pricing models work and help test out the acquisition of in-game points. The end-game content will be intriguing as well, but I’m mainly worried about the point stuff. Of course, that’s assuming I get into the beta 😉
So unless you want to roll an alt (or a few alts) or get into the Beta, I’m guessing this will be a slow summer for LOTRO activities. Basically my love for the F2P news is almost offset by the news of no content updates for a lengthy period.
Doc Holiday's LOTRO Blog 
This was the only part of the announcement I’m upset about. I understand why, I’m sure that 100% of their development resources are going to be allocated to the F2P switch. It does make Volume 3 Book 1 seems especially pitiful though.
Yeah, to go a whole year with just 3.1 is a bit rough, but it isn’t like this is a small change they’re making.
This harkens back to that bitter pill… No new content will suck eggs, but I’m trying to balance that by telling myself I’ll have a beta to run around in for a while. Assuming I get in.
Making this switch is really a monumental task if you think about it. If 18 months of effort went into it for DDO, it stands to reason a similar or perhaps MORE time will go into it for LOTRO.
At any rate, hopefully 18 months from now we’ll look back and say, “Well, that 2010 content lull sucked, but seeing how things are now it was totally worth it.”
Pretty much my thoughts exactly. They’re also revamping (again) the starter areas so quite a lot of work in addition to the pay model changes. Plus with DX11 we may be getting some other changes to the graphics (ok, maybe I’m just dreaming here).
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DDO seems to be getting content on a fairly consistent basis, hopefully after this down time the same will be true for LOTRO.
That’s my thought, just a rough year for us while we wait. But hopefully this year will be them setting up all the ground work such that adding content will be easier for them down the road.
Worse, the new content that is finally arriving in Book 2 will not raise the level cap, so it won’t be useful for players who are already level 65. I guess they see a niche for this region because they’re removing rested exp for non-VIP accounts, but it’s kind of pointless if you’re already at the cap.
That said, if you are considering going premium, the thing to do now is to get all your alts up to level 50. It sounds like anyone who already owns Moria and Mirkwood will retain permanent F2P access to that content, but you’ll have to pay to buy or rent (=VIP sub) the stuff from level 15-50 in Eriador.
They’ve done other content patches at the cap so I don’t mind that as much. I’m expecting another reputation option with juicy end game rewards. Kinda like Mirkwood but with more landmass.
But I agree with your other xp comments even though it doesn’t really impact me.