{"id":2822,"date":"2010-06-06T02:02:28","date_gmt":"2010-06-06T07:02:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/?p=2822"},"modified":"2010-06-05T14:08:13","modified_gmt":"2010-06-05T19:08:13","slug":"lotro-%e2%80%93-free-online-beta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/2010\/06\/06\/lotro-%e2%80%93-free-online-beta\/","title":{"rendered":"LOTRO \u2013 Free Online Beta"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Just for shits and giggles I signed up for the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lotro.com\/betasignup\/index.php\" onclick=\"__gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/www.lotro.com\/betasignup\/index.php', 'Lord of the Rings Online beta');\" target=\"_blank\">Lord of the Rings Online beta<\/a> to see if I can get in on some of the relaunch fun before the actual free to play relaunch this fall.  According to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/articles\/lotro-to-relaunch-as-free-to-play\" onclick=\"__gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article', 'http:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/articles\/lotro-to-relaunch-as-free-to-play', 'Eurogamer');\" target=\"_blank\">Eurogamer<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>You\u2019ll be able to play up to level 50 \u2013 the level cap of the original version of the game, Shadows of Angmar \u2013 for free. In the LOTRO Store, you will be able to purchase \u201cconvenience items\u201d, expansion packs, premium content, additional character slots, potions and character customisation options.<\/p>\n<p>We imagine that the content available to buy in the Store will include that currently sold in the Mines of Moria and Siege of Mirkwood expansions, which between them have raised the level cap to 65.<\/p>\n<p>The VIP offering will grant unlimited access to all premium content, priority server access, five character slots, a shared bank slot and a monthly stipend of points to spend in the LOTRO store \u201cfor one low price\u201d. The price is yet to be revealed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I would like to give this a go just to try out the Middle Earth world, and the concept of free to play is perfect for my pocketbook.  I really need to upgrade my laptop to something more suitable for gaming.<\/p>\n<p>One really interesting bit of this story concerns Dungeons and Dragons Online, which went free to play last year.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Since its free-to-play relaunch in September 2009, Dungeons & Dragons Online has attracted one million players, boosted revenues by 500 per cent, and even doubled the number of traditional subscribers to the game. A recent survey put it as the third most-played MMO in the US after World of Warcraft and RuneScape.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Of course that is not WoW is a distant contender, but I imagine the free to play concept will continue to catch on with other MMOs looking for their nitche in the market.<\/p>\n<div class=\"addtoany_share_save_container addtoany_content_bottom\"><div class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_ addtoany_list a2a_target\" id=\"wpa2a_1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.addtoany.com\/share\" onclick=\"__gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article', 'https:\/\/www.addtoany.com\/share', '');\" class=\"a2a_dd addtoany_share_save\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-content\/plugins\/add-to-any\/share_save_171_16.png\" width=\"171\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Share\"\/><\/a>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\nif(wpa2a)wpa2a.script_load();\n\/\/--><\/script>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just for shits and giggles I signed up for the Lord of the Rings Online beta to see if I can get in on some of the relaunch fun before the actual free to play relaunch this fall. According to Eurogamer: You\u2019ll be able to play up to level 50 \u2013 the level cap of &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/2010\/06\/06\/lotro-%e2%80%93-free-online-beta\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">LOTRO \u2013 Free Online Beta<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"addtoany_share_save_container addtoany_content_bottom\"><div class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_ addtoany_list a2a_target\" id=\"wpa2a_2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.addtoany.com\/share\" onclick=\"__gaTracker('send', 'event', 'outbound-article', 'https:\/\/www.addtoany.com\/share', '');\" class=\"a2a_dd addtoany_share_save\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-content\/plugins\/add-to-any\/share_save_171_16.png\" width=\"171\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Share\"\/><\/a><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[62,60],"class_list":["post-2822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","tag-pc","tag-wow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2822"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2829,"href":"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2822\/revisions\/2829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.calvertgames.com\/cgblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}