Myself and a few of my LotRO friends have been wondering about that as well.

Our going theory is that the core of the “stable” player base are the life-timers that signed up pre-Moria(being mainly hardcore raiders, creep grinders and Tolkienites). The number of new players attracted by the 2nd anniversary pricing and online MoM media blitz are where the money is really coming from. It behoves Turbine to keep those new month-to-month (or three month) subscribers not only interested but happy enough to spread the word to friends.

It’s of our general opinion that those fresh subscribers might not be terribly impressed with the feel of the game at 60.

Perhaps it’s because we’re on such a highly populated server that doesn’t see much new blood (Brandywine) but even at lower levels you aren’t able to find a group, even for the book quests that need one. Most low levels characters are alts (of alts of alts) being power-leveled up the ranks as quickly as possible, so it would seem. You can find PuGS (pick-up groups) within Moria but they’re in for quick hard-mode instance runs, just to get the radiance gear rolls, which can be a hectic and deterring experience to someone that hasn’t played much in a group.

That doesn’t make for a very friendly world to brand new players if you ask me.

Part of what you call gating is what I call vertical gameplay. whether through player-enforced raids, it starts with game mechanics binding elements together in different ways forcing a vertical climb.

Two good examples of “Horizontal” play were already mentioned. EVE is a good example, and Runes of Magic is shooting for more horizontal content as well.

Intuition tells me the bulk of lifetime subs are casual players, the bulk of the monthly subs less casual, more “gamery”, less “middle earth experience” kind of players.

I’d also love to see the historical numbers on lifetime subs. I have a feeling there was one large push of lifers early on, and by now they don’t “matter” any longer, financially speaking, and are just sucking resources.

If anyone wants to go all Solid Snake into Turbine and come back with the numbers, I’d be tickled pink I would.

Don’t get me wrong, the Moria expansion is a blast to level through from 50-60 but the endgame content vs the SoA endgame is two completely different beasts. I didn’t so much mind the radiance gear grind when all you needed it for was Vile Maw but this new (and completely sub-par) partial set from book 8 feels totally lazy on Turbines’ part. Run the same 3-man (or 2-man if you’re feeling sassy) instances over and over again in order to get barter items for 3 more pieces of gear that give you a whopping 1.5 more radiance (and negatives everywhere else) just to participate in the new 12-man raid???

“Turtle” felt lazy, Lothlorien (though pretty) has to be the dullest rep-grind in the history of gaming and all book 8 did was retrace a gimmick mechanic we’ve already dealt with. I agree that they likely have their reasons but I certainly hope it’s not sheer laziness.

I come from one of those “big-shot raiding guilds[kinships]” and only about 10% of the really active people (daily players) are excited in the least about the direction the game is taking. We went raid heavy months before MoM dropped because it was the thing to do at end game. At least a dozen people stopped playing when Lothlorien opened, stating they’d be back for book 8. Now, post bk8, even more people have vanished.

I’m keeping my account going with the hopes that the upcoming Mirkwood content actually brings endgame out of Moria but other games are slowly starting to lure me away.

/end_rant

Unfortunately, Turbine seemingly has no intention of removing the radiance requirements for raids now that the end game is fleshed out. It very much gives the game a “gear snob” vibe. Casual players, or those that simply dislike running the same instances repeatedly, can’t see any of the final boss battles and have no way of getting first age items.

The only way I see that they could let casuals into that content without openly admitting that radiance was an artificial cockblock would be to add PvP, crafting, and solo options for getting basic radiance gear…or at least consumables that can temporarily give you the same radiance bonus as a full set of gear. I don’t see that happening any time soon (I’d love to be mistaken).

Was there a switch? Definitely.
Do I agree with it? Even as an observer, no not really.
Was it unfair? Who knows.
Did they have a choice? Maybe not. They’re the only ones who know their real numbers.

I’m not leaning one way or the other, but just pointing out that switches like these don’t really happen for no reason. Right or wrong as those reasons might have been, I bet they must have been powerful enough.

BINGO! What is going on at Turb? Was there since preorder Open Beta, but finally got fed up and uninstalled last week, just couldn’t stand this radiance torture any longer. If other people think it’s incredibly exciting to do DD 89 times, then more power to them, but it’s not the game I remember and it sure ain’t my idea of fun.

The old class item grind was kinda lame, but you didn’t HAVE to have that stuff to do Rift/Hele, or even to be roughly equal to everyone else at cap.

Seems like they’re mostly interested in catering to the bigshot raiding guilds and the gearsnobs these days. Well, those types ruined MP on my old server, so I quit that. Soooo, when I go back to fulltime PvE (60 hunt/cap/burg) Turb cooks up this miserable radiance drudgery. Grrr…