Some of the primary complaints about the Riders of Rohan pre-order was the increase in cost but exclusion of Turbine Points and exclusion of an instance cluster.
Turbine has heard our cries and in a forum post today Sapience responded with the modifications they are making to the Riders of Rohan expansion.
Turbine Points
All editions now will come with a set of Turbine Points included in their purchase.
- Base Edition: 1,000 Bonus Turbine Points
- Heroic Edition: 1,000 Bonus Turbine Points
- Legendary Edition: 2,000 Bonus Turbine Points
Do not fret if you were one of the early pre-orders as you will be getting these bonus points as well.
Anyone who has already applied their Rohan key will see points credited directly to their account over the next few business days. You will not need to contact customer service to receive your points. They will be granted automatically.
Note: There are a large number of accounts that will be receiving a points credit as part of this change. Please allow 3-5 business days for your points to arrive.
This definitely makes the Legendary Edition a more interesting package for someone like me. With approximately $20 in Turbine Points being included, I’m definitely eyeing the $70 pre-pay in a more favorable light.
Instance Cluster
The instance cluster WILL BE FREE to those who those who purchase the Riders of Rohan expansion.
While we are still not ready to talk about the details of the cluster we did want to confirm that we will be releasing a new instance cluster in an update after Rohan launches, and that the cluster will be free to all players who have purchased the Riders of Rohan expansion.
This is an excellent turn of events as we have heard from so many who have expressed buyers remorse with pre-ordering to find out an instance cluster is not included. This seems like a way better way customer service move than threatening to take action on accounts for requesting a refund.
So Turbine Points and an included instance cluster. I am certainly a much happier Hobbit.
I say “Good on you Turbine!”. You heard your customer’s complaints and are offering up ways to meet our requests and get us excited for Rohan again.
June 14, 2012 at 3:14 pm
I really appreciate that they actually listen to their customers. Way to go, Turbine!
June 14, 2012 at 3:20 pm
Seconded. That’s excellent news! They are doing the right thing by applying the Turbine points to those who already made the purchase, as well.
June 14, 2012 at 6:47 pm
Agreed. This also makes it way more likely that I’ll get the pre-order instead of buying the expansion content with points later on.
June 14, 2012 at 3:18 pm
Thank you again for the news. Not sure exactly how you keep so on top of things, but I’m glad you do.
I am also glad to see Turbine responding to their customers. I’ll talk a look at the post and the new expansion editions tonight to see what my next move will be. Hopefully, it will involve an order for RoR!
June 14, 2012 at 3:20 pm
My prayers have been anwsered! Legendary here i come!
June 14, 2012 at 3:24 pm
This should generate some much needed good PR for Turbine. Even though it still seems overpriced to me, pre-purchasing the expansion with cash does provide an obvious value over purchasing the features individually later with Turbine Points.
Despite these changes, it still does not excuse the company’s questionable sales and marketing practices. They very much feel to me like an act of desperation from a company making a cash-grab.
Even after all this, I still have less faith in Turbine and the future of LOTRO, given the continuing decline in weekly server activity. If these trends continue, before long, we will be back at the same levels as before the game went free-to-play.
June 14, 2012 at 4:13 pm
I’m in total agreement, they really should have known better. Personally I feel they really need to make some changes in their marketing department because this kind of nonsense has been going on since Mirkwood was offered. Now there is all the bad PR from this which I am pretty sure is much bigger than that from ROI.
Adding the TP and instances to the packages is all well and good but they are just adding what should have been there in the first place. Personally I still think it’s over-priced at $70 but the additions do make it slightly easier to swallow.
I also agree with your final sentiment on losing faith towards Turbine. I think regardless of how excited or not players are about any given expansion, Turbine has done themselves a huge disservice in the cloud of lost trust/faith that they have brought upon themselves.
June 14, 2012 at 4:53 pm
$70 is still overpriced, but you do not need it. Your “hard to swallow” makes it seem like you think you are being forced to get it. There is a $40 base package that has everything. All the extra $30 surcharge for the legendary package seems to get you is an extra bag which you can buy separately much more cheaply and the session play. Is the session play really that necessary?
June 14, 2012 at 7:59 pm
I’ve no doubt they added the extra’s because of a combination of what their lawyers told them about mis-selling, and poor pre-orders. It’s an attempt to save face after failing in the face of their greed. Good for the players, but in no way excuses what they tried to pull.
June 18, 2012 at 4:46 am
Cannot agree with you more Nick. I believe Turbine really needs to reconsider how they give out information about their upcoming products/features in the future. They should be luring us into purchasing content by providing exciting stuff to buy, not force us into buying necessary content at exorbitant prices. I am still miffed at the lack of meaningful pre-purchase bonuses.
June 15, 2012 at 1:43 am
Fredelas, how do you know there is a decline in weekly server activity? Is that anecdotal?
June 15, 2012 at 3:20 pm
Of course it is.
June 20, 2012 at 3:15 am
Of course it isn’t anecdotal.
Server activity can be monitored by login server queue numbers. Several web sites are devoted to doing exactly this. Prior to the game going free-to-play, the US servers received a total of less than 500,000 logins per week. Immediately after the game went free-to-play, this skyrocketed to more than 3 million logins per week total.
Recently, the US servers were back down to approximately 1 million logins total per week following a fairly steady decline over the past two years. While the servers are still twice as active as they were 3 years ago, they’re only 1/3 as active as they were 2 years ago.
If this steady decline continues at the same pace, we will be back at 2009 activity levels within about a year.
On a positive note, the publicity surrounding the Rohan launch announcement has spurred the largest weekly GAINS in activity since the game went free-to-play. These gains are nearly twice what were observed at Isengard’s announcement.
Those gains stopped two weeks after Isengard’s announcement last year. However, I believe the inclusion of daily quests for Rohan Legendary Edition buyers will help the gains last at least 4 to 6 weeks this time around, if not longer. This was a very smart (and encouraging) move by Turbine to keep players interested in the game until Rohan launches.
Source: http://lux-hdro.de/hdro-live-us.php
June 14, 2012 at 3:30 pm
Are these TP a preorder bonus, or a part of an Edition regardless of the moment of purchase?
June 14, 2012 at 5:39 pm
From what I can see on the new pre-purchase page http://rohan.lotro.com/pre-order.html the TPs are included in the expansion not the pre-purchase bonuses.
June 14, 2012 at 7:53 pm
Correct. It is not a pre-order only item.
June 14, 2012 at 3:31 pm
While the $70 edition is still out of my reach, and I consider it to still be overpriced despite the offsetting of cost in TP (which I only buy sporadically and usually when I -need- content) I am very pleased with the news about the instance cluster. The previous expansions all included the instances when bought with cash, and not only taking that away, but after the initial announcement that RoR would include them, even had me outraged, and I hadn’t purchased anything yet!
June 14, 2012 at 3:33 pm
so i need 52595 TPs tps…. :\ way too much to grind… i wish i could afford rohan.
June 14, 2012 at 4:06 pm
That would be somewhere around $52,000 in TP.
June 14, 2012 at 4:08 pm
Nvm… can’t do math today… or any day.
June 14, 2012 at 3:38 pm
It’s nice that they listen to customers. But it’s sad that there had this much pressure and this much bad PR for them to turn around. I must say I’ve lost my trust completely and I won’t spend real cash in this game anymore, since they don’t care about consumer rights.
The best way to let them know I am not tolerating this kind of behavior is witholding money and not buy the expansion at all.
June 14, 2012 at 3:47 pm
The question is, would you have spent the money if these had been the Rohan editions from the start and Turbine had not majorly botched their communication to players? If so, and if you think Turbine made the right move (for whatever reason) with this change, then now is exactly when you should be spending cash on the game.
I was one of those who always got the top tier offering of the expansions before RoR and usually got them right away. I was not going to touch this one as things stood yesterday. Now, I will go and reevaluate.
Let them know when their behavior is unacceptable by not buying (unlike the many who did buy the expansion despite thinking it was a bad deal and Turbine was in the wrong), but also let them know when they do something right. If you just say you’ll never spend cash on the game again because of this and there is no way to win you back, then you just become a negative statistic and are no longer an active influence.
If, on the other hand, you are not happy with the changes and really think Turbine no longer cares about the customer, then the best move could be to leave for another game.
June 14, 2012 at 5:16 pm
I was planning to buy it if it had the instance cluster in it. This incident is one of many. If they wouldn’t have done this, then yes, I probably would have pre-ordered.
But seeing how they have been threatening players with account bans when they asked for refunds after the FAQ first stated the instance cluster would be free, then removing it, I changed my mind. I don’t want to do business with a company who treats his customers like this. So no Rohan for me, as a matter of principle.
June 14, 2012 at 5:22 pm
This effectively means I’m leaving the game when my last toon hits level 75, yes.
June 14, 2012 at 6:01 pm
Ok. In that case, good on you for sticking with what you believe to be right. I thought you were going to keep playing and just vow to never spend money.
June 16, 2012 at 2:24 pm
I thought that the account bans were to people that couldnt get a refund via official means and just put a stop on the credit card transaction.
June 14, 2012 at 3:38 pm
This is a great decision on their part — I wish I could have been a fly on the wall during the discussions that led to this.
While $70 still seems way too much for what you get with the Legendary, I am now much more likely to pull the trigger and pre-order the Basic version.
June 14, 2012 at 4:41 pm
Just replying to myself because I’ve been thinking about it further…
If I do the Basic Edition, then the 1000TP you now get makes the 6th inventory bag (cost 995TP after RoR is released) essentially free. Vs. Legendary which gives you the bag ‘free’ upfront plus 2000 TP, for 30 more dollars. Hrmmmmm.. (i’m not factoring in gear and the xp stone because I don’t care about those).
June 14, 2012 at 3:42 pm
I am bemused by all the congratulations to Turbine (WB) for these changes…like it was their idea all the time and what stand up guys they all are. really… really? Like the flood of refund requests and BBB complaints, actual number of prepurchase orders and forum posts had no bearing on this or influence.
June 14, 2012 at 3:45 pm
This has been a PR disaster for Turbine…the latest in a long line of disasters (Codemasters conversion, Draigoch bugs, RoI bugs, Store Armour, just to name a few). It’s obvious that the Riders of Rohan debacle was the last straw for many players. Turbine really had no other choice but to make this move. However, I fully expect to get screwed in some other way (i.e., there will be a charge for the next zone).
I can say with certainty that I will not pre-order the next expansion right away. They need to re-earn my trust.
June 14, 2012 at 5:18 pm
Exactly my feelings. I am holding back my money until I see proof of Turbine changing its ways. Something in me is saying that won’t happen, though.
June 16, 2012 at 11:01 pm
Here’s how I see issues like this: If there were another developer out there with rights to LotR producing a competing LotR MMO, it is very possible that I and many others would be playing that game instead of Turbine’s version. Turbine’s pattern of CS is how companies with a veritable monopoly tend to behave. Granted they do not have the only MMO out there and gamers are free to play other unrelated games, but there is only one LotR-based MMO, and in that sense they have a rather unique market cornered. If this were not the case I wonder if their CS and product quality would be different, and for the better.
June 15, 2012 at 2:45 am
it was just a publicity stunt. if they had released the expansion with TP and instance cluster, people would have gone “meh, ok, a new expansion”. but by leaving room to speculation and encouraging that the instance cluster is not included, the whole community was in an uproar about the expansion. now they just turned it from negative to positive = much more income than otherwise.
their marketing strategy is quite good actually, thinking back to all the stuff that happened since F2P release i’m positive that they made a whole lot of cash. we’re seeing some of that cash reinvested in the game, with zone revamps (which are great) and such, but the new content is still ..meh.
buggy raids, tedious quests (i did not have fun questing anduin or dunland, it just had to be done), buggy areas, maybe it has always been profit-oriented, but now it’s just too obvious. it’s time to admit that what’s bringing me back is the online friends and not the content.
June 14, 2012 at 3:46 pm
Hmmmmm, I wonder what else we can get if we still hold back our preorders >:-)
June 14, 2012 at 6:05 pm
If you don’t purchase until November or December, you’ll probably get a 50% discount. (Without the pre-purchase bonuses, obviously.)
June 14, 2012 at 3:48 pm
This is good news, but I still don’t want to pre-order at this time.(would love to beta test the expansion first & also hope to hear more info in the coming months)
June 14, 2012 at 3:52 pm
Oh look — I purchased 2000 Turbine points and an Instance cluster and I never even knew it.
Back to playing a handsomely armored captain with his trusty steed.
June 14, 2012 at 6:45 pm
My thoughts exactly! What a nice surprise.
Now, to power my little captain the rest of the way through Moria (and beyond) so she can enjoy Rohan at release!
June 14, 2012 at 3:54 pm
Excellent! The Legendary edition now seems to be worth it, in terms of straight value. Say $40 for the expansion itself, $10 for the 6th bag (995 TP) and roughly $20 worth of TP does make the $70 cost palatable; throw in the account-wide XP boost pocket item (rather than buying 995 TP per character), and it’s even better value for altoholics.
Personally, I’m leaning towards Legendary. Heroic is ruled out because I own the three quest packs it includes, leaving the only alternative being the Basic edition (effectively only $30 for the expansion with the $10 worth of TP). So yeah, Legendary all the way. Still, I’m in no hurry; plenty of time before 5 September!
Being a little cynical, along with the outcry, I’m guessing their initial pre-order sales weren’t too impressive…
June 14, 2012 at 3:55 pm
Finally some good news about the expansion. For me 70 is still a little to much but i may squeeze out the 40 so that I know I can experience all of rohan and not have to worry about the instance cluster. Hopefully these instances will not be super bugeed like all of isengards.
Yay… Now September can not come quicker… unless I get a beta invite
June 14, 2012 at 4:03 pm
With this announcement, I’ll be pre-ordering now!
June 14, 2012 at 4:29 pm
Not so sure if this is Turbine listening to the community, or Turbine being unimpressed with the initial pre-order numbers.
Either way, this is a welcome addition to the bundle.
June 17, 2012 at 3:30 pm
Probable the selling of pre-order was not that great.
After reading they didnt include an instance cluster and would charge in the future of it I just deleted the game from my computer.
June 14, 2012 at 4:42 pm
As the original poster of the ban threat email and someone who has gone through an absurd back and forth with Turbine and the BBB, I will be returning to LotRO with a very wary eye, and I will continue to seek compensation for my poor treatment by Turbine. If they truly have goodwill, I’m sure that owning up to how they treat customers won’t be too hard… Especially since they now know not everyone will take it quietly.
June 14, 2012 at 5:08 pm
Please keep us apprised.
June 14, 2012 at 11:46 pm
Thanks for putting that up. I’m Semjaza on the forums and was far from pleased with how all of this has gone down. I’m personally more than appeased with the response, but as you say, I’m going to be a lot more wary than ever before with my purchases through the game.
I will say that while it might take a week for them to formulate responses, their eventual responses largely seem to be fair. They reacted fairly well to the whole armor thing… And while I would have hoped the reaction to that and ROI would have prevented this from ever happening in the first place, I feel their reaction to our outcry was decent too.
As I’ve said on the forums, I hope they just learn to have all of their ducks in a row before they try taking people’s money for things like this in the future. That’s not the responsibility of the consumer and threats of banning and implications that looking on other parts of official sites is somehow “wrong” are far from necessary.
June 14, 2012 at 4:56 pm
Awesome! _) I still won’t immediately rush to preorder, but definitely will once we’re closer to the release. Might even consider the legendary edition (cosmetics are my weak spot).
June 14, 2012 at 5:11 pm
Good to know, but still no reason to preorder, if you are not lvl 75
I still can wait until some black fridaydeal
June 14, 2012 at 5:14 pm
…and just like that my rage is subsiding. Now, clearly, they have heard our pleas and have saved some face, but honestly, I am so jaded that it almost feels orchestrated to occur in the two “downtime” weeks between fairs. We ranted for a week, now we will backtrack a week (on the forums) and back down from end-of-the-world statements, but as several have mentioned, I am forever wary. If anything it only steels my resolve that we should protect our investments into the game against that type of thievery and mischief in the future. Will I be buying the Legendary edition now? Gotta say wasn’t before, but seriously considering it now.
June 14, 2012 at 5:33 pm
That’s more like it, thx turbine =D
June 14, 2012 at 5:43 pm
The squeaky wheel gets the grease(but only if it can’t be replaced).
June 14, 2012 at 6:06 pm
Thank you. I’d have no right to complain if any of this was ever CLEAR — but it wasn’t at all.
I wasn’t expecting them to give me anything, I just wanted my money back. But this is just as well, in my opinion.
Thank you, Turbine. That’s a good response.
June 14, 2012 at 6:07 pm
Now I’ll buy it!
June 14, 2012 at 6:50 pm
As someone who got the top version as a birthday gift from a friend, I think I would finally spend my own money on the version if I did not already have it.
I am really glad I am getting points and instances and I feel for all the people who have been hurt or misslead with this release. Lets hope this is a learning process for Turbine and more importantly Warner Brother’s managment of Turbine.
I hope that anyone who is vowing to never spend money on LOTRO again will see something from Turbine to change their mind in the coming months.
June 14, 2012 at 6:56 pm
Yeah, they missed the mark the first time around. But I’m glad that this is a game that takes customer feedback into consideration. $70 is still (even with the TP) a little steep for an expansion, in my mind. If I were to pre-order I’d probably still go with the base pack. Sounds more reasonable for this type of update.
June 14, 2012 at 9:46 pm
Well, now I feel a lot better having already spent my $70. Even so, it’s a shame it took that much pressure, both from us and sites like Massively for them to ‘add’ the value back in and tell us.
So while this is now a very good thing and in many ways makes the Legendary edition pretty much worth it, I have still learned my lesson. Next time I’ll be waiting for more complete details before pre-ordering anything.
June 14, 2012 at 11:08 pm
This makes it a little more likely that I’ll get the Legendary Pre-purchase. But I’m not in a hurry to spend my money just yet.
June 14, 2012 at 11:12 pm
*puts away his torch and pitchfork, but keeps a wary eye on the suits*
June 15, 2012 at 12:34 am
Sadly this does nothing to change my mind. Paying $70 for the privilege of getting the 6th bag that should be free with VIP is still there.
June 15, 2012 at 4:20 am
Meh, still no pre-order for me, Ive lost complete trust in this company. They tried to pull a fast one and got caught.
June 15, 2012 at 6:53 am
Right now I might consider pre-ordering the basic edition. I don’t need the heroic and the legendary is just too expensive, even with the extra TP. I’ll just wait until august and see if I still feel like it then
June 15, 2012 at 11:27 am
Was on the phone with guy from turbine customer support yesterday afternoon, Scotland to Boston. going through the information they gave and still give regarding refunds, letters of destruction, false advertising etc and eventually he said he’d pass my complaint higher up the food chain.
Half an hour later this comes out so I know face the possibility of having to repurchase RoR, depending on how they deal with it.
Hopefully they’ve learned the lesson about good communication THIS time around, if nothing else to save themselves bother in future. However I do think that the playerbase will be far less likely to rush buy things next time around.