This week’s poll was suggested by Kiarane. She’s curious how LOTRO players plan (or don’t plan) their in-game purchases from the LOTRO Store. We realize sometimes you may have done all of these choices but just pick the one that seems your most typical behavior with store purchases.
How do you plan your purchases in the LOTRO store?
- I wait for the item I need/want to be on sale before purchasing (55%, 552 Votes)
- I buy the item when I need/want it, sale or no sale (32%, 318 Votes)
- It's on sale, I love it, I buy it (11%, 107 Votes)
- I've never bought anything in the store (2%, 17 Votes)
- Other (leave a comment) (0%, 14 Votes)
Total Voters: 1,008
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December 22, 2012 at 10:27 am
With a few small exceptions, I tend to wait for sales. Then in most cases I also like to focus on account-wide purchases, rather than per-characters.
December 22, 2012 at 12:03 pm
Small exceptions in my case being content on launch day, (ex: Great river, the new skirmish, etc)…
December 22, 2012 at 2:41 pm
Same here. Always wait for sales unless it’s at launch of an item (shared wallet) that I find worthy of it’s price. Color packs for warsteeds for example, only got purchased on sale, even though I really wanted them upon release.
December 22, 2012 at 3:26 pm
I’m a stubborn SoB. Even when it was on 50% discount, I *refused* to purchase the Color Packs for the warsteed. Even though the Evendim Blue would match my main’s color scheme more than the Indigo that you get in the basic set of colors.
December 22, 2012 at 10:45 am
Another interesting question to go along with this would be to see if people buy points or wait for VIP points to accumulate…
December 22, 2012 at 10:56 am
I agree, I wait for VIP points myself.
December 22, 2012 at 11:10 am
Mostly wait for the VIP points, with an occasional exception. My store purchases are almost always spur of the moment though, deed accelerators and the like. I don’t think I’ve ever saved for anything in game.
Hmmm…this is making me think on my RL money habits. More similar than I’m comfortable with. Thanks CSTM. =/
December 22, 2012 at 11:57 am
A mix of most of the above. If I don’t need it now but will definitely need it someday, I’ll pick it up in a sale. If I do need it right now, and I can afford it with TP that’s already sitting in my account, I’ll probably get it.
But sometimes I’m thinking ahead…. “There’ll be an even better sale come Black Friday / New Year / whatever” or “Hold on to the TP, a new pack is coming out soon.”
December 22, 2012 at 12:32 pm
I buy my points when the largest points bundles are on sale. Then I spent the points when I need them. While I’ve bought some things on sale in the store, usually when I need something I need it asap so I just buy it. And I have a lifetime sub, so that helps with points too. Yeah, I spent a lot of points but I love this game and like supporting it.
December 23, 2012 at 9:18 pm
Kinda sums us up exactly too. Lifetimes, and probably buy 1 or 2 of the £40 points bundles, but only when there is a double points bonus on.
December 22, 2012 at 12:44 pm
I almost always wait for sales, the only exception being occasionally for very cheap items.
Additionally I tend to wait for things that work account wide or make a permanent change. I timed going premium when most of the basics were on sale, and had enough TP stored up that I could grab most of what I needed to play straight away. It meant that from that point I could be patient in picking up other bits from the store.
December 22, 2012 at 1:28 pm
I selected “Other”:
I like to wait until there is a DYD (Determine your discount) promotion and then I can get whatever I want for 30% off provided I spend 3000 TP in total.
As an added bonus… There might be an item on sale the same week as a DYD promotion and the DYD discount is also applied to the sale price.
December 22, 2012 at 2:19 pm
I buy items on sale if i see it in time. small things like relic removals i buy when needed
December 22, 2012 at 3:15 pm
i only buy things i NEED (im not VIP) so that would include quest packs, and 1 or 2 instances ( dont need these but it makes the game more enjoyable and i dont feel the impact of being non-VIP) also i bought the stalker class as i enjoyed playing that a lot when i was VIP for a month before.
December 22, 2012 at 4:17 pm
Typically I wait for sales and Determine Your Discount to get things unless its something I really need or want when an expansion hits like 6th Bag, Extended Wallet, Extra LI Slot. Like others I try and manage my purchases to maximize my savings on points so I don’t have to wait for monthly points or go deed grinding.
December 22, 2012 at 6:48 pm
There are only a few things that I consider worthwhile from the LOTRO store and they are purchased with VIP points or deed completion points. The only extra turbine points I have had are from people giving me points cards as a gift.
I’d probably by more things from the LOTRO store if there weren’t so many things in the LOTRO store indicating that management sees me as nothing more than a cash cow to be milked for all she’s worth. I try very hard to never give money to people who insult me.
There is a big old rant sneaking up on me and so I’m gonna close this and keep it from breaking loose onto this message.
December 22, 2012 at 10:52 pm
So much good stuff in the LOTRO store that it can be hard to wait for a sale somethings. Especially for a quest pack.
December 23, 2012 at 4:37 am
I wait for sales unless it’s much more needed at the moment. I also purchase on sales when they come in anticipation, but then prefer it’d be account wide (skirms, QPs).
I’ve never bought points, between all alts doing deeds and yearly expansion purchases I get enough for my needs.
December 23, 2012 at 10:03 am
Some things like the barter wallet I’ve picked up at release.
More usually I wait until there’s a sale or discount of some kind, same thing with buying points.
Per character purchases are mulled over for longer than the account wide ones.
I avoid the pointless rubbish like the hobby horse, nekkid dwarf, etc as stuff like that should be priced much lower than they are, overly expensive normally means they are still expensive even under sale conditions.
Tasks resets and festival tokens are a resounding NO so I suspect all the newly added writs of laziness will be added into that pile.
December 23, 2012 at 6:59 pm
…I try to wait till stuff goes on sale, but I often ‘need’ something that isn’t and I’ll go ahead and purchase it.
December 24, 2012 at 3:37 pm
I generally only purchase permanent/account wide items and only when they’re on sale (like quest packs, skirms etc)
I’m currently in need of 2-3 character slots but even the last 25% wasn’t enough for me to budge. Perhaps I was spoiled by the F2P launch and the many sales available but lately I find the holiday sales lacking.
December 26, 2012 at 6:32 am
I do a mixture, most things I buy, when they are on sale; and then I buy several ones, e.g. Enhanced rep supply or crafting xp bonus. Expensive stuff I only buy when they are on sale.
At some occasions I buy stuff spontaneously, e.g. revival tomes or unlock of fast travel. I
December 26, 2012 at 9:50 am
I have to be thoroughly convinced the item is worth the TP before I purchase it, even if it’s on sale. I’d rather work for it if it’s obtainable in-game
December 26, 2012 at 2:46 pm
I think I do a combo of a few of these. For the most part, if something is available to earn in-game I will not buy it in the store no matter if its on sale or not. I like to wait until something is on sale, especially if it is a spendy item, but sometimes I’ll buy something even if its not on sale if I really gotta have it right away, like to unlock a legendary slot when I’m overflowing in LIs, or to buy those scroll thingers that upgrade your legacies on your LI to make it more super awesome, or some reputation accelerators when I just wanna finish up with a faction already, or the ability to ride a mount when I roll a new toon, or if its a new item with an expansion that I have to have, like the 6th bag slot, barter wallet, etc.
December 27, 2012 at 1:01 am
Good poll. I’m sure over at the new f2p swtor this poll would show a much different view.
Lotro has handled the F2p transition better than most of the western gaming companies. The problem remains which is endemic among western game companies is that they didn’t learn a thing about the ten+ years the Asian companies have been doing this. I think micro transaction somehow translated into macro transaction, and the golden rules of a level playing field were breached repeatedly. Overall I give Lotro a B- on the store. Way better than most, but still plenty of room for improvement.
December 27, 2012 at 12:33 pm
Depends on the kind of purchase. Some things I get for all characters (extra LI slots), or they’re biggish items (storage expansion, stat tomes, virtue boosts), so I’ll wait for sales, since I know they’ll get used. There are smallish items I’ll splurge on, though (one-shot maps, boosts to get me through exceptionally rough combat) because I don’t need them until I need them, and if I pre-purchase, they may go unused.
January 2, 2013 at 8:26 pm
My procedure when I realize I want something for LOTRO usually seems to be:
1) Check for a sale. (And often find out that everything in the category *except* what I want is on sale. Or that I just missed it by a couple days.)
2) Then decide to wait for when it goes on sale.
3) Then, maybe 2-7 days later, convince myself to buy it at regular price anyway.
It is true that knowing that any given item will probably be on sale at some point in the next three months does sometimes dissuade me from buying. But, before someone starts thinking that Turbine is hurting their revenue by having sales, let me point out that that disincentive is outweighed by the fact that I probably spend more due to the existence of sales than I would without them.
There are many items that I either would not have known existed or would not have otherwise thought about purchasing, had not a current or past sale brought it to my attention.
Besides, even when I’m buying a sale item, I typically look around a bit to find other things to buy at the same time (which often includes the repurchase of items that I first tried when they were on sale). Also, the sales sometimes encourage me to buy things that I do not yet need (and possibly never will).