FYI-> SoM pricing packages : LOTRO - Discussions

from: http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=293911

author: Reillan

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A compilation of Dev Answers regarding SoM pricing - for your convenience
Since I'm still hearing a TON of misinformation being spread around, I'd like to try to post correct information in a single place. Devs, if this is not something you'd like me doing, please feel free to delete - but I'm hoping this will help you, too, as I'm seeing a lot of the same answers having to be said over and over.

First, the talking points:

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Any current or former player who renews or upgrades their subscription to any multi-month plan by October 31st gets the Siege of Mirkwood digital expansion for FREE!
This applies to any plan in which you pay for 3, 6, or 12 months at a time. If you already have an existing plan from this category, you need to do nothing.

However, if you are currently not subscribed or paying only month-to-month, you would need to change your billing cycle into one of these plans in order to take advantage of the offer.

If you are a lifetime member, you will NOT get the Siege of Mirkwood digital expansion for free, including if you upgrade to lifetime during this offer 2. However, you can pre-order the Adventurer's Pack for $19.99, and this purchase will include SoM for free. The Adventurer's Pack will only include Siege of Mirkwood for free if you do have a lifetime account.

Further, you'll notice the October 31st date there. The offers listed here are only good until October 31st - meaning that Lifetime subscribers must preorder the Adventure Pack before then if they want SoM for free, single-month or not-subscribed customers must sign up for a multi-month plan before October 31st if they want SoM for free, and anyone with a current multimonth plan must keep that plan running from at least October 31st through December 1st in order to get SoM for free.

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All players can pre-order the new LOTRO Adventurer’s Pack which contains 2 character slots and one shared storage slot that allows players to share items with all of their characters on the same server for $19.99 and get the Harbinger’s Cloak which provides 8% speed boost and the Dusky Nimblefoot Goat mount for FREE!
Everyone who purchases the Adventurer's Pack will receive the goat mount, but not until SoM actually comes out on December 1st For the goat, character slots, and storage, it will not matter if you preordered or not. The "new mount" mentioned a few lines below this in the advertising is exactly this goat.

The Cloak, however, you will only receive if you pre-order the Adventurer's Pack. You will receive this item immediately (author's note: I can confirm this, as I have preordered and received my cloak, but I had to log off and log back on to get it).

The shared storage space, the extra character slots, and the goat you can only get from purchasing the Adventurer's Pack. They do not come with Siege of Mirkwood by default (even though Siege of Mirkwood does come with the Adventurer's Pack for lifetime subscriptions ONLY)

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The Lord of the Rings Online: Siege of Mirkwood will be available as a digital download for $19.99 or as a bundle with the LOTRO Adventurer’s Pack plus a new mount for $39.99 on December 1, 2009
So, so far we have three categories of people:

1: Lifetime members who will have to either pay $19.99 for SoM alone, or $19.99 for a preorder of the Adventurer's Pack which comes with SoM and the cloak/goat.

2: Multimonth (3, 6, 12 month plans) members who will receive SoM for free, but who can also preorder the Adventurer's Pack which will come with the cloak and goat.

3: Single month and non-subscribed members who will not receive SoM for free (unless they upgrade to take advantage of category 1 or 2). For these members, if they choose not to upgrade, they will have to purchase SoM for $19.99 when it releases, or $39.99 for both SoM and the Adventurer's Pack as a bundle when they release. These players can still preorder the Adventurer's Pack alone and receive the cloak, but they will not receive SoM for free unless they upgrade their accounts.

Other generic questions:

1. If you buy the Adventurer's Pack, the free goat will be available to all of your characters level 35 and over who possess the riding ability, regardless of when you make them

2. This goat is a full-speed goat, not the slow one

3. Siege of Mirkwood will only be available as a digital download

4. SoM and the Adventurer Packs will only be available as gifts once SoM actually launches, so you won't be able to preorder them for people

5. The Adventurer's Pack raises the total possible number of character slots on a single account to

6. All of the items in the Adventurer's Pack come with it regardless of your account status, including Storage, character slots, and goat. So, if you're single-month, multi-month, lifetime, or even not-subscribed (I guess you're planning to use it later?), you'll still get these things if you purchase the Adventurer's Pack

7. If you do not currently have the Mines of Moria, you will have to purchase that before you can upgrade to Siege of Mirkwood OR purchase the Adventurer's Pack 16. As with the other upgrades, once you purchase MoM, you're eligible to take advantage of the SoM and AP offers just like everyone else.

8. You will need at least some level of Lorien rep to be able to get to Mirkwood (my note: possibly just to travel through the Golden Wood in the first place)

end of quote

from: Sapience Turbine community rep

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Looks right to me!
Mind if I sticky this to help out other players?

Quote:

1: Can you purchase SoM without previously having MoM?

1 - No. But if you purchase Moria now and then subscribe to a multi-month subscription, you'll get Siege of Mirkwood for free.

2: Does SoM come with MoM, or will you have to purchase this separately?

2 - No. If you're a trial player or still haven't upgraded from Shadows of Angmar to Mines of Moria, you'll need to do that and then upgrade to Siege of Mirkwood. Again, if you upgrade to MoM now, and subscribe to a multi-month plan you'll get Mirkwood for free.

3: Can you purchase just the Adventurer's Pack?

3- If you're currently on a multi-month plan and already have Moria, the only thing you can buy is the Adventurer's pack.


4: Can you purchase just the AP if you do not have MoM, thus raising your character slots to 7?

4- No. You'll need to upgrade to MoM first.

5: is the shared storage only available with the adventure pack, or will it be included in som as well.

5-Only with the Adventurer's Pack.

I use gamecards, do consecutive game cards count as multi payments?

Gamecards are not a subscription as they do not auto-renew. You'll need a multi-month subscription to get Siege of Mirkwood for free.

from: http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=293755

compiled by: Forjo

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payment options seem to boil down to->
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Here's what I (Forjo) wrote:

Are you TRYING to make this confusing? Do we really have any choice here?

Are you selling a digital expansion, or an "Adventurer's Pack" or both?

Your announcement seems to indicate the following:

Lifetime subscribers have two options:

1. Pre-order the Adventurer's pack for $19.99 and get SoM free.

2. Purchase SoM for $19.99 and not get the Adventurer's Pack.

Monthly subscribers have these options:

1. Upgrade from a monthly subscription to a multi-month subscription (3, 6, or 12) and receive SoM free.

2. Upgrade from a monthly subscription to a multi-month subscription (3, 6, or 12), receive SoM free, and purchase the Adventurer's Pack for $19.99.

3. Keep your current subscription and purchase SoM for $19.99.

4. Keep your current subscription and purchase SoM and the Adventurer's Pack for $39.98.

I'm not clear on what options current multi-month subscribers have.


Is the goal here to present the illusion of choice? Why this complexity? Is any lifetime player going to choose anything besides option one? Is any non-lifer (besides the game-card players) actually going to choose anything other then option one or two?

Why not just offer everyone SoM with the extra slots and storage for $19.99? The fact that this "mini" expansion is being sold when we've gotten no free content since the last expansion that wasn't originally planned/promised for the expansion is enough to raise eyebrows. Why further complicate things? And why force those who must subscribe monthly to pay double?

This seems like very strange marketing to me.

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and since you cannot have SoM without Mom if you had avoided buying that terrible expansion likes like you will have to now to just get the free fast lvl 35 goats, cloak, 2 new char slots and shared account slots

in a few cases turbine will get 4 payments soa, mom, som and adventurers pack

or lifetime + mom + adventurers pack (before oct 31)

or multi month, mom continued multi month and adventurers pack..

notice how these offers come around this time? guesss this is turbines christmas bonus (the oct 31 deadline, then dispersed to workers...)

The Cloak:



The Stats:

You get an 8% run boost for 30 minutes with an 8 hour cooldown, and this with only 5 armour. And this does not stack with other run boosts such as Warden's Forced March.

yay