My favourite quote from that piece is:

"the first of many free updates to The Lord of the Rings Online".

Sounds like this is the harbinger of much free goodness to come.
 

Can you really consider it free when you're playing a monthly fee?
 

all u have to do is pay about 190? and its a lifetime game with no fee.
 

More of the same! They sure know how to keep players playing =)
 

LOTRO itself may not be the WoW Killer, but it looks like Turbine know their stuff when it comes to managing an MMO. People with the discretionary income who played WoW for longer than a year (2 years under my belt) would almost certainly jump at the chance to pay $200 upfront and not have a monthly fee. And free content just two months after release? Turbine are the Blizzard business model killers.
 

The old saying:

"Water continually dropping will wear hard rocks hollow."

LOTRO will eventually wear the rock hollow if it continues down this path. Turbine's on the right track.

-Keen
http://www.KeenandGraev.com
 

Anyone remember the promises made for D&DO content?

And you actually believe this LotRO content will be delivered as promised?

Most likely, this is content that was meant for launch, but didn't get finished. It is classic Turbine, and it's getting a bit old.
 

...it looks like Turbine know their stuff when it comes to managing an MMO
Turbine had succes with the original Asheron's Call. For AC2 they released an expansion and then announced the cancellation of the game 3 months later. DDO is hardly a success and has been plagued by the Turbine hype-machine in exactly the same way as earlier Turbine games. They'll announce something really cool like the free lotro june content update. Then around mid-june they will push it back around a month and then only release parts of it (the rest you'll see several months later... if you're lucky!).
I know this sounds real negative but you have to realise that Turbines past shows that they stink at keeping customers happy.

Dont believe their hype!
 

its also "classic" for people to call free content tainted and old. There can be many reasons a company stops sending out free content, typically its a funding issue however in some cases (vanguard) its a developer issue... a decision to make the game how they want, or how the players.
 

A welcome announcement that leaves me with good hopes of lots of content to enjoy in the future. I'm going to give Turbine the benefit of the doubt here as to whether or not they will deliver on time. Why would I not? I also hope LotRO will be a great commercial success, for that logically increases the resources spent on future content.

I say logically, but I've never really seens this in Blizzard's WoW strategy. Updates there have been few and far between, whether they be free or full-blown expansion packs you have to pay for. Most free content is also high-end raiding material, AKA 90% of the work going to 10% of the players. A royal waste for people who want to see new things without "working" 40 hours a week in an MMO.

Kudos to Turbine so far. Other than the farming nerf I've been enjoying LotRO a lot. Yesterday I explored The Old Forest followed by the Barrows Down. Both places were so full of atmopshere. Really amazingly well done. Thorougly enjoyed myself there. It just shows how a well-executed game in an environment as rich as Tolkien's can be a joy to play.

- Sveral
 

I find it rather odd that Turbine would go ahead and hype a free content patch before the game is even released. The only reason for this is that Turbine is probably trying to get more people out of the beta and into the game. June is about two months after release...so if Turbine makes a free content patch every two months then that would be amazing...but more likely it is just hype and there will be a long long wait for the second free content patch....I guess only time will tell.
 

Oooh... an updated music system. :D

I've spent hours just playing instruments with the crappy 1-8 key thing they have now and it's still the most fun I've had in the game.

I don't know if I'd be able to play something other than a minstrel... yay for no instrument restrictions! Now if only they'd fix the harp graphic so I wasn't strumming a flute.