Dear Turbine,

Dear Turbine,
I will admit, when I first heard you were giving lotro a free to play option I felt a strange sense of dread and uneasiness creep into the back of my mind. I dismissed it, carefully, even after getting into beta and seeing so many things that seemed, in my mind, to break the spirit of what lotro used to be. There were things in the store that shouldn't be there, there were things that cost points to unlock that should have remained open, and the fears that the community would be destroyed hung like a cloud over the beta testers.

Slowly, as beta wore on, my fears gave way into acceptance, and once the free to play headstart launched on the 8th (just last week!), my fears were for the most part relieved, as some of the major issues I had with things I'd seen in beta seemed to have disappeared. Of course, my being a vip subscriber helps alot, I'm sure, as many of the money-grabbing tactics I saw displayed for f2pers in beta do not apply to me.

I will be honest - I am thrilled that you listened to the community on several of the issues that were brought up in beta, particularly the quest dialogue revamp and the reputation horses. However, I do not believe you are ready for free to play. Why do I say this? Because, even though you added new servers and new hardware to handle server stress, I have not been able to enjoy the game for the past three days because it has been such an outright lag-fest. I know you are working on it (at least, I hope you are), and part of me is thrilled that so many people have flocked to this game, which, over the past two years, I have grown to know and love. Most of me, however, is still upset at the fact that I, today, cannot even get into the game, and have been sitting in a queue for upwards of thirty minutes now, waiting to get into a game that will be so laggy it will be unplayable. I am paying you good money every month for a product that is supposed to work, that is supposed to not give me issues. My subscription runs through December, and if I do not see any improvements, though it pains me to say it, I will probably be canceling any further payments beyond that point.

I know the cancellation of one subscriber is no real threat to your company, what with the masses of f2pers and the income they will bring you through your lotro store, and I am happy that your development team may finally be seeing the money they need to bring even more fantastic content to this game. While my cancellation may be no real threat, I want you to seriously consider the workability of your current system. If more and more people cancel, or even if the f2pers stop playing because your game is simply unplayable with so many people on, then how will you make money if no one plays? You will be back in the same boat you were in before. Remember the sayings - one vote can make a difference, one grain of sand can tip the scales, one drop in the ocean can cause a flood? Those are true for a reason.

Be wary, Turbine, and get your act together, or my letter may not be the only one you see. I know you are trying to fix this, at least I hope you are, and I hope whoever monitors the servers warned you about this and didn't blithely assume that everything would 'be ok.'

With regrets,
a disgruntled elf