Haven’t torn yourself away from WoW to try playing a stupid fat hobbit? Turbine has just announced a free trial program that’ll give you 7 days to experience Middle Earth for yourself.
Plus you can be assured you’re playing the 2nd Most Popular MMORPG* According to Turbine marketing folks who have calculated their total number of alt characters, unsubcribed players’ characters, and we even suspect their counting the chickens too.
PLAY THE LORD OF THE RINGS ONLINE FOR FREE!
Turbine launches 7-day Free Trial Program for the Hottest MMO of the Year
WESTWOOD, MA — August 29, 2007 — Turbine, Inc. has launched the official 7-day free trial of The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar (LOTRO). Beginning today, fans in North America, Australia and New Zealand can play the best online game for free by visiting http://trial.lotro.com/.
LOTRO has received critical acclaim from around the globe. Since its launch in April, LOTRO has quickly become the second largest MMORPG with an estimated 4 million characters calling Middle-earth their home. The game continues to grow with two massive updates that have increased the world by over 20%:
* 10,000,000 square meters of new landscape to explore
* Over 200 new quests that extend the epic story
* Introduction of Legendary Play where players can experience PvP as a powerful Ranger or a fearsome Troll
* New and updated features including the Reputation, Bartering and Music systems“We have surpassed our goal of combining the greatest fantasy of all time with a state-of-the-art online social experience,” said Jeffrey Anderson, CEO of Turbine, Inc. “And now we want everyone to have the opportunity to walk through the Shire, climb the Misty Mountains, fight with their own fellowship in the War of the Ring and fully experience the greatest fantasy of all time.”
Eligible fans can participate in The Lord of the Rings Online trial program and play the game for 7 days free of charge. At the end of the trial, players will have the option of continuing to play LOTRO, and to keep the characters created during their 7-day free trial time, by purchasing the game either online or at retail. To participate in the 7-day free trial or to find out where to buy LOTRO, visit http://trial.lotro.com/.
The Lord of the Rings Online delivers an interactive experience brimming with life and filled with the familiar people, places and monsters from the most beloved fantasy adventure of all time. From the quaint surroundings of the Shire to Angmar, the vile kingdom of the Witch-king, players will experience the world of Middle-earth as never before. The Lord of the Rings Online is available for purchase at major retailers across North America. For more information about The Lord of the Rings Online, please visit http://www.lotro.com/.
European’s wishing to live out their Tolkien fantasy online will need to go here for the Trial whenever CodeMaster’s updates the site…
Source: LOTRO.com
4 million characters? Sounds like a marketing smoke screen to me. How many alts does that include? Some people have multiple characters. I would be more interested to see how many paying, non-trial subscibers the game has. WoW has the monopoly and has rightfully earned it.
I will give LOTRO a go in a year, when the economies are more developed and the social aspect is readily available.
Ana on 08 30th, 2007
‘Marketing smoke screen’? I do not think Turbine’s statement is misleading or untruthful but I also realize that number is not active subs. The best was to judge the game is not by what the evil marketing type advertise but by what you see and experience. I’d suggest anyone who has a remote interest in the game to give it a try. They may or may not like it but at least they did not have to shell out $39-49 to find that out.
Seregul on 08 30th, 2007
Too bad they are including all the NPC’s and Gold Farmers in that figure. I really wish they would release some real figures, not these silly numbers that don’t mean very much.
Trelon on 08 30th, 2007
that is BS, why didn’t they just say how many active SUBSCRIBERS they had which is the industry norm.
If its anything like WoW each player could have anywhere from 4-12 characters spread across multiple servers that they’re either playing or using to ’save’ their favorite names. Plus you’ve got all the folks who unsubscribed being counted in that figure as well since their characters weren’t deleted. Seems shady accounting to me just to make a claim that they doing soooo great.
I was in the beta and besides the initial novelty it didn’t seem that fun to me..
Kyle81 on 08 30th, 2007
Gold farmers, NPCs? For a second I thought this was a serious comment.
Seregul on 08 30th, 2007
What MMO publishes their currently active subscriber numbers? WoW surely doesn’t. And does it really matter? As long as there are players in the area you are at with your toon does it really matter how many total subs there are?
Seregul on 08 30th, 2007
It matters when its a marketing department trying to inflate the status of their product or service, especially to the point of absurdity.
Most MMORPG’s report on their subscriber counts in press releases or SEC reports. WoW has reported on their subscriber count broken down by region since they launced (their last count was 9 million active subscription accounts).
Only when a MMO is on the decline do they tend to stop releasing numbers or hide/inflate their login count number’s like EQ did many years ago.
Of course people are going to tease and give Turbine a good ribbing over this. No need to get defensive.
Scott on 08 30th, 2007
Yeah, it’s a stupid marketing trick and I’m sure someone at Turbine PR knew better, but hey… it’s there now.
I haven’t seen a single MMORPG *EVER* release current active subscriber numbers. Blizzard announces *milestones* such as each million active subscribers, but they don’t release actual numbers such as “Today, Sept 3 2007 WoW has 9,374,289 active subscribers, 2,712,337 of whom logged in during ‘prime time hours’ blahblahblah” Nor does anyone else.
I’m sure Turbine will happily announce their first million active subscribers when they get there, as well.
Talyn on 09 3rd, 2007
I haven’t seen a single MMORPG *EVER* release current active subscriber numbers.
Doesn’t EVE Online announce that? Second Life has its numbers about how many accounts exist and have logged on in the past X days. A Tale in the Desert has an in-game census that lists how many active accounts there are and how many people have reached point X in the game.
Zubon on 09 3rd, 2007
hi maybe u should put that we can try to be one of the characters of the felowship of the ring like gandalf aragorn and more
matess on 09 7th, 2007
What MMO publishes their currently active subscriber numbers? WoW surely doesn’t. And does it really matter? As long as there are players in the area you are at with your toon does it really matter how many total subs there are?
Actually Wow does publish their subscriber number. its 9-10 million subscribers world wide. they even pbulish their demographics; There are more than 2 million players in North America, 1.5 million players in Europe and 3.5 million players in China as of January, 2007. cited from wiki.
Hell the number of subscribers is even in their freakin trailer.
EveOnline also publishes with their subscriber number at 200,000 as of september 2007.
Justin on 09 13th, 2007
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