Why this cow/sheep treatment?

[MéLAnoR]

Seriously , when i choosed to become a EU subscriber and closed my beta account on US 3 eyars ago i was told the only difference with US and EU will be slightly delayed pack/update arrivals and play times due to timezones.
Due to codemasters's deal with turbine slight payment differences acceptable but looking to the table now i see huge difference regarding :

1.Service Quality
2.Price options
3.Worse treatment to founders and lifetimers.
4.Lack of certain features like mylotro.com , lorebook ( fixed) etc ..
5.Lack of communication with devs.


I choosed to become an EU member due to the fact that i find the community here much nicer and more mature and i love my kin here.
However , the difference of treatment between turbine and codemasters worries me alot as a founder and lifetimer.

Lets look at the current SoM prices ;
I have a lifetimer account and a 3monthly deal account of my fiance , she is not active for the last 4 months but i still pay it.The lack of lifetimer and multi monthly sub customers is making me mad !

Talking about options this is the one i choose :

Siege of Mirkwood Special Edition £19.99 / 27.99 €

• Siege of Mirkwood expansion
• LOTRO Adventurer's Pack
• And the Harbinger’s Cloak which provides an 8% speed boost and a new unique mount entirely FREE!

This is the one US community has been offered :

The chance for legendary glory is yours—free*! Just renew or upgrade your subscription to LOTRO to any multi-month plan (3, 6, or 12 months) by October 31, and we’ll give you The Lord of the Rings Online™: Siege of Mirkwood™ digital expansion for free*(regular price - $19.99)!
This Special offer is not available to Lifetime Membership Subscribers. To upgrade your subscription visit myaccount.turbine.com and select the Change billing options on the account management page. *Terms and conditions apply.

LOTRO’s Adventurer’s Pack is what every player needs to survive in the chaos of Mirkwood! And with this special early upgrade offer, you can grab your Pack before the war begins and get two special in-game items free*! Inside the Pack, you’ll find:
Shared storage: A storage space capable of storing 20 items accessible by all your characters on the same LOTRO server/world.
Extra character slots: Two additional character slots on each LOTRO server/world that become visible once all other existing slots are filled
Two special in-game items: A new mount, The Dusky Nimblefoot Goat, and The Harbringer’s Cloak, which gives a temporary speed boost of 8%!
Lifetime Membership Subscribers only: Siege of Mirkwood™ digital Expansion free* included with the early upgrade of the Adventurer’s Pack!

I could have grabed almost same offer with 19 dollars on US , do your math.The deal with turbine and codemasters is that bad?
If the turbine is forcing codies for such prices then i blame them but dont you think something is terribly wrong here?

I know many members here have good level of income and doesnt bother a few pounds but doesnt it put you on a lower level of customer the way you're treated?

At least we have our lovely Satine here , calming us down and giving out cookies , maybe she can clearify the reasons behind these treatment.

[Iarwain Annatar]

How about we all stop whining for just one second and realise that £15 for all that new content is bloody good value for money.

America can get whatever deal they want, it matters not. They paid $180 for Rock Band, we paid £180. Europe always draws the short straw, this isn't exclusive to Codemasters and they shouldn't be blamed.

I'm just glad I've got my pre-order in, got my cloak, and now I can look forward to playing the new content.

[aNAREXIA]

I don't think we here any comment on this from CM.

They have the strategy ; if we don't comment, it doesn't excist.

[MueR]

Originally Posted by MéLAnoR

At least we have our lovely Satine here , calming us down and giving out cookies , maybe she can clearify the reasons behind these treatment.

They don't want to overload the brittle mind of the "omg lol pwned" type players. After all, it's very hard to understand that:

• Mirkwood expansion costs $20.
• The Adventurer's Pack costs $20.
• If you are a lifetimer and you buy the adventurers pack, you get Mirkwood free. Total: $20.
• If you upgrade to a 3-, 6- or 12-month subscription, you get Mirkwood free. The adventurers pack still costs $20. Total: $20 (Mirkwood & Pack) or $0 (Mirkwood)
• If none of this applies to you, it's $20 for each.

[aNAREXIA]

Originally Posted by Iarwain Annatar

America can get whatever deal they want, it matters not. They paid $180 for Rock Band, we paid £180. Europe always draws the short straw, this isn't exclusive to Codemasters and they shouldn't be blamed.

Comments like these make CM go on like they do

[cossieuk]

You can here the same complaints in the US when games and electronics are release in Japan before the US and also costing less

[aNAREXIA]

Originally Posted by cossieuk

You can here the same complaints in the US when games and electronics are release in Japan before the US and also costing less

It's not about costing less. It's about not getting the same offer. If the gave me the same offer as in the US and I still had to pay 20 euro's you would not have heard me.

And beside that, like the TS mentioned ; they promised there would be no difference when starting LotRO Europe.

[Freyawyn]

Well the pricedifference is not the problem, I fully understand that the US and the EU will have a different pricetag but WHY are we not given the same deals to choose from? Pay for a 3 months subscription in the US and get SoM for free. You can pay for a year here and still not get it for free. Whats all that about? No deals for lifetime here and so on.

[Murky Majare]

Not only are we paying double what the Americans are paying, but the rest of Europe are paying 6 Euro more than the Brits are paying... and since we are paying 28 Euro... (They pay 22), 6 Euro out of 28 is quite a steep percentage.

[Veladorn]

Personnally, i find the price difference a tad high, for the same product. In today's globalized world, just saying "they do whathever they want" is not a valid argument.

Of course, Codies has to make a margin for themselves, and of course they have a monopoly for LotRO in Europe, both of which can explain the price difference. And of course, they know very well that everybody's going to pay the price, even if it was 10 euros more than what's announced.

Still, paying 2.5 times more than Americans for the same exact game is shocking.