By Kieron Gillen on September 10th, 2010 at 11:35 am.
No, it’s not Turbine being particularly vindictive to RPS. While the free-to-play reboot of the MMO is kicking off in the rest of the world it’s been delayed in Europe. Why? Codemaster’s Michael Rowland says to Eurogamer: “Given the complexities and challenges faced in the preparation and implementation of the new store to work within our infrastructure, we feel more time is needed to deliver the high level of service our players have quite rightly come to expect.” which seems to be a bit “our dog ate our homework”. While the full launch is today, the early start is underway (for beta and previous players). You can download the normal client here and the high-res texture one here. The Beta client won’t work, basically. What’s it like? Well, let me direct you at the impressions article we wrote during the Beta. We’ll bring news of the Europe release when Codemasters’ dog regurgitates their servers.
10/09/2010 at 11:48 Xercies says:
Codemasters are horrible litrally they are the worst they’ve been shafting european players of LOTRO for awhile now.
Anyway I’m sad at this game I’ve played it and I think it ruins LOTRO to be honest. So for that i will not play it.
10/09/2010 at 11:53 Simon says:
Should still be possible to play on the US servers using the US client, which is what I managed to do with DDO earlier this year.
10/09/2010 at 11:54 Mithrandir0x says:
Will european users be able to play on american servers?
Or they will have any kind of mechanism to restrict that?
(Hope that poor doggie doesn’t have a tummy ache…)
10/09/2010 at 12:06 Simon says:
Last time I played DDO (which was admittedly a few months back) that was the case. I’m in the UK and me and a Swedish friend got in perfectly fine.
10/09/2010 at 12:24 morbug says:
@Simon: Well, as a swede myself I could argue that both Sweden and the UK is in Europe so your statement might not be all that relevant really :P
10/09/2010 at 12:32 Simon says:
@Morbug Simply pointing out that folks in different -areas- of Europe are/were able to get into DDO without any restrictions based on location or language. It’s almost as if Turbine recognised the fact that there was a giant worldwide information network that was inherently unbiased towards anyone’s location, and Codemasters haven’t yet worked that out.
10/09/2010 at 13:56 Torgen says:
Yes, many Euros have long given up on Codemasters and are playing on US servers, even way before F2P hit. There were many Euros in my beta guild, some of which were not former/current subscribes.
10/09/2010 at 11:59 bleeters says:
Given the complexities and challenges faced in the preparation and implementation of the new store to blah blah yadda yadda bang bang, delayed release, throw around some fancy words to dazzle people with our bullshit, who lives in Europe anyway, etcetera etcetera.
Wait, that’s not what it says? Hrmm.
10/09/2010 at 12:12 bleeters says:
Oh, let me be grumpy, damnit :(
10/09/2010 at 12:26 Bascule42 says:
Codemasters couln’t organise a piss up in a brewery next to an overturned beer tanker while the sky is raining vodka. (Mmmmmmm!).
No real shock here.
10/09/2010 at 12:27 Brumisator says:
File transfer protocol?
10/09/2010 at 12:39 YogSo says:
I can confirm that we Europeans can play perfectly fine in the US servers. Just download the client from here and start playing* right away.
* When all the data and patches are downloaded, you will have around 11-12 GB of content, so be patient. Oh, and this needs Pando Media Booster to download the installation files (10 GB), but it’s automatically installed.
10/09/2010 at 12:56 alseT says:
But how do I get an account. Because it asks me for one when I start the launcher.
10/09/2010 at 13:51 YogSo says:
No joking. I’ve been searching the forums and reading the FAQs for more than ten minutes and I’ve been unable to find a way to create a New Account, that is, to provide the Product Key they require to create a new account. I was in the Beta, so I received a Product Key and I’ve been automatically transferred to the new F2P service. But for a fresh new player, I have no idea how to find a Key.
I would suggest creating a Turbine Account through the DDO page instead, as if you were trying to play DDO Unlimited (also F2P), because I had no problem creating a new account that way some weeks ago, before the LOTRO Beta. The problem is, that link is currently down. So I can’t really help you, sorry.
10/09/2010 at 14:03 Torgen says:
@alseT: I believe you need to make a Turbine account first. If you’ve been playing DDO on US servers, you should have one already.
I love how Turbine decided 48hr before lauch to scrap their website and roll out a “beta” site.
10/09/2010 at 15:41 YogSo says:
@alseT: That link I provided before is working now. So go here and make a free Turbine account. You can use this account to log into both clients (LOTRO and DDO).
@Torgen: Yeah, navigating the new website is a horrible mess. And good luck finding the download link in case you are interested in playing their free game…
10/09/2010 at 12:57 Gnarf says:
We’re not providing the service because we’re providing such high level of service.
10/09/2010 at 13:02 Aldran says:
Considering the fact that DDO Europe is currently working like , it might even be advisable to just play LOTRO on the US servers, too.
10/09/2010 at 13:22 Tei says:
I think is a cultural thing, and the european companies are worse. I can’t be fully explained in that europe is a more complex market. I don’t buy it. We sould learn from this and improve, aka, learn how the USA companies do things. If a USA companie can quickly create a new delivery/cost service, how is that possible? is possible that maybe is hard working and better use of resources?
America is now independent, and don’t pay taxes to us. If we want to make these people pay taxes again, we can’t be lazy like that. EUROPE sould conquer the world again, but we will not do that with the lazyness and platitude of people like Codemaster.
10/09/2010 at 13:37 idespair says:
Every time I read Pando, I think of Brass Eye…
10/09/2010 at 14:14 mbp says:
As a subscriber to the European version of Lotro since launch I really don’t agree with the Codemasters hate. I think they have done a very decent job – The game has run well without hitches, patches have been rolled out in a timely manner, billing runs well, customer support is ok. Yes it is frustrating not to be able to talk directly to the developers of the game and to be forced to eavesdrop on the official forums without being able to contribute but that is Turbine’s decision not Codemasters. Codemasters provided a pretty good forum of their own for European players.
10/09/2010 at 14:22 benjamin says:
And I was goin to play it today and everything. Sigh.
10/09/2010 at 14:32 Torgen says:
Benjamin, do you have a forum account? I can send you a “buddy key” in PM if so. I have 3 of them from purchasing Mines of Moria Complete.
10/09/2010 at 15:34 Pedro says:
So, let’s see if I understand this right. I can download this and PLAY on the american servers for FREE today?
10/09/2010 at 15:49 YogSo says:
Sí. Sim. Oui. Yes. Da. Ja. Hai. You get the idea :)
You just need to create a Turbine account to be able to log in when the client finishes installing and updating. See my answer to alseT above.
10/09/2010 at 16:08 The Great Wayne says:
It’s working, like right now.
10/09/2010 at 20:44 Zogtee says:
“…the high level of service our players have quite rightly come to expect.”
Right! Allow me to lol, no, make that *guffaw*. I remember when I played this and there was some issue with my pre-paid card. I got into an argument with a charming man who worked support and that argument lasted for three weeks and got a bit ugly at the end. Then another man from support took over and resolved the whole thing in like ten minutes, apologized for all the bother, and that was that.
I don’t expect a high level of service, but I’m hoping said service has managed to crawl out of the gutter, at least. :D
11/09/2010 at 10:35 Jons ftp account says:
It seems strange that it would be delayed by technical problems when it works in the rest of the world, must be a legal issue they don’t want us to know about.
11/09/2010 at 22:17 Zamn says:
Will the clients linked above work on the European servers? I was thinking of doing a little bit of pre-downloading before it goes FTP in Europe.
13/09/2010 at 12:04 Zogtee says:
I can’t get this to work. I created a DDO account, but I can’t log in to LotRO with it. Did they change something to keep us filthy europeans out or what?
08/06/2011 at 01:19 che09 says:
Lord Of the Rings is one of most high acclaimed films of all time! I’ve watched it several time yet I still get awe in some of the scenes. So,it is F T P.. Wow! Cool!!