Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Dropping VIP

My adventures in Middle Earth continue slowly but surely.  I did sign up for a month of VIP as I relearned the game.  Now that I am more comfortable, I think it is time to drop the subscription and go on as a free player.  Overall I think their payment model works quite well, but I do have an issue.

The thing I will miss most about the subscription is access to Fast Travel.  It is very helpful, but without a subscription you can only buy temporary access to it.  There is one thing I will not buy from a game store, consumables.  It just doesn't sit well with me to have to re-buy items like Fast Travel access, so I will not do it.

Luckily, there are ways to get around the world without Fast Travel.  With some of the points from my month of VIP I purchased a map to my home base, Thorin's Hall.  This is a permanent item on a 1 hour cooldown.  I also have my Map Home, which I will bind to whatever area I am working in (currently Ost Garuth).  While it may not be ideal, they should help me get around without having to mess with Fast travel.

I will lose access to a lot of quests, but that really isn't a big deal to me.  I rarely seem to do them.  Most of my time is spent doing Skirmishes, the Epic Quest series and improving my crafting.  I can do all of those without spending anything.  Eventually I may want to buy some quest packs, but for now I don't need to.  Back to Premium it is for me.