Running a Beta Program can be a tricky thing; everyone who isn’t in the beta wants to know what’s going on, but due to NDA restrictions no one in the program can tell them. So how do you let players talk about what they’re seeing, without violating their NDA? The answer is the LOTRO Beta Journal Project! Each week, we’ll ask Beta participants to submit their personal “Beta Journal” on a given topic. We’ll then take a sampling of those responses and post them for the entire LOTRO Community to read.

This week, we’re giving you the initial reactions players reported upon first using the new LOTRO Store.

“Greetings fellow players!!!

The Turbine team has decided to give us beta players a little side project to work on during beta, a journal of sorts where we (the beta players) share our impressions/experiences with the rest of you players. The first journal topic is the new LOTRO Store (name is still subject to change).

Where to begin?

Well I suppose I'll start with giving you all an idea of what items are in the store. There's a HUGE variety of items in the store, and the store itself is broken up into multiple categories to make searching for your specific desired item easier. The first thing that I noted was that the store sells all kinds of mounts. First there are temporary mounts (mounts that only last a certain amount of time ranging from a few minutes to a month), there're also regular mounts like the ones you'd buy at Hengstacer's farm, Festival Mounts (both past and present), and Reputation Mounts. There's also a section for cosmetics. So far cosmetics have been a big hit in beta, people buying stuff such as a Flame-Touched Hauberk or a Cloak of the Raven (these are the 2 most popular cosmetics).

The store also sells various "power-ups." These can come in many forms, such as temporary or PERMANENT increases to virtues, increased outgoing damage, heal-over-time potions (both morale and power), and Armor buffs. Now, when you buy something from the LOTRO Store, it is INSTANTLY delivered to your inventory for you to use. Store-bought items are all bound to your account though, so you can't trade them with other players.

Mind you, this is only a taste of the TRUE selection available at the LOTRO Store, I've just only listed a fraction of the available items (the ones I consider the most popular/useful). I hope that this little journal has helped ease the transition a little bit.

Until next time my friends!!!”