Until when will the game go?

[Nymphonic]

Well, I don't think the game will be here for 5 billion years, but I'm hoping it lasts at least 200 years or so

I remember that post! ROFL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Joetzim]

Too much space talk. This is not swtor.

[DKenny]

SSG has plans for many many years. You have lots of time. I think we will see easy see a 20th birthday.

Having plans is one thing, however, it is financial viability that will ultimately be the determining factor. If I was putting money on it (which I certainly am not) I would at least wait until the fall out from the class changes takes place. That might have a material impact on financial viability going forward.

[Moondog548]

Sorry I'm late to the party, but it needs to be said: the actual answer is...

Ever on and on!

[zimble]

Hello Everyone !

I would have a question for you, because I am really interested (and a bit worried) in the topic. It is often said nowdays: "Is LotRO dying?" and words like these. Some people say that, the end of this beautiful game approaches, but many people say it is still flowing and evolving and has a huge amout of players. However, I don't really know what is the real truth. LotRO is a really super game, especially for huge Tolkien fans like me, therefore it has a very long life, and as I see it is still going very well even after 11 years. But, regardless of it I am really curious, until when will it keep going aproximately? I discovered LotRO in October 2017 (sadly somehow I didn't knew about it's excisting before), and started to play, but I am still at the very beginning of my adventures in Middle-earth (lvl 42), and still don't have a good pc so I mostly suffer from lag and horrible crashing instead of enjoying this wonderful game (probably I will have pc in aprox. 1 year from now). So I would like to know: Do I have enought time to enjoy this game out and accomplish my goals and adventures? And overall how many years kept for LotRO based on what we the players know about the topic? Or I came too late, and the game will close it's gates soon? Sorry for the curiousity, just I am a bit worried I don't ask SSG to tell any of LotRO's future, just that, what you guys think? Personally I really really hope, LotRO has a lot of time back.

Best regards, Turambar

A lot of it is very subjective, I mean often when someone says a game is "dying" they don't mean it is literally going to close down anytime soon, merely that certain aspects of it (the playerbase, specific areas of the game, the amount of content being added, etc) are in decline, for some people to the point it is no longer worth playing.

The reality is the while MMORPG genre is in decline, I'm not aware of any MMORPG these days that has managed to grow player number over the long term like WoW or EVE Online managed years ago, and when you look at other online games LoL with 80 million players, Overwatch 30 million, Fortnite 3 million concurrent players, etc, then MMORPGs have just been left behind.

Saying that unless the company is in real finanicial difficulty there is no reason to expect the game too close soon, there are MMORPGs older than LOTRO still going (DAoC for example), normally when an MMORPG gets closed (outside of dire financial problems) it is because a larger parent company deems it not profitable enough and they think they will get better returns putting those resources into something else.

[Turambar_04]

I say big thank to everyone for the answers! I don't worry anymore, I will enjoy the game as I can. Thank you for making the topic clearer for me

[djheydt]

A lot of it is very subjective, I mean often when someone says a game is "dying" they don't mean it is literally going to close down anytime soon, merely that certain aspects of it (the playerbase, specific areas of the game, the amount of content being added, etc) are in decline, for some people to the point it is no longer worth playing.

Or, perhaps, that the aspect of the game the doomsayer is particularly interested in isn't actually declining [that is, it's in about the same state that it was in previous years], but is given less emphasis than the doomsayer would like.

[Marancil]

Hmm,

at some point Middle Earth will end. That may still be far in to the future, say 5-6 years given the rate of geographical expansion of the game so far. SSG will have to decide whether to go east for Cuivienen, south for Harad, and, rather unlikely, west for Numenor and Valinor. Or all. I do see a slight parallel with CS Lewis' Narnia book, The Horse and his boy where the adventure takes place in Calormen, their version of Harad, if you will. Going east towards and past Rhun and Khand could actually bring about some inspiration from Perumov's books The Ring of Darkness since those offer a pretty good description of those areas.

There are a few maps that may be relevant ( http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Maps ) and we have only reached maybe two thirds of the areas involved in the Ring Wars. Since the Northern Kingdoms update we have yet another great area available but we still lack Lindon and rather large areas in in south west of Arnor.

That was looking at maps.

As for how the story will go with any lore approach, frankly, I have no clue. Looking at the current state of the game I would like to see a huge revamp of the Epic Quest Line to include the Northern Kingdoms before getting to Gondor, but I guess that is a very long shot to say the least.

Personally I have 14 characters in the scope from 25 to 115 so I have lots of work to do that will probably keep my busy for an additional 3-4 years before all are 115 or 125 or 150, wherever the limits may be by then.