LotRO goes Free2Play

I used to have a "lifetime subscription" to Lord of the Rings Online. But starting this fall, I will be a VIP instead. Lord of the Rings Online is going Free2Play in North America and Europe, with the same business model like Dungeons & Dragons Online, which tells me that Turbine makes a lot more money from DDO since it went Free2Play. But as that business model still allows people to "subscribe" if they want, I don't completely lose all benefits from having paid for that lifetime subscription. I get full access to the least restricted version of the game, plus 500 Turbine Points per month. I hope there is only one flavor of Turbine Points, so I can use them for all possible Turbine Free2Play games [EDIT: It turns out you can't use LotRO Turbine Points for DDO or vice versa. Bleh!], in which case the deal is actually better for me than the lifetime subscription I'm not really using. I might even get access to the content of the expansions I never bought!

My personal problem with Lord of the Rings Online is that it is not sufficiently different from World of Warcraft. That is to say if I want to play a MMO where I level by moving from one quest hub to the next, and fight fantasy monsters by targeting them and using various hotkeys, I usually play World of Warcraft. When I am in one of the phases where I am burned out from World of Warcraft, I generally prefer playing something completely different. For me Lord of the Rings Online is definitely the best MMORPG after World of Warcraft using this type of gameplay, but that puts it in a bad place in my playing schedule.

Nevertheless I can very much recommend to try Lord of the Rings Online out when it goes Free2Play. You absolutely need to play at least one hobbit through all the Shire quests, there is great fun to be had there.