Gift of the Valar - Available and 25% Off

[Kiralynn]

The Gift of the Valar is available now until June 5th for 25% off.

Please let visitors from other servers know about this before Weatherstock, in case they want to take advantage of the deal.

[Beorbrand]

Really?

[Kiralynn]

If you stack your sales well, you can get this for $38. A paid character transfer is $25. So, for only $13 more, you can have high level characters on two servers. If your home server isn't Landroval and you're missing out on a lot of social activities, you can join the fun without transferring away from old friends.

[Byrcha]

Actually, I read somewhere that this was made available because of the new fun-with-Sapience server event: "Take The Dwarf Through Moria" (or some similar name). Moria is level-gated. While of course this is also a marketing maneuver, it does make sense to offer it.

[Beorbrand]

Yes, I've understood what it is. I am glad it is there for those who desire it, though it indicates a sad state of affairs. Let me clarify my sad, frowny-face emoticon. As if we do not have enough advertising slamming us in the face once we login and game, we are now posting it as a front page in-your-face feature on our kinsite? Is it that dreadfully important? I see quite a few people donated money to keep our page ad-free.

[Kiralynn]

Byrcha wrote:

Actually, I read somewhere that this was made available because of the new fun-with-Sapience server event: "Take The Dwarf Through Moria" (or some similar name). Moria is level-gated. While of course this is also a marketing maneuver, it does make sense to offer it.

Players came up with the idea for the Moria run. There hasn't been any date scheduled for it yet. I'm not sure how this is a related marketing maneuver.

Beorbrand wrote:

As if we do not have enough advertising slamming us in the face once we login and game, we are now posting it as a front page in-your-face feature on our kinsite? Is it that dreadfully important? I see quite a few people donated money to keep our page ad-free.

It seemed relevant because of Weatherstock. It's not always available and even more rarely on sale. It ends before Weatherstock, so if people miss it now, they won't be able to get it near the date of the event.

All you had to do was ask me to change the banner graphic into text which takes up less space. There's no need to get mean about it.

[Keli]

Kiralynn of Rohan wrote:

Byrcha wrote: Actually, I read somewhere that this was made available because of the new fun-with-Sapience server event: "Take The Dwarf Through Moria" (or some similar name). Moria is level-gated. While of course this is also a marketing maneuver, it does make sense to offer it. Players came up with the idea for the Moria run. There hasn't been any date scheduled for it yet. I'm not sure how this is a related marketing maneuver.

It was introduced because of the Moria runs. Somebody pointed out that the original intention of the runs was to allow anyone to participate (at risk of death of course) and the gating of Moria negated this. Sapience agreed to re-introduce the Valar item with a discount. You don't have to buy it /shrugs

[Kiralynn]

Keli wrote:

It was introduced because of the Moria runs. Somebody pointed out that the original intention of the runs was to allow anyone to participate (at risk of death of course) and the gating of Moria negated this. Sapience agreed to re-introduce the Valar item with a discount. You don't have to buy it /shrugs

Yes, quite true. The Moria runs weren't thought up by Turbine as a way to sell the Gift of the Valar.

[Harperella]

Kiralynn of Rohan wrote:

Keli wrote: It was introduced because of the Moria runs. Somebody pointed out that the original intention of the runs was to allow anyone to participate (at risk of death of course) and the gating of Moria negated this. Sapience agreed to re-introduce the Valar item with a discount. You don't have to buy it /shrugs Yes, quite true. The Moria runs weren't thought up by Turbine as a way to sell the Gift of the Valar.

They used the player council as a focus group for it nearly a year ago. This is not tied to anything in particular, but rather addresses the daunting problem of leveling up an alt from 1-95.

--Brad

[Corulin]

The runs will be called:

The Strategic Hobbit Initiative to Evacuate Lost Dwarves


Here's a quote from the official forums :)

Sapience wrote:

2 streams per week. They will take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Most likely start dates are either June 10 or June 17th. Possibly (though not likely) as late as June 24.

https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?539143-Hobbits-to-Isengard-Q-A-with-Sapience-notes-on-what-was-said&p=7174955#post7174955

[Kiralynn]

Yep. He picked the top 5 fastest server names out of a custom mug that a fan gave him with a poem on it. That set the order of the first five servers who will do the Moria run. That's kind of nice, because other people will now have a better chance, as the first servers are usually the ones to discover the hidden dangers and pitfalls.