Family account?

[Ta2-U]

I have 3 boys, and we're deciding on renewing our Microsoft account or adding a family account here. Since we have 4 pc/laptops and love to game together, is there a family account option? Please say yes...

[Stoner81]

You will all need an account each I'm afraid.

Stoner81.

[Philibusta]

Since no one else with possibly more knowledge on this subject than me has answered you yet, I'll try and help you.

The Turbine Account page doesn't have any mention of family/combined accounts. However, you may be able to get something out of them by calling the Cusomer Support line. They may be able to help you that way.

If, however, they are unable or unwilling to accommodate you I have a suggestion.

I take it you were planning on subscribing to the game. This would amount to about $60/month for you, for the four accounts, or $120 every 3 months, or $400 a year, depending on your selected subscription plan.

Couple options:

Create 4 different accounts, one account for each of you, and start off as free-to-play, to decide if you all really like the game enough to want to pay. This will somewhat limit some of the things you can do in the game, of course (lots of quests locked out, only post one auction item at a time, only 2 character slots per server, can only open quests the first time on Casual or Normal difficulty, etc.)

However, through earning Favor ingame by completing quests, you will earn Turbine Points (TP), that you can then use to buy Adventure Packs, which opens up more quests choices, which lets you earn more XP and more Favor (to buy more packs). There are 8 servers in the game, and for the FIRST 100 Favor you earn on each server, you get 125 TP. This can all be done with free quests. If your family groups together, and does the 100-Favor run on each server, that's 1,000 TP for each of you! (You can also earn TP beyond 100 Favor....each successive 100 Favor earns you 25 TP, with a first-time bonus at 500 and 1000 Favor). ANY character that earns Favor in increments of 100 will get the 25 TP, but the FIRST character (per account) to do it on a server also earns the bonus TP.

Another option for you would be to create those 4 free accounts, then buy some Turbine Point packs. The lowest priced pack is only $8. And right now Turbine is running a "Double Bonus Points" sale until the 23rd, so for the $8 you get 700 TP. Now, if you do this, once on each account, it will upgrade the accounts from free-to-play, to Premium accounts. So for a total of around $32, this will get each of you 2 more character slots (for a total of 4) on each server, and remove the auction house limit (though everyone is limited to 50 items at a time) and the platinum limit (there's a limit to how much in-game cash (platinum) a free-to-play character can have, limit raises as you level up). Plus, each of you will have 700 TP, a good start on saving for those Adventure Packs!

Hope that helps. OH and one last thing....when you get to the point where you are ready to buy some Adventure Packs, don't go for the lower-level ones first. It may seem tempting to have that extra quest variety RIGHT NOW, but you'll regret it. You'll want to hold off until your family's characters are around level 10 or 11, and then buy the Ruins of Gianthold pack. (You'll have to buy the pack on each account, so each member of your family will have to have accumulated enough TP to buy it). And after that, probably the Vale of Twilight pack. Those two packs will go much farther in helping you all level up into the high-level range. If you forget this before you're ready to buy packs, come back to the forum and ask advice on which packs to buy. Someone will tell ya.

As someone who has played as a free-to-play player, a Premium, and a VIP, I know, it does seem a bit grindy earning those TP points to buy the Packs. But the upside is, once you buy them, you have them for the life of the game. I lose access to them whenever I have to let my subscription lapse for one reason or another. But, point is, even if you all have to grind out those TP, youre all playing the game together and (hopefully) having piles of fun doing it

[Arianrhod]

Another option might be to have free accounts for the kids, and subscribe on your own account - this would allow you to "open on elite" for them, which would in turn allow the free accounts to earn points faster (this is what I do when I multibox). Depending on the maturity level of the kids, there might also be some advantage to _not_ having a credit card associated with their accounts

[Philibusta]

Another option might be to have free accounts for the kids, and subscribe on your own account - this would allow you to "open on elite" for them, which would in turn allow the free accounts to earn points faster (this is what I do when I multibox). Depending on the maturity level of the kids, there might also be some advantage to _not_ having a credit card associated with their accounts

Oh yeah, thanks for throwing that piece in I was gonna mention it, but forgot.

Could be a bad day if your credit card gets declined, then you come home to find the kids each have a 1-year sub, both Expansion Packs, Iconics, and 35,000 TP on their accounts

[Tscheuss]

Free to play is definitely a good way to start, whichever course you opt for later. Also, since the free-to-play accounts are... well, free... you and your children can invite friends along for the ride.

[mna]

Depending on the maturity level of the kids,

Oh yes.

Greatly preferable to have each their own account so they can't sabotage each other's stuff... not that we've had that problem intentionally, but anyway... the youngest has been able to find the desktop language setting since she was two.

Have to have a password-protected screen saver because of the cats, anyway. (Funny how they manage to hit all the "right" buttons if they find an unprotected computer. And a moving-object screensaver is not recommended in this house with a plastic-coated screen, from experience.)


Currently have 4 f2p accounts in the house. And sometimes the kids do have trouble remembering to stick to the pack plan, instead grabbing whatever to join random-pack PUGs when I'm not looking... oh well.

[Ta2-U]

Thanks all. I expected this.
We've been playing for about 3 years, and at one point, I had a VIP account. The quests and treasures, obviously, are better. We're all F2P right now and I thought if there was a Family option, that would make a nice gift, but at 400 Scoots...nah; even Microsoft has a better offer than that!
I'll give the Customer Service folks a ring and try that suggestion as well - thanks Philibusta

[psykopeta]

Thanks all. I expected this.
We've been playing for about 3 years, and at one point, I had a VIP account. The quests and treasures, obviously, are better. We're all F2P right now and I thought if there was a Family option, that would make a nice gift, but at 400 Scoots...nah; even Microsoft has a better offer than that!
I'll give the Customer Service folks a ring and try that suggestion as well - thanks Philibusta

there's an option (sorry dunno how it's called) that gives "certain" person an % of the TP/$ u spend and the same in a reciprocal way

if u "bound" the accounts in groups of 2, you can spend less and win more (think it's a 10% if i recall correctly, further on said "iirc")

now u can spend let's say 35$ in each account to get 4,100 TP + that % (so we could say 4,5k TP)

with that TP you can buy right now the "most useful" packs u'll get in a 1st life (and further) that are sands of menechtarun, gianthold, vale of twilight

now u and the kids start trying different servers, all u are premium, have 3 packs + f2p quests, the more servers u try, the more "easy tp" u'll get, personally i would avoid that, but u would get over 2k "tree" tp this way, prolly more, so u can spend em in another pack, and earn it in every server again, etc etc

also you'll be able to hit 20 with your toons quite easily with these packs, and some f2p quest and the packs i told u to buy have crafting/possibilities past lvl 20

at this point you should see if all 4 of you are interested in that game or not, but lemme tell you that turbine/WB doesn't care about family accounts and such stuff, 35$ each think is the best offer u can get, spending more isn't a good idea (even less being x4 what u need to spend) because u know that kids may like it at beginning and get tired quite fast, also 35$ think it's a common prize for a new game

sadly turbine/WB doesn't care about family options, so that reciprocal $/TP is the best offer u'll get from em

[Azalin]

I agree - you should make separate accounts for your kids. I didn't do this and am now paying the price for it. Turbine has no way of separating my son's account from mine, though he is now 20 and could easily take up paying for his subscription. However, all the payment information and login information is locked to the master account - mine. Even this forum upgrade a few months ago caused headaches with profiles not being properly associated to the login.

Lesson learned.