Yeah, I guess I didn’t understand that whole quest pack unlocking mechanic. My brother tells me that without shelling out, everything in our level range becomes a grind alone. Basically at this point, to continue playing Lord of the Rings Online, I would have to pay somewhere in the neighborhood of $15-$20 dollars. For the next half dozen levels – and then I’d have to shell out more. Rinse and repeat. And if I were to start from scratch, I could play to level 20 or so, and then I would have to start paying just as I would if I kept my current characters.
Maybe I’m a bit jaded by EQ2X’s system and the way it parses things. If I wanted to keep my character there – it would be a $35 flat fee. If I elected to start from scratch, as I have, it will cost me nothing. I know this is in some way apples to oranges. But I don’t think quests are an optional component of the game these days, as much as I wish they were, or were at least reduced in quantity and magnified largely in quality. Bag size, number of character or storage slots – thats helpful but not necessary.
Harbinger Zero 
It gave me such a headache to figure out how much everything would cost that in the end I just decided to maintain my sub, about $10 a month…what I did realize is if I’m playing with any regularity, a sub is going to be way more economical than buying everything I want piecemeal.
Yeah when you run the numbers, LotRO has basically done nothing except to turn the bottom 20 levels into an “endless trial” – outside of that, you are still paying for things. From that standpoint its better than WAR (which severely limits its endless trial) and AoC (more open, but still limits the area of play).