LOTRO: Standing Stone Games and Support Tickets
On 2nd August 2025, I was playing the MMORPG The Lord of the Rings Online, on my primary character, a level cap Lore-master. I decided to continue with one of the Allegiance Quest lines, specifically Durin’s Folk. I played through several quests and earned the appropriate tokens that advance the Allegiance system. I then handed these in to the NPC in the Hall Under the Mountain, expecting the next quest in the series “Chapter 3: Gimli’s Request” to be unlocked. An item appeared in my inventory that I then clicked on, which should have bestowed the quest. Unfortunately, nothing happened. Furthermore, the item vanished from my bag and therefore I could not attempt to click it again. I checked the LOTRO Wiki and then looked around the Hall Under the Mountain to see if any NPC had a ring icon above their head. As they did not, I surmised that this was a software glitch and logged a support ticket with Standing Stone Games.
Tonight, 40 days later, I received an email response from SSG and opened the message expecting to read that they had manually advanced the quest for me and I could continue with this story arc. However, that was not the case. I have attached a screen capture of my original support request along with the response from SSG, for readers edification. I believe I made myself quite clear in my initial communication. Hence I am somewhat confused by SSG’s response. There are several points to consider.
I have removed the name of the Customer Support member of staff out of courtesy
Firstly, are SSG claiming that they cannot advance a quest for a player when they state “Our ability to provide gameplay help or walkthroughs is limited from here in in-game CS”? If that is their assertion, I do not believe it. In the past, both I and friends have had quest lines advanced by Turbine/Standing Stone Games staff, when a bug has occurred.
Secondly, why write “I would suggest consulting with the community either in-game or on our official forums to gain a better understanding of gameplay content”? I gave a very clear breakdown of the fault I encountered and the problems most certainly can’t be remedied by reading the LOTRO forums. The comment implies that SSG has not read what I have written, for whatever reasons, which is hardly good customer relations.
Thirdly, I am further puzzled by the statement “If you believe there is an error with the in-game content, please provide a screenshot containing your character and the occurring issue to assist in further investigation, thank you”. My initial support request clearly indicates that I do indeed believe that an error occurred. It is why I raised a “ticket” in the first place. A quest bestowal failed, which is the very definition of a game error. As for supplying a screen capture, how exactly can I do this after the event? Again, this gives me the impression that my support request has not been read. I will not jump to any conclusion as to why this is but the most obvious answers that come to mind are far from edifying for SSG.
Finally, by what criteria is this support request “solved”?
Details of the Allegiance quest in question
There is always a temptation to consider a minor customer service matter such as this, too trivial to pursue any further. However, such a course of action ultimately makes matters worse for all players and paying customers. As a European, I am used to robust and good quality customer services. This example is the opposite of that. I waited 40 days, only to receive a generic response which neither addressed my in-game problem or even had the courtesy to offer the most basic of apologies for the inconvenience. This will not do.
If on the off chance that anyone from SSG reads this post, do you think this reflects well on your company? Not so much the fault, as bugs will occur in video games. I’m more concerned about the casual dismissal this official response infers and the fact that no one seems to have bothered to read what I wrote. Beyond this, can my game related problem be resolved? If you cannot advance a simple quest line for me after an obvious error, then please say so. A polite “sorry” would be well received.
In the meantime, I would be very interested to hear from fellow LOTRO players as to their experiences when seeking technical support from SSG. Did you wait long for a response? Do you feel that your request was read and understood? Was your game related problem resolved?
