During this weekend’s Penny Arcade Expo, I spoke with Turbine Communications Director Adam Mersky about  major changes to two of their most popular MMORPGs, Dungeons and Dragons Online and Lord of the Rings Online.

As it was announced on June 9th, DDO will experience an especially big transformation, adding a free-to-play (F2P) option with microtransactions. The game has has been rechristened Dungeons and Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited to reflect this new business model. It will be available this Wednesday.

When Turbine launched DDO in Japan, Korea, and China two years ago, it became apparent that they had to adapt to compete successfully in the Asian market. Because Asian gamers tend to play MMOs at internet cafes and for only small blocks of time, the F2P model is more fitting for their lifestyle. In terms of offering F2P to the North American market, Mersky explained that over recent years Westerners have become more receptive to the concept of microtransactions, citing the immense success of  iTunes as an example. “That fundamental behavioral change in the Western market makes it the right time to do this,” said Mersky.

As for concerns that those with big wallets will be at an advantage to those who don’t, Mersky assured that won’t be the case since they’ve balanced things well in that players can only buy things that add convenience to more mature, casual players. “You can’t buy a +4 shield or high-end armor,” he said. “What it will allow you to do is open (the game) up to the players who have gotten older; who now have work, kids and all that stuff and they can’t justify a $10 a month subscription,” Mersky explained.

Turbine has seamlessly added their store in DDO. Just click on the option in the UI while in-game to access it. Players have a multitude of items available to purchase with their real money. These include cosmetic items, potions, XP enhancements, character slots, quests and raids (in the form of Adventure Packs), and even new classes.

Meanwhile, Turbine recently announced its upcoming expansion for LOTRO, called Siege of Mirkwood, slated for a fall release. Unlike the free routine Book updates or a full retail expansion pack like The Mines of Moria, SoM is somewhat of a cross between the two. SoM will be a digital-only download for $19.99 and while it won’t be quite as expansive as MoM, it promises to be chock full of content with new quests, 3-man and 6-man instances, and a 12-man multiboss raid. The biggest highlight is the new Skirmish system that features the ability for players of all levels to participate in special customizable quests with the help of equally customizable NPC soldiers.

This format of distributing content is an unexpected move for Turbine, but Merksy explained that it wasn’t feasible for this smaller content to be released as a retail product, especially from a business standpoint. “We didn’t feel the need to have to go back to retail with the costs, and the competition of doing that when we’re an online company and so our customers overwhelmingly go digital when they can,” he said. “I just think it’s a fit for this size update, this size expansion. The type of content just made more sense for it to be a digital expansion, and therefore the price is lower too, than going back to retail. But we have every intention of going back to retail at some point.”

With the recent addition of the F2P option to DDO, it’s only natural to speculate if LOTRO will undergo the same drastic change. Mersky explained that while there are no plans at the moment to do so, it’s definitely a possibility. “Because now we’ve got this in-game store with our engine, and we can sell character slots in DDO , there’s no reason we can’t now expand that type of functionality to other games,” he said.

However, should Turbine offer the ability for players to purchase things in-game in LOTRO, it won’t necessarily have the same format as DDO. “We may be able to rule out the capability of offering all types of services that may not be what you would define as pure microtransactions, which I think your original question was – are microtransactions coming to LOTRO? – but not in the same way that DDO is,” explained Mersky. “I think it’s more about now we have the ability to sell things directly in game, the future could be though, that we could sell these things in LOTRO.”