‘Troilus and Cressida*, that most vexing and ambiguous of Shakespeare’s plays, strikes the modern reader as a contemporary document—its investigation of numerous infidelities, its criticism of tragic pretensions, above all, its implicit debate between what is essential in human life and what is only existential are themes of the twentieth century. … This is tragedy of a special sort—the “tragedy” the basis of which is the impossibility of conventional tragedy.’ Joyce Carol Oates
*The Guardian also had an article mentioning some of the better stage versions: HERE.
Mr. Oates could be talking about LOTRO…I was looking for the etymology of the idiom ‘stake my reputation’, something that TURBINE were thinking of doing with REP ITEMS…put them to the stake…a slight exaggeration, but certainly a restriction to their use in response to perceived ‘abuse.’
My first reaction was to think of Vlad the Impaler…(Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia (1431–1476/77),also known, using his patronymic, as (Vlad) Drăculea or (Vlad) Dracula. He was posthumously dubbed Vlad the Impaler (Romanian: Vlad Țepeș, pronounced [ˈvlad ˈt͡sepeʃ])…how dare TURBINE call its players using games systems they designed abusers! They quickly climbed down on this…and even withdrew the suggestion with mention of a review in the new year.
LOTRO PLAYERS broke the news on Dec 23, 2014:
http://lotroplayers.com/2014/12/23/level-restrictions-now-on-consumable-reputation-items/
This is my rejigged LOTRO FORUM post from:
After a LOT of reading [9 pages now] I am slightly disappointed at some of the comments here…LOTRO´s F2P system is AWESOME! (Yes maybe a wee bit generous! More on this later.) I truly believe without the many F2P players the game would unfortunately not be in the state it is today…er OK that is maybe not that great but imagine worse… The system attracts players to the game (who may or may not spend RW dosh OR even SUBSCRIBE and it also fills(well kinda) servers with activity.
I truly believe in the adage; ´If you build it they will come.´ Tis a crying shame that of late LOTRO is more: ´If you build it and slowly neglect it they may go away!´ But: ´If you build it and slowly neglect it while giving lots of stuff for FREE they may go away more slowly!´
My kinnie NAKT commented on the FORUM: ‘There is no need to change system that does work perfectly and is appreciated by great many players.’ I agree full-heartedly and indeed NAKT is an example of F2P player that gives so much to LOTRO without paying a cent…and I raise my hat to him.
Back to the issue at hand, REP ITEMS…and by default TP grinding.
I TP grind, in a slow, slow way; I have only ever deleted 1 alt after a TP run, Fredem on Windfola was over lv30 and it took quite a time to play and I miss him, sad old man!
I do throw REP ITEMS I gather at my alts for TP, I do find it very useful…I do farm REP items at times, I kinda like the grind… sometimes better than the continual(inevitable!) level progression to ´ENDGAME´… I have even been known to BUY N SELL on AH…(This works only on busy servers, Withywindle AH is almost empty!). I have never really used SKIRMISH vendor for REP ITEMS…and as stated many times in this thread the serendipitous low price of REP (in MARKS) and quick Beorning Intro have made the old create, feed and delete TP generator method faster than ever before…especially combined with a 30ish level run through Bree, Ered Luin and Shire (possibly some of Lone Lands) and with Cartography deeds quite a lot of TP for FREE!
[Mar-Evayave created a summary of possible options to resolve the REP ITEM situation: https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?561430-Reputation-Items-An-Analysis&p=7293091&highlight=#post7293091]
ASIDE (option H – Lengthen the Beorning intro or making this intro be more like the tutorials that other races go through (and then have the Beorning do the standard Archet intro afterward)): I find the original STARTER areas tedious and char generation in LOTRO is old school and slow, if TURBINE really want to get some new blood into the game this really needs a facelift. I would love for ALL starter areas to be freely skippable, but obviously that would(could) have further ramifications to the GAME…
As leaving the REP ITEMS alone looks less and less likely I suppose the 2 options given D (Making rep far more expensive in the Skirmish Camp.) or F (Find level restrictions more favorable to us) are my preferred choices…
We have:
Give it away, Give it away, Give it away NOW!
I would hate to see a complete over-the-top:
Take it away, Take it away, Take it away NOW!
cos then TURBINE would have to:
SUCK MY KISS
tsuhelm 
Alas, they are already tied to levels since yesterday. Developers did not listen to the logic arguments: logic is no more required in Lotro.
Yeah I saw…but could have been worse I suppose…on a brighter note, producers letter was OK (lets see if they deliver this time:))