D&D Online Becoming Free to Play

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...later this summer with the title Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited.

So my question is: was DDO any good?

 

The lack of success might indicate that it wasn't. I have no experience of other MMOs but judging about the relative failure of all other MMOs compared to WoW it seems like a rough market to break into. WoW is just that good. Hard to compete with a game that has the people, has the money, has the hardware, the ideas, the programmers and just about everything. Whatever you do WoW already or will soon do and better.

 

DDO offers a very different playing experience to World of Warcraft. These are my opinions as an ex-player:

It is quite different from other MMOs due to the nature of the quest design pretty much forcing you to form groups for basically anything you do, which if you like to solo isn't good but, I'd rather do cool instanced group quests to level up rather than "kill 20 boars and collect their hides, then kill 20 bears and collect their teeth". Basically, there's much fewer quests, but that just means there's a lot less crappy, unfun, grindy quests, just the good stuff. This (grouping) also creates a positive social atmosphere where you're constantly meeting others and chatting which is a highlight for me. Maybe check youtube for some videos of DDO quests to get an idea for what I mean because I'm not that great at explaining it.

Also somewhat different is the combat system which makes you feel a lot more in control of your character as you can tumble away and block blows, control each swing and arrow and spell, although auto-attack is also an available.

Then there's the fact that the game runs on an MMO-spec version of the 3.5 edition rules which gives it a very solid base. This could be a negative though if you were wanting a pure D&D experience, which it is not.

Oh and annoying, barely literate teenage idiots are very rare in DDO. Rejoice.

Negatives: the EU playerbase is small which can make grouping difficult, which can mean you're hanging around for 10-30minutes trying to get enough people to do certain quests. It really depends though, sometimes you can be questing constantly for 8 hours going from group to group and sometimes there'll just not be enough people in your level. However, you can always play on the US servers wherever you're from and these are more populated, just make sure you download the US client (different from EU client) and go through TURBINE rather than Codemasters. Also, the graphics, whilst obviously better than WoW, are noticeably inferior to Turbine's other game, LOTRO and the gameworld feels very dead and artifical, the sense of adventure is very much in the teamwork and social factors rather than the setting itself. A pity. The game is also updated a lot less frequently than what it needs to be, though a surge of new players might change this. Also it should be noted that there have been complaints since it was made about a lack of content, which I think definitely is somewhat true. You will repeat quests for XP. It never personally bothered me.

Too long, didnt read version: it's good enough that I would suggest anyone to give it a try, the game deserves much more popularity than it currently has.

I dont really stop by here often but I don't mind being the sort of "representative" for DDO here if anyone's got any queries. Seriously, don't get the lack of popularity put you off a least trying it out. It has its flaws but it's definitely not another WoW-clone.

 

I'm certainly going to check it out; I can't think of a reason to continually pay for a game and that's why I never played .

 

Agreed. I'm looking forward to playing DDO once it is free.

 

I liked it well enough when I tried the 1 week free trial. I didn't like it enough to sign up and start paying, though I'd say that about every MMO I've ever tried. Once it's free, I'll definitely give it another shot.

Some things I really like about it: most of the quests/dungeons are well-designed and often have some narration that is a lot like a DM guiding you through. In fact, I think they got Gary Gygax to narrate a couple of the quests.

They also did a good job of translating the pen and paper rules. DDO probably would't have been a bad single-player game.

 

Free!?

I'll definitely give it a shot, got nothing to lose really. It'll take summat special to tear me away from WoW though.

 

Well, I'm enjoying the beta so far, haven't had much of a chance to play though.

 

It is not 100% as you still have to buy the actual game to download the free playing content. Basically what they did is shift themselves from DDO monthly subscription to to DDO - Guild War format.

 

Has anybody been playing it for free? Is it a good freebie or do they try to make you pay for every little item and quest? I downloaded it (for 4 hours) and installed it but I haven't had a chance to play yet.

 

I've played it a bit. Things that make the game more convenient like extra character slots cost extra. Several races and classes are also restricted. You can opt to pay for these things one at a time or get a membership that grants access to the majority (I think) of stuff.

Game was kind of fun but I don't think I'm going to get a membership. I also don't like how you can pay cash to get in-game items like potions and stuff. Something about that seems inherently wrong.

 

I love this MMO. F2P and awesome graphics. it's lacking in content and lvl caps at 20, but it makes of for it in feel. I wish there was more F2P content after lvl 12, but it's lacking there which make sense they have to make money too. Overall i prefer this game to WOW (which i played for a year). Although DDO lacks mounts it still has the overall D&D feel to it which is what drew me into it in the first place.

And to finish off Arcane Archers FTW.