D&D Online Goes Free-To-Play in September

[exfileme]

Turbine's upgrade for Dungeons & Dragons Online has been delayed for a month.

D&D Online Goes Free-To-Play in September : Read more

 

[Wayoffbase]

I got an invite for the beta and didn't bother to actually play it. The current version is a giant yawn-fest, which is too bad because I used to really like tabletop D&D. Using the Eberron campaign setting was a mistake, Dragonlance or Forgotten Realms would have been awesome. The free to play with microtransaction system doesn't give me a good feeling about where the game is going.

so far, DDO Unlimited is quite impressive

Seriously? I find that hard to believe. Are you actually playing it, or did you copy that from the press release???

 

[dman3k]

September 9???

Sorry, but I'll be playing Beatles Rock Band.

 

[Guest]

I'm waiting for CRPGs based on 4.0, MMO or otherwise, thanks.

It should be a far, far better system for a CRPG.

Maybe, just maybe mind you, we'd eventually get a D&D game that actually stays true to the actual game as well. Something like a modern-day ToEE.

I'd open up my wallet for that.

 

[buzznut]

The game description in the article got me excited. I am surprised of the negative comments. Or maybe not surprised, I have played many games over the years that were nothing like the D&D experience. Baldur's Gate and a couple others being the exception.

 

[NuclearShadow]

I honestly think a D&D MMORPG was a bad idea in the first place. Obviously they bet their success on the D&D name and to non D&D players like myself it doesn't interest me. As for D&D players I doubt it interests the majority of them as well because lets face it the game may share the name and things such as classes and races but no way does it play like a actual D&D game.

 

[Wayoffbase]

[citation][nom]buzznut[/nom]The game description in the article got me excited. I am surprised of the negative comments. Or maybe not surprised, I have played many games over the years that were nothing like the D&D experience. Baldur's Gate and a couple others being the exception.[/citation]
Don't get your hopes up. It's based on the same engine as LOTRO, but way over instanced and sucky.

I got a pretty decent D&D fix from the first Neverwinter Nights game and the expansions for it. I liked NWN2 also, but the first expansion put me off it.

 

[jerreece]

As someone who played AD&D growing up, I can't really see how an MMORPG can possibly play like D&D. May have similar concepts in character progression, but cannot possibly have the same intense story and plot configuration. With a real D&D experience, you're living in that world. With an MMORPG, you're just controlling an actor in a world of other actors.

 

[Todestool]

If someone is willing to pay a subscription for a D&D fix, they'd be best off getting D&D Insider. Wizards of the Coast is working to make it easy to play over the internet, though I don't know if all services are up and running yet. A real DM and a group of real players is the only legitimate D&D experience.

 

[bpogdowz]

Oh that game is hidiously awful.

 

[ssddx]

How else would you have them create a D&D online game if not as a MMORPG? I highly doubt people would want to use the old dice rolling setup. Also, be it a sucky game or not: Adding a free to play option is always good news. Yes you are more "limited" but it will still attract more users who would rather "try out" the game without a subscription on their back.

 

[cimtaurus]

I played the game at launch and stuck with it for the first year. To be fair, the game itself is not so bad, but the lack of content killed it for me. The world was not expansive enough (ran around the same city all of the time) and the quests were designed to be repeated 3 times each since there was not enough content to satisfy the players.

This game is not terrible, it just failed in some places where you can't afford to fail and expect to keep servers up and running.

 

[kutark]

What i don't understand is that if a respectable company were to make a mainstream, AAA MMO based in Forgotten Realms, i'd be willing to bet it would turn into a license to print money.

 

[theholylancer]

Free to play = death of an MMO, they make free to play only to get some fast cash then leave.

if you have ever played with other free to play korean/chinese mmos you'd know that free to play would have one if not several of the following:

upgrading items have a chance of breaking said item, unless you buy a special upgrade item that makes it 100%

purchased "rest" bonus (I.E. 200% exp gain)

new skins for old crap

access to "hidden" content.

paid character class reset/skill reset (think respec in wow)

paid character transfer, account management


all of these just kills off a large portion of the game, making it fun for a few people, usually the younger crowd that nags their parent to buy these random crap, and then they eventually leaves and moves on to other things that may be shinier

 

[Ha-So]

Got this article looking for something else. Funny to read in hindsight cause DDO's population has now exploded and the MMO has ADDED servers (rare occurrence for a 3 year old MMO), even if it's F2P, paid subscriptions are way up, and new content rollouts are so far much faster.