Well I agree that DDO has the best combat system I have ever played, however unless they allow more solo play, I won't go back even if it is free. Great game other than that flaw.
to be honest i'm not happy to see turbine to take this route . i know that ddo has it flaws like every other game but seeing this happen makes me wonder what it will do to turbine's reputation and even more so with microtransactions . Make no mistake i like dnd and i was happy to see turbine take a shot at making a decent mmo with the ip but personally i think if turbine put more money into the game since launch and imo they havent . then i dont think they would of taken this path . Anyways microtransactions are a major turn off for me and i highly doubt it i will play ddo even if its free . but i wish everyone well that plays ddo
you should keep in mind that if someone just wants to subscribe they basically play the game as if micro transactions don't exist. im not a huge fan of RMT either. but I think this is the best compromise ive seen. it really puts a hard limit on how much someone would spend and i think rather than encouraging more transactions, just encourages subscribing.
Micro transactions are a pain in the arse. I think they would do better to simply slash the subscription price. I guess then they couldn't claim the game was "free" though.
Well its a mixed blessing and curse. On the one hand I'm pleased to see them accomodating to a larger audience, more people will come try the game and they can be a subscriber or free2player as they wish. The downside however, is that with microtransactions you run the problem of essentially being your own gold sellers and letting people purchase funds can damage the in-game economy. Its an interesting angle though and I wish them luck with it.
Hehe right on the money reoh , That is exactly my point as i've seen more harm then good come out of microtransactions and even more so turbine doesnt realize by allowing microtransactions it won't be long till the market is so overpriced and because the game is now free the community will very much be ruined cause this will give gold sellers all the leeway they need to hurass others hence the players becoming even more less Hence hurt turbine reputation down the road
I don't mind microtransactions actually as long as there isn't an unbalanced play experience. Guild Wars, FreeRealms, Dungeon Runner, and Exteel I all did microtransactions and was happy with it. Of course 3 of those 4 are NCSoft. As far as the manufacturer being a gold seller, well I would prefer that to the real 'gold sellers' any day. They have to make money to stay in business and provide the service that we enjoy. If not then they close down and you don't get to play it anymore. I would certainly play a free2play DDO if they had more solo content, but their decision was to make grouping required for anything past lvl 4. I understand their decision having had played D&D back in the early 70's and plenty of other PnP games, however that is not my style of play. I was in the closed beta for DDO and got one character to cap (lvl 12) at the time in live, as well as several other characters. If you have the numbers and can get a group all the time, then it is a great game. Best combat system I have played to date.
Yeah same here Bro, I like group content... but I need a game to have a lot of solo content for me at anytime I just want to pop in, play a bit while I chat with friends.
My son bought DDO awhile back and we both gave the free time that came with the game a go, but both of us stopped playing within a couple of days. What really annoyed me with DDO is that from what I could see the only way to get XP was through quests, and you could only kill in instances. After being thoroughly spoilt by WoW and many other great F2P MMORPG's out there, this just seemed really odd. I could see the same issue as most people above are saying. There are times when you want to group and there are times when you want to run solo (a bit like sex really lol), I dont think this game really allows for that solo play very well. When it goes free I may go back and have another look but only if bored
Yeah, instancing is another mixed asset. In some ways I like the privacy, but if its always that way then it detracts from the immersiveness. What I want to see is the development of instancing technology which pulls the wool over our eyes. Where we walk into a private instance in a single contiguous world without the need to stop and zone in.
Free to play, BUT NOT IN EUROPE! Kotaku - Dungeons & Dragons Online Not Going Free In Europe - Dungeons & Dragons Online
i'm wondering how hard it'll be to get points this way. They would have to limit it or there would be no incentive to spend money to get points or to be a VIP. it's still good though that they're adding in the option. If it's free to play and people think you can get the points to buy store items through normal gameplay, you'll get more players in the game than you would otherwise. A game like DDO is all about population. Free players or subscribers, it doesn't matter. If they increase their player base through this, then it'll be more enjoyable for everyone -roob
I sometimes get the impression that Turbine are very bad at communicating with CM. In LOTRO we have had updates released on US servers 1 day after they gave the code to CM for translation. They also have provided an API to the US servers that won't work for the EU servers. It's almost like Turbine do stuff and ring CM up as they are issuing the announcement I would not be surprised if the truth is that CM had little warning and so haven't had time to work out if they want to do it and if their account management software could even be integrated with it.
It sounds like you can buy NPC party members to help you out if you ARE solo? I wonder how much they will cost, how effective they are, etc. As a VIP you have 500 coins to spend per month, so that could be used towards hiring NPCs to help out. Not to mention being able to earn coins in game. Personally I enjoy parties more than solo, but also know that sometimes it's just too difficult to find parties. So being able to have some henchmen like GuildWars to help out in some tougher content could be very nice. I really enjoyed the dungeons while in Beta. I'll definitely have to check it out again once this goes live.
