General Discussion

Turbine has announced a special reduced price for Dungeons and Dragons Online to celebrate the game's second anniversary.

To celebrate Dungeons and Dragons Online™: Stormreach™'s second anniversary, we're proud to announce special anniversary subscription pricing!

For a limited time, the Dungeons and Dragons Online special anniversary promotion lets new and existing subscribers play for only $9.99 a month when they sign up for six months of service for the special price of $59.84 (subject to certain terms and conditions). That’s nearly $18 off the regular 6 month subscription price!

Read more here.

This has become an amazing game that rewards teamwork.  Don't believe there's a single title on the market that compares to DDO's dynamic combat mechanics. 

The dynamics of character building in DDO are more advanced and cerebral then World of Warcraft and pretty danmed close to the pre-cu version of Star Wars Galaxies through implementation.  You can build Sorcerers that fight like a fighter and multi clas roles provide for endless options - if you can think of it you just might be able to create it.

How many games require Jump as a tactical means to interact with the environemtn while performing a tangible gain during combat?  None that I know of other then FPS games.

Three best games of all time, not in any particular order:  Dungeons & Dragons Online, EVE Online and Pre-CU Star Wars Galaxies; in terms of dynamics.

What DDO is not - it is not AD&D pen & paper.  It is revisioned while staying close to the newer realms of the rules.  You have to expect some varriance for an old system likd D&D to be ported to an MMO and play well.  If you expect it to be AD&D you will be dissapointed, if you expect it to be challenging and fun you'll be glad you're playing it.  :)

Come play DDO and see the new out door areas and new dungeons - Amazing!

I wish it is true but as far as I can tell it felt like playing a 3rd perspective single player game with bad controls and little in the feeling of 'immersion'. I REALLY wanted it to be all that...but currently I don't see me actually going past the free trial. Maybe you vets should do more than hype this game and tell us trial newbies where are those mechanics we keep missing. They are pretty obvious in games like AC, SWG, AO, and EVE....D&D ...*shrug* and no I am not happy about this because as I said I REALLY wanted to be a solid fun strong story-driven mmorpg.

Originally posted by mindspat

  If you expect it to be AD&D you will be dissapointed,

 

Then they need to rename it and change the setting.

If it was $9.99 period a month, not "for a limited time" or "with a six month subscription for a limited time", then it would be worth looking into. But it's not worth $60 bucks at a time when you'll run out of content before the six months is over. And it's not worth $15 a month like full world mmorpgs.

Just my opinion. Your mileage may vary.

A friend of mine told me about DDO a long time ago when it was still early in the development stages, so I looked into it and signed up for the beta.  I got into the beta and preordered the game.  After a week or 2 in the beta for me, I could not stand to log in anymore because it couldnt stand to run the same quest for the 10x+ time.  The quests are well made, but there is just so many times you can do it before it gets really borring.

Im just glad I could get out of my preorder for the game.  The biggest worry I had about the game when i first heard about it was what killed it for me.  Nothing to do other then running the same quests over and over again.

Zorvan beat me here with everything I would have said.  I could live with it if it were "six months during which subscriptions are available for $10 per month".  (None of that 9.95 crap.  10.  10.)

mindspat is quite on crack if those are the "top three".  All three are niche market games (games without an original setting will cause people to be interested in the game or not simply based on their previous experience with the setting) with mechanics that are painful for most players.

Repeating the same quests over and over isn't too terrible...  if there can at least be something different about it each time.  Take a look at Anarchy Online or City of Heroes for how to do this in instances...

Pretty good deal. I took advantage of it.

Some people wont get-it no matter how much hand holding is done.  Ttying something during a beta and thinking *this* is how a game plays two years later is moronic.  Dynamics are complex and there's "too much reading" which is bound to be a turn off to some. 

Personaly, DDO *is* a great game that many will never be able to enjoy.  It could be some don't earn enough monies with what ever form of emplyment (Mcdonalds, paper route, etc) or it could be that anything which requires a thought process could be daunting.  Thankfuly a bit of patience and a desire to triumph in a fluid gaming environment is extremely rewarding.  

Turbine has made vast improvements for the players who pointed out the initial flaws; lack of content, tiny world, lack of explorable environments, not what we knew as AD&D.  One thing that has not changed is that it is still not AD&D nor was it ever meant to be.

The newer 3.5 rules (which I know abslutely nothing about since I've not played AD&D for almost 18 years and never used the 2nd edition) have been the baseline for the game's theme.  There have been broad modifications for hte rule sets - no diffierent then any Dungeon Master has made during the course of gaming with friends - and the game play and mechanics perform wonderfully. 

Common complaints about DDO tend to go back 2 years or more.  Seriously, alledging content has remained static from the time of the game being in beta does not build credibility of the accuser.  If anything it makes naysayers look quite foolish.

The controls perform smoothly and are VERY intuitive.  It utlilzes simple WASD contorls incorporating true positional Jump movements to interact with the world geometry in a real time environment. While being much more of a strategy game then other MMO's it maintains a level of ease approachable by level headed newcomers looking for a casual gaming experiance yet still appealing to hard core power gamers who must beat everything on Elite.  

Cons - physically or mentally challenge players will struggle.  Slow reaction speed and poor compreshension will make the game more difficult then it could be.  There's also a need for good social skills to interact with others to perfect strategies and increase success.  Someone who has a defencientcy in either of these areas should continue to avoid DDO. 

The environment and combat can be extremely cerebral which a lot of players will not be able to grasp.  If you like a dynamic gaming environment which challenges you then DDO could be enjoyable. 

 *edit: There's a hell of a lot more content in DDO then there was during beta.  It would take several months for the average gamer to experiance all the content and that does not count perfecting nor completion.

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Originally posted by mindspat
One thing that has not changed is that it is still not AD&D nor was it ever meant to be.

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That is why they should never have been allowed to call it "Dungeons & Dragons" anything. I can't wait until Bioware has their MMO out, which won't even have D&D in the name and will stick to the machanics better than DOO.

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Cons - physically or mentally challenge players will struggle. Slow reaction speed and poor compreshension will make the game more difficult then it could be. There's also a need for good social skills to interact with others to perfect strategies and increase success. Someone who has a defencientcy in either of these areas should continue to avoid DDO.

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A game that requires you to group to accomplish anything worthwhile, know everybody on your server before even buying the game in order to find a group, and then doesn't even give you a world to run around in to get away from that type of player? Just seems nuts to me to continue to cater to the elitists in a game's population, even if that wasn't the intent in creation. How many years did it take Everquest to admit that the vast majority of players online were not on high end level characters? And then a good number of months before they started focusing content to said majority of their players instead of high end content that few of their paying customers ever reach, and the tiny minority that do blow through in a week without artificial time constraints on completing it? At least WoW decided they'd make it easier for everyone to get to the high levels - but still in a way that makes me wonder why they don't just start everyone at maximum level, beef up the BPCs and quests to suit that one level, and then the quest progression is all the matters, if you even choose to do them.

You're looking at the wrong group to label "mentally challenged." I'm thinking developers and fanboys are a better fit...