I went ahead and bought a ton of points myself. I figured if I spend 120 bucks for nearly 10K points, it would be just as if I got the lifetime sub like in LOTRO - only cheaper. I have almost all the modules, races, and classes, so I'm set to play for a few years. Now, if I was to stop in six months or so, then, yes, it would be a loss compared with a 15/mo sub. However, if I play a year+ I save.

It is strictly they way I chose. I understand there are others who are doing it different. As long as DDO doesn't bomb and close it's doors in under 9 months, lol,  I'll be ok.

I was thinking the same way Kevingaily, treating it like a life time sub.  But i'm the type that plays a game a few months and come back. So it would be much longer to see a return in investment.

I'm sure DDo will be around for a long time :) 

Originally posted by page

Great Dibdabs, and congrats !!

I was level 3 and did most of the quest. I may have received it, AND DELETED IT AS JUNK, I'm not sure. So keep your eye on any junk you get from long instances. In what people say it's easy to delete important stuff.

I had 100 points, and bought it when it was on sale for 50 points, to be safe.

I don't think you can accidently delete it. as far as i can see, the item was automatically used whenever i got it as a quest reward on both my characters and disappeared from my inventory.  Also the item is not really that hard to get, all of the friends i've made in the game so far have managed to get one before reaching the rank cap on lvl 4 so my advice is to just wait until ur level 4 and only buy it with your turbine points if you havent somehow managed to get one by then.

Originally posted by Dubhlaith

 

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Originally posted by drbaltazar
 ya this f2p model is close to gw model without the initial cost .ddo might be on to something here without knowing it!
at least for me it make lot more sense the aion p2p model

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Sorry, but this is nothing at all like GW.

In the GW store you can buy things like new characters slots, unlocks for things for PVP-only characters, name changes, and appearance changes.

In the DDO story you can buy things like the ability to level higher, the ability to go to certain places, and the ability to create characters of certain races and classes.

They are not at all alike in any way.

The way Turbine is doing this is just one more in a very long line of examples of their poor business sense. They have so many great ideas, but they always have such horrible implementation, marketing, and design. I know I should no longer be surprised by how horrible these people are. Their store is worse than many asian grinders. While I am not surprised, and I more disappointed than ever.

Your post is just sad. This is the best type of item store I have ever seen in a F2P game period. Turbine are simply geniuses to have come up with this idea for an item store. And it is all inside the game not on some outside game website. Why on earth has not other F2P games thought of this kind of model for thier stores. This has totally redefined the way I had always thought of all those crappy shit infested Asian terd games forever. Nuff said! Sheesh!

If you come from a game like Everquest 2 or similar you will appreciate the F2P business model Turbine has

embraced. EQ2 charges about 15 a month THEN charges you for expansions, also EQ1 as OLD as it is still does that,

and still costs 15 too. But yeah I know you can get a station access account for 29.95 and play all sony MMOs...

Good job Turbine on the store! 

Thanks for this info because I am new and did'nt understand the points and things I need to purchase,

this helped.

Good to know I don't have to buy certain packs.

I think Turbine have managed the impossible - they have come up with a microtransaction system that I like.  I never ever thought I'd say that, not in a million years...

I'm playing as a froob (Anarchy Online term for a freebie noob) and I have already managed to unlock some content and also had a Copper Sigil drop that will open up a bit more content.  This makes for a bigger sense of achievement than I've felt in any of the MMOs I currently play, and my goal now is to unlock the shared bank feature.  That way, I can keep those features I've unlocked if I decide to go with Aion and subscribe to that instead.

Turbine are extremely up front about the DDO store and how it works, and the store is laid out in a very clear fashion indeed. There is just no chance of misunderstanding or confusion or even the mildest of deception on Turbine's part.  It would be hypocritical to play the game, what with all the facts laid out so clearly, and then whine because you don't like it.

Wow I was about to try this but after reading this it sounds like quite possibly the worse balance Iv ever seen from a free 2 play game. Instead of selling cosmetics, exp bonus items, Mounts, drop rate+ items or Upgrade components for weapons these guy  just skip all the BS and sell you game content. In a way I can see how that is good. Permanent content, its like paying for mini expansions which is really not to bad. Then again...Looking at it from the free 2 play prespective there is nothing worse a free 2 play game can do than restrict actual large sums of content until you pay. For that alone I would say this game should not be called a free 2 play game but more along the lines of permanent free trial. 

It's really to bad I wanted to try this game out but I do not want to feel like I HAVE to spend money. The way that the CS is described it seems like players have no choice but to Feel like they have to spend money. Il stick with Atlantica until this cash shop gets more realistic.  At least there I have reached 98/120 for free. 

Originally posted by Calintz333

Wow I was about to try this but after reading this it sounds like quite possibly the worse balance Iv ever seen from a free 2 play game. Instead of selling cosmetics, exp bonus items, Mounts, drop rate+ items or Upgrade components for weapons these guy  just skip all the BS and sell you game content. In a way I can see how that is good. Permanent content, its like paying for mini expansions which is really not to bad. Then again...Looking at it from the free 2 play prespective there is nothing worse a free 2 play game can do than restrict actual large sums of content until you pay. For that alone I would say this game should not be called a free 2 play game but more along the lines of permanent free trial. 

It's really to bad I wanted to try this game out but I do not want to feel like I HAVE to spend money. The way that the CS is described it seems like players have no choice but to Feel like they have to spend money. Il stick with Atlantica until this cash shop gets more realistic.  At least there I have reached 98/120 for free. 

Having played both DDO and Atlantica I can tell you in my opinion there is a very good reason Atlantica is free.

Originally posted by Mouls

What essential varies from people to people

some will be happy with some adventure packs other need all the content

What I''ve done is get some extra slots and classes/races, and the last thing I will be getting is the Shared Bank slot.  Then if I eventually subscribe, but then decide to go back to F2P at some point, I will have what I consider to be my essentials permanently.

As for Atlantica, I thought that was one of the shallowest games I've ever tried.  Probably not the worst, but I deleted the game within a couple of days and never went back to it.

Originally posted by Dibdabs

Originally posted by Mouls

What essential varies from people to people

some will be happy with some adventure packs other need all the content

What I''ve done is get some extra slots and classes/races, and the last thing I will be getting is the Shared Bank slot.  Then if I eventually subscribe, but then decide to go back to F2P at some point, I will have what I consider to be my essentials permanently.

As for Atlantica, I thought that was one of the shallowest games I've ever tried.  Probably not the worst, but I deleted the game within a couple of days and never went back to it.

Kinda funny how taste can differ from person to person when I first tried this game back in 04 I played it 2 days and quit. It felt like an offline game with lobby- mission - lobby- mission style game play. Hopefully they added some kind of open world by now. 

ok i have to post this about the sigils of leveling,

i have a small corp (guild) in eve online and we decided to join DDO for our bipedal fix and to also have something different to do. so we use it as our relax game when no serious in eve. we are all old school D&D pen/paper players and that is how we are playing that game. we usually play together when eve is slow, or when we all agree, hey lets run a dungeon.

that said

we are 6 playing DDO and every one of those 6 characters (some have 2) so i would say 8-10 characters ALL GOT the 4-8 sigil at a random quest at about 1/4-1/2 way to lvl 4. EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER got it as a reward from a random quest, (the pattern is hard or elite mode mostly, i got both of mine doing elite quests in the harbor, friend got both of his in hard mode in the marketplace)

its a great game for a second MMO, and hell we are thinking of getting an adventure pack together. and expensive? with points you get in game and 6,25$ you can get a few adventure, that contains 8 dungeons (each in 3 modes).

this is not your normal MMO, the point of WoW or Aion or anyother main stream MMO is to lvl up. the point of D&D is to play.

and cmon! when you play D&D pen and paper you go and pay for a new adventure book with soem dungeons in it?! why would it be different? for the online version?

seriously guys, the old school D&D players will understand how this game is PLAYED, the new school 13 year olds who play WoW and LOTRO or any other MMO out there. this is a different gameplay. this is a game that you play to do the dungeons, not to get xp and gear.

i payed 20 bucks, got 5 mods and with the rest of the money i got leveling sigils for my two mains up to lvl 8. The thing that i'm seeing is that Turbine is throwing out deals every weekend, usually for adventure packs and leveling sigils. So if you don't find the sigils, you can find them dirt cheap during the sales. So just look out for the deals when if you want to pay money for points.

Originally posted by Squal'Zell

ok i have to post this about the sigils of leveling,

i have a small corp (guild) in eve online and we decided to join DDO for our bipedal fix and to also have something different to do. so we use it as our relax game when no serious in eve. we are all old school D&D pen/paper players and that is how we are playing that game. we usually play together when eve is slow, or when we all agree, hey lets run a dungeon.

that said

we are 6 playing DDO and every one of those 6 characters (some have 2) so i would say 8-10 characters ALL GOT the 4-8 sigil at a random quest at about 1/4-1/2 way to lvl 4. EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER got it as a reward from a random quest, (the pattern is hard or elite mode mostly, i got both of mine doing elite quests in the harbor, friend got both of his in hard mode in the marketplace)

its a great game for a second MMO, and hell we are thinking of getting an adventure pack together. and expensive? with points you get in game and 6,25$ you can get a few adventure, that contains 8 dungeons (each in 3 modes).

this is not your normal MMO, the point of WoW or Aion or anyother main stream MMO is to lvl up. the point of D&D is to play.

and cmon! when you play D&D pen and paper you go and pay for a new adventure book with soem dungeons in it?! why would it be different? for the online version?

seriously guys, the old school D&D players will understand how this game is PLAYED, the new school 13 year olds who play WoW and LOTRO or any other MMO out there. this is a different gameplay. this is a game that you play to do the dungeons, not to get xp and gear.

Totally agree.  I have levelled 6 characters to around 7/8 and everyone of them found a sigil before they hit a wall.  

A small correction:  any appropriate level quest with random rewards can offer a sigil.    Difficulty does not affect quest rewards, only in-dungeon loot. 

So far, just by playing the game, I have earned enough points to buy a few adventure packs.  And by playing those, I can earn even more.   In theory, you could grind all the points you want and never have to spend a dime for content.

However, I am enjoying the game so much I bought some points to add to what I'd earned and bought several packs, and still have a lot of points left to spend.

This game has had many QoL improvements since launch and I'm having a blast playing it.

Originally posted by page

Still level 3, was unable to play the last few days.

How many got the "free level 5 sigil " yet,  and is it only for level 5 or 5-8, ?

And if it's only for level 5 how hard is 6 to get ?

 

I got the Copper Sigil (lvl 4 to 8) from a Stormreach quest about stopping a kobold invasion. The quest is to kill 200 kobolds and its troglodyte boss. Can be done solo, may be hard but use your head and you will manage.

A friend of mine got to level 9 without paying a dime, it took some time for him to find the 8-12 sigil, but now he's good to go for 4 more levels. Me, on the other hand, chose the vip option and I have to say that the content is far, far better. Bought it from lvl 4, I'm now 11 and I have to say that Gianthold and Sands of Menechturen are a blast to play.

After you get all the adventure packs, you don't have to pay for anything, unless you want to pay for the leveling sigils and pay for all the junk that you really don't need

In a sense we can all blame ourselves for this, that is allowing the industry to coin a term "F2P" when it's really "Transaction Based" in scope. The thing is we all know what "F2P" in a mmo stands for, so there is no reason to play stupid here and think that actually means "everything is free to everyone, forever". We all know this, the faster we stop kidding ourselves and try to make some type of point here that is isn't truly free, the sooner we start moving away from this stupid discussions about something we already know. The only person that should be learning anything here, is a complete noob on this subject and yest that can happen. So everyone complaining about "not true F2P"? You are all noobs to this?

.

If you like it a lot, imo do yourself the favor an buy a month at a time so you don't have to sweat the small stuff about "what should I do and get?". If you're still wondering if you like it I can understand a little dabbling with the store at first or stay free for as long as you can as you figure it out. If you don't like it, but still play it and want it all for free, then your an internet whiner.

.

If you can't afford it and are a kid, ask the parents what you can do for a few extra dollars, they'll be happy you asked. If you're an adult and can't afford it, you have bigger priorities.

.

If you really like this game, it will give you way more back then the $15 your giving.

Originally posted by pyr0mancer

A friend of mine got to level 9 without paying a dime, it took some time for him to find the 8-12 sigil, but now he's good to go for 4 more levels. Me, on the other hand, chose the vip option and I have to say that the content is far, far better. Bought it from lvl 4, I'm now 11 and I have to say that Gianthold and Sands of Menechturen are a blast to play.

Yeah as much as we see threads, "but this one and that one, those are the best adventures to buy". It's very very nice to just have all the content. There is a lot and when I play my goal is to play it all at least once and that means through elite so that could equal 3 times. The content is the game and that is the way it should always be for any of these games. I've played many times when I couldn't get more XP to stay at a certain level for a longer time. IMO this is more what gaming should be, fun and not a race to something in our minds that really doesn't exist.

.

I dream of LOTRO meets DDO some day. Wouldn't it be cool to have a wide open land, in the country you see a cave and it's as good as a killer DDO instance when you enter?. Do some country side killing and mining for that epic feel and community warmth. Come into town do your open mmo fare there, trade, craft, socialize etc, but also have several points in town that are like ddo quests. Like a warehouse that is under hostile control, gather a group and play a nicely thought out instance and not a generic mmo instance.

.

It's like these two have to combine to finally make a complete mmo. I haven't played any instances that are as neat as DDO's. Traps and fighting model are the reasons why. DDO still has to figure out random traps though to slow zerging because everything is known, I always felt every update they should tweak every quest to place enemies at different places and different enemies in some places, move a trap here or there. To me you would think with an editor you can do something like that in short order, where not talking building reworking. That would slow some parties down and once again raise the cool factor as all the quests keep freshness over a long period of time, I would really be looking forward to every module, we get some brand new stuff but everything you do know, just changed to some degree, so running it for the 10th time has something to look forward to.

I think the primary fail of the OP in determining the cost of DDO is in the assumption that players will be playing every day.

My main MMOG is EvE, which I also play for free using PLEX, but I also like to play plenty of other games. I have a gaming rig, PS3, PSP, and NDS. I don't have much time for MMOGs, so I don't want to pay $15 a month for something if I only play one day per weekend.

Turbine has created an excellent FtP model for someone like me, and it is working. Subscriptions are up 40% and they doubled all internal expectations! Meanwhile, they got FtP gamers like myself spreading the word to friends, some of whom will most likely buy content. I hope other MMOGs adopt this model.

Originally posted by Serpens_Sol

I think the primary fail of the OP in determining the cost of DDO is in the assumption that players will be playing every day.

My main MMOG is EvE, which I also play for free using PLEX, but I also like to play plenty of other games. I have a gaming rig, PS3, PSP, and NDS. I don't have much time for MMOGs, so I don't want to pay $15 a month for something if I only play one day per weekend.

Turbine has created an excellent FtP model for someone like me, and it is working. Subscriptions are up 40% and they doubled all internal expectations! Meanwhile, they got FtP gamers like myself spreading the word to friends, some of whom will most likely buy content. I hope other MMOGs adopt this model.

Yes Serpens_Sol,

Your right on my original post I assumed a lot, I'll give you that.  Please understand the date on that post was at the start of the FTP.  Given the information I had at the time.  The information is still 100 % valid, BUT and I stress BUT, many variables had been added to the mix, such as your point as its not your main game, and turbine is giving free stuff such as segles, and  package deals at lower cost, others are making the best out of finding things for free ( kind of like a mini game ).

In fact I must hand it to Turbine as their not as much monsters as I originally thought.  In fact they are somewhat not bad with this FTP, as most games would be, given the history of many MMO's as of late.

I still stand by what I say that this Post is needed to assist others of what the FTP is all about for DDO !! 

Me....Well I have to say that I'm off playing other MMO's because this time around I did not experience the fun I had back when I first played.  It Just seemed that every dungeon was rushed by the experience players ,and the enjoyment and mystery was not their this time around.  I have to add that I did not give it much chance as I only got to level 4 and stopped, and I could be just getting some mmo burnout.  But the game is well built, and would suggest to others to give it a chance.

So have fun, it's a good game :)