Originally posted by codejack

Originally posted by Dr.Rock

Originally posted by Guillermo197

And oh.... good luck with the F2P crowd coming in. If you think WoW had a bad and immature community. Watch these F2P guys coming into your game ;)

 

I think the fact you actually have to interact with other people in DDO to do the content, rather than just run around solo doing noddy quests, should weed out most of those that have no social skills.

Really? Well, it hasn't worked so far :p

I take it you are still playing then, I have corrected my post.

Originally posted by Taram

I know that I, for one, will be returning to DDO to enjoy the free content and there's a good chance I may purchase 1 or 2 of the optional components as well. 

Those optional adventure packs have got to be a hit, if only for the I have to know whats beyond that door frustration factor. I predict Gianthold as the top seller.

Originally posted by Lydon

Originally posted by Buckarama

I guess my point is they took two of the biggest names in fantasy and turned them into crap. They had two cash cows and they failed to deliver any kind of quality to either title.

 

I can go on and on withwhat I think is wrong with D&D online - but lets just say that most agree that the game lacks something, hence the subs or lack there of.

 

How do you screw up D&D ? You can do anything!

If you think LotRO lacks quality, you've clearly played very very little of what is on the market. I may not have specifically fallen in love with LotRO, but one thing I can't deny is that what was they've delivered is a finished, polished product and have kept churning out content in such a state since its release.

How much do I need to play? I played all through beta and wouldn't buy the the game - you can now what? get the original and Mines for like 10 bucks? Sounds like quality to me -

Think Turbine is doing a masterful job at price point Marketing. This Economy is tough, Turbine is able to bring the packages to a price that people can pay to enjoy mmo content. I think it is awesome :D

Originally posted by Buckarama 

I told them way back in beta it's never going to work, but what do I know. Oh that's right they are now F2P
Tells you how well they know their customers, now the D&D elitist are going to run over by immature trailer park brats with no money to keep themselves busy in their “store” so they will go around ganking people and making life miserable for everyone that’s left.
  

How do you gank people in DDO?

What if its been a thousand years since I played but it was only a trial account and I never came back, but I might have a Warforged Bard character still sitting in its character slot? Will I still be able to play it even though I've never paid one penny to play t he game ever?

Good question, eh? Maybe not. :D

Originally posted by Guillermo197

Originally posted by JYCowboy

So it begins!!

First Free Realms proves that a F2P can gain good market share.

Now P2P MMOs are converting to F2P with DDO being the first AAA game to start.

Watch folks, other will follow.

 

Sorry tho,

But that is nonsense. F2P MMO's are only succesful when they are designed and developed with F2P in mind!

And to be honest. DDO has never been a AAA title in my opinion. It was failure right of the bat in the way they designed the whole game.

It was way too thin in content and way too small of a gameworld when it launched. And still is.

Except for some nice designed dungeons (in wich credit is where credit is due), the rest of the game had no immersion whatsoever!

It was one loading screen after the other! Absolutely horrible. And the MAIN reason the flopped the moment it released.

Me and many other people who were in Closed Beta saw it coming. Hence the reason we never bought the game!

Cheers

Your explaination of DDO being designed for F2P might stand.  However, if you observe the market in MMO's what do you see?  All AAA game are trying to capture a broad segment of the general casual market.  All of them.  How many have succeded?  What type of MMO (F2P or P2P) is actually gaining significate accounts over 300k?  Unlike you, a MMO savvy and a dedicated (possibly hardcore) player, the casual player will gravitate to good reviews, high popularity games that others are joining.  Notice I didn't say fun or innovative.  The majority of people think of MMO's like brands.  You say cola and many will think Coke Cola and not RC Cola.  Its the same association with WOW.  The majority think to play an MMO, they will only think WOW.  That vaccious suction of attention hinders other MMO's to compete.  Hand out FREE samples and soon your building a customer base to compete.  The non-Blizzard companies are using this to finally break Blizz's hold on the market.  Failing MMO's who have a dedicated player base (like DDO) know this or will eventually yeild to the market, improve the quality of thier games or get out.

But your right I only write nonsense to your macro understanding of why DDO is going F2P.

Originally posted by Deewe

Honestly Trubine just made some kind of NGE.

 

It's a bit less worse than SoE, still not only they didn't communicated with their customers base but also didn't deliver mod 9 after what 8 months of waiting?

 

Top of that they can't even publish a nice FAQ answering vet questions like: how about my drow slot?

 

And if it wasn't enough they threaten actual players not to cancell their subscription or they won't be able to renew it before the new stuff.

 

Well guess Sir Smedley is laughing hard by now.

 

 

 

Out of the mouth of babes spews nonsense.  Hardly effects current subscribers, they are not changing the game.

Personally I think this is a briliant move by Turbine.  Some games fit the f2p model well,  DDO was not doing well as a subscription game.

Originally posted by Bleakmage

What if its been a thousand years since I played but it was only a trial account and I never came back, but I might have a Warforged Bard character still sitting in its character slot? Will I still be able to play it even though I've never paid one penny to play t he game ever?

Good question, eh? Maybe not. :D

Warforged would not be available to you so the character would be locked. The current guesswork (and it is no more than that) is unlocking Warforged would cost you in the region of $4.50 and then you can play the F2P content.

Awesome news! After reading the news and the marketing campaign I think they'll finally reach the remaining long lost society of the D&D players scattered around the globe to, at least, try this one!

I guess this will be good news for some but for me they blew the feel of D&D for me when they made it all instanced. Way back when I played Pnp even if we had an adventure prepared for us we could still go off exploring and the Dm would just go with it.

 Article is incorrect.

Please update the article.

DDO will be free in AMERICA only.

European version will remain pay to play, and have none of this updates at this current time.

Originally posted by Ozmodan

Hardly effects current subscribers, they are not changing the game.

adding a cash shop does change the game for existing subscribers

to many it may make no difference

but some players do not like RMT being added to pre-existing games

Originally posted by Kitsunami

 Article is incorrect.

Please update the article.

DDO will be free in AMERICA only.

European version will remain pay to play, and have none of this updates at this current time.

 

 

Well that trully sucks then.

www.ddo-europe.com/index.php

As the (american) Beta progresses we will release more information regarding the future plans for EU players.

the link has the full Europe statement

Originally posted by karat76

I guess this will be good news for some but for me they blew the feel of D&D for me when they made it all instanced. Way back when I played Pnp even if we had an adventure prepared for us we could still go off exploring and the Dm would just go with it.

They added some free-to-roam areas.  Someone could also go into one of the instanced outside areas and mess around if they want.  And, sure, a human DM can go with it, but a programmed computer can't.  My PnP sessions nowadays are somewhat "convention stye," where, yeah, we can go explore if we want, but it's not going to be nearly as interesting because that's not part of the module.

And that's how DDO seems to me.  You're in the "area" of the main quest, and if you want to go off and do whatever in that area, no problem, and maybe some of those things would be side quests, but they're not the main reason you're there.  In my PnP playing, we also never ran into another PnP group, so PnP feels instanced anyway.

Originally posted by TheFranchise

Originally posted by karat76

I guess this will be good news for some but for me they blew the feel of D&D for me when they made it all instanced. Way back when I played Pnp even if we had an adventure prepared for us we could still go off exploring and the Dm would just go with it.

 

They added some free-to-roam areas.  Someone could also go into one of the instanced outside areas and mess around if they want.  And, sure, a human DM can go with it, but a programmed computer can't.  My PnP sessions nowadays are somewhat "convention stye," where, yeah, we can go explore if we want, but it's not going to be nearly as interesting because that's not part of the module.

 

And that's how DDO seems to me.  You're in the "area" of the main quest, and if you want to go off and do whatever in that area, no problem, and maybe some of those things would be side quests, but they're not the main reason you're there.  In my PnP playing, we also never ran into another PnP group, so PnP feels instanced anyway.

Good point that, I never remember running in to another PnP group while playing either, I only remember NPCs created by the DM. 100s of people would probably have not worked well in a PnP session, in fact they don't really work well with any PvE content of any depth in a MMO either.

I think this is freakin' great!  I hope it doesn't hurt the game much (or preferrably at all).  I'm excited for the new changes.

I must also say that it amuses the heck out of me that so many subscribers are like "So, what you're saying is that if I stop giving Turbine my $15 a month, I lose some benefits?" No kidding! Of course you do! You can keep paying your $15 a month like you already are, and get more than you are now, or you can stop and pay for just the features you want (sure, you already "earned" your drow because you pay a subscription fee, so when that stops you should keep it why? Pay a one-time fee to unlock the drow [a fee which is likely cheaper than a one month's sub], and never pay again.)

HAW T HAWT HAWT