Dungeons & Dragons Online and The Chronicles of Spellborn are both premium MMOs that have opened their games to allow people to play for free. DDO's servers are absolutely bustling with people, probably more people playing now than at any time in the game's history. TCoS, on the other hand, is a ghost town.

Why the dramatic difference? I know TCoS is in "redevelopment", but there's still a whole lot of content there for new folks. Not to mention you can access ALL of the content, unlike DDO where you'll have to pay for adventure packs after the free stuff runs dry.

So what is it that DDO is doing right that TCoS is doing wrong? And once the TCoS redevelopment is complete, will we see a huge upswing in the player base?

Acclaim isn't gonna update the game at all and prolly provide no service and all our characters would be deleted when new game kicks in, plus from what i saw from forums it seems like alot of things are broke so might aswell wait for redevelopment.

Lets face it DDO is much much better game.

I have and play both.

Spellborn is very original game that had lot of potential. Problem is - the game is very grindy. Lot of fetch quests. Lot of run there and back (when there is no mounts of any sort). So you really need lot of patience

On other hand DDO is pure blast to play, and people are won over the minute they come in.

DDOs only problem before (and i said it on launch day) is that its not really a subscription game.

F2P model fits it like a glove, and people are enjoying it now

Easy to make a prediction:

Ad&D will have more players in 6 months time than Aion.

I expect it to score better than RoM. They can go up to EVE number of players (say 300k).

Free to play proof:  It shows the number of players is X5 at least for a good game when going FTP.

That would also mean GW would loose X5 its player base if it would have subscriptions.

Originally posted by vickies

Easy to make a prediction:

Ad&D will have more players in 6 months time than Aion.

I expect it to score better than RoM. They can go up to EVE number of players (say 300k).

Free to play proof:  It shows the number of players is X5 at least for a good game when going FTP.

That would also mean GW would loose X5 its player base if it would have subscriptions.

wtf?

Originally posted by aesperus

Originally posted by vickies

Easy to make a prediction:

Ad&D will have more players in 6 months time than Aion.

I expect it to score better than RoM. They can go up to EVE number of players (say 300k).

Free to play proof:  It shows the number of players is X5 at least for a good game when going FTP.

That would also mean GW would loose X5 its player base if it would have subscriptions.

wtf?

It is quite obvious, Blizzard will have far more competition on the log run from these "good" games that have no subscriptions than from standard sub based mmo's.
 

The single sub based mmo's will be a thing of the past in 2 years time. These days they get published, they florish for 3 months and then die a slow and painful death with empty servers and people leaving faster than you can type the word subscription.

Expect bundles and FTP offers, even in Blizzard quality games.

AdD on line skyrocketed through the charts on Xfire and passed Aoc, War, Aion beta in a flash within 3 days of going free.

See for yourself.

Originally posted by vickies

Originally posted by aesperus

Originally posted by vickies

Easy to make a prediction:

Ad&D will have more players in 6 months time than Aion.

I expect it to score better than RoM. They can go up to EVE number of players (say 300k).

Free to play proof:  It shows the number of players is X5 at least for a good game when going FTP.

That would also mean GW would loose X5 its player base if it would have subscriptions.

wtf?

It is quite obvious, Blizzard will have far more competition on the log run from these "good" games that have no subscriptions than from standard sub based mmo's.
 

The single sub based mmo's will be a thing of the past in 2 years time.

Expect bundles and FTP offers, even in Blizzard quality games.

AdD on line skyrocketed through the charts on Xfire and passed Aoc, War, Aion beta in a flash within 3 days of going free.

See for yourself.

Few issues with your assumptions.

1. Limited access. Aion has limited access currently, while DDO is free to play. You cant really judge aion atm till post launch. As for WAR and AoC... yeah DDO probably does have more players ATM active in game but less subscribers total.
2. Major media push. Currently DDO is advertising their butts off trying to get folks in, this has the effect of spiking play time artificially as people try the game out for the first time, or again cause its free. In 3 weeks, if folks are still playing, then you may have a leg to stand on
3. Major change to the game. Anytime a P2P game goes F2P you are going to see a spike in players. Lots of people want to try a game, but arent quite willing to try it if it costs them money. With no fees, the barriers to entry are gone, thus more people try it, but this doesnt mean staying power
4. Finally, its the week before a major comercial release, Aion. Lots of players are killing time atm waiting for the servers to open up, and a game that costs them nothing is a good place to hang

Give it 2 weeks. If things still look good, then DDO may be back in the running for AAA status.

As for TCOS the reason DDO is doing well and TCOS isnt, is simple...funding and development. DDO is marketing their butts off, adding new things, and changing things up. TCOS... was a small dev company, that shot themselves in the foot with badly manged regional restrictions and ip blocks that pretty much killed release. Not to mention it was a bit of a unique idea, but they sold it at 50.00 with the standard fee.

They didnt have the funds like turbine does. Thats all there is to it.

aside from the games being almost completely different

DnD had (still does) a solid community that wont readily abandon the game.   TCos did not...

Dont get it wrong. TCOS is a good game. But DDO is awesome game...

Its easily more fun to play than most of MMOs out there. Action based combat, real complex multiclassing, and single player quality quests + 100% oriented at grouping (opposed from all else being solo oriented)

Only reason it was not as popular at launch , was that being 100% instance based , it couldnt really justify subscription.

F2P model is perfect for this game. And you will see player numbers skyrocket.

And very much establish a fact that 1 model subscription MMOs are things of the past

Well they did all right with the cash shop thing, everything in the cash shop you can get without paying a dime, it just takes more time to get. and its a model thats not built on pvp.

Other cash shop games use weapons and armor and give a huge boost to people that are willing to pay for it, when it comes to the most competitive part of the game. or they have built in limitations forcing you to pay for something be it storage or skill books to keep progressing further in your career, or game life.

These are all bad.

There should never ever be any item in a cash shop that could give you a competitive edge in  pvp at all be it potions recharge items, weapons items  or buffs. That  has always been the most holy part of the game  for a competitive gamer. For me when i see any of these type of items i close the website and forget about the game.

Cash shop items should only help you along the path to an end game such as pvp, not WIN at pvp.

For the first time i will praise a cash shop f2p game. But i think it can be said, its praise is limited because of its lack of features that would call for a bit more,  jaded view.

Originally posted by Lobotomist

And very much establish a fact that 1 model subscription MMOs are things of the past

And with it RPG in mmorpg will be a thing of the past, but we will see.

DDO has a pre exisiting player base which could come back, a bigger name and looks more likely not to fold. CoSb had some nice ideas. the combat was supposed to be quite innovative and one reviewer here rated the graphics as having a unique feel. But MMO's are a dog eat dog world and CoSb could not hold its own which is a shame.

Originally posted by Delanor

Originally posted by Lobotomist

And very much establish a fact that 1 model subscription MMOs are things of the past

 

And with it RPG in mmorpg will be a thing of the past, but we will see.

What does buisness model have to do with how RPGish a game is? There is not much RPG in WoW but it has a monthly subscription only :/

@OP I think Turbine have done the right thing at the right time. Some PvPers will go to Aion but the PvEers want something new.

And with new I mean something different, and DDO is different.

I think alot of people are looking for a game with more depth and complexity, more focused on grouping instead of soloing, with fast/twitch combat, and a buisness model where the player can choose how to pay and play instead of being stuck with only $15/month.

It will be interesting to see what happens to Tcos if/when they re-release it. Right now its just in Limbo so people stay away from it.

Originally posted by vickies

It is quite obvious, Blizzard will have far more competition on the log run from these "good" games that have no subscriptions than from standard sub based mmo's.
 

The single sub based mmo's will be a thing of the past in 2 years time. These days they get published, they florish for 3 months and then die a slow and painful death with empty servers and people leaving faster than you can type the word subscription.

Expect bundles and FTP offers, even in Blizzard quality games.

AdD on line skyrocketed through the charts on Xfire and passed Aoc, War, Aion beta in a flash within 3 days of going free.

See for yourself.

I think you are right, the single subscription option model will probably become a thing of the past. If you can give people options such as paying a subscription fee OR allowing them to only pay for the content they want (but play for free), then I think you'll have a winner. The players who blaze through content will most likely get more for their dollar paying a monthly fee, while the more casual slow-paced players can just pick up a module every once in a while. Turbine was very smart to keep the subscription option available when they went F2P with the game, IMO.