Originally posted by Sarr

Ah, do you people know a thing about Free to Play MMOs? Do you really think there are MMO games which are 100% free?

No, there's none. And there won't be any. But "Free to Play" is an accurate term - it means just that: you are able to play for free. Get used to it, it's not like developers depend on charity or donations for their hard, daily and past-time work.

And when it comes to being "free", DDO does it best - it's actually the only F2P MMO in which playing 100% for free is possible at all. On our portal we're even organizing events which help people earn Turbine Points for free on, all servers.

You make a point these carping critics should take to heart - no commercial undertaking is truly entirely free. They've got to sell you gPotatoes, or expansion packs, or gear, or ads, or something.

Borror0 suggested the term "Freemium" - used in other similar settings - to describe DDO and other free-to-play-some-of games.  That said, DDO is free in a sense that Warhammer and Champions On-Line are not.. you CAN earn enough store points and loot enough level sigils to play the entire game for free - it is mathematically possible, and there is no free player level cap.  

I'm thrilled to see MMORPG acknowledge the quality of the game and leap Turbine has taken in turning it into a free/premium/subscriber game. This is the model the rest of the MMO industry will have to follow eventually to survive. It sure is nice that our hidden gem of a game was first out the gate, and that the change has gotten it the players it deserved.

Those of you dismissing it in this forum need to come try it for a few weeks. You have nothing to lose and you might have a lot of fun.. so long as you don't insist on yet another WOW clone.

Originally posted by Dr.Rock

Originally posted by jaxsundane

I gave DDO a second look after it went F2P after trying it at launch and not playing for more than two days.  Upon my return I liked the game enough to actually sub but somewhere around level 3-5 it really started to lose me.  One thing I don't like is the utter imbalance of classes, it is simply far too easy to access content with say a paladin while impossible to do the same quest with a wizard even 2 levels higher.

Basically I prefer to solo and I like variety and if I wanted to play a wizard in this game it is just near impossible to solo.  Then I got into the STO beta and realized that I had more fun in an unpolished beta than I was having in DDO and cancelled my pay sub.  It is fun for the f2p but I just can't see it as worth paying for.

If it helps the balance can swing the other way as you get to higher levels. Not unknown for Sorc/Wizard to solo raids.

Class balance is what it is because of the source material. I say more power to Turbine for sticking as close to PnP classes as they have. Anyway, it is very hard to solo on an arcane caster at low levels, but in some high level content you'll be FAR more valuable. What's more you can use stealth, charms, and the like to run low level content without getting your hands dirty. 

 Same here - I'd stuck with 1st edition until I started playing DDO. I like 3.5 a lot.. I might do Pathfinder, but not 4E.

 The other public zones are of the same nature as Stormreach - locations for mailboxes, taverns, etc and access to sets of quests.

Zawabi's Refuge in the Desert

The Gianthold in the ruins of the Gianthold

Meridia in the Vale of Twlight

Reaver's Refuge in the Reaver's Reach

etc.

There's no place in the game to fight monsters in a public zone.

Originally posted by Rokurgepta

Sorry but DDO was not growing since launch. It has grown greatly since the F2P launch, but since 2006 the game steadily got smaller. Turbine did not do enough to make the game ready for the MMO market, the world was plenty ready for a great MMO, DDO was not that game then.
 

Between launch and DDOU we received eight major content updates and the level cap went from 10 to 16. That's about half the quests in the game, all the public zones outside town and nearly all the quests outside Stormreach. How is that smaller?

Originally posted by Lord.Bachus

Combat is fun, and the world feels like a true fantasy world, all this fun makes me wonder why this game failed in the first place. The Dungeon adventures with sproken (GM like) hints tell a story of them selves. I still have no clue what this world expects from me, everyone wants something from me... but its far from Epic...But then this may change soon.

It will indeed get epic soon. I have to comment that the game didn't fail - it wasn't the massive hit they were expecting before launch, but it has been growing ever since and always had a loyal core of subscribers. As for the trouble it had at alunch.. everything outside of Stormreach was added after that.. and I think it is as simple as that in 2006 the world wasn't ready for an instanced, group-focused game.

Originally posted by rgviza

Running waterworks with a group (outside of how you get the quest) is _identical_ to what it was on launch day.

Actually, thiss isn't quite true.. they just changed how you Free Arlos. Now you have to shepherd him back to the entrance like Threnal West 2. :)

Originally posted by Chr1sc

 Your reveiw lacks some realisum.

A five word post with two typos and no point.

Good review. I'm on Thelanis and haven't seen much anti-newbie animosity in-game, but I certainly have seen some on the forums. I imagine it will all settle down soon enough.

I hadn't heard about the 4chan incursion. I'll have to bug some folks on Khyber for details. :)

Originally posted by Czanrei

 

I was all for listening to your input on the game changes until you called my statement about my character being turned to lvl 1 a lie. You have no means of remotely being able to make such a flame and I suggest you rethink further posts. I know what level my character was and is now, regardless of your opinion.

 One: I never called you a liar. I said you were wrong. Two: if your character really was de-levelled, it would be the ONLY ONE on all the servers. But that is irrelevant; nobody changed the level of your character. I haven't flamed you yet, and wont if you behave yourself, so mind your manners.

Now, on to why you might have made this mistake: Each server is a separate world, so perhaps you were confused about the characters you had in beta on Lamannia, or if these are old characters, perhaps you've failed to look at the correct server that your character was merged unto.

Originally posted by Czanrei

Yeah, I am glad Turbine decided to use the F2P model but they went too far by restricting character leveling and unless that player wanted to advance in level every 4 levels, they had to either find special sigils in dungeons or buy them from the shop. ANYTIME, another player is given an advantage over another player in advancing levels only because that player has more money to burn, is WRONG. Not to mention, my character used to be lvl 10 before the F2P change and now they reduced him to lvl 1. I won't be playing DDO anymore unfortunately just so they can get greedy.

Which is too bad because I have played pnp D&D for 20 yrs this november and was looking forward to a modern approach to playing it again.

F2P players tell me the sigils are not too hard to find. I don't think this is much of an issue; Robi and other players have done the math to show you can buy the sigils and contents you need to get to the endgame solely on the favor you generate in the game.. IF you choose to grind. Obviously Turbine wants spending money to be relatively tempting, and as they aren't running a charity..

You also say "my character used to be lvl 10 before the F2P change and now they reduced him to lvl 1" and this statement is simply false.

 Dave08 is right that there isn't much PVP. That said DDO:U is launchign with a challenge system, and there is both brawling and team games. Not a lot of people play 'em though.

He is wrong, however about 32 point characters. The difference is so small that you can not tell whether a given char is 28 or 32pt. We're talking at most 2 points in a major class stat. What's more, you will have favor for drow, who are 32pt builds within a week or two, so why sweat it?

Originally posted by Nadia

Originally posted by AgtSmith

  This is not about making DDO any more or less succesful, that train has left the station, this is how to build and test an RMT infrastructure in terms of the technologies and the configuration for OTHER projects (likely LotRO and/or The Harry Potter MMO and possibly/probably relatated to the xBox port they are working on).

I agree - they have said as much too

www.tentonhammer.com/node/69569

Ten Ton Hammer: Obviously you’re switching to a F2P game because you believe that you can make more money in this sort of business model than you could with a straight subscription plan. Why did you think that was the case?

Fernando: Absolutely this is a learning experience for Turbine for the future.

This doesn’t necessarily mean anything for LOTRO or Asheron’s Call. But as a company, absolutely we’re learning from what we do in this project and how to apply it in the future.

 

 

Yes, read that article (and others like it) and reached a similar conclusion - sure, the upper management at Turbine would like DDO to become a success through this, but they aren't focused on that. They want a track record with RMT, and they have nothing to lose - they think - by putting it in DDO.

That said, DDO to me is the best twitch combat MMO, hands down, and given a shot (relaunch, marketing, good buzz) could develop a larger following. They needed a big shakeup to have any chance for that, and F2P fits the bill.

Smith and Roku, you are conflating two separate things (and he's piling ad hominem attacks on me while he's at it). Let's recap.

Question 1: AgtSmith said that Mod 9 did not exist. As a simple question as to whether the code was written and was ready for release, his statement is verifiably false.

Question 2: Did Turbine ever intend to release it before "EU?" Did Turbine screw its existing customers along the way? Who knows on the former - can't be proved. I'd say yes on the latter - they had no business suspending the release of new content during the wait for the "EU" announcement.

Also, Smith, maybe it would be catharrtic if you told us what your animosity towards this game is all about.  You clearly have something on your back -- beyond whether the game is good or bad. Why is this so personal for you?

Originally posted by AgtSmith

There never was a MOD 9, it was simply a ploy to buy time.  As for the devil in teh details on the RMT, it is allready obvious it will be game breaking as the IGN preview clearly states that you will be able to RMT a rez, or other supplies, in dungeon to avoid a wipe or failure that forces you to exit and re-enter.  This alone is the worst type of RMT and if there is ever any further development to this game (which I doubt there will be) you can rest assured it will go as most RMT games go with changes to encourage the RMT transactions.

Some things are opinions, and some things are facts. It is a fact that you are wrong about Module 9. I can only repeat that I saw Module 9 on the old preview server (the one that was taken down in April). It exists and in fact seemed ready for release then. As the bugs were no more extreme than in past released modules.

The new beta is under an NDA, so we'll have to wait for Turbine to release more details about the micropayment store.

Originally posted by SwampRob

To AgtSmith:  Seriously, lay off the DOOM pills.   Geez, every post of yours....

The thing is, the game is going to be free!   I am certainly going to give it a try, and encourage others to do so.   I've nothing to lose by giving it a shot and making my own decisions.   Will it hook me or others?   That remains to be seen.   But AgtSmith's whole purpose seems to be "It's Dead!  Don't go near it!  Don't touch it!"      

Why the hell not?

His grievance certainly seems personal. Very strange.

Originally posted by levsix

What happens if I already have 8 high level characters and log in to play for free? Do they get locked? 

I don't know, as long as subscribing gives you all that you currently get, for paying, that is fine. The point system is crap for old subscribers. Many of us ran this content to get favor in the first place. You can NOT get points/favor by running the content again but someone who is new is obviously at a great advantage for earning points. Wow, let's run this quest for the 3294239043209th time!

They announced last year they would not go microtransaction on DDO yet they just announced that they have been working on it for a year. This game has many GREAT aspects but I have never been a fan of Turbine or their lack of transparency (honesty).

 

From what I understand you will be able to choose which two characters to unlock, and buy additional character slots with a one time charge.

There's a beta, but it is only open to us so-called "VIPs." Have you ever been to a VIP lounge where they refuse to serve you any drinks? That's what being a VIP feels like in a Turbine game.

My bottom line: this is a hail mary to keep the game populated and profitable. It could be worth it for us legacy playesr if it brings more notice to the game, and thus bring more resources to the game. Or what we have plus the five areas in Mod 9 could be it.. in which case I could turn into a Free to Not Play player before the the year is out.

Welcome to the 'Asian Model.'

I find it bizarre that they held back Mod 9 for this re-launch. On the other hand, if it works, it could mean they put more effort development for this old game of mine. I don't like the idea of buying an in-game advantage with money, but the devil is in the details.

Silver lining for me is that my daughter can have her own account - she's six, loves the game, but all she ever wants to do is jump around the Marketplace. Uh.. thanks Turbine.

Originally posted by AgtSmith

Uh oh, I said MOD 9 was vaporware a couple months ago and my ass is still smoldering from the flames.  You better watch out now (even though MOD 9 is clearly waporware as is the while whisper campaign about somethign great just around the corner BS that has been stringing folks along in that game for quite some time).

Mod 9 was partially released to the Preview Server in April.  The new quests were locked for the preview, but they were briefly unlocked (possibly by mistake?) and other players entered the new quests. So, complete, incomplete, god knows what it is, it in't just vapor.