http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/12/13/on-the-first-day-of-giveaways-turbine-gave-to-me/

*vote, sorry

I vode D&D Online - too bad it's not on the list. This game changed MMO market once and for all and was very significantly improved. This MMO is still showing new ways of how MMO games could be approached and developed, and is more and more successful it seems.

The best Update to D&D Online ever! And lots of free stuff, new quests, areas, additional low-level raid. Good job Turbine.

And, as most people outside of the game probably don't know - Turbine launches (with some trouble at the moment) even which makes DDO an open-world experience! There are respawns and anyone can enter the area and see solo players or other parties.

It may be "only" an even on Delera's Graveyard, but I'm sure Turbine wants to test it out for a reason. Just imagine what if all explorable areas were public open-world instances. That could be really interesting, mixing DDO's outstading instances with open-world wilderness travel, where anything can happen (random encounters?). That could be even more D&Dish than it was!

DDO is now one of the most popular MMO games ever. Wake up, it's that way for strong and good reasons. Just check it out with some parties.

Originally posted by EveJunkie

I played in beta and early release but I left due to the lack of content back then. I've just come back to the game again to see how the free play system has worked out for the game and I must say its revitaliased the game. Theres obviously years of updates since I left so theres loads more to do but the best bit is the player activity levels, its easy to find groups and make friends now!

Guild achevements are a nice addition to the game. With all the fresh money theyre making now I hope they plough some into updating the UI a bit, its still functional but getting a bit long in the tooth.

 

Agreed.

Once again - most of you people don't know a thing about DDO's F2P system. That's totall and utter bullshit I read here, honestly. You obviously don't even know what you're talking about. No need to even discuss with you, 'cause you lack knowledge you pretend you have. Go troll somewhere else.

As I posted on Massively.com: Trust me, this adventure pack will blow your minds. Really RPG-ish, very D&D-ish quests.

At least one of the quests has 4 different endings (or more?), and other allow you to take different approaches, permanently changing the quest flow : ).

DDO starts to get totally outstanding quests. No other MMO has this kind of quality - dialogs in this quest pack are of Baldur's Gate quality.

You people are hopeless. I 100% support Richard Aihoshi's very unpopular, but truely valid opinion.

But the best thing is that soon there will be less and less of you. And in the end you'll be the ones which are "hard to understand" and support. Mark my words, you're going to be a minority sooner than you expect. And you didn't and still don't have to.

Originally posted by Tardcore

Thank you for an excellent article, Jamie! It is refreshing to see someone look at this situation with logic and objectivity without feeling the need to be a condescending jackass, as I feel some other writers have done this week.

Yes, please don't get me wrong people - I appreciate it too.

I love what's going on with DDO... now. But yes, I'm very careful. I know _now_ it's benefitting me. But you know how democracy works - just look what happened to music...

I'm a musician and I know that this shitty music great music companies are offering now is a result of _democracy_ = maximizing income.

If the same happens to DDO, and it doesn't happen in any "bad" way now (imho), then I'll start to worry. But I'm sure some companies will serve us "fast food", and others, more niche ones, will offer us quality. Now I will stand by my opinion - Turbine offers loads of quality and continues to do so, so there' s no reason to worry... yet.

Originally posted by caine6621

From what I read, its a trial, not F2P........have to admit I am getting really tired of mmo companies and their BS and lies

Please, try DDO and you'll see you're wrong . You earn Turbine Points by playing.

Originally posted by Ceridith

Yes I have read it, and RMT is RMT is RMT no matter how you try to package it.

The fallacy of the LOTRO scenario is that future content will be designed to 'strongly encourage' players to cough up more money, even if they're already paying a subscription. Notice that paying subscribers get an allotment of turbine points every month to "buy" things from the store? That's still RMT.

Not to mention the overall quality of an MMO drops when it has a free option... but that's just a whole new can of worms.

Well, DDO's quality went up very fast, and as I am previewer of new content before it hits like servers, I know that each and every update seems better, richer and more D&Dish. Example is Update 5 - new guild system and realy Roleplaying-type quests.

Yes, I am roleplayer, I really like quality before quantity and trust me, DDO after re-launch started to give me much better experience, better suited to my needs.

If you not us RMT, you don't need to bother with it. If you subcribe you get Turbine Points "in the pack", and so you really never need to buy more if you'd like to use it.

Really people, play to this 10th - 15th level in DDO and I'm sure you'll be relieved to see that quality only got better and that WE choose what we want to see developed next. Like never before.

Important: Some people like ot complain that DDO gets "dumber", when it just gets more accesible to people who don't know D&D rules at all. Some people like to complain that DDO gets "easier", yet their biggest complain about newest Update 5 is that it nerfs most of the game - so, makes the whole game harder...

Yes, it's really that way. People very often see what they want to see, basing on their emotions. They don't see what there really is, if they don't want to see it.

Originally posted by Ceridith

Thank you for the extremely relevant article, it sums up my feelings and concerns quite well.

I have no problem with F2P games existing, they're simply just not for me. The concept of RMT is just a huge turn off to me as it invalidates a game's enjoyment for me.

I'm greatly concerned with the growing movement towards "F2P" style, particularly through forced RMT into games that already have a solid revenue stream -- subscriptions. In a F2P game RMT makes sense, because the developer needs to make money soemhow. For subscriptions on the other hand, I'm already paying them, so why should I have to pay them again for extra bits? If I'm going to pay a subscription I want access to the whole game, not bits of it.

Claiming that RMT and F2P is the future is a fallacy. The industry does not dictate what the market adopts, the consumers do. The industry can only offer us choices, but ultimately, we the consumers make the choice of what we do and do not want to put our money into.

If this trend continues, I can see myself moving away from MMO gaming. I would rather play no MMO than one riddled with RMT, because such an MMO isn't enjoyable for me.

Hmm. But are you sure you understand the Turbine's model correctly?

There's no forcing to RMT. You can have a subscription exactly like before, well, you get even more because of the additional "re-launch development".

And it's very popular indeed. It said that there's much more... subscriptions (sic!) in DDO than ever.

Turbine's model gives you the choice:

1. Play normally on subscription, just like before.

2. Go into "Premium model" - where you buy content as you progress, and if you hear some adventure/area isn't worth buying, you don't buy it ever.

3. Go into "Free" model, where time and effort you send in game gives you Turbine Points, for which you'd need to pay otherwise.

All those kinds of players coexist in DDO and as of yet - imho most of us benefit from it. Surely, DDO has got a major reinvestment and new revenue from players. Just wait to see Update 5 - quests are nothing short of genius.

PS: Update 5 quests for DDO are really RPG like, at least one of them has multiple endings. We've found 4 different endings (on test/preview server) to date.

Another writer, who never played Dungeons & Dragons Online I guess. Age of Conan cannot even compare to DDO's combat, so if you seek innovation, look there ; ).

Originally posted by Lobotomist

Originally posted by Vyava

Originally posted by Lobotomist

I wish all game (thats right not only MMO) companies would be as much in touch with their playerbase as Turbine.

Community didnt like the feature, no problem. They remove it another day ... no questions asked.

 

While the response was prompt the situation should never have happened. before implementing an offer wall some due diligence should have happened. There should have been more research into the offers out of respect to the customers as well as protecting Turbine's image.

Someone at Turbine dropped the ball big time.

Its really hard to predict how mmo community will behave.

The deal Turbine gave is well known thing and many other services give it. Even company i work at has such deal instead of subscription (if you want it)

Its completely optional. And actually i am real sad they removed it from DDO.

I rather fill out some survey and subscribe to some e-magazines and get free points, than have to pay for them.

I agree with you completely. Nothing to add, just voicing my opinion against that black-hype, or rather overreaction that occured.

So as usual - people (fans of the game) overreacted. Period.

Good day.

Hello Scott!

Very entertaining article, and I must say I'd LOVE to see another isometric game, which - with help of some 3D graphics - continues this spirit of exploring in the snow.

But have you played Dungeons & Dragons Online? I guess that's the only game where you WILL find questing, and see that it's done VERY differently.

I mean, Warhammer Online and Vanguard isn't even 1/10 of what Turbine has done with the quests in DDO. Those are really, and I mean REALLY varied as you make your way up to the level 20 (each divided into 5 ranks). And I guess there's more exploring, uphil, in the snow in DDO's quests than in any other MMO that features questing at all.

So, D&D Online has probably much more key words, and adds to that very frequent optional objectives, which we can call "old school exploring", but in quests.

If you don't know this game, you're missing a key and unique element of knowledge how MMO's can be done... differently. And be successful.

My Galleries:

http://www.mmorpg.com/galleries/Sarr

And raid recently done with my Polish friends (half of the team is new here):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pi25H8ZGRRg

Sorry Scott, but your opinion about "what is an MMO" is outdated. In fact, even in WoW you mostly play with few people and we can argue if it's better to just see other people running everywhere.

Exactly. For me, WAR is such a poor game, that player just won't do justice for his abilities.

Yes, I liked WAR's quests VERY much - but only what was written. The gameplay was boring for me, and I even wondered - "hey, someone needed to be REALLY creative to write such good stories in a simple, and PvP-dominated game".

I think this guys should apply to write quests for D&D Online (Turbine). Quests texts there are obviously lacking, we need MORE immersion. The game is great and gives MUCH more spaces for creativity - private instances!

So, whoever wrote it - apply and help Turbine create DDO to be as good and story-driven as Asheron's Call! The game itself is great, but could use such improvement.

Originally posted by Rokurgepta

Originally posted by illyana

ive seen better

The Harbor just looks like they upped the gamma and bloom and let snow fall... nothing more

they didnt add snow on the ground , trees and buildings

but the ice games looks fun though

 

 

I was disappointed that I logged in around 2PM went to work and logged back in 12 hours later and the grass was still green. Was hoping to see snow pile up a bit. In typical Turbine fashion they get things half right and expect the players to just except it.

I think you forgot that could be intended. There shouldn't snow in Stomreach at all, because that's volcanic continent near equator. You can see much bigger palm trees in Harbor now, to show it better.

Background about this is that it snows, and snows only in Harbor, because some Ice-Wizard came to the city for upcoming festivities and had this idea.

That's only the first part. There will be more events in this "event" that we see now.