well, I can tell you why I suddenly do like DDO, after many trials, and beta, etc: it's the "forced" grouping and dungeon crawling. Since I am not a hardcore pnp player, I don't mind too much the setting. And that it's a city, well, that just makes the traveling easier. No grinding for gold at 1/2 level cap or so to get a mount.
I can be pretty bored at times, waiting to get a group to do the quests I want, yes, but since I play casual, I don't mind logging out and checking in 2 hourse later. Solo-play, although existent, is unfortunately neglectablly small at higher levels. Once I am in a group, I am haveing fun.
It's like playing a mini-raid in any other MMO, where you need to be half or near level cap to participate, here though, you can do it from start.
So although I sometimes dislike the twitch style, and the lack of customization, player/guild housing, crafting, I can still live here for a while, although perhaps not forever.
As an old D&D player (started in 1980) I do second the earlier assertion that DDO actually plays a lot like old AD&D 1st edition with its early modules did...a very compartmentalized feel, if you played by the book. But it's funny that DDO is an iteration of the current ruleset and the progressive Eberron setting, yet mimics a very old-school approach to dungeoneering, basically.
I've been having fun with DDO, largely because I don't expect any computer game or MMO to properly emulate the tabletop experience, which I resolve by continuing to play tabletop games at least once a week if I can manage it. Hell, I've got a biweekly group that meets every other saturday for classic AD&D gaming, and another one just for 3rd edition, so there ya go, I get my fix by actually playing pnp.
As for DDO, I enjoy it more than other MMOs right now, except maybe for Guild Wars, so that's what counts to me. I'm not a very social gamer in MMOs....I react better to people I know or meet in person than online, I'm just not a member of the internet generation as such. But DDO has proven extremely easy for me to meet and get in to casual groups who want to have a good time....I've yet to see any crazy, hardcore people like in WoW, where the endgame is a full time job for OCD specials. That's what turns me off of these games, the people who have clearly neglected real life in favor of their imaginary toon life.
A Not about The D20 System: All of the rules in DD& 3rd edition are set up under an Open Gaming License and in a System Reference Document. A such, any publisher can utilize the D20 system from D&D to do their own material and iteration. DDO needs approval from WotC because it is a licensed product with the D&D name, but in theory I imagine someone could program a by-the-book D20-based MMO if they wanted to, if they utlized the SRD and OGL licenses to do it, since I am not at all sure those licenses are restricted to pnp games only.
C. No evil alignment. What DnD game doesnt give you an evil alignment?!?
No RPGA D&D campaign gives you an evil alignment. And if you do an evil act, your character is immediately retired. Well, there is one new campaign that lets you be evil. But everyone is SUPPOSED to be neutral or evil in that one. A guy in my group wanted to play his paladin. We also have a chaotic evil cleric. Yeah, we have to fudge a bit when playing that one, which is one of the reasons why evil characters aren't allowed in sanctioned play. D&D is a group game, and evil doesn't play well with others.
I think that restricting alignments to non evil ones was a design decision to limit the amount of material Turbine needed to generate for the game. Adding an evil characted in to the mix would have required adding in evil quests (or dialogue which leads to evil reasons to complete otherwise good quests, I suppose).
Now, given that EQ2 does that just fine with its Freeport vs. Queynos business, I am sorry that DDO doesn't also offer a similar approach. I'd love to play an evil character in DDO, one who was joining evil sects and villainous houses to undermine and subvert Stormreach. That would be very cool. Maybe in the future, when WotC does a new MMO around the same time D&D 4th edition comes out....
C. No evil alignment. What DnD game doesnt give you an evil alignment?!?
No RPGA D&D campaign gives you an evil alignment. And if you do an evil act, your character is immediately retired. Well, there is one new campaign that lets you be evil. But everyone is SUPPOSED to be neutral or evil in that one. A guy in my group wanted to play his paladin. We also have a chaotic evil cleric. Yeah, we have to fudge a bit when playing that one, which is one of the reasons why evil characters aren't allowed in sanctioned play. D&D is a group game, and evil doesn't play well with others.
I think that restricting alignments to non evil ones was a design decision to limit the amount of material Turbine needed to generate for the game. Adding an evil characted in to the mix would have required adding in evil quests (or dialogue which leads to evil reasons to complete otherwise good quests, I suppose).
Now, given that EQ2 does that just fine with its Freeport vs. Queynos business, I am sorry that DDO doesn't also offer a similar approach. I'd love to play an evil character in DDO, one who was joining evil sects and villainous houses to undermine and subvert Stormreach. That would be very cool. Maybe in the future, when WotC does a new MMO around the same time D&D 4th edition comes out....
I'd have to say you're right on that one, given the fact that the devs were too busy trying to figure out how to implement the Enhancement system without balance issues that they forgot about things like the Core Rule Set..........
And again... I got bored of it. Why of why oh why in the name of all that is Holy and Just did they: A. Set the damn game in Eberron. That has to be the single worse realm in DnD ever construed. How.... glowy crystals and sentient golems. How original. B. Stuck in the city with nowhere to go. 95% of all of the games Quests and activities takes place in a city. Can you imagine spending your entire MMO life of EQ2 adventuring within the gates of freeport? I mean, nevermind the fact you get no xp for killing mobs or forget the fact that grouped dungeon runs is a free for all or forget the fact that they slaughtered over 60% of the DnD Rules whilst making a "DnD" MMO.... Im just pissed that Im confined to a city and nowhere to go. No damn world to explore. None at all. C. No evil alignment. What DnD game doesnt give you an evil alignment?!? There it's off my chest lol
I'd just like to comment on everything happening in the city part: Not every quest is taking part in the city, 3 Barrel cove is not in the city, Gianthold is not in the city, Ruins of Threnal are not in the city, Sorrowdusk Isle is not in the city, Stormcleave is not in the city, Tangleroot Gorge is not in the city, (the other quest in house P where you have to protect the mummies) is not in the city.
There are several quests that are not in the city if you notice the loading screen for most of them it shows a map with the trail taken to get there (much like Indiana Jones movies), however you skip over the boring, uneventful travel and get right to the juicy parts much like in a P&P campaign where most DM's skip over uneventful travel parts unless there is an encounter.
Comments
well, I can tell you why I suddenly do like DDO, after many trials, and beta, etc: it's the "forced" grouping and dungeon crawling. Since I am not a hardcore pnp player, I don't mind too much the setting. And that it's a city, well, that just makes the traveling easier. No grinding for gold at 1/2 level cap or so to get a mount.
I can be pretty bored at times, waiting to get a group to do the quests I want, yes, but since I play casual, I don't mind logging out and checking in 2 hourse later. Solo-play, although existent, is unfortunately neglectablly small at higher levels. Once I am in a group, I am haveing fun.
It's like playing a mini-raid in any other MMO, where you need to be half or near level cap to participate, here though, you can do it from start.
So although I sometimes dislike the twitch style, and the lack of customization, player/guild housing, crafting, I can still live here for a while, although perhaps not forever.
As an old D&D player (started in 1980) I do second the earlier assertion that DDO actually plays a lot like old AD&D 1st edition with its early modules did...a very compartmentalized feel, if you played by the book. But it's funny that DDO is an iteration of the current ruleset and the progressive Eberron setting, yet mimics a very old-school approach to dungeoneering, basically.
I've been having fun with DDO, largely because I don't expect any computer game or MMO to properly emulate the tabletop experience, which I resolve by continuing to play tabletop games at least once a week if I can manage it. Hell, I've got a biweekly group that meets every other saturday for classic AD&D gaming, and another one just for 3rd edition, so there ya go, I get my fix by actually playing pnp.
As for DDO, I enjoy it more than other MMOs right now, except maybe for Guild Wars, so that's what counts to me. I'm not a very social gamer in MMOs....I react better to people I know or meet in person than online, I'm just not a member of the internet generation as such. But DDO has proven extremely easy for me to meet and get in to casual groups who want to have a good time....I've yet to see any crazy, hardcore people like in WoW, where the endgame is a full time job for OCD specials. That's what turns me off of these games, the people who have clearly neglected real life in favor of their imaginary toon life.
A Not about The D20 System: All of the rules in DD& 3rd edition are set up under an Open Gaming License and in a System Reference Document. A such, any publisher can utilize the D20 system from D&D to do their own material and iteration. DDO needs approval from WotC because it is a licensed product with the D&D name, but in theory I imagine someone could program a by-the-book D20-based MMO if they wanted to, if they utlized the SRD and OGL licenses to do it, since I am not at all sure those licenses are restricted to pnp games only.
Current MMOs: Rift, GW2, Defiance
Blog: http://realmsofchirak.blogspot.com (old school tabletop gaming and more)
I think that restricting alignments to non evil ones was a design decision to limit the amount of material Turbine needed to generate for the game. Adding an evil characted in to the mix would have required adding in evil quests (or dialogue which leads to evil reasons to complete otherwise good quests, I suppose).
Now, given that EQ2 does that just fine with its Freeport vs. Queynos business, I am sorry that DDO doesn't also offer a similar approach. I'd love to play an evil character in DDO, one who was joining evil sects and villainous houses to undermine and subvert Stormreach. That would be very cool. Maybe in the future, when WotC does a new MMO around the same time D&D 4th edition comes out....
Current MMOs: Rift, GW2, Defiance
Blog: http://realmsofchirak.blogspot.com (old school tabletop gaming and more)
I think that restricting alignments to non evil ones was a design decision to limit the amount of material Turbine needed to generate for the game. Adding an evil characted in to the mix would have required adding in evil quests (or dialogue which leads to evil reasons to complete otherwise good quests, I suppose).
Now, given that EQ2 does that just fine with its Freeport vs. Queynos business, I am sorry that DDO doesn't also offer a similar approach. I'd love to play an evil character in DDO, one who was joining evil sects and villainous houses to undermine and subvert Stormreach. That would be very cool. Maybe in the future, when WotC does a new MMO around the same time D&D 4th edition comes out....
I'd have to say you're right on that one, given the fact that the devs were too busy trying to figure out how to implement the Enhancement system without balance issues that they forgot about things like the Core Rule Set..........
There are several quests that are not in the city if you notice the loading screen for most of them it shows a map with the trail taken to get there (much like Indiana Jones movies), however you skip over the boring, uneventful travel and get right to the juicy parts much like in a P&P campaign where most DM's skip over uneventful travel parts unless there is an encounter.