In order to accuratly review a game, you really should go into it with a little bit of open-mindness and ACTIVELY play the game.
Yes, you can sit with a LFG symbol over year head and not get groups in DDO. Hapens a Lot....
OR
You can take 3 seconds to pen up the LFM window and JOIN one of the many groups thats are always going. in the event that the quest your really want to do is not listed, you can even start yoru own LFM! Amazing....
I have 2 new characters going right now..... Names people dont know from bob, and my LFMs have been filing up within 10 minutes every time. I have not once looked at the LFG window.... If you want to join my group, Hit my LFM. Its not hard to do.
DDO Is an exceptionally broad and expansive game. Bit its not physically big like "Other" MMO's You can get to every single quest in the game is roughly 5-8 minutes Tops. Its a game to PLAY not to expore. If you put no efort into playing it, you wil be dissapointed.
Why would this site run a re-review by a new reviewer with no apparent knowledge of the first review or the game in general?
You make an excellent point. I think if this review had been titled instead: "A first time DDO Noob's view on playing through the new starter area" people would have read the review in a different light.
When I opened it up, I was looking forward to a detailed comparison of Then vs. Now and how things have (and haven't) changed. Instead, what I got was "I have never seen this game before, but I'm going to go ahead and tell you how its different now anyway."
I am sure Stephanie can do a fine job on something for which she is qualified....but MMORPG.com maybe should have farmed out this re-review to someone who had actually played DDO before the changes.
Funny, i play the game regularly, and i have to turn down groups left and right, it's actually super-easy to find groups, i have never had the luck 'or lack of it' of not finding groups..
I find I have to turn down more groups then I did when the game first came out. The amount of groups I've turned down far exceeds the times I couldn't find a group.
The lag thing has been a issue for some people but I personally have never experienced the lag issues the reviewer has. I can run the game on my laptop on very low on a wireless modem and lets just say I have one of the worst on board graphics card( the 945). I wonder if the reviewer ever thought to turn down her graphic settings.
Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator Driver for Mobile Report
Report Date: 02/20/2009
Report Time[hr:mm:ss]: 17:39:37
Driver Version: 6.14.10.4543
Operating System: Windows XP* Professional, Service Pack 3 (5.1.2600)
Funny, i play the game regularly, and i have to turn down groups left and right, it's actually super-easy to find groups, i have never had the luck 'or lack of it' of not finding groups..
You probably have a higher level toon. I can assure you that groups in the newbie area are difficult at best to find.
As an experiment, you might roll a new toon and see how easy it is to get into groups in the newbie area. Remember, the reviewer was starting a new toon and this was the environment that she found. So, you need to compare apples to apples.
Ion
You wont get the invites like you do at higher lvls but there seems to always be a group available 1-3 on Korthos Island. I've rolled a couple new toons since I've come back and haven't had a issue finding a group.
Not sure what to think of this review - on the one hand for a new player it is probably as far as one will get to decide if one wants to stay or not. On the other hand, esp. for an experienced(?) reviewer, many aspects as pointed out by others have not even been touched. I remember many reviews here talking about 2, 4 weeks playing. I didn't get the impression that was the case here....
Regarding performance: I haven't had any lag problems on my pretty old rig, under Vista. Neither on US or EU servers as described.
One thing that bothers me most: Talking about how "quiet" it was. Almost all mature games are quiet in the low level areas. Be it WAR, LOTRO or WoW. There is a pretty good LFG tool that really works if you are patient (as in, a few minutes and not just a few seconds). The only thing you might not be able to count on is that you will find a group for that one particular quest. So you do another.
Where I have to agree is the repetiveness. One often runs the same dungeon several times on different difficulty levels to gain favor points or XP. Or because it is the only group available. At lower levels.
For a soloist the game is definetly tough (or boring/disappointing), since you can't always finish the quest lines at your own leisure, even using the new mercenary system.
All in all: poor review. Sorry. Please reconsider the testing. if you come to the same conclusiont then, fine.
Is it too early to ask that Stephanie not publish a review for this site again?
I agree with U 100%! This "re-review" (she never played, how can be a re-review?) was made by a NOOB who played the D&D a couple of hours at best! Amateur and stupid!
I've gotta say, this review was definitely on the negative side, regardless if the reviewer didn't "intend" for that to be so. As a MMO gamer who started with DAoC, DDO was my 5th or 6th MMORPG and I didn't have any problems transitioning into the different combat system that DDO offers. The performance problems the reviewer has I don't experience myself and I'm using a similar computer. The only difference is that my CPU is .55 mghz faster than hers.
Complaining about the Dungeon Master narration? That's one of the things that makes DDO a DnD game that pnp players can relate to. Nothing unique? How about a twitch based system, the first MMO to introduce VoIP, and the best dungeon crawl experience if you consider best as having the most variety of dungeons and traps etc. Not being worth a monthly fee? I realize you stated that this was your opinion, but what a shitty opinion to have about a game that brings an experience that you really can't have in any other MMORPG out there to date.
Nothing was mentioned on how you can customize your class and multi-class to the point where this game is really close to being a skill based game. Nothing was mentioned about how the combat system and collision detection allows for superior tactics than is able to be used in most other MMORPG's.
Does the feeling you get from running dungeons change much from the starter island to max level? No, but that's not a bad thing, because the game delivers a great dungeon crawl experience starting with your first quest. Puzzles, dungeons, and tactics needed to defeat monsters gets harder as the game progresses, but the game contains the same elements (puzzle solving, hack and slash, hidden/locked doors, tressure hunting, and traps) from lvl 1 all the way to lvl 16.
The reviewer really let the MMORPG community down with this review, because it doesn't do DDO justice. The review didn't capture the essence of DDO, nor did the reviewer experience the game enough to write a review. I recently resubbed to the game after gearing out my character in WoW and found out that DDO changed the newb experience in Module 8. I got a friend to try it out and he could come here and tell you that the 10 day trial is not nearly enough to be able to review DDO off of, because you still won't completely understand the game or the possibilities DDO offers in that short amount of time. Hell, it takes most people in the community 3-4 weeks of playing around before they even know what kind of class "theme" they want to follow.
I'm not saying DDO doesn't have it's disadvantages, but the reviewer exaggerated a lot of things and didn't focus on anything really that makes DDO a great game. Anyone can look at my post history and tell that I don't normally post things like this, but this reviewer really screwed up.
MMORPG's w/ Max level characters: DAoC, SWG, & WoW
Currently Playing: WAR Preferred Playstyle: Roleplay/adventurous, in a sandbox game.
I too subscribed to this game for a few months about a year ago. I thought it was okay but nothing special. To me this is just another MMORPG that has shot itself in the foot by releasing with too little solo content and a very linear game world. I just don't understand why so many developers think this model is going to be successful.
I played in beta and when it started, and I pop in from time to time, whenever I hear people writing about how great it is or they do a "welcome back" offer. I find it at best "meh" and very inert.
My experience is that it has the least friendly players that I have met in a PvE game.
I suspect it is fine for what it is, but I would be surprised if there were many new players coming in and having fun who aren't MMORPG long-timers, unless they do so with their significant other, family, etc. who knows the ropes.
You probably have a higher level toon. I can assure you that groups in the newbie area are difficult at best to find. As an experiment, you might roll a new toon and see how easy it is to get into groups in the newbie area. Remember, the reviewer was starting a new toon and this was the environment that she found. So, you need to compare apples to apples. Ion
Not true. I just started playing a month ago. If I stand still for more than a few minutes in the starting area then I get invites from all kinds of people. Considering that I brought a group of friends with me and don't need nor want to pick up random people, all the extraneous invites were even somewhat annoying.
At level 7 my wife's cleric can't even log in to check the AH without a steady stream of tells asking her to join groups. Honestly, I think she was getting more group invites in DDO than we ever did in WoW, AoC, or WAR.
I just restarted DDO, and I'm not getting steady stream of invites. In fact, over the past week, I've gotten 1 invite and that person didn't say a word once I accepted, so I left the group. I play on the Sarlona server, which is the same server I've played on off and on since I was a founder. I have Drow unlocked on this server, and I'd hate to reroll on another, since Drow is only unlocked on the server you unlocked it on (I could be wrong). What server do you play on with a community so active you have to beat them away with a stick. It really sounds like an exaggeration to me, but who knows, you could be telling the truth. Thankfully, I can just roll a character on your server to verify that and if you're not exaggerating, maybe my friend and I should reroll.
MMORPG's w/ Max level characters: DAoC, SWG, & WoW
Currently Playing: WAR Preferred Playstyle: Roleplay/adventurous, in a sandbox game.
I too subscribed to this game for a few months about a year ago. I thought it was okay but nothing special. To me this is just another MMORPG that has shot itself in the foot by releasing with too little solo content and a very linear game world. I just don't understand why so many developers think this model is going to be successful.
I played in beta and when it started, and I pop in from time to time, whenever I hear people writing about how great it is or they do a "welcome back" offer. I find it at best "meh" and very inert.
My experience is that it has the least friendly players that I have met in a PvE game.
I suspect it is fine for what it is, but I would be surprised if there were many new players coming in and having fun who aren't MMORPG long-timers, unless they do so with their significant other, family, etc. who knows the ropes.
Least friendly players met in a PvE game!!
Hate to break this to you but every MMO out there has those ppl in it, also has some players that will bend over backwards to help you, other players will give you freebies without even being asked, other players will kill steal you until you feel like pulling your hair out etc etc etc the list is endless and it happens in every single MMO to date and is not confined to just DDO.
My son still plays this game and still has ppl giving him freebies to help him out, but he also gets ppl kicking him from grps because a "friend of theirs just logged on" so he gets a bit of both worlds in the game, however if you also go into an MMO with a bad attitude ppl tend to pick up on it and will either ignore you or treat you with the same disrespect shown them, it's a 2 way street in any game.
You probably have a higher level toon. I can assure you that groups in the newbie area are difficult at best to find. As an experiment, you might roll a new toon and see how easy it is to get into groups in the newbie area. Remember, the reviewer was starting a new toon and this was the environment that she found. So, you need to compare apples to apples. Ion
Not true. I just started playing a month ago. If I stand still for more than a few minutes in the starting area then I get invites from all kinds of people. Considering that I brought a group of friends with me and don't need nor want to pick up random people, all the extraneous invites were even somewhat annoying.
At level 7 my wife's cleric can't even log in to check the AH without a steady stream of tells asking her to join groups. Honestly, I think she was getting more group invites in DDO than we ever did in WoW, AoC, or WAR.
I just restarted DDO, and I'm not getting steady stream of invites. In fact, over the past week, I've gotten 1 invite and that person didn't say a word once I accepted, so I left the group. I play on the Sarlona server, which is the same server I've played on off and on since I was a founder. I have Drow unlocked on this server, and I'd hate to reroll on another, since Drow is only unlocked on the server you unlocked it on (I could be wrong). What server do you play on with a community so active you have to beat them away with a stick. It really sounds like an exaggeration to me, but who knows, you could be telling the truth. Thankfully, I can just roll a character on your server to verify that and if you're not exaggerating, maybe my friend and I should reroll.
I play on Khyber and it seems that there are quite a few all lvl groups out there. Also Drow wont transfer from server to server. You need to get the favor for each server.
I'm jumping in here to face the music and let everyone know that I screwed up. This article was submitted to me should have been labelled as an early game review and not with the weight of a re-review. I've corrected the mistake, and a full review, taking more elements of the game into account, will be forthcoming.
So, if you're all going to be mad at someone. That should probably be me and not the writer who was just completing the assignment I gave her.
So, as Optimus Prime would say in a moment that negated my childhood love of his cartoon... my bad.
I have played, and even at one point returned to, DDO for a few months, but I am by no means a zealous fan for the game. I certainly enjoy it, and I do so for several experiences that this poor reviewer seems to have missed =(. The unique dungeons, the active combat, the beautiful group dynamic that solid (can't run through them) characters creates.
Also, I am on a terribly lame laptop that is simply incapable of running WAR or AoC at any steady, decent framerate, and I have absolutely no performance problems with DDO on high settings. I also find the graphics to be stellar, especially for how well they run.
I don't think hostility toward the reviewer will help anything =(. Sounds like there was some terrible problem with the comp that helped bring the game down to an unplayable level. I would recommend anybody try it for themselves.
As somebody who plays D&D pnp once a week, I find the game quite entertaining some times, and just unsubscribe when I feel like leaving it for a while.
Playing: Single-player games Awaiting: Stargate, Star Trek, assuming the burnout has passed Retired: WoW, BC, LotRO, DDO, CoH/V, EVE, WotLK, WAR
Why so much hate over a review? A review is nothing more than the reviewer's opinion of the game. To disagree is fine, but to flame her just because you don't agree with her? Immature. The reason that I left DDO was one of the issues she had with the game and that was the lack of people to group with. After the first few dungeons, you have to have a group to continue playing. Yes, the LFG system is nice, but if there are no people your level playing, it doesn't do any good. The low level areas are essentially empty. I would love to still be playing DDO, but I'm not going to waste my time and money sitting around trying to find someone to group with. Ion
Ion,
Agreed. I've been playing DDO for half of its life and have to say that were it not because me and my RL buddies played together I would've left the game in no time. Having said that, I have also tried many other MMOs and they are fall short of DDO's offerings. Not the perfect game by any stretch of the imagination, but, IMO, it's one of the best offerings out there in so far as combat system, immersive experience and complexity. Let's not forget it's based on D&D (and d20 system in general) and all of its immense lore. You don't have to be an RPGer geek to like this game. It's very deep in many aspects. It's definitely worth to try it.
Now ... as for the community ... it does leave much to be desired and can be right out caustic at times. Yes, it's better than most MMOs out there but that doesn't say much. Go to their forums, for instance. The flamewars, the bitching and whining it's beyond belief. Some of this forum behavior transends to the game itself and some characters in game have a rather deplorable attitude.
And yes, it's a review...don't get your panties up in a bunch. Don't agree with it, you don't have to. No need to insult the writer ... BTW it only makes her point stronger.
I'm a woman gamer (a mum), and have played DDO for three years with no breaks in my subscription. I felt that a big part of the reviewer's discontent stemmed from hurdles like tech issues, a low population interlude, inexperience with what makes this game tick, and a world coming down session. I wish she had posted on DDO forums inviting the community to come and show her the game; I'm sure she would have had a far more robust and enjoyable experience if she had done that. She had bad luck, and voila, we have the bad review which ignores all the great things about this game.
The things that the review didn't consider were the very things that make me favour this game over the other MMOs I've played (Vanguard, Age of Conan, Lord of the Rings).
Very briefly (in a bit of a rush), DDO gets my 5 thumbs up for the following features:
Built in voice chat (as a woman, I like to size up who I'm playing with before talking);
More mature player base (average age is low thirties I think, and many of the players are super people, not too brash or wild);
The ability to really customize each class's starting stats, skills, and feats (the cookie cutter classes of the other MMOs I have played felt very cloney, and not varied enough),
The ability to multiclass with up to 2 other classes (not possible in other MMOs) plus a nice variety of both races (Elves, Humans, Dwarves, Halflings, Drow, Warforged and classes (Fighter, Barbarian, Paladin, Monk, Cleric, Wizard, Sorceror, Rogue, Ranger, Bard) to choose from;
A world that isn't too huge because I personally find the vast and repetitive timesink of expansiveworld travel to be a grind deluxe, and I like to get to quests in a fast efficient fashion (don't want the MMO to be my career);
Minimal kill x of y animal type questing (though this can be found in explorer areas for the player who isn't up for some serious questage);
A very group oriented style of real time hack and slash gameplay (not the simplistic icon-clicking, wait for cooldown mechanics from other MMOs);
The fact that my characters can swim, balance, jump, tumble, sneak, etc (most MMOs only let you run, swim, and jump);
The fact that Turbine seems to be updating older content (like in the New Player area), and has facilitated the use of even more amazing graphics (DirectX 10);
The fact that the Module updates are free!!!
The fact that there are Prestige classes in the pipeline, and another level cap raise!
And I like that the game isn't all about PvP; I like PvE, and think that DDO handles PvP very nicely by having it restricted to taverns and to certain team games.
Character creation is Fab. So many of the games I've played tout their great character creation systems, and I've always ended up prefering the DDO system. I want to be able to change eye styles, not move them up or down, or further apart to look martian. I prefer more eye colours to a variety of similar murky ones (Aoc style), and I like lots of hair styles and colours. Changing body shapes and proportions, or moving ears around just wasn't fun for me. I like that DDO gives me lots of hair styles, hair colours, skin colours, eye shapes, eye colours, lip shapes, lip colours. That's what I like in DDO Character Creation.
I like the variety in Module releases. Mods like the Gianthold one with it's alien landscape feel and fun quests, the Shroud Module, and the recent Reaver's Refuge Modules stand out, though the others did fun stuff too. Gianthold brought us the divine high-fashion lines of blue, black, and white Dragon Scale Armours/Robes etc, and the Shroud brought us a really fun crafting system, whereby we customize both items and weapons to achieve a variety of impressive effects per end product. The Reaver's Refuge brought us armour crafting, also pretty fun in a different way; and in that system we can stack three attributes on each armour/robe we make. I love this crafting stuff to death, and am hoping more crafting gets added to the game as time goes by.
For first time players, I would recommend that they look for a guild to join as soon as they can, probably by posting on the forums. This is such a party oriented game that it can only properly and fairly be evalutated in a group context. Receiving input on the rather complex and interesting character creation possibilites, is really very integral to understanding what makes DDO tick. So is a solid understanding of gameplay mechanics. Each class plays quite differently. The learning curve in DDO can take a while, and takes some effort.
I found in Age of Conan, that I got a couple of characters to level 40 and only grouped twice (not so fun with no audio chat). That killed the game for me; I didn't need people and it was lonely, and gawd the endless travelling drove me nuts. (What can I say? I'm impatient!)
To play alone or with only one other person in DDO is missing the point. Even box breaking is for compulsive moments, or maybe for while I wait for someone to catch up. If the reviewer played the game with a bunch of everyday DDO gamers, I think she'd get a different impression than playing with another newbie, at a low population moment, while having tech hassles, and with the world coming down.
Wow..the fanboys sure came out from the woodwork for this one.
This reviewers opinion is from a new toons perspective, not some endgame, fully fledged toon. I also see alot of flaming cause she didn't play to endgame and by that didn't experienced the 'real' game. If you can't experience the 'real' game from day 1 the game is one big failure. You need to enjoy the game from the beginning, not the end so the argument that cause she didn't experience the endgame, her review is >nil: is just stupid.
Her technical issues sound like overheating though as DDO hardly ever push the system to it's limit.
My opinion why this game is such a failure is summed down to just one word: mana. For a DnD purist this is an unforgivable sin. So to me this aint a dnd game, it's just loosely based on dnd, like all the rest of the mmo's are and by that ruined the whole game for me. I realize though there was no other way to do it cause of the mechanics and realtime nature of mmo's.
Originally posted by slask777 Wow..the fanboys sure came out from the woodwork for this one. This reviewers opinion is from a new toons perspective, not some endgame, fully fledged toon. I also see alot of flaming cause she didn't play to endgame and by that didn't experienced the 'real' game. If you can't experience the 'real' game from day 1 the game is one big failure. You need to enjoy the game from the beginning, not the end so the argument that cause she didn't experience the endgame, her review is >nil: is just stupid. Her technical issues sound like overheating though as DDO hardly ever push the system to it's limit. My opinion why this game is such a failure is summed down to just one word: mana. For a DnD purist this is an unforgivable sin. So to me this aint a dnd game, it's just loosely based on dnd, like all the rest of the mmo's are and by that ruined the whole game for me. I realize though there was no other way to do it cause of the mechanics and realtime nature of mmo's.
Uh. Please, don't judge something you didn't even read. I mean: this whole thread filled with mostly constructive posts. And people who wrote them.
As if you'd read it, you'd know that it's not a fan-boy job (and I hate such term, very arrogant, as well as "noob").
Other than that, it's hard to discuss constructively with your post. Seems like you don't have a clue what you're talking about.
And no, DDO isn't a failure. More so, if you'd observe DDO EU servers recently, you'd see the numbers of players are rising drastically. WITHOUT any press, this is the first article in a long time.
The game just grows now because of it's quality. Just wait for Module 9, I think there will be a massive influx of players.
This reviewers opinion is from a new toons perspective, not some endgame, fully fledged toon. I also see alot of flaming cause she didn't play to endgame and by that didn't experienced the 'real' game. If you can't experience the 'real' game from day 1 the game is one big failure. You need to enjoy the game from the beginning, not the end so the argument that cause she didn't experience the endgame, her review is >nil: is just stupid.
Keep in mind that the title of the article has just been changed. The original article was entitled "A Re-Review of DDO" and seemed very incomplete with that in mind. Most players would be shocked if a reassessment of their MMO was based just on an early brush with starter content. Fortunately, they've fixed the title error. Don't be too hard on us, we were just taken aback.
IMO, the 2 things that are holding DDO back are 1. Turbine's complete lack of anything resembling customer support. From server stability to trying to get a response from their support guys, turbine is the worst ever, and 2. How drawn out the Kothos crap is. I have sent buddy passes to all kinds of friends and they rarely make it past buthcer's pass. The gripe is always the same villiage>island>misery 's peak is just a retarded long grind for a quasi tutorial area. Seems to be where this reveiw died as well ( makes doing alts a pain as well).
The other one that I think scares people away from DDO is so much of the community is all about the super zerg of everything as they have been around for 3 yrs and have done everything 30 times. Thats a real turn off for the new guy who can't even keep up, let alone figure out whats going on.
Now, the DX10 does add some flavor, and they have enhanced the game some...but there is no doubt in my mind that this should be a free to play title like Guild Wars. It does not offer the "world" feel of a boring mainstream MMO. Cheers
no worries, fixed.
What is funny is...I agree with that sentiment.
Most MMO's today are pretty boring, and have you doing the same thing over ...almost kinda like running a dungeon over and over.
Still does not change the fact that DDO is not worth a monthly fee.
Funny, i play the game regularly, and i have to turn down groups left and right, it's actually super-easy to find groups, i have never had the luck 'or lack of it' of not finding groups..
You probably have a higher level toon. I can assure you that groups in the newbie area are difficult at best to find.
As an experiment, you might roll a new toon and see how easy it is to get into groups in the newbie area. Remember, the reviewer was starting a new toon and this was the environment that she found. So, you need to compare apples to apples.
Ion
My only character is lvl 7, i have a newborn and a family and don't have lots of time to play, but when i do, i'm hardly standing around looking for a group. Being a cleric helps as well
Why so much hate over a review? A review is nothing more than the reviewer's opinion of the game. To disagree is fine, but to flame her just because you don't agree with her? Immature. The reason that I left DDO was one of the issues she had with the game and that was the lack of people to group with. After the first few dungeons, you have to have a group to continue playing. Yes, the LFG system is nice, but if there are no people your level playing, it doesn't do any good. The low level areas are essentially empty. I would love to still be playing DDO, but I'm not going to waste my time and money sitting around trying to find someone to group with. Ion
I have to counter this argument. Low level areas in DDO have enough people that at 2 am on the East Coast I have no trouble finding a group to do most anything. Will it be a full group of 6 with exactly the classes I want? No, but it will be enough people to get the quest done.
Comments
I always find it amazing when a reviewer seems to miss every good and bad point of a game. It's like they never even played it.
In order to accuratly review a game, you really should go into it with a little bit of open-mindness and ACTIVELY play the game.
Yes, you can sit with a LFG symbol over year head and not get groups in DDO. Hapens a Lot....
OR
You can take 3 seconds to pen up the LFM window and JOIN one of the many groups thats are always going. in the event that the quest your really want to do is not listed, you can even start yoru own LFM! Amazing....
I have 2 new characters going right now..... Names people dont know from bob, and my LFMs have been filing up within 10 minutes every time. I have not once looked at the LFG window.... If you want to join my group, Hit my LFM. Its not hard to do.
DDO Is an exceptionally broad and expansive game. Bit its not physically big like "Other" MMO's You can get to every single quest in the game is roughly 5-8 minutes Tops. Its a game to PLAY not to expore. If you put no efort into playing it, you wil be dissapointed.
Why would this site run a re-review by a new reviewer with no apparent knowledge of the first review or the game in general?
You make an excellent point. I think if this review had been titled instead: "A first time DDO Noob's view on playing through the new starter area" people would have read the review in a different light.
When I opened it up, I was looking forward to a detailed comparison of Then vs. Now and how things have (and haven't) changed. Instead, what I got was "I have never seen this game before, but I'm going to go ahead and tell you how its different now anyway."
I am sure Stephanie can do a fine job on something for which she is qualified....but MMORPG.com maybe should have farmed out this re-review to someone who had actually played DDO before the changes.
The correct term for this is: "duh"
Current MMOs: Rift, GW2, Defiance
Blog: http://realmsofchirak.blogspot.com (old school tabletop gaming and more)
I find I have to turn down more groups then I did when the game first came out. The amount of groups I've turned down far exceeds the times I couldn't find a group.
The lag thing has been a issue for some people but I personally have never experienced the lag issues the reviewer has. I can run the game on my laptop on very low on a wireless modem and lets just say I have one of the worst on board graphics card( the 945). I wonder if the reviewer ever thought to turn down her graphic settings.
Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator Driver for Mobile Report
Report Date: 02/20/2009
Report Time[hr:mm:ss]: 17:39:37
Driver Version: 6.14.10.4543
Operating System: Windows XP* Professional, Service Pack 3 (5.1.2600)
Default Language: English
DirectX* Version: 9.0
Physical Memory: 2037 MB
Minimum Graphics Memory: 8 MB
Maximum Graphics Memory: 128 MB
Graphics Memory in Use: 10 MB
Processor: x86 family 6 Model 14 Stepping 8
Processor Speed: 1595 MHZ
Vendor ID: 8086
Device ID: 27A2
Device Revision: 03
-Almerel
Hello my old friend.
You probably have a higher level toon. I can assure you that groups in the newbie area are difficult at best to find.
As an experiment, you might roll a new toon and see how easy it is to get into groups in the newbie area. Remember, the reviewer was starting a new toon and this was the environment that she found. So, you need to compare apples to apples.
Ion
You wont get the invites like you do at higher lvls but there seems to always be a group available 1-3 on Korthos Island. I've rolled a couple new toons since I've come back and haven't had a issue finding a group.
-Almerel
Hello my old friend.
Read the DDO Re-Review
Not sure what to think of this review - on the one hand for a new player it is probably as far as one will get to decide if one wants to stay or not. On the other hand, esp. for an experienced(?) reviewer, many aspects as pointed out by others have not even been touched. I remember many reviews here talking about 2, 4 weeks playing. I didn't get the impression that was the case here....
Regarding performance: I haven't had any lag problems on my pretty old rig, under Vista. Neither on US or EU servers as described.
One thing that bothers me most: Talking about how "quiet" it was. Almost all mature games are quiet in the low level areas. Be it WAR, LOTRO or WoW. There is a pretty good LFG tool that really works if you are patient (as in, a few minutes and not just a few seconds). The only thing you might not be able to count on is that you will find a group for that one particular quest. So you do another.
Where I have to agree is the repetiveness. One often runs the same dungeon several times on different difficulty levels to gain favor points or XP. Or because it is the only group available. At lower levels.
For a soloist the game is definetly tough (or boring/disappointing), since you can't always finish the quest lines at your own leisure, even using the new mercenary system.
All in all: poor review. Sorry. Please reconsider the testing. if you come to the same conclusiont then, fine.
I agree with U 100%! This "re-review" (she never played, how can be a re-review?) was made by a NOOB who played the D&D a couple of hours at best! Amateur and stupid!
I've gotta say, this review was definitely on the negative side, regardless if the reviewer didn't "intend" for that to be so. As a MMO gamer who started with DAoC, DDO was my 5th or 6th MMORPG and I didn't have any problems transitioning into the different combat system that DDO offers. The performance problems the reviewer has I don't experience myself and I'm using a similar computer. The only difference is that my CPU is .55 mghz faster than hers.
Complaining about the Dungeon Master narration? That's one of the things that makes DDO a DnD game that pnp players can relate to. Nothing unique? How about a twitch based system, the first MMO to introduce VoIP, and the best dungeon crawl experience if you consider best as having the most variety of dungeons and traps etc. Not being worth a monthly fee? I realize you stated that this was your opinion, but what a shitty opinion to have about a game that brings an experience that you really can't have in any other MMORPG out there to date.
Nothing was mentioned on how you can customize your class and multi-class to the point where this game is really close to being a skill based game. Nothing was mentioned about how the combat system and collision detection allows for superior tactics than is able to be used in most other MMORPG's.
Does the feeling you get from running dungeons change much from the starter island to max level? No, but that's not a bad thing, because the game delivers a great dungeon crawl experience starting with your first quest. Puzzles, dungeons, and tactics needed to defeat monsters gets harder as the game progresses, but the game contains the same elements (puzzle solving, hack and slash, hidden/locked doors, tressure hunting, and traps) from lvl 1 all the way to lvl 16.
The reviewer really let the MMORPG community down with this review, because it doesn't do DDO justice. The review didn't capture the essence of DDO, nor did the reviewer experience the game enough to write a review. I recently resubbed to the game after gearing out my character in WoW and found out that DDO changed the newb experience in Module 8. I got a friend to try it out and he could come here and tell you that the 10 day trial is not nearly enough to be able to review DDO off of, because you still won't completely understand the game or the possibilities DDO offers in that short amount of time. Hell, it takes most people in the community 3-4 weeks of playing around before they even know what kind of class "theme" they want to follow.
I'm not saying DDO doesn't have it's disadvantages, but the reviewer exaggerated a lot of things and didn't focus on anything really that makes DDO a great game. Anyone can look at my post history and tell that I don't normally post things like this, but this reviewer really screwed up.
MMORPG's w/ Max level characters: DAoC, SWG, & WoW
Currently Playing: WAR
Preferred Playstyle: Roleplay/adventurous, in a sandbox game.
I played in beta and when it started, and I pop in from time to time, whenever I hear people writing about how great it is or they do a "welcome back" offer. I find it at best "meh" and very inert.
My experience is that it has the least friendly players that I have met in a PvE game.
I suspect it is fine for what it is, but I would be surprised if there were many new players coming in and having fun who aren't MMORPG long-timers, unless they do so with their significant other, family, etc. who knows the ropes.
Not true. I just started playing a month ago. If I stand still for more than a few minutes in the starting area then I get invites from all kinds of people. Considering that I brought a group of friends with me and don't need nor want to pick up random people, all the extraneous invites were even somewhat annoying.
At level 7 my wife's cleric can't even log in to check the AH without a steady stream of tells asking her to join groups. Honestly, I think she was getting more group invites in DDO than we ever did in WoW, AoC, or WAR.
I just restarted DDO, and I'm not getting steady stream of invites. In fact, over the past week, I've gotten 1 invite and that person didn't say a word once I accepted, so I left the group. I play on the Sarlona server, which is the same server I've played on off and on since I was a founder. I have Drow unlocked on this server, and I'd hate to reroll on another, since Drow is only unlocked on the server you unlocked it on (I could be wrong). What server do you play on with a community so active you have to beat them away with a stick. It really sounds like an exaggeration to me, but who knows, you could be telling the truth. Thankfully, I can just roll a character on your server to verify that and if you're not exaggerating, maybe my friend and I should reroll.
MMORPG's w/ Max level characters: DAoC, SWG, & WoW
Currently Playing: WAR
Preferred Playstyle: Roleplay/adventurous, in a sandbox game.
I played in beta and when it started, and I pop in from time to time, whenever I hear people writing about how great it is or they do a "welcome back" offer. I find it at best "meh" and very inert.
My experience is that it has the least friendly players that I have met in a PvE game.
I suspect it is fine for what it is, but I would be surprised if there were many new players coming in and having fun who aren't MMORPG long-timers, unless they do so with their significant other, family, etc. who knows the ropes.
Least friendly players met in a PvE game!!
Hate to break this to you but every MMO out there has those ppl in it, also has some players that will bend over backwards to help you, other players will give you freebies without even being asked, other players will kill steal you until you feel like pulling your hair out etc etc etc the list is endless and it happens in every single MMO to date and is not confined to just DDO.
My son still plays this game and still has ppl giving him freebies to help him out, but he also gets ppl kicking him from grps because a "friend of theirs just logged on" so he gets a bit of both worlds in the game, however if you also go into an MMO with a bad attitude ppl tend to pick up on it and will either ignore you or treat you with the same disrespect shown them, it's a 2 way street in any game.
Not true. I just started playing a month ago. If I stand still for more than a few minutes in the starting area then I get invites from all kinds of people. Considering that I brought a group of friends with me and don't need nor want to pick up random people, all the extraneous invites were even somewhat annoying.
At level 7 my wife's cleric can't even log in to check the AH without a steady stream of tells asking her to join groups. Honestly, I think she was getting more group invites in DDO than we ever did in WoW, AoC, or WAR.
I just restarted DDO, and I'm not getting steady stream of invites. In fact, over the past week, I've gotten 1 invite and that person didn't say a word once I accepted, so I left the group. I play on the Sarlona server, which is the same server I've played on off and on since I was a founder. I have Drow unlocked on this server, and I'd hate to reroll on another, since Drow is only unlocked on the server you unlocked it on (I could be wrong). What server do you play on with a community so active you have to beat them away with a stick. It really sounds like an exaggeration to me, but who knows, you could be telling the truth. Thankfully, I can just roll a character on your server to verify that and if you're not exaggerating, maybe my friend and I should reroll.
I play on Khyber and it seems that there are quite a few all lvl groups out there. Also Drow wont transfer from server to server. You need to get the favor for each server.
-Almerel
Hello my old friend.
*enters thread with head bowed low*
Hey guys,
I'm jumping in here to face the music and let everyone know that I screwed up. This article was submitted to me should have been labelled as an early game review and not with the weight of a re-review. I've corrected the mistake, and a full review, taking more elements of the game into account, will be forthcoming.
So, if you're all going to be mad at someone. That should probably be me and not the writer who was just completing the assignment I gave her.
So, as Optimus Prime would say in a moment that negated my childhood love of his cartoon... my bad.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
I have played, and even at one point returned to, DDO for a few months, but I am by no means a zealous fan for the game. I certainly enjoy it, and I do so for several experiences that this poor reviewer seems to have missed =(. The unique dungeons, the active combat, the beautiful group dynamic that solid (can't run through them) characters creates.
Also, I am on a terribly lame laptop that is simply incapable of running WAR or AoC at any steady, decent framerate, and I have absolutely no performance problems with DDO on high settings. I also find the graphics to be stellar, especially for how well they run.
I don't think hostility toward the reviewer will help anything =(. Sounds like there was some terrible problem with the comp that helped bring the game down to an unplayable level. I would recommend anybody try it for themselves.
As somebody who plays D&D pnp once a week, I find the game quite entertaining some times, and just unsubscribe when I feel like leaving it for a while.
Playing: Single-player games
Awaiting: Stargate, Star Trek, assuming the burnout has passed
Retired: WoW, BC, LotRO, DDO, CoH/V, EVE, WotLK, WAR
Ion,
Agreed. I've been playing DDO for half of its life and have to say that were it not because me and my RL buddies played together I would've left the game in no time. Having said that, I have also tried many other MMOs and they are fall short of DDO's offerings. Not the perfect game by any stretch of the imagination, but, IMO, it's one of the best offerings out there in so far as combat system, immersive experience and complexity. Let's not forget it's based on D&D (and d20 system in general) and all of its immense lore. You don't have to be an RPGer geek to like this game. It's very deep in many aspects. It's definitely worth to try it.
Now ... as for the community ... it does leave much to be desired and can be right out caustic at times. Yes, it's better than most MMOs out there but that doesn't say much. Go to their forums, for instance. The flamewars, the bitching and whining it's beyond belief. Some of this forum behavior transends to the game itself and some characters in game have a rather deplorable attitude.
And yes, it's a review...don't get your panties up in a bunch. Don't agree with it, you don't have to. No need to insult the writer ... BTW it only makes her point stronger.
Peace.
"Freedom is just another name for nothing left to lose" - Janis Joplin
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I'm a woman gamer (a mum), and have played DDO for three years with no breaks in my subscription. I felt that a big part of the reviewer's discontent stemmed from hurdles like tech issues, a low population interlude, inexperience with what makes this game tick, and a world coming down session. I wish she had posted on DDO forums inviting the community to come and show her the game; I'm sure she would have had a far more robust and enjoyable experience if she had done that. She had bad luck, and voila, we have the bad review which ignores all the great things about this game.
The things that the review didn't consider were the very things that make me favour this game over the other MMOs I've played (Vanguard, Age of Conan, Lord of the Rings).
Very briefly (in a bit of a rush), DDO gets my 5 thumbs up for the following features:
Built in voice chat (as a woman, I like to size up who I'm playing with before talking);
More mature player base (average age is low thirties I think, and many of the players are super people, not too brash or wild);
The ability to really customize each class's starting stats, skills, and feats (the cookie cutter classes of the other MMOs I have played felt very cloney, and not varied enough),
The ability to multiclass with up to 2 other classes (not possible in other MMOs) plus a nice variety of both races (Elves, Humans, Dwarves, Halflings, Drow, Warforged and classes (Fighter, Barbarian, Paladin, Monk, Cleric, Wizard, Sorceror, Rogue, Ranger, Bard) to choose from;
A world that isn't too huge because I personally find the vast and repetitive timesink of expansiveworld travel to be a grind deluxe, and I like to get to quests in a fast efficient fashion (don't want the MMO to be my career);
Minimal kill x of y animal type questing (though this can be found in explorer areas for the player who isn't up for some serious questage);
A very group oriented style of real time hack and slash gameplay (not the simplistic icon-clicking, wait for cooldown mechanics from other MMOs);
The fact that my characters can swim, balance, jump, tumble, sneak, etc (most MMOs only let you run, swim, and jump);
The fact that Turbine seems to be updating older content (like in the New Player area), and has facilitated the use of even more amazing graphics (DirectX 10);
The fact that the Module updates are free!!!
The fact that there are Prestige classes in the pipeline, and another level cap raise!
And I like that the game isn't all about PvP; I like PvE, and think that DDO handles PvP very nicely by having it restricted to taverns and to certain team games.
Character creation is Fab. So many of the games I've played tout their great character creation systems, and I've always ended up prefering the DDO system. I want to be able to change eye styles, not move them up or down, or further apart to look martian. I prefer more eye colours to a variety of similar murky ones (Aoc style), and I like lots of hair styles and colours. Changing body shapes and proportions, or moving ears around just wasn't fun for me. I like that DDO gives me lots of hair styles, hair colours, skin colours, eye shapes, eye colours, lip shapes, lip colours. That's what I like in DDO Character Creation.
I like the variety in Module releases. Mods like the Gianthold one with it's alien landscape feel and fun quests, the Shroud Module, and the recent Reaver's Refuge Modules stand out, though the others did fun stuff too. Gianthold brought us the divine high-fashion lines of blue, black, and white Dragon Scale Armours/Robes etc, and the Shroud brought us a really fun crafting system, whereby we customize both items and weapons to achieve a variety of impressive effects per end product. The Reaver's Refuge brought us armour crafting, also pretty fun in a different way; and in that system we can stack three attributes on each armour/robe we make. I love this crafting stuff to death, and am hoping more crafting gets added to the game as time goes by.
For first time players, I would recommend that they look for a guild to join as soon as they can, probably by posting on the forums. This is such a party oriented game that it can only properly and fairly be evalutated in a group context. Receiving input on the rather complex and interesting character creation possibilites, is really very integral to understanding what makes DDO tick. So is a solid understanding of gameplay mechanics. Each class plays quite differently. The learning curve in DDO can take a while, and takes some effort.
I found in Age of Conan, that I got a couple of characters to level 40 and only grouped twice (not so fun with no audio chat). That killed the game for me; I didn't need people and it was lonely, and gawd the endless travelling drove me nuts. (What can I say? I'm impatient!)
To play alone or with only one other person in DDO is missing the point. Even box breaking is for compulsive moments, or maybe for while I wait for someone to catch up.
If the reviewer played the game with a bunch of everyday DDO gamers, I think she'd get a different impression than playing with another newbie, at a low population moment, while having tech hassles, and with the world coming down.
Cheers, and be fluffy!!!
DivaGamer
(Sharzade)
DDO turns 3! Happy Birthday!!
Wow..the fanboys sure came out from the woodwork for this one.
This reviewers opinion is from a new toons perspective, not some endgame, fully fledged toon. I also see alot of flaming cause she didn't play to endgame and by that didn't experienced the 'real' game. If you can't experience the 'real' game from day 1 the game is one big failure. You need to enjoy the game from the beginning, not the end so the argument that cause she didn't experience the endgame, her review is >nil: is just stupid.
Her technical issues sound like overheating though as DDO hardly ever push the system to it's limit.
My opinion why this game is such a failure is summed down to just one word: mana. For a DnD purist this is an unforgivable sin. So to me this aint a dnd game, it's just loosely based on dnd, like all the rest of the mmo's are and by that ruined the whole game for me. I realize though there was no other way to do it cause of the mechanics and realtime nature of mmo's.
---
Grammar nazi's. This one is for you.
As if you'd read it, you'd know that it's not a fan-boy job (and I hate such term, very arrogant, as well as "noob").
Other than that, it's hard to discuss constructively with your post. Seems like you don't have a clue what you're talking about.
And no, DDO isn't a failure. More so, if you'd observe DDO EU servers recently, you'd see the numbers of players are rising drastically. WITHOUT any press, this is the first article in a long time.
The game just grows now because of it's quality. Just wait for Module 9, I think there will be a massive influx of players.
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Keep in mind that the title of the article has just been changed. The original article was entitled "A Re-Review of DDO" and seemed very incomplete with that in mind. Most players would be shocked if a reassessment of their MMO was based just on an early brush with starter content.
Fortunately, they've fixed the title error. Don't be too hard on us, we were just taken aback. 
DivaGamer
DDO turns 3! Happy Birthday!!
IMO, the 2 things that are holding DDO back are 1. Turbine's complete lack of anything resembling customer support. From server stability to trying to get a response from their support guys, turbine is the worst ever, and 2. How drawn out the Kothos crap is. I have sent buddy passes to all kinds of friends and they rarely make it past buthcer's pass. The gripe is always the same villiage>island>misery 's peak is just a retarded long grind for a quasi tutorial area. Seems to be where this reveiw died as well ( makes doing alts a pain as well).
The other one that I think scares people away from DDO is so much of the community is all about the super zerg of everything as they have been around for 3 yrs and have done everything 30 times. Thats a real turn off for the new guy who can't even keep up, let alone figure out whats going on.
no worries, fixed.
What is funny is...I agree with that sentiment.
Most MMO's today are pretty boring, and have you doing the same thing over ...almost kinda like running a dungeon over and over.
Still does not change the fact that DDO is not worth a monthly fee.
That is an opinion not a fact.
You probably have a higher level toon. I can assure you that groups in the newbie area are difficult at best to find.
As an experiment, you might roll a new toon and see how easy it is to get into groups in the newbie area. Remember, the reviewer was starting a new toon and this was the environment that she found. So, you need to compare apples to apples.
Ion
My only character is lvl 7, i have a newborn and a family and don't have lots of time to play, but when i do, i'm hardly standing around looking for a group. Being a cleric helps as well
I have to counter this argument. Low level areas in DDO have enough people that at 2 am on the East Coast I have no trouble finding a group to do most anything. Will it be a full group of 6 with exactly the classes I want? No, but it will be enough people to get the quest done.