If Turbine were so quick to shut down Asheron's Call 2 then why are they keeping Dungeons & Dragons Online alive?
All due respect, DDO is truely an awesome game in many regards and far superior to more mainstream games that overshadow it; this doesn't mean there aren't flaws. While I completely dissagree with Turbine's ficticious carroting of Mod9 this FTP hybrid is perfect for DDO. Give it a year, I bet it's going to be considered a success.
Does this fix the lag? Have they readdressed this at all with the new annoucement? They keep changing data centers but nothing seemed to improve.
No, the lag comes from farming out the servers on the cheap because th egame was not bringing in enogh money. You think it was bad before, just wait for it to go F2P when everything is on the cheap.
Originally posted by HorrorScope What happens if I go FTP after that do I lose the dungeons? Team: Lets go run this. Player 4: I can't I don't own that. Ok then lets go over here. Player 3: I don't own that. To be honest this is a lot to think about and it's giving me a headache.
Exactly why this F2P model, the piecemeal thing, won't work. It is a group game yet you are to buy access here and there and try to get anything done in a game with so few players already that even fragmented it is hard to find groups. It make no sense and won't work, clearly the only reason to do this is to test and develop the RMT system for other projects.
Originally posted by mindspat
All due respect, DDO is truely an awesome game in many regards and far superior to more mainstream games that overshadow it; this doesn't mean there aren't flaws. While I completely dissagree with Turbine's ficticious carroting of Mod9 this FTP hybrid is perfect for DDO. Give it a year, I bet it's going to be considered a success.
Yeah, it is superior and that is why it failed to attract even the bare minimum number of players to keep a few servers up and running as a traditional sub based MMO. Itemshopping DDO will ruin it - think it was Monty Haul before just wait. Think the mechanics where bogus at times before - wait until you can spend real money to get a rez in dungeon or buy resources in dungeon mid quest. It goes against the game's core design and clearly it is for testing not for the future of the game.
If Turbine were so quick to shut down Asheron's Call 2 then why are they keeping Dungeons & Dragons Online alive?
All due respect, DDO is truely an awesome game in many regards and far superior to more mainstream games that overshadow it; this doesn't mean there aren't flaws. While I completely dissagree with Turbine's ficticious carroting of Mod9 this FTP hybrid is perfect for DDO. Give it a year, I bet it's going to be considered a success.
THis is probably the best way to revive this game and get some real numbers to pump up the population. But having played many F2P I do worry about the quality of the community in game when this goes live. F2P are not known for the mature and helpful community DDO has always had. DDO absolutely has its high points that to me are better than the WOWs of the world, but mass appeal has so far not been one of them.
"Hey, I'll tell you what. You can get a good look at a butcher's azz by sticking your head up there. But, wouldn't you rather to take his word for it?" - Tommy Boy
The reality is that DDO needed to do something....i'm surprised this move wasnt made long ago to be honest...... I think if the majority of us listed our top 20 MMOs, DDO might make 1 out of 20 lists......It was pretty much forgotten as far as most of us are concerned....With it going f2p some of us might take a look at it that otherwise never would have.......I played it in beta, and while I never would have considered paying a sub for it I would certainly download it for free.
The first F2P worth buying stuff for. I'll be interested to see if Turbine succeeds with this.
Either way I think it will be a hot topic in the MMO news circles for some time. This is a pretty big title moving to a new pay format and taking a big risk. Fail or succeed I think they get a bit of press out of this over the next year.
Originally posted by AgtSmith ROFL @ the DDO fans for their refusal to acknowledge the clear reality of the situation. DDO didn't fail as an MMO because it had the wrong pricing model it failed because it is not a good MMO, period.
That's a bit delusional. Anyone who's played DDO when it launched, regardless if they play today or not, knows the game sucked. There were a lot of flaws with the core design of the game which many have been resolved. What you conveiently ignore is the game had been vastly improved beyond that initial state it was in when it launched. I honestly don't execpt you to understand this although I know others who read the forums in fact will.
Today's DDO is not the same game that failed at launch. That failed launch had inadvertantly carried through into today's quality experiance by not penetrating the target audience. Adopting a hybrid Free/Pay system grants the game the exposure it deserves without any loss to the subscribing players.
Originally posted by AgtSmith ROFL @ the DDO fans for their refusal to acknowledge the clear reality of the situation. DDO didn't fail as an MMO because it had the wrong pricing model it failed because it is not a good MMO, period.
That's a bit delusional. Anyone who's played DDO when it launched, regardless if they play today or not, knows the game sucked. There were a lot of flaws with the core design of the game which many have been resolved. What you conveiently ignore is the game had been vastly improved beyond that initial state it was in when it launched. I honestly don't execpt you to understand this although I know others who read the forums in fact will.
Today's DDO is not the same game that failed at launch. That failed launch had inadvertantly carried through into today's quality experiance by not penetrating the target audience. Adopting a hybrid Free/Pay system grants the game the exposure it deserves without any loss to the subscribing players.
DDO is still not a mass appeal mainstream MMO. It lacks a lot of things people want in an MMO. It is a great dungeon crawler and the classes are one of the main reasons I cam back after 1 1/2 years away. That said the game today while evolved and different from release is still not a mass appeal MMO. DDO will never be that kind of game as it is set up.
This is an expected move, many people predicted free to play was the only way that DDO could survive. You can't charge people for 8 months of fees (times the full going rate) and not deliver a single patch, update or live event.
Now that you have the option to play for free, Turbine can essentially dodge the bullet of having to drum up new content repeatedly. This move will prevent the pitchforks and the torches from being lit when they are 3 months late on a module. Don't look for any increase in content release, in fact look for them to be even FURTHER apart than they are now.
Another troubling aspect of this is that Turbine has now re-defined what the monthly fee entitles you to. In the past, access to all your characters (regardless of slot, race or class) was included in the monthly fee. Now, they are letting you know that you don't get access to all your characters any more. Did you roll a monk? oops, that's not included any more with the free play. Drow wizard? Oh, we're sorry but that's a pay for play service now.
So what they meant to say was Free to Play except: monks, drows, anything in character slot 3-10, The Shroud, The Desert, or any other zone not in the "vicinity" of Stormreach, future updates, talking in public chat or any other such activity deemed as "normal".
By the way, this may be a good time to call this the sequel to DDO that everyone has been after. Call it DDO2: Back to Beta.
Originally posted by AgtSmith ROFL @ the DDO fans for their refusal to acknowledge the clear reality of the situation. DDO didn't fail as an MMO because it had the wrong pricing model it failed because it is not a good MMO, period.
That's a bit delusional. Anyone who's played DDO when it launched, regardless if they play today or not, knows the game sucked. There were a lot of flaws with the core design of the game which many have been resolved. What you conveiently ignore is the game had been vastly improved beyond that initial state it was in when it launched. I honestly don't execpt you to understand this although I know others who read the forums in fact will.
Today's DDO is not the same game that failed at launch. That failed launch had inadvertantly carried through into today's quality experiance by not penetrating the target audience. Adopting a hybrid Free/Pay system grants the game the exposure it deserves without any loss to the subscribing players.
Uhm, yes it is the same game. Granted it is the same game with more of the content that was missing at launch but otherwise it is the exactly same game. I am not trying to disregard the additions since launch, but there is nothing that has been added to DDO that substantively changes the way the game plays or the overall gameplay expereince save maybe hirelings and even though I liked them most people seemed not to like them.
Moreover, the idea that the F2P market is a ticket to mass apeal is ridiculous. Big time games are P2P, games not big enough to draw subs are F2P and most F2P games are something P2P MMO players won't touch with a ten foot keyboard because of the childish communities, items shop crap, and other subtle to obvious ways the games interject RMT to gameplay (i.e. what I said about the rez for RMT, how long before they start putting in less shrines or unfairly harder MOBs to force people to pay for a rez).
There is just no good spin to this announcement, it shows how bad a state DDO was in even to those who refused to believe it, it showed that MOD9 was BS, that the lag and server issues where cost saving. And the things I have pointed out make it at least serisouly plausible that this move is far less about DDo becoming popular or profitable and more about finding a way to test the RMT system they are planning for other things.
Originally posted by AgtSmith ROFL @ the DDO fans for their refusal to acknowledge the clear reality of the situation. DDO didn't fail as an MMO because it had the wrong pricing model it failed because it is not a good MMO, period.
That's a bit delusional. Anyone who's played DDO when it launched, regardless if they play today or not, knows the game sucked. There were a lot of flaws with the core design of the game which many have been resolved. What you conveiently ignore is the game had been vastly improved beyond that initial state it was in when it launched. I honestly don't execpt you to understand this although I know others who read the forums in fact will.
Today's DDO is not the same game that failed at launch. That failed launch had inadvertantly carried through into today's quality experiance by not penetrating the target audience. Adopting a hybrid Free/Pay system grants the game the exposure it deserves without any loss to the subscribing players.
DDO is still not a mass appeal mainstream MMO. It lacks a lot of things people want in an MMO. It is a great dungeon crawler and the classes are one of the main reasons I cam back after 1 1/2 years away. That said the game today while evolved and different from release is still not a mass appeal MMO. DDO will never be that kind of game as it is set up.
If you're posts had a sliver of accuracy attatched to them I'd probably be more inclined to agree, but your posts are historically very knee jerk while appearing to ignore facts. Unfortunately you're one of three posters here who I have enough experiance with to question anything claimed to be factual.
Most people who play subscription based MMO's have never heard of Dungeons & Dragons Online. While there's many reasons for this claiming the current game is a failure as reason for such is ignorance at best. Shifting to a Free/Pay hybrid will penetrate the target audience and introduce the game to a plethora of people who likely would never had experianced the game in it's current Subscription Only model.
I am not trying to disregard the additions since launch, but there is nothing that has been added to DDO that substantively changes the way the game plays or the overall gameplay expereince save maybe hirelings...
You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.
Yeah - this is a good thing. Failing at the actual target audience (people willing to pay to play) and coming up with some half assed marketing relaunch as a F2P is how the game can reach its real target audience. Fact it, it is a bad MMO - despite all they have done since launch the reason they are doing this (aside from the testbed thing I mentioned) is because it just is not a good MMO. They can try this f2P thing and hope it works but the reality is DDO is a bad MMO and the rebrand and price model change will not change that.
Had they wanted to really remodel the game in a way that suits how it is built they would do a Guild Wars thing but they clearly have no plans to really develop more for it so they came up with a way to try to get more blood from the stone, test their RMT system, and see what happens. I seriously doubt anyone at Turbine thinks this will make DDO more popular or really more profitable save the fact that the new price model justifies them further cutting the costs and saving on development of future stuff much more than the old model. This is a rebranding, not a reinvention and as such it has little chance of really achieving anything new as for the most part nothing has changed it is still the same game, good at some things but sadly trying to pass for an MMO. I doubt it will find much success as a F2P, I can hardly see the serious D&D folks standing for the real money to rez and run through the Shroud or other top content type stuff that will be necessary to succeed in FTP nor will they tolerate the childish twits that so overpopulate F2P games. The fragmentation of grouping will be a nightmare with even greater challenge being added to grouping in a game already having grouping issues. All around it is just a desperate move, bold, but clearly desperate and desperation rarely yields much in things such as this not to mention that for the most part F2P MMOs are off the radar of the broader MMO community.
But again, I hold to my thought that this is more about developing and testing an RMT system than it is improving or saving DDO. Yeah, if this brings in enough cash to keep it open then so be it but Turbine is smart enough to know how unlikely a real change in DDOs profitability is, they are smartly already working on Potter of LotRO console (or both) and this is an excellent way to write off something they clearly think is an essential part of future success of those projects, that being RMT. come on people, do we think they brought in a new top dog (Ken Surdan) who is an RMT expert to redo this failed mess that is DDO? Of course not - they have big future plans (console and otherwise) for RMT and this is how they are gonna test what they have in mind.
I am not trying to disregard the additions since launch, but there is nothing that has been added to DDO that substantively changes the way the game plays or the overall gameplay expereince save maybe hirelings...
You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.
I'm afraid I have the same impression - no idea. I just gave up answering to this now.
Originally posted by mindspatOriginally posted by AgtSmith
I am not trying to disregard the additions since launch, but there is nothing that has been added to DDO that substantively changes the way the game plays or the overall gameplay expereince save maybe hirelings...
You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.
Then elaborate if I am so wrong. Save content and new hirelings what new elements are in DDO now that where not in at launch? Is there housing? PvP (bar duels hardly count)? RvR? Open persistent world? Real crafting? An economy?
I am not saying the game has not been improved and that content has not been expanded, I am saying that while there is more of what there was at launch there is mostly all the same stuff missing as was missing at launch. DDO is still a 6 person instanced game in terms of anything quest/combat based (save raids which are 12 man), DDO is still a very static public city which is also instanced, DDO still has no crafting (you cannot call the stones of change and Shroud grind crafting), there is still no PvP system other than duels, no realm or faction based player verse player content, no housing for guilds or players and a number of other common MMO elements in the game. DDO is a dungeon crawler, plain and simple (even a good one if boxed and sold and developed that way) but it is still just as bad an MMO today as it was at launch because the truth of the matter is that it relaly is nto an MMO.
Originally posted by AgtSmith ROFL @ the DDO fans for their refusal to acknowledge the clear reality of the situation. DDO didn't fail as an MMO because it had the wrong pricing model it failed because it is not a good MMO, period.
That's a bit delusional. Anyone who's played DDO when it launched, regardless if they play today or not, knows the game sucked. There were a lot of flaws with the core design of the game which many have been resolved. What you conveiently ignore is the game had been vastly improved beyond that initial state it was in when it launched. I honestly don't execpt you to understand this although I know others who read the forums in fact will.
Today's DDO is not the same game that failed at launch. That failed launch had inadvertantly carried through into today's quality experiance by not penetrating the target audience. Adopting a hybrid Free/Pay system grants the game the exposure it deserves without any loss to the subscribing players.
DDO is still not a mass appeal mainstream MMO. It lacks a lot of things people want in an MMO. It is a great dungeon crawler and the classes are one of the main reasons I cam back after 1 1/2 years away. That said the game today while evolved and different from release is still not a mass appeal MMO. DDO will never be that kind of game as it is set up.
Most people who play subscription based MMO's have never heard of Dungeons & Dragons Online. While there's many reasons for this claiming the current game is a failure as reason for such is ignorance at best. Shifting to a Free/Pay hybrid will penetrate the target audience and introduce the game to a plethora of people who likely would never had experianced the game in it's current Subscription Only model.
Sorry not buying it. People have heard of DDO, especially MMO players as we tend to know what games are coming out soon or are out. To say DDo is nearly unheard of to MMO players is wishful thinking at best. Will F2P bring in more people? How could it not? Will they stay and pay money is the question and over DDOs history player retention has not been that great.
Sorry not buying it. People have heard of DDO, especially MMO players as we tend to know what games are coming out soon or are out. To say DDo is nearly unheard of to MMO players is wishful thinking at best.
Exactly, I mean seriously, one of the greatest IPs for an MMO and it is just not heard of? It was/is plenty heard of, the problem is it was quite forgettable.
Originally posted by Rokurgepta Will F2P bring in more people? How could it not? Will they stay and pay money is the question and over DDOs history player retention has not been that great.
This is the key point - being that it will no longer be P2P how many people bother with it is irrelevant since playing doesn't equate to paying. In changing the model to F2P it isn't about how many it becomes about how much. That also means the game will substantively change as all the good stuff has to be better available through RMT and other such negative changes the current players will certainly not like. All the more reason I have no doubt this is little more than a live testbed for a company that clearly sees its future plans needing a solid RMT model.
It's not like that game didn't already have a free trial and low cost of entry. You would think a ton of MMO's would at least have tried it for free? It's definitely a grasp without a doubt. It might be fun to play for a while with the influx. Overall pretty damn mixed over all of this and I think I already mentioned it gave me a headache.
Many things I like about this game, however many things I don't. I still feel the UI is non-intuitive and D&D rules aren't at all easy to grasp and most young players have zero idea of D&D rules. Those are probably the main reasons why people don't stay on after their time is up. Obviously there is a segment that simply won't play a heavily instanced mmo, that part I have no problem with.
Sorry not buying it. People have heard of DDO, especially MMO players as we tend to know what games are coming out soon or are out. To say DDo is nearly unheard of to MMO players is wishful thinking at best.
Exactly, I mean seriously, one of the greatest IPs for an MMO and it is just not heard of? It was/is plenty heard of, the problem is it was quite forgettable.
Originally posted by Rokurgepta Will F2P bring in more people? How could it not? Will they stay and pay money is the question and over DDOs history player retention has not been that great.
This is the key point - being that it will no longer be P2P how many people bother with it is irrelevant since playing doesn't equate to paying. In changing the model to F2P it isn't about how many it becomes about how much. That also means the game will substantively change as all the good stuff has to be better available through RMT and other such negative changes the current players will certainly not like. All the more reason I have no doubt this is little more than a live testbed for a company that clearly sees its future plans needing a solid RMT model.
Yeah several parts of the game I do like really have no business in a DnD game. Who woulda thunk that the fastest action fantasy MMO would be DnD? You think DnD and you think turned based. IMO what Turbine has would be better under a different name and defiantely a different ruleset to go along with the action. And a true DnD game would be a helluva lot slower.
I wonder how many DDO-EU players will stay with CM when the U.S players/new players will play for free(ish). If i would have to choose i would´ve go for the F2P and not stay and pay monthly for content that i may not like.
Comments
Does this fix the lag? Have they readdressed this at all with the new annoucement? They keep changing data centers but nothing seemed to improve.
All due respect, DDO is truely an awesome game in many regards and far superior to more mainstream games that overshadow it; this doesn't mean there aren't flaws. While I completely dissagree with Turbine's ficticious carroting of Mod9 this FTP hybrid is perfect for DDO. Give it a year, I bet it's going to be considered a success.
Todays announcement included a message about the lag being fixed. It better be or all those new players will not be happy for long.
No, the lag comes from farming out the servers on the cheap because th egame was not bringing in enogh money. You think it was bad before, just wait for it to go F2P when everything is on the cheap.
Exactly why this F2P model, the piecemeal thing, won't work. It is a group game yet you are to buy access here and there and try to get anything done in a game with so few players already that even fragmented it is hard to find groups. It make no sense and won't work, clearly the only reason to do this is to test and develop the RMT system for other projects.
Yeah, it is superior and that is why it failed to attract even the bare minimum number of players to keep a few servers up and running as a traditional sub based MMO. Itemshopping DDO will ruin it - think it was Monty Haul before just wait. Think the mechanics where bogus at times before - wait until you can spend real money to get a rez in dungeon or buy resources in dungeon mid quest. It goes against the game's core design and clearly it is for testing not for the future of the game.
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All due respect, DDO is truely an awesome game in many regards and far superior to more mainstream games that overshadow it; this doesn't mean there aren't flaws. While I completely dissagree with Turbine's ficticious carroting of Mod9 this FTP hybrid is perfect for DDO. Give it a year, I bet it's going to be considered a success.
THis is probably the best way to revive this game and get some real numbers to pump up the population. But having played many F2P I do worry about the quality of the community in game when this goes live. F2P are not known for the mature and helpful community DDO has always had. DDO absolutely has its high points that to me are better than the WOWs of the world, but mass appeal has so far not been one of them.
The first F2P worth buying stuff for.
I'll be interested to see if Turbine succeeds with this.
[(T+G=W)=Gr*Nf]-S=FoF
T=Time G=Gear W=Win Gr=Grind Nf=NoFun S=Skill FoF=FullofFail
"Hey, I'll tell you what. You can get a good look at a butcher's azz by sticking your head up there. But, wouldn't you rather to take his word for it?" - Tommy Boy
The reality is that DDO needed to do something....i'm surprised this move wasnt made long ago to be honest...... I think if the majority of us listed our top 20 MMOs, DDO might make 1 out of 20 lists......It was pretty much forgotten as far as most of us are concerned....With it going f2p some of us might take a look at it that otherwise never would have.......I played it in beta, and while I never would have considered paying a sub for it I would certainly download it for free.
Either way I think it will be a hot topic in the MMO news circles for some time. This is a pretty big title moving to a new pay format and taking a big risk. Fail or succeed I think they get a bit of press out of this over the next year.
That's a bit delusional. Anyone who's played DDO when it launched, regardless if they play today or not, knows the game sucked. There were a lot of flaws with the core design of the game which many have been resolved. What you conveiently ignore is the game had been vastly improved beyond that initial state it was in when it launched. I honestly don't execpt you to understand this although I know others who read the forums in fact will.
Today's DDO is not the same game that failed at launch. That failed launch had inadvertantly carried through into today's quality experiance by not penetrating the target audience. Adopting a hybrid Free/Pay system grants the game the exposure it deserves without any loss to the subscribing players.
That's a bit delusional. Anyone who's played DDO when it launched, regardless if they play today or not, knows the game sucked. There were a lot of flaws with the core design of the game which many have been resolved. What you conveiently ignore is the game had been vastly improved beyond that initial state it was in when it launched. I honestly don't execpt you to understand this although I know others who read the forums in fact will.
Today's DDO is not the same game that failed at launch. That failed launch had inadvertantly carried through into today's quality experiance by not penetrating the target audience. Adopting a hybrid Free/Pay system grants the game the exposure it deserves without any loss to the subscribing players.
DDO is still not a mass appeal mainstream MMO. It lacks a lot of things people want in an MMO. It is a great dungeon crawler and the classes are one of the main reasons I cam back after 1 1/2 years away. That said the game today while evolved and different from release is still not a mass appeal MMO. DDO will never be that kind of game as it is set up.
This is an expected move, many people predicted free to play was the only way that DDO could survive. You can't charge people for 8 months of fees (times the full going rate) and not deliver a single patch, update or live event.
Now that you have the option to play for free, Turbine can essentially dodge the bullet of having to drum up new content repeatedly. This move will prevent the pitchforks and the torches from being lit when they are 3 months late on a module. Don't look for any increase in content release, in fact look for them to be even FURTHER apart than they are now.
Another troubling aspect of this is that Turbine has now re-defined what the monthly fee entitles you to. In the past, access to all your characters (regardless of slot, race or class) was included in the monthly fee. Now, they are letting you know that you don't get access to all your characters any more. Did you roll a monk? oops, that's not included any more with the free play. Drow wizard? Oh, we're sorry but that's a pay for play service now.
So what they meant to say was Free to Play except: monks, drows, anything in character slot 3-10, The Shroud, The Desert, or any other zone not in the "vicinity" of Stormreach, future updates, talking in public chat or any other such activity deemed as "normal".
By the way, this may be a good time to call this the sequel to DDO that everyone has been after. Call it DDO2: Back to Beta.
That's a bit delusional. Anyone who's played DDO when it launched, regardless if they play today or not, knows the game sucked. There were a lot of flaws with the core design of the game which many have been resolved. What you conveiently ignore is the game had been vastly improved beyond that initial state it was in when it launched. I honestly don't execpt you to understand this although I know others who read the forums in fact will.
Today's DDO is not the same game that failed at launch. That failed launch had inadvertantly carried through into today's quality experiance by not penetrating the target audience. Adopting a hybrid Free/Pay system grants the game the exposure it deserves without any loss to the subscribing players.
Uhm, yes it is the same game. Granted it is the same game with more of the content that was missing at launch but otherwise it is the exactly same game. I am not trying to disregard the additions since launch, but there is nothing that has been added to DDO that substantively changes the way the game plays or the overall gameplay expereince save maybe hirelings and even though I liked them most people seemed not to like them.
Moreover, the idea that the F2P market is a ticket to mass apeal is ridiculous. Big time games are P2P, games not big enough to draw subs are F2P and most F2P games are something P2P MMO players won't touch with a ten foot keyboard because of the childish communities, items shop crap, and other subtle to obvious ways the games interject RMT to gameplay (i.e. what I said about the rez for RMT, how long before they start putting in less shrines or unfairly harder MOBs to force people to pay for a rez).
There is just no good spin to this announcement, it shows how bad a state DDO was in even to those who refused to believe it, it showed that MOD9 was BS, that the lag and server issues where cost saving. And the things I have pointed out make it at least serisouly plausible that this move is far less about DDo becoming popular or profitable and more about finding a way to test the RMT system they are planning for other things.
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That's a bit delusional. Anyone who's played DDO when it launched, regardless if they play today or not, knows the game sucked. There were a lot of flaws with the core design of the game which many have been resolved. What you conveiently ignore is the game had been vastly improved beyond that initial state it was in when it launched. I honestly don't execpt you to understand this although I know others who read the forums in fact will.
Today's DDO is not the same game that failed at launch. That failed launch had inadvertantly carried through into today's quality experiance by not penetrating the target audience. Adopting a hybrid Free/Pay system grants the game the exposure it deserves without any loss to the subscribing players.
DDO is still not a mass appeal mainstream MMO. It lacks a lot of things people want in an MMO. It is a great dungeon crawler and the classes are one of the main reasons I cam back after 1 1/2 years away. That said the game today while evolved and different from release is still not a mass appeal MMO. DDO will never be that kind of game as it is set up.
If you're posts had a sliver of accuracy attatched to them I'd probably be more inclined to agree, but your posts are historically very knee jerk while appearing to ignore facts. Unfortunately you're one of three posters here who I have enough experiance with to question anything claimed to be factual.
Most people who play subscription based MMO's have never heard of Dungeons & Dragons Online. While there's many reasons for this claiming the current game is a failure as reason for such is ignorance at best. Shifting to a Free/Pay hybrid will penetrate the target audience and introduce the game to a plethora of people who likely would never had experianced the game in it's current Subscription Only model.
You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.
Yeah - this is a good thing. Failing at the actual target audience (people willing to pay to play) and coming up with some half assed marketing relaunch as a F2P is how the game can reach its real target audience. Fact it, it is a bad MMO - despite all they have done since launch the reason they are doing this (aside from the testbed thing I mentioned) is because it just is not a good MMO. They can try this f2P thing and hope it works but the reality is DDO is a bad MMO and the rebrand and price model change will not change that.
Had they wanted to really remodel the game in a way that suits how it is built they would do a Guild Wars thing but they clearly have no plans to really develop more for it so they came up with a way to try to get more blood from the stone, test their RMT system, and see what happens. I seriously doubt anyone at Turbine thinks this will make DDO more popular or really more profitable save the fact that the new price model justifies them further cutting the costs and saving on development of future stuff much more than the old model. This is a rebranding, not a reinvention and as such it has little chance of really achieving anything new as for the most part nothing has changed it is still the same game, good at some things but sadly trying to pass for an MMO. I doubt it will find much success as a F2P, I can hardly see the serious D&D folks standing for the real money to rez and run through the Shroud or other top content type stuff that will be necessary to succeed in FTP nor will they tolerate the childish twits that so overpopulate F2P games. The fragmentation of grouping will be a nightmare with even greater challenge being added to grouping in a game already having grouping issues. All around it is just a desperate move, bold, but clearly desperate and desperation rarely yields much in things such as this not to mention that for the most part F2P MMOs are off the radar of the broader MMO community.
But again, I hold to my thought that this is more about developing and testing an RMT system than it is improving or saving DDO. Yeah, if this brings in enough cash to keep it open then so be it but Turbine is smart enough to know how unlikely a real change in DDOs profitability is, they are smartly already working on Potter of LotRO console (or both) and this is an excellent way to write off something they clearly think is an essential part of future success of those projects, that being RMT. come on people, do we think they brought in a new top dog (Ken Surdan) who is an RMT expert to redo this failed mess that is DDO? Of course not - they have big future plans (console and otherwise) for RMT and this is how they are gonna test what they have in mind.
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You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.
I'm afraid I have the same impression - no idea. I just gave up answering to this now.
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You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.
Then elaborate if I am so wrong. Save content and new hirelings what new elements are in DDO now that where not in at launch? Is there housing? PvP (bar duels hardly count)? RvR? Open persistent world? Real crafting? An economy?
I am not saying the game has not been improved and that content has not been expanded, I am saying that while there is more of what there was at launch there is mostly all the same stuff missing as was missing at launch. DDO is still a 6 person instanced game in terms of anything quest/combat based (save raids which are 12 man), DDO is still a very static public city which is also instanced, DDO still has no crafting (you cannot call the stones of change and Shroud grind crafting), there is still no PvP system other than duels, no realm or faction based player verse player content, no housing for guilds or players and a number of other common MMO elements in the game. DDO is a dungeon crawler, plain and simple (even a good one if boxed and sold and developed that way) but it is still just as bad an MMO today as it was at launch because the truth of the matter is that it relaly is nto an MMO.
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That's a bit delusional. Anyone who's played DDO when it launched, regardless if they play today or not, knows the game sucked. There were a lot of flaws with the core design of the game which many have been resolved. What you conveiently ignore is the game had been vastly improved beyond that initial state it was in when it launched. I honestly don't execpt you to understand this although I know others who read the forums in fact will.
Today's DDO is not the same game that failed at launch. That failed launch had inadvertantly carried through into today's quality experiance by not penetrating the target audience. Adopting a hybrid Free/Pay system grants the game the exposure it deserves without any loss to the subscribing players.
DDO is still not a mass appeal mainstream MMO. It lacks a lot of things people want in an MMO. It is a great dungeon crawler and the classes are one of the main reasons I cam back after 1 1/2 years away. That said the game today while evolved and different from release is still not a mass appeal MMO. DDO will never be that kind of game as it is set up.
Most people who play subscription based MMO's have never heard of Dungeons & Dragons Online. While there's many reasons for this claiming the current game is a failure as reason for such is ignorance at best. Shifting to a Free/Pay hybrid will penetrate the target audience and introduce the game to a plethora of people who likely would never had experianced the game in it's current Subscription Only model.
Sorry not buying it. People have heard of DDO, especially MMO players as we tend to know what games are coming out soon or are out. To say DDo is nearly unheard of to MMO players is wishful thinking at best. Will F2P bring in more people? How could it not? Will they stay and pay money is the question and over DDOs history player retention has not been that great.
Exactly, I mean seriously, one of the greatest IPs for an MMO and it is just not heard of? It was/is plenty heard of, the problem is it was quite forgettable.
This is the key point - being that it will no longer be P2P how many people bother with it is irrelevant since playing doesn't equate to paying. In changing the model to F2P it isn't about how many it becomes about how much. That also means the game will substantively change as all the good stuff has to be better available through RMT and other such negative changes the current players will certainly not like. All the more reason I have no doubt this is little more than a live testbed for a company that clearly sees its future plans needing a solid RMT model.
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It's not like that game didn't already have a free trial and low cost of entry. You would think a ton of MMO's would at least have tried it for free? It's definitely a grasp without a doubt. It might be fun to play for a while with the influx. Overall pretty damn mixed over all of this and I think I already mentioned it gave me a headache.
Many things I like about this game, however many things I don't. I still feel the UI is non-intuitive and D&D rules aren't at all easy to grasp and most young players have zero idea of D&D rules. Those are probably the main reasons why people don't stay on after their time is up. Obviously there is a segment that simply won't play a heavily instanced mmo, that part I have no problem with.
Exactly, I mean seriously, one of the greatest IPs for an MMO and it is just not heard of? It was/is plenty heard of, the problem is it was quite forgettable.
This is the key point - being that it will no longer be P2P how many people bother with it is irrelevant since playing doesn't equate to paying. In changing the model to F2P it isn't about how many it becomes about how much. That also means the game will substantively change as all the good stuff has to be better available through RMT and other such negative changes the current players will certainly not like. All the more reason I have no doubt this is little more than a live testbed for a company that clearly sees its future plans needing a solid RMT model.
Yeah several parts of the game I do like really have no business in a DnD game. Who woulda thunk that the fastest action fantasy MMO would be DnD? You think DnD and you think turned based. IMO what Turbine has would be better under a different name and defiantely a different ruleset to go along with the action. And a true DnD game would be a helluva lot slower.
I wonder how many DDO-EU players will stay with CM when the U.S players/new players will play for free(ish). If i would have to choose i would´ve go for the F2P and not stay and pay monthly for content that i may not like.
The best article about this announcement to date: www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/163/view/news/read/14054/Goes-Free-Introduces-Store.html
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Yes, that's good journalism and a good article.
<--- Fails at journalism. XD
Yes, that's good journalism and a good article.
<--- Fails at journalism. XD
No problem, everyone does mistakes, and this was veeery little one ; ). Thanks anyway.
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Polish D&D Online Portal http://www.ddopl.com
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Great DDO PodCast by Jerry & co. http://www.ddocast.com