Originally posted by elocke Honestly its fun, but it needs more for me to even think about paying amonthly fee for. I realize its in beta still, so hopefully more will be implemented. Definitely has potential but then again...so did SWG.
You can't compair DDO to PRE NGE SWG. There is no way to do that as SWG is not instacned, and DDO is 100% instacned aside from the taverns and other little player meeting places You have will not meet other real players out side of those little meeting places. PRE NGE SWG and NGE SWG are not instanced at all. You could compair DDO to Guild Wars since they are alike. Both 100% instanced.
I wasn't comparing the gameplay, just the "POTENTIAL" both games have. SWG had so much potential yet it went the completely opposite direction. This one also has the "potential" so we'll see how it plays out.
I agree with you. SWG did have alot of it as SOE slowly destroyed it.
You know what bothers me about this game, is this:
D&D already has come out with many many games based purely on dungeons, what I wanted from a D&D MMORPG was a virtual world with D&D rules/content. Unfortuneately the success of Guld Wars got into these Dev's heads and that is impossible now.........
Oh well:(
--When you resubscribe to SWG, an 18 yearold Stripper finds Jesus, gives up stripping, and moves with a rolex reverend to Hawaii. --In MMORPG's l007 is the opiate of the masses. --The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence! --CCP could cut off an Eve player's fun bits, and that player would say that it was good CCP did that.
Anyways, I probably gona stay away from the game. To be honest it resembled me a lot to NWN but not that good. As someone said it, it is not really an MMO more like NWN but in Eberron settings and the Town and Taverns are the so called chatrooms.
Originally posted by Rekindle instancing is playing with fire. It can be real good - I think WoW did it real good imo , or it can be real bad - like EQ2.
Originally posted by Kraptor What is wrong with EQ2 instances?
I think he is more referring to the fact that WoW is one big world (divided up by a couple of Zeppelin ride zones) with instanced dungeons, whereas EQ2 is a progression of zones, with instanced dungeons.
This is not an issue of game play though, this is an issue of WoW's cardboard cutout graphics (which i really do like, they are just that though) compared to EQ2s high polygon bump mapping resource hog graphics 'engine'. Some developer will do the same quality of visuals within a seamless world soon enough, EQ2's engine is just not optimised for a zone bigger than Antonica. Therefore you zone every time you get into a new territory in EQ2, cos if you didn't, you wouldn't be able to move due to gfx laaaaag.
But yeah, comparing WoW's zone/instances to EQ2's zone/instances is pointless. They are on opposite sides of the spectrum due to the games' graphics engines.
*****
Back on topic:
I was really hyped for DDO, mainly as it was the next big new MMO on the horizon, but I just don't know at this point in time...
I personally don't give a rat's about the instancing. I am the kind of person who can meet new people and make friends in MMOs, so I'm not scared of that. And this whole 'omg all instanced cant make friends all groups arggh!' stuff. It's simple.
DDO is filling a niche. It's fulfilling (hopefully) the desire that a lot of people have for a small, instanced, group orientated, DnD based (...?) MMO. If an MMO of that nature doesn't interest you, who CARES? It doesn't interest you. You don't need to tell us how much you hate pure instancing, cos we don't care.
The problems I see this game facing are the (lack of?) content for someone who plays a lot, whether or not quests vary when repeated (it would be DUMB if the same mobs/chests/traps are in the exact same place every time) and thus replayability...
Apart from that, I'm in wait-and-see mode atm.
"(The) Iraqi people owe the American people a huge debt of gratitude." - George W Bush. Oh. My. God.
I will buy the game on release if it is not overpriced. (I am guessing it will retail for around $50) Right now I will buy it just because it id DnD online. I will play the free 30 days, and then make up my mind then if I will stay.
Originally posted by Falconoffury Yeah, but Turbine also made the amazing AC1. I am going to try the stress test and see how it feels. No matter how much you read, you don't really know a game until you play it. If this gameisn't for you, wait for MiddleEarthOnline.
Wrong answer.
Right answer.------------( try waiting for Vanguard. )
Now I agree Vanguard is the one to watch, but there is where we part ways.. That is just your opinion and everyone is entitled to there own so, stop critisizing anyone who doesnt agree with you.
And buy the way if you hate this game so much, be so kind as to stop posting here and go to a forum that you do like and stop spamming the same answer on every thread.
Originally posted by Ian_Hawkmoon I will buy the game on release if it is not overpriced. (I am guessing it will retail for around $50) Right now I will buy it just because it id DnD online. I will play the free 30 days, and then make up my mind then if I will stay.
I agree it's only $50, I've wasted money on worse things lol and I'll give it 30 days to see if I like it.
I really never liked the rules and mechanisms of AD&D during my 10 years of table RPGs. As a GM I looked around for more flexible systems and we tried many with my friends. Chaosium system, Dragonquest, MERP, Rolemaster and finally GURPS were the best we tried and played.
Without AD&D, I think the history of RPGs would be very different. On another hand I guess many devs are way too much influenced by the concepts underlying the mechanisms (levels, xp, stereotyped classes, etc) and it had a huge impact on MMORPGs. There are many paths to explore still.
For most D&D fans the question is, "Is it different enough from NWN to make it worth having both, or make it worth playing instead of NWN?" My personal answer to this is that I fully intend to play both. What sets DDO apart in my mind?
First of all, it is easier to jump into the game and be gaming with other people. I've heard of persistant worlds for NWN but I'm somewhat wary of them because of several factors. For instance, what if the people running the server have something go wrong in their life outside of the game and they are no longer able to support the server? Or what if the people running the world suddenly decide to become total pricks and kill all of the players? Etc., etc. Obviously you don't have these problems in a game dedicated just to a persistant world, and to keep getting money you have to keep increasing your multiplay content.
Another thing that sets them apart is real-time combat. Some people don't like real-time combat, and for those people NWN and NWN2 will definitely be the better alternative. I prefer real-time combat, however, because it feels so much more realistic and visceral. If I got in a fight IRL I wouldn't sit down, roll for initiative, then if I win spend five minutes deciding which combat move I'm going to use against my opponent, execute it, roll to see if my attack lands, etc. And I have a feeling that boxers and cage fighters would both tell you there's a lot of strategy involved in real-time combat, which is even faster IRL than it could possibly be in DDO, so that whole argument that "It's not strategic" doesn't really hold up for me. I feel more heroic when my skill comes into play on two different levels-My skill in developing my character [i]and[/i] my skill playing that character in combat. For some reason people seem to think that the two elements have to be seperated, but I think the two combined are much more fun.
In instancing the two games are identical. In NWN everything is instanced and you have to load levels frequently and the same can be said of DDO.
In terms of rules and what players can do the two games have some more differences and similarities. I think one of my favorite differences in DDO will be the ability to do things like climb, jump, and swim, which NWN does not allow for.
Another difference is setting. Although you can create an Eberron campaign using its toolset, it is obviously geared more towards Forgotten Realms, or possibly Greyhawk. The focus for DDO, on the other hand, is Eberron. Some like one, some like the other, and then there are those of us who like both. Eberron and the warforged will definitely be a big draw for me to DDO.
There are too many rule differences for me to really go in-depth into this one, but there are a lot of things, like the implementation of spell components which each game handles differently which makes for a different style and feel of play.
That's all of the major things for me. I'm psyched about DDO and can't wait for it to come out.
As I stated before, I will buy this game, because it is D&D... But I am not sure how long I will play after the free trial, if they have a free trial.
I was in the last stress test and was somewhat dissappointed.
What I did not like was that EVERYTHING was Instanced. You could be in the street with a friend, or someone you were talking to and decide to go into the tavern and see what was going on inside, and wind up in different instances, unless you were in a party/group. That to me is too much instancing. I can see and agree with instancing the quests, or at least most of them. It seems to me that that will make it harder to find a group to quest with. There may be 5 or 10 different instances of a tavern, and if you are in the wrong one where nobody wants to do the quests you need, you are kind of out of luck. Heck, you could walk in then out and back in to a tavern, be get two different instances.
I would really like to see them make, at least the lower levels, it more solo friendly.
And I do not like the 5 entering rule either. Where after you have entered the dungeon for the 5th time, you get no exp for finishing it. And you get reduced exp for the completing the quest if you have entered it more than once, not sure if it is reduced on the second time or not, but it is on the third if I remember right.
Like I said I will buy it and see what it is like and then decide...
After playing the stress test, I have to say that I am not planning to get it (at this point, anyway). Of course, I said that about Guild Wars as well, and I ended up buying that (and quickly becoming bored).
Am I saying this game feels like Guild Wars? To me, yes - but better. I like the 'style' or 'feel' of it better - a gritty form of classic fantasy. I like the sound as well. However, I am not the biggest fan of instancing, and personally, I grew up on Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance, not Eberron (though if they made a Planescape or Ravenloft MMORPG, I'd buy it immediately). I also am not a fan of the fact that you cannot have evil characters (though I suppose you could roleplay one, I was hoping for a Blackguard - type class or something).
I also think while the Elves are wonderfully done, and the Halflings are adequate, the Humans and Dwarves leave something to be desired - once again, aside from muttonchops, there are few 'my character is truly insane' type options.
There may be 5 or 10 different instances of a tavern, and if you are in the wrong one where nobody wants to do the quests you need, you are kind of out of luck. Heck, you could walk in then out and back in to a tavern, be get two different instances.
You can choose the instance you want to be in by selecting it from the location drop-down menu.
I would really like to see them make, at least the lower levels, it more solo friendly.
Yes, it's tough to compete solo even at the lower levels if you can't heal yourself. But at least they are not dishonest and you understand that the game is about grouping pretty quickly.
And I do not like the 5 entering rule either. Where after you have entered the dungeon for the 5th time, you get no exp for finishing it. And you get reduced exp for the completing the quest if you have entered it more than once, not sure if it is reduced on the second time or not, but it is on the third if I remember right.
You can always choose to cancel the quest in the quest menu and it should reset your progress and give you the opportunity to gain full XP on the next try.
Of course, all of this might change a bit before the March 2006 release but you get the idea of how things will work.
The only way that I would consider playing this game is if there were no monthly fee. Guildwars has already established this precedent with a 100% instanced online game and for Turbine to attempt anything different is in my opinion a mistake, a mistake that will in the long term be to the detriment of the game itself.
Having played the beta there is nothing in the game worth a monthly fee and Turbine need to take a long hard look at the DDO business model.
There may be 5 or 10 different instances of a tavern, and if you are in the wrong one where nobody wants to do the quests you need, you are kind of out of luck. Heck, you could walk in then out and back in to a tavern, be get two different instances.
You can choose the instance you want to be in by selecting it from the location drop-down menu.
I would really like to see them make, at least the lower levels, it more solo friendly.
Yes, it's tough to compete solo even at the lower levels if you can't heal yourself. But at least they are not dishonest and you understand that the game is about grouping pretty quickly.
And I do not like the 5 entering rule either. Where after you have entered the dungeon for the 5th time, you get no exp for finishing it. And you get reduced exp for the completing the quest if you have entered it more than once, not sure if it is reduced on the second time or not, but it is on the third if I remember right.
You can always choose to cancel the quest in the quest menu and it should reset your progress and give you the opportunity to gain full XP on the next try.
Of course, all of this might change a bit before the March 2006 release but you get the idea of how things will work.
Yes you can choose which instance of the tavern you want to be in from the drop down menu... If that one is not full. What is the point?
And as far as canceling the quest... The lower level quests are no repeatable, so you cannot cancel those. And if you are in a group and die more than once before you get to the end... Do you then cancel the quest and let your group-mates struggle on with out you?
You see there are too many downs to this right now.
And one more thing, since everyone wants to compare it with the PnP game... As I remember it, we could always rest in a dungeon to regain health if not health and spells. Granted we had to keep an ear out for trouble, and more often than not found it, but we could try anyway.
I think Turbine has lost sight of what D&D is all about. They are not committed to making DDO enough like Guild Wars to attract that crowd, and they are not doing right by traditional D&D fans. The conseuqences? This game will fade into oblivion unless they wise up.
i think i would just prefer NWN, one thing that made NWN so much fun was the fact that YOU could be the DM. DDO having no DM options will lead the product to failure imo. Half the fun of DnD was setting up scenarios that would be sure death to your friends (and yet still they find ways out of it lol)
Originally posted by krenalor From a D&D player since 1979, of course I will! I have been waiting forever for the game to be online!
Don't expect this to be much like D&D at all.
I too have played D&D (AD&D) for about 20 years now and this online version is only D&D in name not in works.
Want to run off into the woods and explore on your own? Not gonna happen.
Need to rest up? Well forget about camping in the dungeon you're in, you have to go back to the Tavern/Inn before your drink/food will work. Yeah you can use the rest "area" in the dungeon ONCE but if you need to rest more than once forget it.... back to the Inn with you!
The advancement is horrifically slow. To make level 2 you need to earn the same amount of exp in D&D to reach level 5. Oh, and you don't get exp for killing critters, just complet'n quests.
The combat system is terrible also. If you expect your character to dodge and block on his own, think again! You get to run around in circles around the mob to avoid fights! Woohoo, I played an elf for his dexterity but turns out ... it expects me to do the work and not the elf CHARACTER I PICKED.
Best thing this game has going for it is graphics and asside from the crack addicted elf look the rest look really good.
This Game is Definatly not the regular MMORPG, but breaks out of the box of MMORPG's such as EQ, to even WoW. From beta all I can say is magnificant.. The dungeons are truely l33t
I will be playing this game when it comes out. I have however NOT played any form of beta for it, just gleaned my info from posts, forums, reviews, etc.
So far I think it will be a small - medium game / player base. It will not appeal to the masses as it seems to be more focused on the "atmosphere" of PnP d&d. I can remember having more fun and time spent roleplaying with my friends than combat based time.
The way we played the game was to quest, not grind mobs. We played with the objective of righting wrongs, saving the downtrodden, etc. There was no lets go kill 10000000000 mobs to lvl up. I think that DDO is good to base everything on questing. ( perhaps they need to give more xp for killing - not sure on this by some reports. )
Also, d&d was im my experience never about getting the uber loot - it was getting together with friends, wasting time doing something fun, drinking beer ( or pop depending on age ) and just enjoying oneself.
Making eating/drinking possible only in taverns or inns is the most idiotic thing I've ever seen in any game. If they change that, I'm definitely gonna play for a few months.
Comments
I wasn't comparing the gameplay, just the "POTENTIAL" both games have. SWG had so much potential yet it went the completely opposite direction. This one also has the "potential" so we'll see how it plays out.
I agree with you. SWG did have alot of it as SOE slowly destroyed it.
You know what bothers me about this game, is this:
D&D already has come out with many many games based purely on dungeons, what I wanted from a D&D MMORPG was a virtual world with D&D rules/content. Unfortuneately the success of Guld Wars got into these Dev's heads and that is impossible now.........
Oh well:(
--When you resubscribe to SWG, an 18 yearold Stripper finds Jesus, gives up stripping, and moves with a rolex reverend to Hawaii.
--In MMORPG's l007 is the opiate of the masses.
--The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence!
--CCP could cut off an Eve player's fun bits, and that player would say that it was good CCP did that.
What is wrong with EQ2 instances?
Anyways, I probably gona stay away from the game. To be honest it resembled me a lot to NWN but not that good. As someone said it, it is not really an MMO more like NWN but in Eberron settings and the Town and Taverns are the so called chatrooms.
This is not an issue of game play though, this is an issue of WoW's cardboard cutout graphics (which i really do like, they are just that though) compared to EQ2s high polygon bump mapping resource hog graphics 'engine'.
Some developer will do the same quality of visuals within a seamless world soon enough, EQ2's engine is just not optimised for a zone bigger than Antonica. Therefore you zone every time you get into a new territory in EQ2, cos if you didn't, you wouldn't be able to move due to gfx laaaaag.
But yeah, comparing WoW's zone/instances to EQ2's zone/instances is pointless. They are on opposite sides of the spectrum due to the games' graphics engines.
*****
Back on topic:
I was really hyped for DDO, mainly as it was the next big new MMO on the horizon, but I just don't know at this point in time...
I personally don't give a rat's about the instancing. I am the kind of person who can meet new people and make friends in MMOs, so I'm not scared of that. And this whole 'omg all instanced cant make friends all groups arggh!' stuff. It's simple.
DDO is filling a niche. It's fulfilling (hopefully) the desire that a lot of people have for a small, instanced, group orientated, DnD based (...?) MMO. If an MMO of that nature doesn't interest you, who CARES? It doesn't interest you. You don't need to tell us how much you hate pure instancing, cos we don't care.
The problems I see this game facing are the (lack of?) content for someone who plays a lot, whether or not quests vary when repeated (it would be DUMB if the same mobs/chests/traps are in the exact same place every time) and thus replayability...
Apart from that, I'm in wait-and-see mode atm.
"(The) Iraqi people owe the American people a huge debt of gratitude." - George W Bush.
Oh. My. God.
I will buy the game on release if it is not overpriced. (I am guessing it will retail for around $50) Right now I will buy it just because it id DnD online. I will play the free 30 days, and then make up my mind then if I will stay.
Wrong answer.
Right answer.------------( try waiting for Vanguard. )
Now I agree Vanguard is the one to watch, but there is where we part ways.. That is just your opinion and everyone is entitled to there own so, stop critisizing anyone who doesnt agree with you.
And buy the way if you hate this game so much, be so kind as to stop posting here and go to a forum that you do like and stop spamming the same answer on every thread.
As far as I know about D&DO I'm still skeptic.
I really never liked the rules and mechanisms of AD&D during my 10 years of table RPGs. As a GM I looked around for more flexible systems and we tried many with my friends. Chaosium system, Dragonquest, MERP, Rolemaster and finally GURPS were the best we tried and played.
Without AD&D, I think the history of RPGs would be very different. On another hand I guess many devs are way too much influenced by the concepts underlying the mechanisms (levels, xp, stereotyped classes, etc) and it had a huge impact on MMORPGs. There are many paths to explore still.
For most D&D fans the question is, "Is it different enough from NWN to make it worth having both, or make it worth playing instead of NWN?" My personal answer to this is that I fully intend to play both. What sets DDO apart in my mind?
First of all, it is easier to jump into the game and be gaming with other people. I've heard of persistant worlds for NWN but I'm somewhat wary of them because of several factors. For instance, what if the people running the server have something go wrong in their life outside of the game and they are no longer able to support the server? Or what if the people running the world suddenly decide to become total pricks and kill all of the players? Etc., etc. Obviously you don't have these problems in a game dedicated just to a persistant world, and to keep getting money you have to keep increasing your multiplay content.
Another thing that sets them apart is real-time combat. Some people don't like real-time combat, and for those people NWN and NWN2 will definitely be the better alternative. I prefer real-time combat, however, because it feels so much more realistic and visceral. If I got in a fight IRL I wouldn't sit down, roll for initiative, then if I win spend five minutes deciding which combat move I'm going to use against my opponent, execute it, roll to see if my attack lands, etc. And I have a feeling that boxers and cage fighters would both tell you there's a lot of strategy involved in real-time combat, which is even faster IRL than it could possibly be in DDO, so that whole argument that "It's not strategic" doesn't really hold up for me. I feel more heroic when my skill comes into play on two different levels-My skill in developing my character [i]and[/i] my skill playing that character in combat. For some reason people seem to think that the two elements have to be seperated, but I think the two combined are much more fun.
In instancing the two games are identical. In NWN everything is instanced and you have to load levels frequently and the same can be said of DDO.
In terms of rules and what players can do the two games have some more differences and similarities. I think one of my favorite differences in DDO will be the ability to do things like climb, jump, and swim, which NWN does not allow for.
Another difference is setting. Although you can create an Eberron campaign using its toolset, it is obviously geared more towards Forgotten Realms, or possibly Greyhawk. The focus for DDO, on the other hand, is Eberron. Some like one, some like the other, and then there are those of us who like both. Eberron and the warforged will definitely be a big draw for me to DDO.
There are too many rule differences for me to really go in-depth into this one, but there are a lot of things, like the implementation of spell components which each game handles differently which makes for a different style and feel of play.
That's all of the major things for me. I'm psyched about DDO and can't wait for it to come out.
As I stated before, I will buy this game, because it is D&D... But I am not sure how long I will play after the free trial, if they have a free trial.
I was in the last stress test and was somewhat dissappointed.
What I did not like was that EVERYTHING was Instanced. You could be in the street with a friend, or someone you were talking to and decide to go into the tavern and see what was going on inside, and wind up in different instances, unless you were in a party/group. That to me is too much instancing. I can see and agree with instancing the quests, or at least most of them. It seems to me that that will make it harder to find a group to quest with. There may be 5 or 10 different instances of a tavern, and if you are in the wrong one where nobody wants to do the quests you need, you are kind of out of luck. Heck, you could walk in then out and back in to a tavern, be get two different instances.
I would really like to see them make, at least the lower levels, it more solo friendly.
And I do not like the 5 entering rule either. Where after you have entered the dungeon for the 5th time, you get no exp for finishing it. And you get reduced exp for the completing the quest if you have entered it more than once, not sure if it is reduced on the second time or not, but it is on the third if I remember right.
Like I said I will buy it and see what it is like and then decide...
After playing the stress test, I have to say that I am not planning to get it (at this point, anyway). Of course, I said that about Guild Wars as well, and I ended up buying that (and quickly becoming bored).
Am I saying this game feels like Guild Wars? To me, yes - but better. I like the 'style' or 'feel' of it better - a gritty form of classic fantasy. I like the sound as well. However, I am not the biggest fan of instancing, and personally, I grew up on Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance, not Eberron (though if they made a Planescape or Ravenloft MMORPG, I'd buy it immediately). I also am not a fan of the fact that you cannot have evil characters (though I suppose you could roleplay one, I was hoping for a Blackguard - type class or something).
I also think while the Elves are wonderfully done, and the Halflings are adequate, the Humans and Dwarves leave something to be desired - once again, aside from muttonchops, there are few 'my character is truly insane' type options.
Just my 2c.
You can choose the instance you want to be in by selecting it from the location drop-down menu.
Yes, it's tough to compete solo even at the lower levels if you can't heal yourself. But at least they are not dishonest and you understand that the game is about grouping pretty quickly.
You can always choose to cancel the quest in the quest menu and it should reset your progress and give you the opportunity to gain full XP on the next try.
Of course, all of this might change a bit before the March 2006 release but you get the idea of how things will work.
The only way that I would consider playing this game is if there were no monthly fee. Guildwars has already established this precedent with a 100% instanced online game and for Turbine to attempt anything different is in my opinion a mistake, a mistake that will in the long term be to the detriment of the game itself.
Having played the beta there is nothing in the game worth a monthly fee and Turbine need to take a long hard look at the DDO business model.
You can choose the instance you want to be in by selecting it from the location drop-down menu.
Yes, it's tough to compete solo even at the lower levels if you can't heal yourself. But at least they are not dishonest and you understand that the game is about grouping pretty quickly.
You can always choose to cancel the quest in the quest menu and it should reset your progress and give you the opportunity to gain full XP on the next try.
Of course, all of this might change a bit before the March 2006 release but you get the idea of how things will work.
Yes you can choose which instance of the tavern you want to be in from the drop down menu... If that one is not full. What is the point?
And as far as canceling the quest... The lower level quests are no repeatable, so you cannot cancel those. And if you are in a group and die more than once before you get to the end... Do you then cancel the quest and let your group-mates struggle on with out you?
You see there are too many downs to this right now.
And one more thing, since everyone wants to compare it with the PnP game... As I remember it, we could always rest in a dungeon to regain health if not health and spells. Granted we had to keep an ear out for trouble, and more often than not found it, but we could try anyway.
It will take a lot of convincing.
I think Turbine has lost sight of what D&D is all about. They are not committed to making DDO enough like Guild Wars to attract that crowd, and they are not doing right by traditional D&D fans. The conseuqences? This game will fade into oblivion unless they wise up.
i think i would just prefer NWN, one thing that made NWN so much fun was the fact that YOU could be the DM. DDO having no DM options will lead the product to failure imo. Half the fun of DnD was setting up scenarios that would be sure death to your friends (and yet still they find ways out of it lol)
Don't expect this to be much like D&D at all.
I too have played D&D (AD&D) for about 20 years now and this online version is only D&D in name not in works.
Want to run off into the woods and explore on your own? Not gonna happen.
Need to rest up? Well forget about camping in the dungeon you're in, you have to go back to the Tavern/Inn before your drink/food will work. Yeah you can use the rest "area" in the dungeon ONCE but if you need to rest more than once forget it.... back to the Inn with you!
The advancement is horrifically slow. To make level 2 you need to earn the same amount of exp in D&D to reach level 5. Oh, and you don't get exp for killing critters, just complet'n quests.
The combat system is terrible also. If you expect your character to dodge and block on his own, think again! You get to run around in circles around the mob to avoid fights! Woohoo, I played an elf for his dexterity but turns out ... it expects me to do the work and not the elf CHARACTER I PICKED.
Best thing this game has going for it is graphics and asside from the crack addicted elf look the rest look really good.
http://www.greycouncil.org/
This Game is Definatly not the regular MMORPG, but breaks out of the box of MMORPG's such as EQ, to even WoW. From beta all I can say is magnificant.. The dungeons are truely l33t
NO
It's 100% instanced...unless of course you count 500 people stacked on top of each other near quest givers that is. Nuff said.
DDO = *makes rasberry noise with his mouth and gives a big thumbs down*
Let's all hope LoTRO will be a good game, otherwise I'll never look in Turbine's direction again.
Joined 2004 - I can't believe I've been a MMORPG.com member for 20 years! Get off my lawn!
I will be playing this game when it comes out. I have however NOT played any form of beta for it, just gleaned my info from posts, forums, reviews, etc.
So far I think it will be a small - medium game / player base. It will not appeal to the masses as it seems to be more focused on the "atmosphere" of PnP d&d. I can remember having more fun and time spent roleplaying with my friends than combat based time.
The way we played the game was to quest, not grind mobs. We played with the objective of righting wrongs, saving the downtrodden, etc. There was no lets go kill 10000000000 mobs to lvl up. I think that DDO is good to base everything on questing. ( perhaps they need to give more xp for killing - not sure on this by some reports. )
Also, d&d was im my experience never about getting the uber loot - it was getting together with friends, wasting time doing something fun, drinking beer ( or pop depending on age ) and just enjoying oneself.
Perhaps as others have said - time will tell....
Making eating/drinking possible only in taverns or inns is the most idiotic thing I've ever seen in any game. If they change that, I'm definitely gonna play for a few months.