Originally posted by Falconoffury People who aren't spoiled by other mmorpgs will probably get into this. You guys have to admit that many of you are nitpicking and not really allowing yourself to enjoy the game.
I don't enjoy the game because I do not LIKE it. It's boring, not D&D and not a good MMO either. Sorry if I expect more from a MMO/D&D game than mindless quest repeating in the same sewer for the #inth time. No where to roam/explore/travel... empty game, no soul. Nothing like the D&D I played.
I seriously doubt the claim that 1.5 million people (not some store like Walmart) actually pre-ordered.
Turbine Inc, makers of the ever popular "Asherons Call" has announced pre-sales for its' upcoming "Dungeons and Dragons Online" topping 1.5 million as of January 5. This is already proving as a successful outing for Turbine who has invested some 65 million into D&D's upcoming massively multiplayer PC game. Such strong support likely comes from Atari's packaging and advertising, mmo increased popularity over the past two years, and ofcourse the Dungeons and Dragons brand name.
LOL ............Pre-sales means they sold 1.5 million in $$$ not copies. 1.5 mill pre-orders means people ...pre-sales mean money. I would've expected a professional newspaper to be less obscure about something like that, dont want people misreading it:)
Besides , I call bull... journalist dont write that way....and if it is true were and how did they get their info from??? Why would turbine share its financial info with a very small local paper for puplicity and no one else???
Originally posted by Razephon Hmm...interesting. Although thats pre-order. A lot of people go pre-order the game just so they can get into the Beta. But still, 1.5million isnt a small figure. I guess there are various reasons. 1.) people like to try before they buy. 2.) People are sick of WoW and want out. This isnt exactly brilliant but it is a way out. 3.) Theres always that D&D community...maybe there is an audience for this game after all.
I'm still not 100% convinced by this though.
You say a way out of WoW like its crack or something. I quit WoW and i dont play any mmorgs currently.
I don't see why you find it hard to believe that they have sold 30,000 pre-order copies, that would seem about right for a normal beta application.
Why would gamers stick with any game for more than a couple of months at a time? Give me 12 games which can keep my attention for one month each year and that would seem preferable to one game to play all the time.
There are so many good games out there that as soon as the novelty wears off most players move on to something different and may or may not come back later. That is why games are now so different to EQ in that they are more casual, it simple supply and demand.
I can't believe that the first thing any player does after subscribing to a game is immediately cancel the recurring payment. But then how else does one explain the large number of subscriptions compared to the low number of players particularly on older games like EQ.
I'll happily try DDO for a few weeks, it works on a different basis to most with no xp for simply repetitively killing so is worth a go. Six months of EQ is all the grind experience I need thanks, I want something new and different to try.
yeah people are going crazy for a new MMORPG at the moment. On gamestop the preorder kit of RF Online was number one seller for quite some time.
It is good to give the companies such a pre release reward. But 1.5 Million in pre sales is just to much for me. I am afraid that DDO will be the new wow.
I dont think D&DO has the potential to compete with WoW, to be honest. The game is just not complex enough and does not offer enough diversity. From what I have read it offers a nice gaming experience for people who a) play with their friends and thus always have a good group at hand or b) enjoy instant action without having to bother with other stuff then combat/quest-grinding. However, a main point of MMORPGs has always been about community and actually "living" in a fantasy world - that means being able to explore, settle down, interact with the environment and being provided with some kind of long-term motivation (be it RvR in DAoC or steep leerning curves in EQ2). The whole concept of D&Do in itself does not provide something like that. There is simply not enough diversity in this game - it is not really a persistant online world, because it lacks the "world" aspect. I was never really able to just focus on one thing in MMOs, just needed to be able to do different things (exploring, PvP, leveling) - and I think that is true for most of the MMO crowd. As such I do believe that this game will probably sell very good (after all its dungeons and dragons), but that it will not be able to maintain a large user base due to the restricted gameplay + monthly fees. Even the biggest fan will eventually get bored of crawling dungeons over and over with nothing else to do.
Btw I really find it hard to believe that it did cost 65 million to develop it...neither the engine, nor the gameplay look very spectacular or technically challenging....so maybe they had to pay a lot of licence-fees? ^^
its not a huge surprise. lets not forget D&D has a load of followers all over the world. its the same with World of Warcraft, most of its fanbase are long term Blizzard fans. WoW also has mixed oppinnions
Originally posted by xplororor Please tell us what the name, date, and page number, of this newspaper is?
The Helena Independant Recond, Known as the Helena IR, In their weekly entertainment extra addition to the paper, last page of the insert.. Page 35. Date: Thursday, Jan 12, 2006.
I looked for this online and called the local paper office, however they said that this insert has not yet been put into online format, as it is only 16 weeks old.
Trust me I would LOVE to have the luxury to provide the link to this article.
If I can borrow a friends dig camera, shoot a photo and provide a link to a photo of the article, I will exactly this in the coming days.
However, I probably need not worry to prove this to trolls, doubters, and WoW geeks who think that this game selling so popular is impossible.
Similar reports and success stories will be out soon enough.
I just hope Turbine is ready for the monster of players they have set themselves up for.
I live 30 minutes from the most major city in the country you live in. New York City. There are HUGE international Magazine shops around Manhattan. They carry newspapers from just about every country, as well as every single state in America. And guess what? Not a single one carrys your newspaper from Monatana. I had them call each chain, and nothing. As soon as I saw your paper is in Monatana I knew this would be near impossible to prove. Montana is a "nothing state". I do not mean that in a negative way. The wilderness is incredible, and it should be mandatory for every American to visit Montana once in their lives to get an idea why its NICE to appreciate nature. But I knew that it being a local Montana paper, no one here would be able to find it in any international magazine shop.
The next step would be for me to phone a major library in Montana, get in touch with the periodical department, and ask the librarian about the article. But I am not a hardcore fan of DDO. (It has nothing to do with me disliking the game, or D&D. It has to do with the buisness sillyness Trubine is currently engaged in.) So I am not willing to waste $5.oo to $10.oo on a long distance phone call to a library in Montana to verify what you posted in the OP.
Last, someone else brought up another NICE point - How come Turbine at their own official site, has nothing about this? And yet some tiny, local, newspaper, in a very out of the way state in America has the exclusive? Heck, not a single major game magazine, newspaper, even has this. Turbine made sure they had coverage on AC2. Why would Turbine not have coverage on its own game, as well as no coverage by the majors? The New York Times covered DAoC, AO, AC2, SWG, EQ, EQ2, Lin1, Lin 2, and WoW. The World Cyber Games were held in NYC. There are an insane number of major as well as smaller independant gamer magazines, newspapers, in NYC. NYC is a heck of more of a gamer capital than Montana heheh. And no one, no media, in NYC has caught wind of this?
And you want to start the name calling? Calling the rest of us "doubters", and other names? The funny thing is... since you still have been unable to show any proof, but everyone else here has been able to shoot down what you posted with their own proof.... it makes you look like the names you are calling everyone else.
(I thank the poster Kable, on page 3, for bringing up the fact Turbine itself has not posted anything about this.) So its you and your Montana newspaper vs. Turbine. With Turbine itself calling this thread of yours false, and the story in your paper untrue. Turbine is a "doubter" and the rest of the names you are calling the rest of us.
Pre-release sales do not indicate anything about how good a game is. I am a beta tester and I personally felt DDO was one of the most mundane MMOs on the market with no chance of me purchasing it. I have been losing confidence in Turbine for a while now and after DDO I am will be skeptical of anything they get their hands on. I predict that DDO may be successful, but will not be a huge hit, if Turbine properly predicts their subscriber base they should be ok. MMO's make their money off the subscriptions, let's see how they are doing a year after release before anyone gets too excited.
Originally posted by dekron A full review may be coming shortly, but now as the NDA has been lifted, I must say that the 1.5 million pre-orderees are setting themselves up for disappointment.
The 1.5 millions pre-orders has NOTHING to do with DDO, everything to do with the D&D franchise.
With that amount of pre-order you expect a GOOD product to beat WoW. If DDO fall behind WoW, Turbines will take the blame and most certainly never be granted any major sequel. If DDO sells more than WoW (should be easy with 1,5 millions pre-order according to this, and somehow, those number "seem" right, for pre-orders) than Turbines will be praised.
In the case of DDO, pre-orders numbers has NOTHING to do with Turbines, everything to do with the D&D franchise.
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
Originally posted by Falconoffury Even if they only end up with 500k accounts from 1.5 mill preorders, that's impressive. I predict it taking 2 years after release for numbers to fall to 100k. This is not another AC2. Remember that AC2 failed because it was broken, and even the first 6 months of monthly patches were broken. DDO if nothing else is stable, low on bugs, and achieves good quality questing and grouping. You have to remember that these boards are full of hardcore, experienced mmorpg players. Average joe computer guy is not represented well here at all. People who aren't spoiled by other mmorpgs will probably get into this. You guys have to admit that many of you are nitpicking and not really allowing yourself to enjoy the game.
No, that would be an abysmall failure. D&D is the RPG king, they SHOULD be ahead of any Blizzard product if done right.
EDIT: The group centric approach is only 1 of many "mistake" Turbine did, but who am I to say it is a mistake, let's the fans answer...and if they doesn't beat WoW, we will never know for sure which feature was a mistake, but we can get a rough idea.
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
I wish Turbine well with DDO, but I don't see it as a threat to WoW. It's just to group-centric. I would guess this game with be a nice niche game for many which is great.
The 1.5 millions pre-orders has NOTHING to do with DDO, everything to do with the D&D franchise.
I know that. That is the point. If they are expecting a well done online PnP version of D&D, that is why they are to be disappointed. D&D Online captures the essence of PnP D&D about as much as Star Wars Galaxies captured the essence of Star Wars; very poorly.
While skimming through this thread, I find people who are already bashing this game. DDO isnt released yet, it havent even experienced its first two months bugs nor its first six months of becoming mature. If anyone here who have experience playing MMOGs, should know that these games will change to fit what most of the players want.
The 1.5 million preorders makes the game promising for success. Some of the preorders might be by players from WoW, but DDO doesnt directly compete. Turbine probably gotten alot of preorders by long time dungeon and dragon fans which dont play any of blizzards games. It is unknown what would happen after the first month after its released. There could be a huge exodus or just a trickle of people cancelling. The fact is right now, is the most of the people who are complaining about DDO is a small handful. Those are complaining are a small minority of people.
Have played: CoH, DDO EQ2, FFXI, L2, HZ, SoR, and WW2 online
It's not the bugs that I don't like. It's the clunky gameplay, 100% instancing and lack of polearms of any type (the devs admitted they were too lazy to put them in) that I hate with a passion.
This game just feels cold and uninviting.
If DDO didn't have the words dungeons or dragons in the name, no one would even look at this thing...
Joined 2004 - I can't believe I've been a MMORPG.com member for 20 years! Get off my lawn!
Originally posted by Jd1680a While skimming through this thread, I find people who are already bashing this game. DDO isnt released yet, it havent even experienced its first two months bugs nor its first six months of becoming mature. If anyone here who have experience playing MMOGs, should know that these games will change to fit what most of the players want. The 1.5 million preorders makes the game promising for success. Some of the preorders might be by players from WoW, but DDO doesnt directly compete. Turbine probably gotten alot of preorders by long time dungeon and dragon fans which dont play any of blizzards games. It is unknown what would happen after the first month after its released. There could be a huge exodus or just a trickle of people cancelling. The fact is right now, is the most of the people who are complaining about DDO is a small handful. Those are complaining are a small minority of people.
As one of the people that have been "bashing" the game I will state that:
a) I have played it. I have experienced the GAMEPLAY 1st hand. The GAMEPLAY is what I have a problem with and the GAMEPLAY of an MMO typically doesn't change (outside of SWG's NGE fiasco that is).
b) Everyone that has bashed DDO (that I've seen so far anyway) has played the game. Either in beta or in a stress test. They're not bashing it over bugs. They're not bashing it over content. They're bashing it over DESIGN decisions.
I'm not saying DDO won't be a success. I never said it wouldn't. I said if it does succeed it will be due to name recognition of the Dungeons & Dragons name. It will not be because the game is high quality and worth a monthly fee. Because it simply isn't.
DDO's failings are multiple but I'll list the ones I found most annoying here:
DDO has no evil characters. Even the original pamphlet version of Dungeons and Dragons allowed you to be evil and play an evil character. DDO will not allow you to do this. At all.
DDO has no content *at all* outside of quests.
Quests in DDO have no impact on the world at large. You just do them... no real reason behind it, no impact on the world around you. All you get is items and levels. Hell most of them are repeatable.
There is no crafting in DDO. At all. Thus no real reason for roleplay other than a desire to roleplay.
There are no activities besides standing around in a tavern to encourage roleplay in DDO. Again, lack of non-quest related content.
There is no player housing in DDO. You will never own a house.
There is no exploration in DDO. There's nothing to explore. There's no *WORLD* to just go wander around in.
DDO is basically a giant Quest engine. Log in, find friends, go do a quest. Decent graphics and the gameplay is ok. But that's basically all there is to it.
Does this sound familliar? To me it does: It's basically NeverWinter Nights... online. But costing $14.95 a month to play. The graphics are better but other than that it is NO different than NWN. (and even NWN had creatures you could go out and just kill for fun if you wanted without grabbing a quest)
NeverWinter Nights 2 is due to release soon. Do you honestly see this game keeping any significant number of subscribers? It's all well and good that they have sold 1.5 million boxes on pre-order but as a VERY astute observer mentioned they are counting STORES in their number. How many copies did EB Games and Best Buy alone buy? 1.5 million is NOT a lot of boxes considering stores are buying stuff to stock their shelves. Whether those boxes actually SELL or not is still in question.
As I've said before. DDO could become successful due to name recognition. As it stands right now I doubt very much it will. But hey I could be wrong. As I have said numerous times. I'm only bashing features I have seen, personally. And I'm not really 'bashing' them. I'm just pointing out why they're misguided.
How many people are going to shell out $50 pluss another $15 a month to play, essentially, an online Quest database? I won't. It's got less to offer than GuildWars.... And GuildWars... is free after buying the game (for less than $50 I might add).
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online. Sig image Pending Still in: A couple Betas
Originally posted by remyburke It's not the bugs that I don't like. It's the clunky gameplay, 100% instancing and lack of polearms of any type (the devs admitted they were too lazy to put them in) that I hate with a passion. This game just feels cold and uninviting. If DDO didn't have the words dungeons or dragons in the name, no one would even look at this thing...
It is intresting that even before EQ2 and WoW release i proclaimed that WoW would out sell EQ2 anyday with a much large fanbase of the warcraft series.
I then said in same thread that watch out for D&D the name alone would be another killer sales.And indeed it has.
"the war of the brand names has just begun"..With more and more people playing mmorpg brand names will keep on having amazing sales.I now predict star trek online will break the 1 million mark also on pre order.
It's no surprise. Dungeons and Dragons has been a successful franchise, already has a loyal fan base from pen and paper games and has received quite good advertising.
Another thing that added to this, in my opinion, is World of Warcraft that expanded the customer base of MMORPGs as a whole.
Currently playing: * City of Heroes: Deggial, Assault Rifle/Devices Blaster. Server: Defiant. * City of Villains: Snakeroot, Plant/Thorns Dominator. Server: Defiant.
Originally posted by dekron A full review may be coming shortly, but now as the NDA has been lifted, I must say that the 1.5 million pre-orderees are setting themselves up for disappointment.
So I guess Turbine must ignore the fact that they had ALOT of interest in the game then? They got 1.5+ million pre-order, that is alot of interest in the game because of the brand name. And if the game is good it will keep those numbers.
No one ever thougth Blizzard would get 750k subscribers, much less 5 million. So everyone that are jumping the gun and destroying DDO with no facts what-so-ever is kind of dumb. In fact you guys put down the actual facts, 1.5 million pre-orders, with your own personal opinions.
But I know where this is coming from, people get very possessive about "their" current MMORPG and cant imagine another game being as good as thier own.
Originally posted by irish97 OMG they spent 65 million making DDO, lol is that a joke. 1.5 million preorders seems strangely fictional to me also.
Nah
EB Games alone probably accounts for a couple hundred thousand orders. Then there's best buy, Circuit City, Wal-Mart, Target, etc.
They're counting stores ordering the game to put it on shelves in their numbers. Which makes them 'true' but not 'firm'. A lot of those pre-orders could wind up being returned if the stores can't move them off shelves.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online. Sig image Pending Still in: A couple Betas
Originally posted by dekron A full review may be coming shortly, but now as the NDA has been lifted, I must say that the 1.5 million pre-orderees are setting themselves up for disappointment.
So I guess Turbine must ignore the fact that they had ALOT of interest in the game then? They got 1.5+ million pre-order, that is alot of interest in the game because of the brand name. And if the game is good it will keep those numbers.
No one ever thougth Blizzard would get 750k subscribers, much less 5 million. So everyone that are jumping the gun and destroying DDO with no facts what-so-ever is kind of dumb. In fact you guys put down the actual facts, 1.5 million pre-orders, with your own personal opinions.
But I know where this is coming from, people get very possessive about "their" current MMORPG and cant imagine another game being as good as thier own.
Im not bashing the game myself, just questioning the "facts" as you call them.
What does pre-sale mean? Is it in $$$ value or is it how many people bought pre-orders? And why would a newspaper not be specific and leave room for misinterpitation?
If it is the people that bought pre-orders , is it at full price or 5$ down for the pre-order box.
If 1.5 mill bought pre-orders , and they technically had access to beta, why was there no were ,even remotely close to that amount of people in beta ...in fact I would guess there was less then 5% of that.
Where did these # come from, if it came from turbine, why did they not mention it, a real newspaper would mention the source so people would judge the validaty of the info. Company sometimes can mislead for puplicity and hype reasons. As far as we know turbine may consider registration as a form of pre-order(just an example).
And last if this info is true were can i get this local newspaper with the inside scope on company development cost as well as first hand knowledge of there sales before anyone else? This paper would be a dream for investing!!!!
Originally posted by Jd1680a While skimming through this thread, I find people who are already bashing this game. DDO isnt released yet, it havent even experienced its first two months bugs nor its first six months of becoming mature. If anyone here who have experience playing MMOGs, should know that these games will change to fit what most of the players want. The 1.5 million preorders makes the game promising for success. Some of the preorders might be by players from WoW, but DDO doesnt directly compete. Turbine probably gotten alot of preorders by long time dungeon and dragon fans which dont play any of blizzards games. It is unknown what would happen after the first month after its released. There could be a huge exodus or just a trickle of people cancelling. The fact is right now, is the most of the people who are complaining about DDO is a small handful. Those are complaining are a small minority of people.
As one of the people that have been "bashing" the game I will state that:
a) I have played it. I have experienced the GAMEPLAY 1st hand. The GAMEPLAY is what I have a problem with and the GAMEPLAY of an MMO typically doesn't change (outside of SWG's NGE fiasco that is).
b) Everyone that has bashed DDO (that I've seen so far anyway) has played the game. Either in beta or in a stress test. They're not bashing it over bugs. They're not bashing it over content. They're bashing it over DESIGN decisions.
I'm not saying DDO won't be a success. I never said it wouldn't. I said if it does succeed it will be due to name recognition of the Dungeons & Dragons name. It will not be because the game is high quality and worth a monthly fee. Because it simply isn't.
DDO's failings are multiple but I'll list the ones I found most annoying here:
DDO has no evil characters. Even the original pamphlet version of Dungeons and Dragons allowed you to be evil and play an evil character. DDO will not allow you to do this. At all.
DDO has no content *at all* outside of quests.
Quests in DDO have no impact on the world at large. You just do them... no real reason behind it, no impact on the world around you. All you get is items and levels. Hell most of them are repeatable.
There is no crafting in DDO. At all. Thus no real reason for roleplay other than a desire to roleplay.
There are no activities besides standing around in a tavern to encourage roleplay in DDO. Again, lack of non-quest related content.
There is no player housing in DDO. You will never own a house.
There is no exploration in DDO. There's nothing to explore. There's no *WORLD* to just go wander around in.
DDO is basically a giant Quest engine. Log in, find friends, go do a quest. Decent graphics and the gameplay is ok. But that's basically all there is to it.
Does this sound familliar? To me it does: It's basically NeverWinter Nights... online. But costing $14.95 a month to play. The graphics are better but other than that it is NO different than NWN. (and even NWN had creatures you could go out and just kill for fun if you wanted without grabbing a quest)
NeverWinter Nights 2 is due to release soon. Do you honestly see this game keeping any significant number of subscribers? It's all well and good that they have sold 1.5 million boxes on pre-order but as a VERY astute observer mentioned they are counting STORES in their number. How many copies did EB Games and Best Buy alone buy? 1.5 million is NOT a lot of boxes considering stores are buying stuff to stock their shelves. Whether those boxes actually SELL or not is still in question.
As I've said before. DDO could become successful due to name recognition. As it stands right now I doubt very much it will. But hey I could be wrong. As I have said numerous times. I'm only bashing features I have seen, personally. And I'm not really 'bashing' them. I'm just pointing out why they're misguided.
How many people are going to shell out $50 pluss another $15 a month to play, essentially, an online Quest database? I won't. It's got less to offer than GuildWars.... And GuildWars... is free after buying the game (for less than $50 I might add).
The things you just stated as negatives is what I and my friends been looking for in an online game. Log on, find friends and go adventure and dungeon crawl. If I want to pretend to live in a virual house and talk to "girls" I would play Sims Online. If I want to pretend to be another Martha Steward and be another l33t at arts and crafts (tradeskills) then I would do it, but I dont. To each their own.
Problem with most MMORPGs atm is they all promote grinding and grinding to be good at it, so some people outlevel thier friends so and then cant do anything together. People need a MMORPG that doesnt promote grinding on "mobs" to be the best at it.
I am kind of glad this is not another EQ-clone like what WoW is, a grind-fest which most of my friends are BORED with.
Comments
I don't enjoy the game because I do not LIKE it. It's boring, not D&D and not a good MMO either. Sorry if I expect more from a MMO/D&D game than mindless quest repeating in the same sewer for the #inth time. No where to roam/explore/travel... empty game, no soul. Nothing like the D&D I played.
I seriously doubt the claim that 1.5 million people (not some store like Walmart) actually pre-ordered.
http://www.greycouncil.org/
LOL ............Pre-sales means they sold 1.5 million in $$$ not copies. 1.5 mill pre-orders means people ...pre-sales mean money. I would've expected a professional newspaper to be less obscure about something like that, dont want people misreading it:)
Besides , I call bull... journalist dont write that way....and if it is true were and how did they get their info from??? Why would turbine share its financial info with a very small local paper for puplicity and no one else???
You say a way out of WoW like its crack or something. I quit WoW and i dont play any mmorgs currently.
I don't see why you find it hard to believe that they have sold 30,000 pre-order copies, that would seem about right for a normal beta application.
Why would gamers stick with any game for more than a couple of months at a time? Give me 12 games which can keep my attention for one month each year and that would seem preferable to one game to play all the time.
There are so many good games out there that as soon as the novelty wears off most players move on to something different and may or may not come back later. That is why games are now so different to EQ in that they are more casual, it simple supply and demand.
I can't believe that the first thing any player does after subscribing to a game is immediately cancel the recurring payment. But then how else does one explain the large number of subscriptions compared to the low number of players particularly on older games like EQ.
I'll happily try DDO for a few weeks, it works on a different basis to most with no xp for simply repetitively killing so is worth a go. Six months of EQ is all the grind experience I need thanks, I want something new and different to try.
Hi,
yeah people are going crazy for a new MMORPG at the moment. On gamestop the preorder kit of RF Online was number one seller for quite some time.
It is good to give the companies such a pre release reward. But 1.5 Million in pre sales is just to much for me. I am afraid that DDO will be the new wow.
"it cant be bad if a million ppl play it"
yours
torkanon
I dont think D&DO has the potential to compete with WoW, to be honest. The game is just not complex enough and does not offer enough diversity. From what I have read it offers a nice gaming experience for people who a) play with their friends and thus always have a good group at hand or b) enjoy instant action without having to bother with other stuff then combat/quest-grinding.
However, a main point of MMORPGs has always been about community and actually "living" in a fantasy world - that means being able to explore, settle down, interact with the environment and being provided with some kind of long-term motivation (be it RvR in DAoC or steep leerning curves in EQ2). The whole concept of D&Do in itself does not provide something like that. There is simply not enough diversity in this game - it is not really a persistant online world, because it lacks the "world" aspect. I was never really able to just focus on one thing in MMOs, just needed to be able to do different things (exploring, PvP, leveling) - and I think that is true for most of the MMO crowd.
As such I do believe that this game will probably sell very good (after all its dungeons and dragons), but that it will not be able to maintain a large user base due to the restricted gameplay + monthly fees. Even the biggest fan will eventually get bored of crawling dungeons over and over with nothing else to do.
Btw I really find it hard to believe that it did cost 65 million to develop it...neither the engine, nor the gameplay look very spectacular or technically challenging....so maybe they had to pay a lot of licence-fees? ^^
The Helena Independant Recond, Known as the Helena IR, In their weekly entertainment extra addition to the paper, last page of the insert.. Page 35. Date: Thursday, Jan 12, 2006.
I looked for this online and called the local paper office, however they said that this insert has not yet been put into online format, as it is only 16 weeks old.
Trust me I would LOVE to have the luxury to provide the link to this article.
If I can borrow a friends dig camera, shoot a photo and provide a link to a photo of the article, I will exactly this in the coming days.
However, I probably need not worry to prove this to trolls, doubters, and WoW geeks who think that this game selling so popular is impossible.
Similar reports and success stories will be out soon enough.
I just hope Turbine is ready for the monster of players they have set themselves up for.
I live 30 minutes from the most major city in the country you live in. New York City. There are HUGE international Magazine shops around Manhattan. They carry newspapers from just about every country, as well as every single state in America. And guess what? Not a single one carrys your newspaper from Monatana. I had them call each chain, and nothing. As soon as I saw your paper is in Monatana I knew this would be near impossible to prove. Montana is a "nothing state". I do not mean that in a negative way. The wilderness is incredible, and it should be mandatory for every American to visit Montana once in their lives to get an idea why its NICE to appreciate nature. But I knew that it being a local Montana paper, no one here would be able to find it in any international magazine shop.
The next step would be for me to phone a major library in Montana, get in touch with the periodical department, and ask the librarian about the article. But I am not a hardcore fan of DDO. (It has nothing to do with me disliking the game, or D&D. It has to do with the buisness sillyness Trubine is currently engaged in.) So I am not willing to waste $5.oo to $10.oo on a long distance phone call to a library in Montana to verify what you posted in the OP.
Last, someone else brought up another NICE point - How come Turbine at their own official site, has nothing about this? And yet some tiny, local, newspaper, in a very out of the way state in America has the exclusive? Heck, not a single major game magazine, newspaper, even has this. Turbine made sure they had coverage on AC2. Why would Turbine not have coverage on its own game, as well as no coverage by the majors? The New York Times covered DAoC, AO, AC2, SWG, EQ, EQ2, Lin1, Lin 2, and WoW. The World Cyber Games were held in NYC. There are an insane number of major as well as smaller independant gamer magazines, newspapers, in NYC. NYC is a heck of more of a gamer capital than Montana heheh. And no one, no media, in NYC has caught wind of this?
And you want to start the name calling? Calling the rest of us "doubters", and other names? The funny thing is... since you still have been unable to show any proof, but everyone else here has been able to shoot down what you posted with their own proof.... it makes you look like the names you are calling everyone else.
(I thank the poster Kable, on page 3, for bringing up the fact Turbine itself has not posted anything about this.) So its you and your Montana newspaper vs. Turbine. With Turbine itself calling this thread of yours false, and the story in your paper untrue. Turbine is a "doubter" and the rest of the names you are calling the rest of us.
The 1.5 millions pre-orders has NOTHING to do with DDO, everything to do with the D&D franchise.
With that amount of pre-order you expect a GOOD product to beat WoW. If DDO fall behind WoW, Turbines will take the blame and most certainly never be granted any major sequel. If DDO sells more than WoW (should be easy with 1,5 millions pre-order according to this, and somehow, those number "seem" right, for pre-orders) than Turbines will be praised.
In the case of DDO, pre-orders numbers has NOTHING to do with Turbines, everything to do with the D&D franchise.
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
No, that would be an abysmall failure. D&D is the RPG king, they SHOULD be ahead of any Blizzard product if done right.
EDIT: The group centric approach is only 1 of many "mistake" Turbine did, but who am I to say it is a mistake, let's the fans answer...and if they doesn't beat WoW, we will never know for sure which feature was a mistake, but we can get a rough idea.
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
I wish Turbine well with DDO, but I don't see it as a threat to WoW. It's just to group-centric. I would guess this game with be a nice niche game for many which is great.
Paks
While skimming through this thread, I find people who are already bashing this game. DDO isnt released yet, it havent even experienced its first two months bugs nor its first six months of becoming mature. If anyone here who have experience playing MMOGs, should know that these games will change to fit what most of the players want.
The 1.5 million preorders makes the game promising for success. Some of the preorders might be by players from WoW, but DDO doesnt directly compete. Turbine probably gotten alot of preorders by long time dungeon and dragon fans which dont play any of blizzards games. It is unknown what would happen after the first month after its released. There could be a huge exodus or just a trickle of people cancelling. The fact is right now, is the most of the people who are complaining about DDO is a small handful. Those are complaining are a small minority of people.
Have played: CoH, DDO EQ2, FFXI, L2, HZ, SoR, and WW2 online
It's not the bugs that I don't like. It's the clunky gameplay, 100% instancing and lack of polearms of any type (the devs admitted they were too lazy to put them in) that I hate with a passion.
This game just feels cold and uninviting.
If DDO didn't have the words dungeons or dragons in the name, no one would even look at this thing...
Joined 2004 - I can't believe I've been a MMORPG.com member for 20 years! Get off my lawn!
As one of the people that have been "bashing" the game I will state that:
a) I have played it. I have experienced the GAMEPLAY 1st hand. The GAMEPLAY is what I have a problem with and the GAMEPLAY of an MMO typically doesn't change (outside of SWG's NGE fiasco that is).
b) Everyone that has bashed DDO (that I've seen so far anyway) has played the game. Either in beta or in a stress test. They're not bashing it over bugs. They're not bashing it over content. They're bashing it over DESIGN decisions.
I'm not saying DDO won't be a success. I never said it wouldn't. I said if it does succeed it will be due to name recognition of the Dungeons & Dragons name. It will not be because the game is high quality and worth a monthly fee. Because it simply isn't.
DDO's failings are multiple but I'll list the ones I found most annoying here:
DDO is basically a giant Quest engine. Log in, find friends, go do a quest. Decent graphics and the gameplay is ok. But that's basically all there is to it.
Does this sound familliar? To me it does: It's basically NeverWinter Nights... online. But costing $14.95 a month to play. The graphics are better but other than that it is NO different than NWN. (and even NWN had creatures you could go out and just kill for fun if you wanted without grabbing a quest)
NeverWinter Nights 2 is due to release soon. Do you honestly see this game keeping any significant number of subscribers? It's all well and good that they have sold 1.5 million boxes on pre-order but as a VERY astute observer mentioned they are counting STORES in their number. How many copies did EB Games and Best Buy alone buy? 1.5 million is NOT a lot of boxes considering stores are buying stuff to stock their shelves. Whether those boxes actually SELL or not is still in question.
As I've said before. DDO could become successful due to name recognition. As it stands right now I doubt very much it will. But hey I could be wrong. As I have said numerous times. I'm only bashing features I have seen, personally. And I'm not really 'bashing' them. I'm just pointing out why they're misguided.
How many people are going to shell out $50 pluss another $15 a month to play, essentially, an online Quest database? I won't. It's got less to offer than GuildWars.... And GuildWars... is free after buying the game (for less than $50 I might add).
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
Sig image Pending
Still in: A couple Betas
Got my pre-order and so did all of my friends as well. I can't wait for this one being a former AD&D player.
If it wasn't for AD&D MUDs would not exist I believe, so of course I am playing the grand daddy of them all.
It is intresting that even before EQ2 and WoW release i proclaimed that WoW would out sell EQ2 anyday with a much large fanbase of the warcraft series.
I then said in same thread that watch out for D&D the name alone would be another killer sales.And indeed it has.
"the war of the brand names has just begun"..With more and more people playing mmorpg brand names will keep on having amazing sales.I now predict star trek online will break the 1 million mark also on pre order.
It's no surprise. Dungeons and Dragons has been a successful franchise, already has a loyal fan base from pen and paper games and has received quite good advertising.
Another thing that added to this, in my opinion, is World of Warcraft that expanded the customer base of MMORPGs as a whole.
Currently playing:
* City of Heroes: Deggial, Assault Rifle/Devices Blaster. Server: Defiant.
* City of Villains: Snakeroot, Plant/Thorns Dominator. Server: Defiant.
So I guess Turbine must ignore the fact that they had ALOT of interest in the game then? They got 1.5+ million pre-order, that is alot of interest in the game because of the brand name. And if the game is good it will keep those numbers.
No one ever thougth Blizzard would get 750k subscribers, much less 5 million. So everyone that are jumping the gun and destroying DDO with no facts what-so-ever is kind of dumb. In fact you guys put down the actual facts, 1.5 million pre-orders, with your own personal opinions.
But I know where this is coming from, people get very possessive about "their" current MMORPG and cant imagine another game being as good as thier own.
Nah
EB Games alone probably accounts for a couple hundred thousand orders. Then there's best buy, Circuit City, Wal-Mart, Target, etc.
They're counting stores ordering the game to put it on shelves in their numbers. Which makes them 'true' but not 'firm'. A lot of those pre-orders could wind up being returned if the stores can't move them off shelves.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
Sig image Pending
Still in: A couple Betas
So I guess Turbine must ignore the fact that they had ALOT of interest in the game then? They got 1.5+ million pre-order, that is alot of interest in the game because of the brand name. And if the game is good it will keep those numbers.
No one ever thougth Blizzard would get 750k subscribers, much less 5 million. So everyone that are jumping the gun and destroying DDO with no facts what-so-ever is kind of dumb. In fact you guys put down the actual facts, 1.5 million pre-orders, with your own personal opinions.
But I know where this is coming from, people get very possessive about "their" current MMORPG and cant imagine another game being as good as thier own.
Im not bashing the game myself, just questioning the "facts" as you call them.
What does pre-sale mean? Is it in $$$ value or is it how many people bought pre-orders? And why would a newspaper not be specific and leave room for misinterpitation?
If it is the people that bought pre-orders , is it at full price or 5$ down for the pre-order box.
If 1.5 mill bought pre-orders , and they technically had access to beta, why was there no were ,even remotely close to that amount of people in beta ...in fact I would guess there was less then 5% of that.
Where did these # come from, if it came from turbine, why did they not mention it, a real newspaper would mention the source so people would judge the validaty of the info. Company sometimes can mislead for puplicity and hype reasons. As far as we know turbine may consider registration as a form of pre-order(just an example).
And last if this info is true were can i get this local newspaper with the inside scope on company development cost as well as first hand knowledge of there sales before anyone else? This paper would be a dream for investing!!!!
As one of the people that have been "bashing" the game I will state that:
a) I have played it. I have experienced the GAMEPLAY 1st hand. The GAMEPLAY is what I have a problem with and the GAMEPLAY of an MMO typically doesn't change (outside of SWG's NGE fiasco that is).
b) Everyone that has bashed DDO (that I've seen so far anyway) has played the game. Either in beta or in a stress test. They're not bashing it over bugs. They're not bashing it over content. They're bashing it over DESIGN decisions.
I'm not saying DDO won't be a success. I never said it wouldn't. I said if it does succeed it will be due to name recognition of the Dungeons & Dragons name. It will not be because the game is high quality and worth a monthly fee. Because it simply isn't.
DDO's failings are multiple but I'll list the ones I found most annoying here:
DDO is basically a giant Quest engine. Log in, find friends, go do a quest. Decent graphics and the gameplay is ok. But that's basically all there is to it.
Does this sound familliar? To me it does: It's basically NeverWinter Nights... online. But costing $14.95 a month to play. The graphics are better but other than that it is NO different than NWN. (and even NWN had creatures you could go out and just kill for fun if you wanted without grabbing a quest)
NeverWinter Nights 2 is due to release soon. Do you honestly see this game keeping any significant number of subscribers? It's all well and good that they have sold 1.5 million boxes on pre-order but as a VERY astute observer mentioned they are counting STORES in their number. How many copies did EB Games and Best Buy alone buy? 1.5 million is NOT a lot of boxes considering stores are buying stuff to stock their shelves. Whether those boxes actually SELL or not is still in question.
As I've said before. DDO could become successful due to name recognition. As it stands right now I doubt very much it will. But hey I could be wrong. As I have said numerous times. I'm only bashing features I have seen, personally. And I'm not really 'bashing' them. I'm just pointing out why they're misguided.
How many people are going to shell out $50 pluss another $15 a month to play, essentially, an online Quest database? I won't. It's got less to offer than GuildWars.... And GuildWars... is free after buying the game (for less than $50 I might add).
The things you just stated as negatives is what I and my friends been looking for in an online game. Log on, find friends and go adventure and dungeon crawl. If I want to pretend to live in a virual house and talk to "girls" I would play Sims Online. If I want to pretend to be another Martha Steward and be another l33t at arts and crafts (tradeskills) then I would do it, but I dont. To each their own.
Problem with most MMORPGs atm is they all promote grinding and grinding to be good at it, so some people outlevel thier friends so and then cant do anything together. People need a MMORPG that doesnt promote grinding on "mobs" to be the best at it.
I am kind of glad this is not another EQ-clone like what WoW is, a grind-fest which most of my friends are BORED with.