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Already offering a free trial...
brihtwulf
Member UncommonPosts: 975
I know all the fanboys are going to scoff at this, but it's an ominous sign that the game is already offering a free trial within the first couple months of release. Normally this happens when the game is struggling for members to keep server populations alive. It's obvious now, more than ever, that the game is starting to fail. I can't think of a single game that offered a free trial within such a short time from of release. And with consistant talk about server populations on a decline, it's obvious they are trying to get subscriptions any way they can to stop the game from sinking into the sewers of the MMORPG world.
I think it's too little too late. They already lost a majority of their players in the frist 2 months after release. It's obvious through the forums for one, as much as fanboys will deny that forums are the pulse of the game. The devs even already addressed the issue of group forming times, looking for the reasons why so many are quitting due to the problems with lowering populations and difficulty in forming groups (particularly during off-peak times). Many people are talking about massive declines in guild population, and I've heard more talk a friend about the difficulties since I left a few weeks ago. This is the same thing that happened to AC2, and now the only sign left to seal the failure of this game is server merges. If they do this within the first 6 months of release it's a sure sign this game will die just like their other venture.
The sad thing is that this doesn't bode well for the development of LotR. If DDO fails, my guess is that they will shortly file for bankruptcy after losing their asses on the game. With the millions it takes to develop a game these days, it's going to ruin them if they aren't making enough off subscriptions to pay back the investors and foot their bills for the servers and staff.
Take it however you will, but to me it's a bad sign...
Comments
Intrestingly enough it never takes me more then 5 minutes of logging into the game to get into a group, our guild has grown immensely and continues to do so, I see just as many characters scurrying around as I did on launch and I enjoy logging in for a few hours every couple days to play.
There _are_ many shortfalls that Turbine made. The scope of the gaming environment is extremely more restrictive from what I had expected in a "Dungeon & Dragons" game. I understand the difficulties of porting a game system into an MMO and thus accept the differences in the PnP system compared to the online game. Heck, I haven't played since the 1st edition rules so if anyone has room to complain it's those like me....yet I'm not complaining about the game mechanics.
I have fun with my guild. I fun running the quests although 3rd and 4th time are excessive. Continued "module/expansions" are needed to retain subscriptions and dynamics are required to pull in more subscribers.
I play EVE and DDO is a nice contrast to game play.
Also, it's funny to see someone refer to as "fanboi" and such when attempting to complain or berate a target audience. IT conveys little to no maturity and disqualifies anything other then their views of stereotyped segragation.
I'm very anxious to hear more info about Age of Conan. That -is- the game I want to play!!
It will work, at least short term, in Turbine's behalf. DDO is a lot of fun in the first seven days.
Unfortunately, it's once you get into the mid levels (5-7 or so) that the fun begins to tail off a bit. That's about the time that folks begin to realize that there's nothing to do in the game but grind XP unless you come to the game with a group of friends that play well together and have the same goals from the start.
Given that all there really is to do in the game is grind, people start min/maxing at about 5. That's when you see plenty of group invites, but they're all for the same few dungeons that are good XP.
You can have fun in any game if you come to with a pre-built group. At that point it's not about the game, but about friends being together. The community in DDO isn't such that it fosters that kind of friendship making on it's own. You have to have it in place before you start.
You can try free trial, here the post about it:
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/post/727234/thread/74834#727234
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Oh well !
A free trial might save the game really. There are a feww games I have enjoyed that I would never have payed $50 to try thinking I would hate it, but played a trial and subscribed.
But the billing login setup system is F'd up. It kept telling me that my email was invalid, even though it arrived in my mailbox (not a free service that is auto disqualified or anything). Had to manually set everything up only to realize that the error is on the account setup page scripting its self. Tried to set it up again with the new info and I was told to try after 10min to many attempts to create account -.-;
Turbine needs to hire a new professional to redo their billing page...which should be the best written page in the entire system. Amateur mistake in the scripting.
I think that the free trial will sell boxes, but it's not going to sell any more subscriptions. I think pretty everyone will agree that early on DDO is pretty addictive and fun to play, especially if you have a group of people you go in with that you will play with. I got hooked playing with a few friends on the free beta day. Sadly after 2 ten day beta passes I was done before my head start had even ended. So if Turbine's goal is to sell the box's then ya it'll work, but if they are trying to sell the game as a subscription based game, a free trial isn't gonna help. Everything to me just suggest that Turbine is trying to market an offline multiplayer rpg as an mmorpg. Put this on a console like Baldurs Gate Dark Alliance and you might have something.
Actually I can think of ONE other MMOG that had a free trial so close to retail: Saga of Ryzom.
'Nuff said.
Free trial within 2 months of release? It must be some kind of a record.
I feel sorry for Turbine. Can't really understand why they chose the monthly subsciption route. What were they thinking? I'm pretty sure D&D would beat Guild Wars if it wasn't for monthly fees. And I have a feeling Turbine will be forced to copy Guild Wars' business model in a few months.
Time to realize that GW is D&D's main competitor.
well im pretty bored and downloading the trial now. if its decent it might work on at least 1 person, me.
need something even half-fun to play until spellborn
The main difference is that Ryzom doesn't seem to have the hate built up that DDO has. It could possibly have something to do with folks (myself included) hoping for more out of the D&D license than Turbine actually provided, or it could be folks rebelling against the elistist D&D players that run through DDO telling people how the game isn't 3.5 or to go read the books. Folks in-game don't want to read books, and they don't want to be talked down to.
Ryzom is still around. It's small, but it's there. And it's community seems to be pretty friendly.
I don't know if the same thing will be said of DDO two years post-launch. The community isn't friendly now ... there are quite a few D&D elitists that look down thier noses at everyone else. And as a D&D player since the late 70's (I know ... I'm old), the elitists in DDO make me angry. They give the rest of us a bad name.
People already think D&D players are crosses between Comic Book Guy on 'The Simpsons' and LARPers. The elitists aren't helping.
Damn .. de-railed my own post.
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Oh well !
If you count buddy keys then: WoW, DAoC, FFXI, CoH/CoV, L2, EQ2, and even more games I can't remember would be on the list, but someone has to buy a copy to get those for someone else.
DDO is different because it is free for anyone and everyone to get. Ryzom is a completely different situation, it is from a small company and they don't sell boxes at $50 a pop all around the US. The free trial was basically their entire ad campaign desgin from the get go.
Ran throug hte trial a few times on different video settings and setups and control schemes...
The game is laggy on all settings, even on a 512MB video card setup. The air bubble and other timers are not consistent I was under water on one character and got a breath timer once immediately, all the other characters had inconsistent times. You can get the door to open but it won't register in game properly at times just says "interuptted" even though I didn't move (when runnign fine you still have to wait a second after the bar fills, but I am talking upto5 seconds later getting interuptted occasionally) and this is all in an instance.
The game is very hard to control in non-mouselook mode, aka normal RPG mode. It is like NVN without the finess because it is pretty obvious that it was designed to be played in mouselook. Mouselook is almsot FPS style, kinda like the current SWG only you don't hold down the mouse button. Almost none of the enviroment is functional, which is such a waste. They could have atleast added the ability to "search" book cases and get a generic "you see a lot of old warn out books here" that would be DnD appropriate. The isntances are streamlined to get you in and out ASAP, even more so than in beta o.0 Only the tutorial has the massive blue arrows telling you what to click to continue, but it is still pretty obvious in every way because it is the only incosistency in any room. Reminded me of "which of these is not like the others" from Seaseme Street.
It plays like a cross between SWG (current), Guild Wars, with a WoW like talent system thrown on top, not a DnD trait/skill system.
If you like the game good for you, but it has actually gotten less intriguing since beta for me. I think even less of it now after the trial, which is really kinda frightening.
If you count buddy keys then: WoW, DAoC, FFXI, CoH/CoV, L2, EQ2, and even more games I can't remember would be on the list, but someone has to buy a copy to get those for someone else.
DDO is different because it is free for anyone and everyone to get. Ryzom is a completely different situation, it is from a small company and they don't sell boxes at $50 a pop all around the US. The free trial was basically their entire ad campaign desgin from the get go.
Ran throug hte trial a few times on different video settings and setups and control schemes...
The game is laggy on all settings, even on a 512MB video card setup. The air bubble and other timers are not consistent I was under water on one character and got a breath timer once immediately, all the other characters had inconsistent times. You can get the door to open but it won't register in game properly at times just says "interuptted" even though I didn't move (when runnign fine you still have to wait a second after the bar fills, but I am talking upto5 seconds later getting interuptted occasionally) and this is all in an instance.
The game is very hard to control in non-mouselook mode, aka normal RPG mode. It is like NVN without the finess because it is pretty obvious that it was designed to be played in mouselook. Mouselook is almsot FPS style, kinda like the current SWG only you don't hold down the mouse button. Almost none of the enviroment is functional, which is such a waste. They could have atleast added the ability to "search" book cases and get a generic "you see a lot of old warn out books here" that would be DnD appropriate. The isntances are streamlined to get you in and out ASAP, even more so than in beta o.0 Only the tutorial has the massive blue arrows telling you what to click to continue, but it is still pretty obvious in every way because it is the only incosistency in any room. Reminded me of "which of these is not like the others" from Seaseme Street.
It plays like a cross between SWG (current), Guild Wars, with a WoW like talent system thrown on top, not a DnD trait/skill system.
If you like the game good for you, but it has actually gotten less intriguing since beta for me. I think even less of it now after the trial, which is really kinda frightening.
Excelent point!
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Oh well !
I still think DDO is going to be the king of the sub cancel sub cancel player, which is a very workable business model. I have been playing the new module and the content is definitely fun for me. So faster players may burn through the content in a week. They will cancel out and resub 2 or 3 months later and get a pretty decent amount of entertainment for $15 bucks then cancel out once they have burned through it.
The free trial should help sell many more boxes which is the key. 7 days is just the right amount of time to lure in a ton of casual players that can't burn through the content and hit lvl 10 like a 24/7 grinder can. I think the sooner you can get a trial out the better because alot of people are on the fence of a new game. The main barrier is making sure the servers are stable and I never have a problem logging in unless its a maint day. The last thing I would want as a developer is someone quiting your game because of technical problems and not on the merits of the game itself. DDO seems very stable now so this should bode well for people getting set up.
As for population, I have seen that posted on these forums and it is not matching up with what I see. When I log in I have been checking out on the player search and I consistently get 250-300 low and 800-1100 on the high for Thelanis. As for waiting for a group, I have had a few times where I have gone 20 mins but it helps with how well known you are on the server and if your in a decent guild.
I think your last paragraph is the root of the problem DDO is having...
First off, from what I gather, Thelanis is one of the higher population servers. If you are on one of the servers that Turbine is trying to reccomend to new players... They are low population servers... Therefore, you may infact have a lot longer wait time to get a group.
I think the other problem is that not only are you forced to group, you are now saying that a good guild is almost a must. And it can be a hassle to find a good guild.
If GW is DDO's main competitor, then DDO is in serious doodoo.
(PS. GW is FAR FAR better than DDO and would still kill DDO for numbers/gameplay/etc. even if DDO was free. DDO has nothing to do other than questing. GW has PvP, explorable areas, and stylized crafting.)
- Dungeons and Dragons Online
- Asheron's Call
- Asheron's Call 2
- Lord of the Rings Online
AC2 shut down at the end of 2005 and was a money loser pretty much its entire life. LOTRO is still in production, so it's a liability at the moment. AC is almost 7 years old. I have no idea how many people still play it, but it can't be generating a ton of revenue. That leaves DDO as the current workhorse of the company.For a company that based its business plan around the monthly fee model, it'd be hard to make DDO a free game. DDO may be doing well, but I noticed a decrease in population in my 2 months there, and word of mouth is not good.
Turbine needs to hit a home run with LOTRO, or it may be tough times ahead.
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Old timer.
Just a FYI, I'm from EU and playing on NA servers with the trial, there is supposed to be an EU trial but you can use the current trial. Pay no attention to the "you can't play the trial if you are outside NA", you can I am.
No annoying animated GIF here!
Actually this is kind of sudden TBH.It is not a good sign.
Yes DAoC,EQ2,WoW ,L2 and other successful mmorpg have fee trial but none of them were before the 6 month mark.This is barely 1 month post release.
Absolutely true. This game is perfect for a group of real life friends who wish to play a fun game together. Maybe many miles separate them making paper and pencil D&D not an option. I would love to play this game with my friends, maybe meeting every couple of weeks for a few hours, as busy schedule permit. (like the days of Baldur's Gate, and NWN)
But that brings up the topic of monthly fees. DDO does not foster this play style with a montly fee of 15 bucks regardless of how long you play. DDO should offer the ability to buy game hours to use up when it is convenient to you and your group. If I could just buy like 30 hours, and use those hours when it fit into my schedule, I would run out and buy this game and convince all my friends to do the same. Then we could meet when we wanted too and enjoy the game together. But, 15 bucks a month to maybe play 8 hours? This won't work.
Turbine needs to change something. This game is dying quick. Maybe lowering the price might help. Something has to change or soon, this game will only be a distant memory. Maybe this game just shouldn't have a monthly fee at all. Sounds like marketing did not put together is good business plan on this one.
Without a world to explore it will never really compete with the major MMORPG's out there.
Most people don't want an online quest engine that you have to pay a monthly fee for, they want a living breathing world to play in. Unless Turbine does something *soon* this title will go the same way AC2 did.... but faster.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
Sig image Pending
Still in: A couple Betas