Have we ever posted about Dungeons & Dragons Online before? It’s not an MMO that ever seems to make the headlines and, let’s be honest, most of us either thought it was already closed or was living on borrowed time. In a fairly audacious move, it’s instead gone free to play – rebranded as DDO Unlimited, and pitching itself as “the world’s first free-to-play MMO to offer the quality graphics and robust features previously only available in premium subscription based games.” Hmm. Is that strictly true? Grrrrubish as they were, didn’t the likes of RF Online and Archlord have that? Of course, it’s precisely because DDO is not rubbish that makes this surprise move so tantalising…
The game got somewhat lost amidst WoW’s initial world-eating and the successful emergence of Lord of the Rings Online, which perversely came from Turbine, the same studio behind DDO. While I’ve not played it myself, I remember reviews at the time admiring its combat and dungeoneering, even though the lack of exploration and visual personality was lamented. Were it anything else, I’d bet on going free being merely a prelude to being shut down, but when you’re talking a license as famous as this that seems a lot less likely. This could actually work, y’know?
Unsurprisingly, the free to play client will be funded by micropayment extras – “hundreds of convenience items as well as premium dungeon packs, additional character slots, hirelings (hired muscle), potions, character customization and more”, apparently. We’ll find out this summer whether these are strictly optional thrills, or are essential to truly enjoying the game – always a risk with this business model.
Existing subscribers will be (hopefully) mollified by having their accounts upgraded to DDO Unlimited VIPs – wherein they receive “every premium adventure pack, receive priority server access, 10 character slots, a shared bank slot, and a monthly allotment of 500 Turbine Points to spend in the new DDO Store.” Turbine Points? Oh, for goodness’ sakes. Whether this is enough to compensate for the months of money already spent on a game that’s about to change massively remains to be seen. Any existing DDO players reading who’d care to comment?
So, I think this might just work. Free is a powerful word, and unlike a lot of MMOs that failed to set the world alight – Tabula Rasa, Conan… – DDO doesn’t seem to have picked up a negative word of mouth. Curious to see how this all plays out come the Summer release.
You can register for the beta of DDO Unlimited here.
Related Stories:
I actually played this game for about a year and REALLY enjoyed it. I played as a dwarf warrior and really got the feel of BEING a dwarf warrior. Stout and standing still in door ways blocking enemies as my party mates fire spells and arrows over me. Standing still actaully MATTERED because it gave you a bonus to your defense ect. Very good game indeed.
Now that I think about it, I won’t be surprised if there’s a huge migration of players from the EU to US version.
The EU version you have to pay for as a boxed product, and then pay monthly for, wheras the US version gives you about 1/4 of the game (ooh, shades of shareware, perhaps?) free, and gives you the option to either subscribe to get it all (and at a faster rate than the EU version, as the US one is run by the developers themselves and not a third-party publisher), or buy content in chunks as you want to use them.
There really seems to be no real advantage to sticking to the EU servers.
Also, I’d love to see this business model applied to all MMOs. Everyone wins, really. If you just want something to play for free for a while with friends, you’ve got it. If you plan on playing it exclusively, you can subscribe to get everything, but if you want to expand when you want and permanently, you can do that to.
No doubt some people will complain about people paying money getting the better product, but these people need a short, sharp slap and a reminder that you don’t get multi-million dollar games for free without being a filthy pirate.
So, the Fileplanet Beta is being offered, and the NDA is lifted.
Personally, I’m thinking “Free with Micropayments” is a very good price for Dungeons and Dragons Online. It was never a bad game, it just never quite had that virtual-world appeal that entices one to pay $15/mo. It was always more Guild Wars than EverQuest.
So, to a great extent, this new pricing system feels like I’m really meeting Dungeons and Dragons Online for the first time. As if, up until now, it’s been living a lie. DDO: Unlimited is very much a contender for being my main MMO squeeze.
Oh, cool! I didn’t know that Dungeons and Dragon is still being played. Well it’s true, I was swept away by grinding
warcraft gold and raiding in Warcraft so I was not really aware that D&D still exists. Good thing to know since I’m thinking about trying it out as well.