Free-To-Play D&D Online Launched

[Emabulator]

http://evavhost.com/i/news/ddofree.png

Turbine has announced (http://www.ddo.com/pressreleases/633-turbine-launches-free-to-play-dungeons-a-dragons-onliner-eberron-unlimited-) the launch of its free-to-play MMORPG, Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited.

WESTWOOD, MA – September 9, 2009 – Turbine, Inc. announced today the launch of Dungeons & Dragons Online®: Eberron Unlimited™ (DDO Unlimited), a free-to-play massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) which delivers heart-pounding game play featuring the industry’s best combat system, a massive world with state-of-the-art graphics and gameplay, and a rich set of features that until now could only be found in premium subscription-based MMOs.

DDO Unlimited introduces an innovative new pricing model that allows players to download and play for free, purchasing adventure packs, items, and account services a la carte from the new DDO Store, or to subscribe to get unlimited access to all of the game’s content. Starting today, players can download and play DDO Unlimited for free by visiting http://www.ddo.com (http://www.ddo.com/).
Note: Expect long load times, the site is getting hammered right now.

[Johan]

...the site is getting hammered right now.

Give it some time. That...will...not...last. :D

[bean19]

What exactly are they selling though? I get adventure packs, but what kinds of items? Can you pay for easy mode basically? Also, what account services? The only account service I can think of that has been charged for in other games has been character transfers.

[pwnophobia]

What exactly are they selling though? I get adventure packs, but what kinds of items? Can you pay for easy mode basically? Also, what account services? The only account service I can think of that has been charged for in other games has been character transfers.

Ben talks about it in the latest podcast (http://www.evilavatar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=94676). You don't pay for anything "game changing" items as I recall.

[Zander]

I remember reading some shit that you had to PAY extra to play a DROW?

Is that true?

If so. LOLOLOLOLOL

[NickAragua]

They're charging for (among other things I cant be bothered about):
Races - drow, warfarged
Classes - monk, favored soul (basically a sorcerer cleric)
High-powered magical items - stuff like full plate +1 way before you'd normally be able to acquire something like that. Nothing gamebreaking though.
Extra character slots
Oh yeah, and the ABILITY TO GO PAST LEVEL 4, and then level 8 later (and probably level 12, 16, 20 as well)

With a free account, I expect to be able to get to about level 12 before deciding whether I want to shell out money or not.

There seems to be plenty of content and stuff to do at low levels that's free, and I'm not really feeling any pressure to buy additional content, to be honest. So, don't know how well that's going to work out for them.

[Ph00p]

They're charging for (among other things I cant be bothered about):

Oh yeah, and the ABILITY TO GO PAST LEVEL 4, and then level 8 later (and probably level 12, 16, 20 as well)


Alright so you have to pay to level up beyond level 4 then your good for a few levels til level 8? Is it a long leveling process or is it a quick grind like WoW?

[7ofswords]

Played in beta and uh, everything you can pay for you can also earn in game, except for adventure packs. Even then, if your friend is running through a pack you don't have he can drag you along.

Leveling past 4 and 8 are easy too, just require a token that has a chance to drop out of pretty much every chest. Its just if you get unlucky and don't have one exactly at level 4 you can just buy one rather than continue farming for it. I actually haven't needed to buy one yet.

+1 fullplate = High powered magic items? lol

[Ph00p]

They really should have mirrors for their client on the go so when it does get back online we can register, I checked out a video and now I'm interested, looks decent.

[gojira]

So... how are they expecting to make any money at all? I have to assume that even a hoard of Drizzt clones won't pay for all the bandwidth and CPU time that a free MMOG will require.

[UttiniDaKilrJawa]

I have a Turbine account but because I didnt actually play DDO I'm having a bear of a time trying to get this acct into DDO Unlimited.

[bean19]

They're charging for (among other things I cant be bothered about):
Races - drow, warfarged
Classes - monk, favored soul (basically a sorcerer cleric)
High-powered magical items - stuff like full plate +1 way before you'd normally be able to acquire something like that. Nothing gamebreaking though.
Extra character slots
Oh yeah, and the ABILITY TO GO PAST LEVEL 4, and then level 8 later (and probably level 12, 16, 20 as well)

With a free account, I expect to be able to get to about level 12 before deciding whether I want to shell out money or not.

There seems to be plenty of content and stuff to do at low levels that's free, and I'm not really feeling any pressure to buy additional content, to be honest. So, don't know how well that's going to work out for them.
Good details. I know EvAv editors do this for free but these are the kinds of details I like in news stories rather than simply quotes of press releases.

Still, since I'm not willing to do the leg work, I can't complain that Emabulator isn't either. Also pwonophobia, I listen to the podcast on occasion but it isn't a replacement for site news.

[Demo_Boy]

So do you have to pay to go past level 4 or are the tokens also dropped items.

[pwnophobia]

So do you have to pay to go past level 4 or are the tokens also dropped items.

Everything except campaigns can be found in the game. Paying for them gets you them faster.

[pwnophobia]

Also pwonophobia, I listen to the podcast on occasion but it isn't a replacement for site news.

I agree it isn't a replacement I was just simply stating that Ben talked quite a bit about the topic spinning around in this thread on the podcast and answered a few of these questions. :)

[randir14]

The account page keeps freezing and telling me I already have an accont (probably from Lord of the Rings Online). Here's the link for anyone who wants to download while waiting for the account page to get fixed:
http://www.ddo.com/ddosupport

[NickAragua]

Played in beta and uh, everything you can pay for you can also earn in game, except for adventure packs. Even then, if your friend is running through a pack you don't have he can drag you along.

Leveling past 4 and 8 are easy too, just require a token that has a chance to drop out of pretty much every chest. Its just if you get unlucky and don't have one exactly at level 4 you can just buy one rather than continue farming for it. I actually haven't needed to buy one yet.

Good info. I haven't played it as much, so I of course haven't gotten the "go past level 4" drops. I guess their business model is going to be mostly "rely on people's laziness", which actually isn't a bad idea.

+1 fullplate = High powered magic items? lol

Hey, for a level 1 guy, that's pretty high powered. :)

[Emabulator]

Good details. I know EvAv editors do this for free but these are the kinds of details I like in news stories rather than simply quotes of press releases.

Still, since I'm not willing to do the leg work, I can't complain that Emabulator isn't either. Also pwonophobia, I listen to the podcast on occasion but it isn't a replacement for site news.Sorry about that, I was wondering the same thing too. Apparently you have to have the client installed to access the store, at least I could not find a link to it on the site. I was going to add the full press release after the break too but the site slowed to a crawl before I got back to it.

[bean19]

Emabulator - Like I said, take the criticism as it was intended - light and hopefully constructive. When I'm willing to put forth the time to do stories for EvAv every day like you guys then I can be critical. I appreciate you guys doing it.

[HarverdGrad]

Brilliant move on Turbines part, and I'm sure we'll see a lot of games that are light on population (AOC, WAR, Vanguard etc.), follow suite.

It provides bodies for the game world.. which will keep the paying Customers looking for groups happy~

[thatlukeguy]

Guys, right now I'm playing it and I have to say it's great. There are a lot of nay-sayers but all in all you get a large amount of quality content for free.

Everything that you can purchase (Drow race, Warforged class, modules/quests, Shared-bank) etc, can be paid for with Turbine Points rather than cash. How to get Turbine Points? Well, first of all you can just outright buy them at the DDO store. But you can also earn Turbine Point rewards by earning Favor in the game (like faction/reputation in other MMO's). And the tokens to unlock levels past level 4 etc.. do drop randomly in treasure chests and as end-rewards for quests. Bottom line is, if you want to earn it all, you absolutely can. If you are impatient or have money to spend, you can just buy it all (or better yet, pay the $15 a month subscription and get it all unlocked at once to enjoy).

How many games give you these kinds of options? Last time I checked, in WoW or in EQ1/2 you had the one option of paying a monthly fee. Options for players can only be a good thing.

Just finished a marathon gaming session tonight at my house (7 hours, yikes!). My sister and her boyfriend came over, and my wife has gotten into it too. They all liked the many differences that they found in comparison to WoW (she and her boyfriend used to run a mid-size guild on WoW until recently). We had a really great time, and it was all for free.

Sure, I see people complaining in the game (and on the DDO forums) about how it wasn't 100% free the way they thought it would be. Basically alot of these people thought it would be totally and completely unrestricted but also identical to the way you would play if you paid $15/month. Are these people nuts? Does common sense not indicate that a company that did this would be out of business in a month or two? It's crazy, it's like these people think Turbine owes them something when surely it doesn't.

I say, if you have the opportunity, look into the game yourself. Weigh it's value: what is free, what is not immediately free / easily accessible. Heck try comparing it to some of the truly *free* MMO's out there. I challenge you to find this quality of content for 100% free, no-ads, no attempt to sell you on paying something at some point.

[Emabulator]

Thanks for the info thatlukeguy.

[randir14]

Funny that in a genre dominated by shitty Korean F2P games and American one arrives and blows them all away. If anything it should make for better competition in the future.

[greenapple]

Funny that in a genre dominated by shitty Korean F2P games and American one arrives and blows them all away. If anything it should make for better competition in the future.

You're confusing a change in business model versus a free from start game.

DDO started with a budget targeted at subscription. This is a money-saving effort which turns a high-production value, but money losing, product into free to play.

Comparing that to free from the start games is just silly.

I'm pretty sure most devs aren't looking at DDO as a new model for ground-up development: "Let's make a big budget subscription MMO game that fails, then salvage what we can with free to play! Mu hahahaah!!!"

Certainly, players benefit from this situation, but this isn't a way to get investors to line up around the block.

[Namielus]

Sign ups still don't work, lame!

[murpes]

The presence of real-world money in a game ruins the immersion for me. Whether or not I can afford something is a un-fun real problem, goblin jumping down my throat is a fun fantasy problem, and I don't really enjoy it when they intersect. I like these two things to be totally separate. Which is why I prefer the pay-once and forget about it style of MMO. I know DDO has some sort of unlimited plan, and while I enjoyed the beta it wasn't enough to convince me to sign up.

[Syl]

It was just close enough to D&D 3.5 that all of the changes bugged me.

3.5 doesn't work in an real time combat scheme, it just doesn't.

[Zeal]

just tried this out and i'm pretty impressed. if you download the client designed for high end pcs, the graphics are pretty amazing. everything is voice acted really well and the combat is actually more like an action rpg, fast and open-ended.

i could see myself getting into this game. explore it more, i shall.

[Johan]

I can't believe I'm downloading this damn thing. I also can't believe it's going to take about 2.5 hours to download...

[TeeCakes]

The price is right, I'll go ahead and try it again after giving the beta a test drive oh so many years ago...

[modeps]

I just got done with the first trarining quest and I'm very impressed right now. This is a free game... and I really liked what I saw, particularly the DM voice that booms in from time to time and the NPC voices. Who would have thought having just minimal voicework would make a MMO feel much more alive? I can see myself playing for a while. Dammit.