How's DDO working out for ya?

[Tingteng]

Played beta and it wasn't for me, but it's been released for a bit and I've seen no topics on it so far.

Had a funny thing happen yesterday when a coworker of mine came in and said that he had gone to a GM in game demanding his money back and then ripped a supposed game magazine reviewer for not ripping it to shreds. The reviewer (if he was actually one) replied that he never actually endorsed it either. Then he drove to best buy and tried to get his money back. Let's just say he's kind of a hothead shall we?

I spoke to some people in my old guild about it and they weren't so down on it. Some of the real hardcore D&D people were saying it's good as long as you have a good crew to run with. Also things I'm hearing is it's very casual.

I started this topic because I'd like to hear what some of this crowd has to say about it.

[Arbitrary]

Haven't bought it, probably won't even though I very much enjoy DnD.

[Zarniwoop]

I picked it up shortly after release and have been playing it a few nights a week with some ex-EQ, ex-WoW, and RL friends. I'm enjoying the game so far and find it fits nicely with my schedule (full time job, wife, kid). My cleric is almost lvl 4 after about 15 play sessions.

I'm just going to ramble and throw out some good and bad points from my perspective.

The good:

1. It is certainly very casual-friendly. When I haven't been playing with friends, pickup groups have generally been decent.

2. Combat is fun and fairly tactical without being a complete twitch-fest.

3. Doing a quest/instance feels a lot like playing through a PnP module. The dungeons I've been through so far have been well-designed, with traps, secret doors, bottle necks.

4. Most, if not all, classes seem to bring value to the table.

5. The built-in voice chat is very handy. I thought for sure I was going to hate hearing some strangers voice coming out my headphones, but the benefits of faster communication have outweighed any negatives so far.

6. Decent graphics.

7. The servers have been pretty stable, probably better than WoW over the first few months and better than EQ at Luclin launch, but there has been crashes and downtime.

The bad:

1. Limited content at this point in time. They have announced the impending release of more dungeons and a raid in the near future. The game is strictly PvE, and there's no crafting, farming, factioning. There's a lot less to do even than WoW.

2. Low level cap.

Both of the above points mean that you could max out your character in a month or so of constant play.

Basically, it works for me now and I think it has potential.

[tad10]

Originally Posted by Arbitrary

Haven't bought it, probably won't even though I very much enjoy DnD.

This could be me. I'm a fan - but I just can't take another fantasy MMO at this time. I'll pass on Vanguard, Conan, LOTRO, etc, etc.

[leane]

Playing it a bit myself, although not very hardcore.

It does capture the feel of going into a dungeon really well, problem is like was said above is there isn't a whole lot to hold interest, pretty much you chain through most all of the quests in an area before moving on, you are able to repeat quests most of the time (bascially when you choose to the NPC acts like its the first time he gave you the quest) but running the same instance gets boring after you figure out where all the traps and secrets are.

I can see why they didn't include things like crafting, thats never been much of a thing in D&D.

I can see myself playing it for a month tops before moving on, maybe come back when they add more stuff to do.

[Lenardo]

see that is what i disagree leane, crafting while not huge in dnd was there.

alchemy
wand making
enchanting items
weaponsmithing
etc.

the game Covers all of those things in the books- not extensively- but it does.

imagine a world where magic items are around but not many(war etc got rid of alot of them), but the ability to craft magic items is there- you just have to find the ancient trainers to teach you the craft......

i play it very casually and am a 3rd level cleric. the gameplay is decent, the graphics is decent though repetitive.

the patch next month is adding 15 new dungeon adventures and a red dragon raid.

if they can keep up the adding 10-20 dungeon adventures every couple of months, then i think the game will have the content to keep people around long term- as well as increasing the level cap to 20th...

[Dintorr]

I've been playing it since release, and Zarniwoop's review is spot on.

I have a 6 Rogue, play only casually, and am having fun.

My biggest gripe is the speed at which some groups like to run through the quest. I much prefer to take a slower, more careful approach and really check out the dungeon. A lot of people just wanna rush through to the end. More power to them, but I'm not gonna play like that.

Eventually they will add more content. They've already announced a new "module" for April. One can only assume that full-blown expansions are in the works as well. I think I've read that additional races and classes are scheduled for release eventually too. Oh yeah, crafting is something else they're supposed to be working on.

So essentially, DDO isn't designed for the types of folks who normally frequent this board.

[Khudere]

Its always good to see games try to twist new ideas into a product thats been released a few times over. I mean WoW just took a lot their own and other game ideas and put it in the game, which isn't bad, but doesn't do it for me now.

I'am waiting for the next skill based game, or just a good all around shadowbane? I want to have the choice of what to do, and how to build a unique character... instead of constantly farming for the same item(s) and building the same character everyone has... when i say everyone i mean everyone.

[RunningDog]

I have a group of friends who enjoy it. If you can group with the same people all the time and you don't want to spend too many hours online it sounds OK. AFAIK there's still lots of lag outside the dungeons.

They have just announced 15(?) new dungeons and a raid next patch. If they can keep delivering more content at a similar pace it could grow into something interesting. The level cap won't be a problem as long as there's more to do.

[Kasonic]

They should've just made NWN2 with this engine. Fuck the MMO component.

[Froofy-D]

Originally Posted by Lenardo

see that is what i disagree leane, crafting while not huge in dnd was there.

alchemy
wand making
enchanting items
weaponsmithing
etc.

Yeah ever since 2nd edition there have always been rules in place for crafting magic items. There was even prices for everything in case you happen to purchase items in a magic shop. But, not surprisingly, a majority of D+D campaigns never pushed either angle since King Arthur buying Excalibre for 10k gold in the Auction House just doesnt make an exciting story.

[elrich]

I get the feeling that as the MMO market develops more, its going to take a split between True Massive games and maybe just Sorta Massive games, with a True Massive game being more like Eve and a sorta massive like DnD.

Obviously the defining factor here wouldnt be subscriptions, but scale and rate of progression, and interdependancy. WoW fits pretty much int he middle of the two sides being that it has a long-ish progression scale (yes, 1-60 is fast, but what about 60 greens to BWL equip, high PVP rank, exalted with AB/AV/WSG, etc) and it has a pretty large world.

Just seems like something on a smaller scale, faster to level and progress would be better capable of drawing in a more casual crowd, where as those "omghardcores" would want a massively massive game instead.

Just an observation.

[Slick Willey]

Originally Posted by elrich

I get the feeling that as the MMO market develops more, its going to take a split between True Massive games and maybe just Sorta Massive games, with a True Massive game being more like Eve and a sorta massive like DnD.

I think instancing would be a big, if not the biggest, factor in separating the "true" mmorpgs from the "sorta" mmorpgs. I don't mean to turn this into an argument over the pros and cons of instancing, its just that thus far, Guild Wars and DDO just don't "feel" like a mmorpg because of the central, non-instanced "lobby", with the rest of the entire game being instanced.

Yes, WoW uses instancing, but nowhere NEAR the level that takes away from the feeling that you are in a world, as opposed to a lobby where you can meet up with players and hit your own private dungeon.

[elrich]

Very true, instancing would definately be a major factor.

Not sure if something would be defined as a sorta mmo because it uses instancing, or if a sorta mmo would simply using instancing because it fits the best. Maybe a combo of both, and probably doesnt really make a differance either.

[Quineloe]

Can you try it for free?