The forgotten MMO: Dungeons and Dragons Online

I remember when it first came out, thinking I would give it a shot, never did. I would prefer a version of DDO set in the Forgotten Realms, my favorite realm. I had never even heard of Stormreach at the time.

Some things are better left forgotten :(

This game was terrible when released, but has improved greatly since. Probably the best MMO I am not currently playing since I am occupied with a certain other Turbine MMO :) It's too bad it's not doing better since it's actually different than your standard MMO (in a good way). Which is kind of funny because people complain all MMOs are the same but yet no one is playing DDO. :P

What a coincidence. I was actually looking around for recent reviews about DDO since I tried it out briefly some years ago and haven't been back there. Might reinstall and check it out again, as I'm trying out lots of different MMOs for something to keep me busy until JGE and Champions are released.

The fact that Turbine managed to turn one of *the* biggest IPs in RPGdom into a 'forgotten MMO' ought to tell you how badly they dropped the ball here.

You can hit 20 now. Great. Problem is, the new level cap in 4th edition is 30. :P

They're problem with DDO seemed to be creating a game that they wanted to play, rather than what players wanted. By deciding that a MMO was for Group Play and not Solo Play they created their own problems with their game.

I would have loved to get into DDO, but the fact is that I play Solo 80% of the time. Ironically, an Instanced world is perfect for allowing Solo Play...but again the team seemed to have made the decision that you either Grouped in DDO, or you did not play DDO.

The steps they are taking now are good, but apparently they still are not prepared to go far enough (Rogue Hirelings being unable to provide the expected facilities of a Rogue) most likely because they are afraid players will use Rogue Hirelings instead of Rogue Players.

It's sad, because what Turbine did with DDO was innovative.Let's hope things keep going long enough for them to turn it around even more. Guild Wars is similar, and is still having a great run.

My problem with DDO is that I wanted to play an *RPG* with some dungeon crawling, not a dungeon crawler full-stop. After 12 or so dungeons and upon just reaching level 2, I didn't feel I knew anything more about my character than I had when I started.

The dungeons were great, though.

About the soloing part, upcoming Module 9 (another free expansion) will most likely change it to the point it won't need any more changes.

Mod 9 will scale the "difficulty" of a quest. What was revealed, is that it will reduce hp of monsters accordingly to your group size, and maybe even your class. All this in... real time. So if someone joins you or leaves your group, it will be instantly changed to match.
Every quest in DDO has difficulty, starting with solo, going to normal, hard, then elite (the higher, the better rewards). This new scaling will scale down less on higher difficulties. So probably soloing at your present level will be possible on normal, hard, but on elite you'll need to level up or find some help.

Other changes look VERY promising too, from my perspective. For example: 2 new default chats: advice & trade. These two plus the old General (rarely used to date) will now become global, or rather - major hub centered. So if you do quests on Korthos Island, in Harbor, Market, etc. you'll be able to chat even from their instances (dungeons, explorable areas) with all people present in this "parent" hub.
This will probably change DDOs game feel to more "vibrant" and lively, a thing new people were constantly complaining about. They sometimes had the impression that DDO is deserted (no one answers on general! silence!), which is in reality just a myth : ). Once you get into the game, you have plenty of action, to the point when MMOs like LotrO, WoW feel boring. I tried coming back to both several times, but now they're just too sneezy for me : ). DDO is action.

Eberron is a great setting. Trust me. But it's not as popular as FR, DL, GH, or Planescape, because it was created for 3e. It's just really new in D&D standards, but it's really very D&Dish. This was probably the reason - WotC wanted to popularize Eberron at the time.

And last note... With all the trouble, like Atari (which holds rights) refusing to advertise this game, Turbine should be praised for what they do.
Just imagine Mythic creating D&D version of WAR... or something similar. Turbine could go that route - create game that "feels" like D&D, but it's not D&D ruleset or anything. Turbine took the hard route, quality over quantity as well, and I feel it will make DDO a really popular game soon.

The pre-release notes for Module 9 - just take a look : ).
http://compendium.ddo.com/wiki/Release_Notes_Lamannia_Update_9.0_Official

PS: By the way, did you know people that DDO is one of very few games offering DX10? Without the problems that AoC had and has to this day. It came in Mod 8 with so called "new player experience", and in Mod 9 will leave "beta" stage.

I like DDO Online and would probably resubscribe and play it as a second MMO if the monthly charge was less than $10.00 a month but at this stage in the game's life charging $15.95 a month is just too much.

The pricing structure doesn't even compare favorably to it's more successful sibling, Lord of the Rings Online.

I'm not sure what Tubine's pricing model is for this game is but if it's working more power to em'.

oops...$14.99 a month.

I played DDO on and off since its launch (mainly because I have 2 real life friends who play it)
I reason I don't really care for it are these.

The lack of a true open and explorable world, the setting blows IMHO and they shoulda went with Forgotten Realms or Dragon Lance, didn't like the art to much and it was far to instanced.

Oh the other hand, it did have some pro's: the combat was a nice change of pace and the dungeons are awesome.

Overall the feeling I always walk away from that game with however is that I just paid a month fee for a version of Guild Wars without the PvP structure.

There are two things I don't like about DDO at the moment: a) the monthly cost feels a bit steep (at least as a "second" MMO) and b) that grouping aside, you need to rerun most of the dungeons over and over (speak grind).
Otherwise this is one of the best MMOs I have ever played and would still play (the latest Newbie experience e.g. is really a treat).

Its guild wars on valium. instanced and rote. I also have friends playing this piece, why? i have no clue.

DDO should be brilliant but it really isn’t.

I’m not a huge fan of instanced quests but for DDO it really works. Ok, so the interiors get a bit samey after a while… but sewers probably do look alike. The content within each quest is excellent, with puzzles and different enemies at different stages. You need tactics, you need to think about how your group can get past things… really smart gameplay.

But… problems…

1) You need a group to play this. That’s totally fine but there is almost no way a new player can get into this game. Attrition has killed it.
2) Lacks polish. The UI is still bloody horrid. It’s not a hard thing to get right, so why does it look like it came from the early 90s?
3) Weird setting. It’s a very, very odd setting. Something a bit more generic would have been more appealing, broadly.
4) Terrible looking characters/items. This game has the worst looking armour I’ve ever seen. You might not think that’s important but when your character looks like a bum with a series of metal diner plates around his brown sack clothes… yeah… plus all the characters look the same. There is just no customisation at all.
5) Not at all accessible. You really need to do your D&D, making it far to easy to gimp your character immediately if you just click buttons. You really have to think about what you want at cap and plan towards it from your first level or your screwed. Totally unforgiving.

A shame, because technically speaking this game is great.