The DDO Offer Wall launched yesterday, and was met with a very enthusiastic reaction from fans of Dungeons and Dragons Online. Unfortunately, a lot of it was negative.
Players greatest concerns stem from the fact that Turbine is working with SuperRewards, a third party lead generator, for these point opportunities. Giving personal information to an unknown is worrisome, of course, and concerns have grown to the point where some players claim that just looking at the offers page will infect your computer. On the other hand, many players are reporting that they checked out the offers, received their points, and moved on with a computer that was completely unaffected.
Update: Turbine has since added an update post to their forums, giving further information about the program. The Offer Wall has been temporarily removed while Turbine investigates player concerns over email and username security.
Trading rewards for offers in this fashion is nothing new -- Runes of Magic does something very similar, and the concept itself goes back years in the form of sites such as MyPoints. So what's the truth behind this new promotion?
We've contacted Turbine and are awaiting a response, and keep an eye out for Thursday's Exploring Eberron when we take an in-depth look at this new feature.
Reader Comments (27)
Posted: Apr 13th 2010 7:38PM wjowski said
One step closer to Turbine becoming a whorehouse of shitty f2p games propped up by ethically dubious means.
Posted: Apr 13th 2010 8:41PM (Unverified) said
Didn't I just hear on a Massively podcast that the F2P model has been just awesome for DDO - even doubling their subscribers over the past year?
People are always saying that these companies are not non-profits, that they have to make money somehow; but how much is enough? Is there a limit to how much is acceptable? Personally I think Turbine should be spanked hard for this. I've closed my account on DDO and LotRO.
And Massively - you know that this paywall thing is the exact same way that Farmville and the rest of the Facebook sludge that you're trying so hard to bring under the 'MMO' moniker is supported - right?
People are always saying that these companies are not non-profits, that they have to make money somehow; but how much is enough? Is there a limit to how much is acceptable? Personally I think Turbine should be spanked hard for this. I've closed my account on DDO and LotRO.
And Massively - you know that this paywall thing is the exact same way that Farmville and the rest of the Facebook sludge that you're trying so hard to bring under the 'MMO' moniker is supported - right?
Posted: Apr 14th 2010 8:02AM (Unverified) said
I don't think this is something Turbine cooked up, but rather something SuperRewards proposed and pushed hard. That's my theory, anyways.
What Turbine should do is give out Turbine Points in exchange for buying Wizards of the Coast products like D&D books and such. That'll get DDO players interested in buying those products (because it's basically buy-one-get-one-free) and Wizards of the Coast buyers may be tempted to join DDO so they don't 'waste' those free points. It's win-win.
And more importantly, it's better than this wall of spam and offers to get debt for free.
-SirNiko
What Turbine should do is give out Turbine Points in exchange for buying Wizards of the Coast products like D&D books and such. That'll get DDO players interested in buying those products (because it's basically buy-one-get-one-free) and Wizards of the Coast buyers may be tempted to join DDO so they don't 'waste' those free points. It's win-win.
And more importantly, it's better than this wall of spam and offers to get debt for free.
-SirNiko
Posted: Apr 14th 2010 8:46AM (Unverified) said
I don't know if it has been mentioned, but just viewing the adds sent the users' e-mail and login name to the sources in plain text. And since Firefox performs URL pre-fetching, info was being sold to these sources by people that never visited the wall but instead merely viewed pages with links to them.
The deployment of this is a tale of IT incompetence rarely seen these days.
The deployment of this is a tale of IT incompetence rarely seen these days.
Posted: Apr 14th 2010 11:12AM Atnor said
A very un-classy move by Turbine.
I realize it's optional ( the viewing-the-site-only issue not withstanding) but it's still not cool in my book to encourage your users to sign up for spam lists.
It's beneath them frankly. Or at least, it should be.
I realize it's optional ( the viewing-the-site-only issue not withstanding) but it's still not cool in my book to encourage your users to sign up for spam lists.
It's beneath them frankly. Or at least, it should be.
Posted: Apr 14th 2010 1:17PM Rialle said
And people wonder why I say the freemium model is cheapening the MMO scene. Even DDO, which up to this far has been fairly decent under this model, is not immune.
I pray to God that LOTRO stays subscription based.
I pray to God that LOTRO stays subscription based.
Posted: Apr 14th 2010 2:23PM runzwithsizzorz said
Doesn't seem like a real big deal. Its just plain tacky.








