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DDO 'prequel' update prepping community for the expansion

by Justin Olivetti on Jan 31st 2012 3:00PM

Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Expansions, Patches, Free-to-Play

Prequels are generally bad, bad things that your mother warned you about but you didn't believe her until you saw The Phantom Menace. Occasionally, however, there is the rare exception, such as Dungeons & Dragons Online's Update 13, which Turbine is billing as the prequel to this summer's Menace of the Underdark expansion pack.

Update 13: Web of Chaos has a generous portion of goodies for all players in the form of three new free quests. These quests include tackling a uppity cult, freeing a prisoner from captivity, and battling the nefarious Spinner of Shadows itself.

Also coming with DDO's next update will be a few additional store options, cosmetic pets, and the ability to unlock level 7 veteran status. The latter acquisition will allow you to make a new level 7 adventurer right out of the gate and can either be purchased with real money or in-game favor.

You can read up on Update 13 and the expansion pack in our recent interview with Turbine.

Source: DDO
More coverage: DDO official site

Tags: adventure-pack, cosmetic-pets, ddo, dungeons-and-dragons-online, f2p, free-to-play, free-update, menace-of-the-underdark, patch, prequel, spinner-of-shadows, the-phantom-menace, turbine, Turbine-Entertainment, update, update-13, web-of-shadows

Reader Comments (26)

Is that tiger "thing" supposed to have backward hands? I think that just warped my fragile little mind.

@Nautius
Its what happens when you think Star Wars Ep. 1-3 are amazing.
Mr. Tigra will never hold a toy lightsaber right again...

@Nautius

Its a Rakshasa and yeah its hands are supposed to be backwards.

@Nautius

Yes it is a rakhasa (sp?) and they do have backwards hands.

@Nautius Yes. It's a Rakshasa, and they do have backward hands according to lore. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rakshasa

@Nautius

Yep. Rakshasa. Lore. Hands backwards.

What?

:D

Hey, Episode 1 had Darth Maul, who cancelled out annoying-bratitis, Jar-jar-binksomia, Gungin Disease, Midochlorian Fever, Beardless-Obi-Wanzomes, and well... every other terrible thing in Episode 1 with a tacked on medical sound...

That is, until they killed him of course.

How does a prequel arrive before the item it follows?

The correct term in this case would be "prologue" rather than "prequel".

@aurickle

I was thinking the same thing. Surely it's, as you say prologue, or prelude, not a prequel.

@aurickle Maybe it's a pre-emptive prequel. A prequemptel.

Really? I found that the Star Wars prequels were much better then the originals.

@J45neoboy You were probably not a kid in the 70's -- according to the Ewok Line.

@Joaquin Crowe I was and I love them just as much as the OT. It's a age thing. Those films are designed to appeal to the wide-eyed young age of 7-14 year olds. I'm sure our parents were saying the same things when the OT first released.

@BiscuitGeneralAlpha There was nothing to compare them with.

@Lenn Maybe try thinking of the films as a saga as they are intended. You'd appreciate them more. Hating the franchise and its creator has become etched into our pop culture to the point that the word "prequel" is automatically associated with those three films. Ask a child in the intended demographic what they think of the first three and I bet they have a similar reaction to how you reacted upon viewing the OT the first time. Is everything perfect in the first three? Nope. Not at all. But nothing on the planet could of lived up to that hype train. It's time to move past 1999 and appreciate them for what they are....Star Wars.

@BiscuitGeneralAlpha I don't hate George Lucas at all. Star Wars is his baby and can do whatever the hell he wants to do with it (and he did). But you cannot dispute the fact that the original trilogy was much better in terms of acting and directing. How Lucas managed to take such talented actors like Ewan McGregor, Samuel Jackson, Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen (yes, he can actually act) and have them turn in the most wooden performances of their lives is beyond me. Plus the fact that he couldn't write a good screenplay if his life depended on it. A good story, sure. But dialogues? He should have hired Lawrence Kasdan for the prequels as well.

@J45neoboy : dunno about "much better" but they weren't really any worse. Certainly both the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy shared completely cardboard worlds, no hint of anything ever happening off-camera, and shockingly bad acting and scriptwriting happening on-camera.

@J45neoboy I think episodes 2-5 are the best in the series . A lot of people point to JaJa Binks being bad in the prequals but forget how bad the Ewoks were in the originals .Also I found the plot in return of the jedi was pretty much a rehash of a new hope . All the StarsWars films have redeaming qualitys and cringeworthy moments . Thats the nature of the franchise .

The Underdark is addressing one of the biggest problems with the game: lots of people don't like the setting of Eberron (especially older/old-school D&Ders).

But if it's a pay expansion and/or requires a high level character to get into, they'll be missing a big opportunity to get lots of new people into the game.

If you can start a new f2p level 1 character there with enough free stuff to get you hooked, the expansion will be adding lots of new players.

@Daemodand

When thinking back on it making an Ebeeron setting was a good idea, even if Eberron is dumb and it was a huge oversight to go that way when people already love Forgotten Realms and there's already a wealth of source material on that setting.

By going with Eberron though they ended up with a setting which they could basically do anything with because no one knows or gives a shit about it. So in the end they pretty much ran with it and turned out a ton of different adventure settings which embodied a more elemental D&D experience that doesn't take itself too seriously and everyone can enjoy.

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DDO 'prequel' update prepping community for the expansion

Reader Comments (26)

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 3:07PM Nautius said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 3:16PM DevilSei said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 3:19PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 3:21PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 3:25PM Coldin said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 5:10PM pcgneurotic said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 3:10PM DevilSei said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 3:12PM aurickle said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 3:15PM Dril said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 3:48PM Lenn said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 3:59PM J45neoboy said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 4:23PM Joaquin Crowe said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 4:30PM BiscuitGeneralAlpha said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 4:50PM Lenn said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 5:18PM BiscuitGeneralAlpha said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 5:57PM Lenn said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 5:58PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Feb 1st 2012 7:19AM tenfootgoatman said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 4:20PM Daemodand said

Posted: Jan 31st 2012 4:55PM (Unverified) said

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