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Dungeons And Dragons Online Slated For 2005
As part of the continuing announcement-based madness that is E3, Atari have announced that they're partnering with Turbine Entertainment to make Dungeons And Dragons Online. This is especially interesting since developers Turbine, the makers of Asheron's Call 1 and 2 for Microsoft, have also just announced they're creating Middle Earth Online (previous Slashdot story). Which one are you going to be playing?
Great! Now there will be another online way to keep the trolls down besides moderation on Slashdot.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Personally, the best online D&D experience, IMO, is Neverwinter Nights. Sure, it's not MMORPG, but at least it's the closest CRPG to D&D there is!
"Times have not become more violent. They have just become more televised."
-Marilyn Manson
Don't we already have D&D Online? Neverwinter Nights is 3rd Ed rules for DND in an on-line setting.
If not, what have I been playing for all these months?
Maybe it will be first edition D&D and we'll all have to dig out our old rule books to figure out all the old restrictions...
Unless a research team has developed an AI that can DM as well as a human, this may be D&D in name but not in spirit. The main thing I like about D&D is being able to be creative. For example, are all of the ways a flask of oil can be used going to be programmed into the system? I doubt it. Unless Atari and Turbine are planning on hiring hundreds of DMs to run this world, this is going to be faux D&D.
Considering how Turbine has been a MS partner the past few years I can only wonder if a Linux Client will be available. Considerng their G3 engine is DirectX I highly doubt it. But would be nice to see it ported.
Of course one can hope WineX will be able to use DX9 by then also.
Honestly, though, it would cut into my pen & paper D&D evenings. Can't have that. ("Can I have a Mountain Dew?")
So how many pen & paper sessions have you played that were "massively multiplayer"?This is terrible. The thing that NWN got right about the D&D experience is that it is best played by a small group of players and a DM. Try some of the persistent worlds people have set up for NWN and you will see that a MMO dungeons & dragons is extremely difficult to do- and on the scale that this game would need to be considered a success I would say it's impossible.How is this any different than Everquest- other than naming conventions?
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws. -Plato
Ahhh....Internet D&D should be like: DM: You quietly tiptoes into the approaching chamber. The air is murky and the only light is coming from the glowing pendant you wear around your neck. Suddenly, you notice an enormous beast, at least twice your height, crawling down the passage towards you. The creature opens its mouth and, in an apparent attempt to mock your puny self, screams, "I am the legendary Mieqqerowzzuft. Where do you want to go today?" Player: I rip out my Linux Sword of Vengeance +7 and attack! DM: (rolls dice) You have successfully smote the beast.
The thing that makes AD&D great is that you and your friends are the protagonists. The heroes. Through your actions you shape the world. Here you're Elven Magic-User #48994 with head #14. Through your actions, you can add another Wand of Fireballs to the market pool, lowering their overall price by 3 copper.