Dungeons & Dragons Online Goes Free-To-Play

Dungeons & Dragons Online developer Turbine has announced that they'll be launching a new version of the game, called Eberron Unlimited, which makes it free to play, with the option of using micro-transactions to buy certain items and customize characters. Players will also be able to earn points through normal play that they can spend in the DDO Store. There's an additional option to pay a normal subscription fee for priority access to servers, a monthly allotment of points for the store, and extra character slots. Further details and a sign-up for the beta are available at the game's website.

Comments

They let anyone on these days...

[Blue23]

When people can play for free, there's little incentive not to be a griefer or otherwise annoying if that's what you like. Create a new anonymous account and spam Chuck Norris jokes, steal kills, etc.

Having just pay-for-play sets a threshold. You'll still have annoying players, but not as many. I'd want a "Play at +1, ignore Anonymous Cowards" option for the "VIP" (for-pay) accounts.

Re:They let anyone on these days...

[poetmatt]

Why? There's absolutely nothing wrong with what he does. Death in wow has zero penalties, and it's absolutely within the game mechanics to grief people like he does. Maybe you need a -1 reality check (aka overrated) mod?

Eve allows tons of griefing, as does darkfall, as does any game with PVP, especially if you're on a PVP server. The victims that are bad players always cry out like no other, which feeds and entertains those who choose to grief. If you choose to carebear all day then do so, that's your $15.

Re:They let anyone on these days...

[castironpigeon]

Death in wow has zero penalties...

There's no penalty only if your time is worthless. Say you were on your way somewhere and then BAM you're a ghost 10 minutes from your corpse. Run back to your corpse and BAM you're a ghost for 10 more minutes. You get the idea.

Re:They let anyone on these days...

[castironpigeon]

And if you ever want to visit griefer central, try out EVE sometime (also with a monthly charge).

EVE is a game that revolves around griefing. Griefers camp strategic points in space. Anti-griefers hunt the griefers. Industrialists supply both sides with new ships and supplies. Occasionally there are large scale lagfests where groups of people destroy lots and lots of each other's ships to compete for griefing rights in a certain area of space.

The reason why this is so successful is because, as a post a few up from here notes, what is there left to do? It's just not worthwhile for a company to write that much content for people paying only $15 a month. And in a virtual world like that of EVE, PvP tends to evolve into griefing instead of even matchups or other formal PvP.

Re:They let anyone on these days...

[castironpigeon]

Not picking on your post specifically, but it's interesting that within 10 minutes of my original post I got two responses telling me that if I don't enjoy WoW PvP I shouldn't roll on a PvP server. What's interesting is that I wasn't expressing an opinion on PvP, I was just stating that there is a penalty to it.

It's also an interesting response because it's the same knee-jerk defense of WoW PvP I've read in many other forums. If you don't like it, go away. If that's become such a quick response to anything that seems even remotely to be an attack on PvP, maybe that says something about how PvP is broken in WoW. Can you play on a PvP server without griefing or being griefed? What if all your friends are griefers and refuse to roll on anything but a PvP server? Is there any point to playing on a PvP server besides being able to one day grief others? Do people even distinguish between griefing and PvP anymore or is it basically, "You're on a PvP server. Expect PvP all day, every day. Oh and by the way PvP means that as you're out questing you'll encounter random groups of PvP equipped max level players who will kill you and camp your corpse."

And no, I don't play WoW so I don't need advice on what server to roll on. I'm just a bit disappointed in what PvP has come to be defined as. I tell my WoW playing friends that when I want to PvP I'll load up DoD:S or TF2. That's consensual PvP.

Re:They let anyone on these days...

[elrous0]

It's sad that we live in a MMO gaming world where everyone who isn't a rude, ruthless prick of a griefer is derided as a "carebear." Some of us play games to actually have fun, you know. Not all of us are anti-social outcasts looking to take our anger out on the world.

Re:They let anyone on these days...

[geekoid]

"What if all your friends are griefers "

get new friends.

Re:They let anyone on these days...

[Artifakt]

There's no penalty to the character inside the game. There's a penalty to the person controlling that character in the real world (You've made them waste time waiting to respawn if nothing else, haven't you? You've made them devote time to a fight they consider pointless, rather than getting on with a mission that they don't feel is a waste of time. You've made them play your game, instead of the one they came to play. Often they lose any progress developing their character for the session, which I for one would find frustrating, especially if someone I didn't know seemed to have just singled me out personally for repeat treatments). So you're the one talking like the little pixel guy in the box is more important than the real person, and saying somebody else needs a reality check. That's a trifle scary all right. Some people take that attitude really far, and it's called being a sociopath. I'm NOT saying you're clinical just because you seem to be having a little trouble seeing beyond the WoW character to the person controlling it. You may really feel the game is a special situation. But, it looks to me like you are having some trouble imagining what the persons on the other ends of those characters may be feeling.
      Look, it's absolutely within the 'game mechanics' of Slashdot for me to really give you a hard time. I could have played amateur shrink and simply claimed you were seriously mental, and if I put that claim somewhere after the first few sentences I wrote, some people would have bought the logic. I could probably blow your remarks up into a huge deal, imply that you are one of those 'terrible' people Dr. Phil goes after for low empathy and maybe end up getting modded up by enough people to call it a win. But, the truth would suffer. You sound like a bit of a jerk, but that doesn't make you mentally ill, and the fact that local 'game mechanics' might let me get away with picking on you doesn't justify me doing it. Sometimes the right thing to do is to live up to a personal standard, whether the external rules enforce that standard or not.
      The language you use is part of the problem - you can call it 'griefing', and claim that it's the 'bad players' who complain about it, and use a term such as 'carebear' to describe the people who don't do it your way, but having a bunch of special slang to justify your position is common when putting it into normal English makes you look bad. It looks to me like you are deliberately trying to avoid thinking about your behavior in ways that might make you maybe regret it and maybe change.
 

Re:They let anyone on these days...

[Omestes]

I thinks its more the case that he was one of the fat nerdy kids bullied at school, and now he decided to bully other people to build up his self-image, but lacks the cojones to do it in person. Its his shining moment to attempt to be an alpha male, and grab some sense of power in a world that he generally perceives himself to be completely powerless in.

Its like all the moronic trolls of the internet, basically. I doubt even 1% of them were abused as children, or such. Their just social rejects who were picked on by the cool kids, and the internet allows them to act in a way they perceive as cool, meaning being a dick to others.

Also the dynamics of the internet helps. Your semi-anonymous, so your actions have no consequences whatsoever, and its easier to dehumanize the other people sitting behind their computers at home. I find it kind of funny that these people probably are meek, timid, dorks in real life, completely lacking the gumption to act like they do online. It makes them even more sad an pathetic, I'd have more respect for them if they acted like they do in real life, and faced the consequences for it.

Sometimes I wish there was actual consequences for online behavior, or we'd get rid of online anonymity all together. But then I realize that it exists for a reason, so we have to accept the good along with the bad.

Stop asking for the other kind of free

[selven]

If you open source an online game with a client you're going to get aimbots, programs that triple the onscreen size of all your enemies, speedhacks, and a whole host of other forms of cheating. That's just what happens when you let people modify whatever they want in the client.

Re:Stop asking for the other kind of free

[Delwin]

"The client is in the hands of the enemy" -- any MMO developer who's working on security.

I'd love to see the IP free up....

[Durrok]

... and to see someone make a niche game that actually caters DnD players VS whatever the heck Turbine tried to do with it. The screwed up on a lot of things. No randomized dungeons. No turn based combat (yes, it has it's issues but DnD is turn based - figure out how to do it right or GTFO). Absolutely terrible grinding with almost no content at launch. How do you take a niche market like MMOs, pick a setting that drills down your niche market even further, and then try to make it for anyone but these people?

Re:They Made D&D Online?

[Tridus]

I know at least 400 VN board members that pleaded with Mythic for a 21+ and over server for DAOC. We were so damn sick of the 10 year olds playing...

The problem is that half the "10 year olds" are actually 30 and just act 10. Age restricted servers don't block stupid.

PvPer's are quick to defend

[Phrogman]

being an asshole to other players. Something about playing PvP seems to bring out the desire to be an anonymous fuckwad towards other people. Probably because there are no consequences, and partially because it grants the illusion of power to the PvPer, even if it is only the power to annoy.

Its a shame too, because I have enjoyed PvP in the past in games where at least some people had a sense of sportsmanship (early DAOC for instance), but that sort of player seems to have disappeared, buried in the mass of total asshats that the hobby throws up like so much putrid trash.

I no longer PvP in any game because I just don't want to be bothered spending my time associating with people whom if I met them in real life and they talked and acted the way they do to me in game, I most likely would kick them in the nuts repeatedly.

It is possible to PvP and not grief, it is possible to PvP and if you win, not Tbag or asshat your enemy, it is possible to lose without whining. If you join a PvP server you know you are facing the worst of online humanity, you can expect conduct that wouldn't be tolerated in grade school by people who don't seem to have passed grade school. At best they are a loathesome pile of shit, obscuring the few decent players I have met and in a lot of cases they aren't even very good.

I think the answer is to stop PvPing. Fuck those guys, if they can't play nice, don't play. Its a waste of time. I enjoy other aspects of games quite happily and always have. I just gave up on PvPing because the quality of people I had to associate with wasn't worth the bother. Plus the gameplay gets kind of stagnant eventually as well.

Queue the PvPers responding to diss me and call me a carebear etc.