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...

[Spazztastic]

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.

I'm a dick to people in WoW only because it's the last fun thing to do. Raiding? PVP? I'd rather just grief. Even with pay-to-play, you spend your $15 a month to play how you want, I spend mine to camp people, troll the realm forums, and do old content with friends.

I, of course, do not ninja loot like some people or interfere with a guilds progression. That's where I draw the line.

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...

[brkello]

I guess I don't understand why this would be fun for you. You are like a stalker. You follow around some poor girl who doesn't want you around her all for what? All you are doing is wasting your own time and making other people unhappy. It is fun for you. But what does that say about you? Were you abused as a child? Do you not have social skills and lack friends? I both think you are pathetic and feel sorry for you. You must have some real mental problems.

Re:They let anyone on these days...

[Tofino]

If you are playing an MMORPG, your time is worthless. They are all insane time-sinks. Even a casual-friendly game like WoW where you can "just log in and out for short sessions" realistically takes close to an hour or so just to log in, check and relist auctions, do a couple of daily quests, mail off new loot to your mule, and say hi to friends. And that's just the daily-chore part of playing.

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

[jfim]

Only if you are an idiot. The first rule of client-server programming is don't trust the client. Don't give the client any more data than it needs, validate all messages from the client. Things like wall hacks only work because the server is providing the client with too much information. Speed hacks only work because the server is allowing the client to move more than the correct amount (i.e. not validating the input). As for tripling the size of on-screen enemies and aimbots; if your game depends so much on your ability to click accurately on small things to be fun, the odds are that it isn't.

No, wallhacks work because it is very expensive to perform thorough visibility checks on every single frame of the game(See Potentially visible set on Wikipedia). The idea is that a precalculated set of areas have information as to which other areas are potentially visible from that particular area. This means that an area spanning a corridor would have visibility into adjacent corridors, and thus, you could 'see' around corners with translucent walls.

Pushing more information towards the client is an optimization, in the same way that database denormalization is. In an ideal world, you wouldn't need either of those, but we're still bound by performance constraints.

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.

Re:Stop asking for the other kind of free

[dyingtolive]

Apologies for replying to myself, but something else I thought of that would be awesome is a network game where some hacks are allowed. It could have a relatively complex goal that is hard to obtain doing it by hand, but the "real" purpose of the game is to write a hacked client that tries to fool the server into thinking its legit that performs this task. Sort of a honeypot MMO.

Obviously, this idea is incompatible with the goals of the above idea. Just something that popped into my head.

Microtransactions suck

[KneelBeforeZod]

I don't pay items and gear. I win and earn them. .... Or I use a stolen credit card number

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?

They Made D&D Online?

[kenp2002]

Wow, it must have really sucked to fly under my radar...

Anyway, I should contribute something to the discussion.

The whole point why successful dating services (yeah who would have throught MMOs and Dating Services had something in common) charge is to create a cost-of-entry that separates serious participants from the rest of the population.

By making a game free-to-play you are inviting disaster as many /.'ers have pointed out.

In fact game studios would do far better to charge MORE for certain options.

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...

Same with the hard core role players. They were willing to shell out $20 a month for a hard core, RPG server.

I'd wager you would also get some people to kick in $5 extra a month for say 40 and older servers also for people that still remember how to spell OKAY.

Seriously free-to-play means every idiot and their cousin can get on. Remember how pissed the techie crowd was with AOL and COMPUSERV for bring ever no-nothing to the Internet?

Seriously look what happened to WoW when they started their free trial program. First week alone on Tichndrius there where 200+ people spamming Gold ads in Ironforge forever renaming it LAGFORGE and SPAMFORGE.

Even after the tweaks to shut up folks on trial accounts you still had to contend with starting an alt and have 100 level 1 bots camping every spawn with some level 40 (at the time) telling you that if you want to kill stuff you had to play him 10 gold. (We had a big problem with Cross Realm extortionists back then...)

Seriously D&D Online must have sucked pretty bad for flying this low under the radar and making a free-to-play version sounds like a really really bad idea...

But hey I love being proven wrong. It happens once in a while and I find it refreshing.

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.

Re:They Made D&D Online?

[Vohar]

Yeah...Age of Conan supposedly had an older player base, but people still seemed to think "mature" meant "Be a dick all the time. Also, and nipples and blood."

The most disconcerting reality checks came in groups where based on the player's chat and performance I'm -positive- they're a kid...Then they say they need to go afk "cuz my kid's crying."

Re:They Made D&D Online?

[Chris Burke]

Also, and nipples and blood.

O_o Eeeeewww!

The most disconcerting reality checks came in groups where based on the player's chat and performance I'm -positive- they're a kid...Then they say they need to go afk "cuz my kid's crying."

The tragedy of teenage pregnancy strikes reaches even into the online world!

But seriously, it's funny how some of my best WoW-only friends have been actually kids in the 10-15 range. Sure they think Chuck Norris jokes are hilarious no matter how many times you spam chat with them, but otherwise were reasonably intelligent, polite, and generally not a demonstration of the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory like so many "adults" prove to be.

BTW, in my experience, the best way to get rid of stupid isn't with age-restricted servers/services, but by simply putting the initials "RP" after the server name. It's exactly the kind of 30-year-old man-child-idiot who thinks they're too cool for an RP server who you want to exclude, and they do it all by themselves!

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.