Loading... DDO Rolls the Dice

[Ethec]

As the E3 goodness continues to roll out, Turbine surprised us all by announcing that DDO will go free-to-play later this year. We'll mince the details of (and possible objections to) the announcement, plus reveal the latest on Fallen Earth, The Agency, and Dragon Age Origins in today's Loading... DDO Rolls the Dice.

[Xerin]

Another shift to the free to play but pay to enjoy gaming. It's a working business model that lets games that don't have a lot of subscribers sustain themselves by getting a huge free population that's willing to put down a few bucks to make the game less painful.

[Lizante]

I applaud Turbine's out-of-the-box thinking RE: DDO. This will bring a lot of players into the game -- as Ethec rightfully states "the highly underrated, action-oriented experience that is DDO today."

Conversely, the new "team" at Turbine now at the helm of Lord of The Rings Online (LotRO) seems bent on ruining that MMO. Many LotRO veterans, like me (a Lifetime Founder) are very concerned with the "new" direction they are taking with LotRO. From our observation, LotRO is moving toward a WoW-like Raid environment, along with more Instanced sequences deplored by many and, thus far anyway, a Tier 6 crafting system that falls flat compared to equipment available through the Volume 2 raiding and even the gear obtained from instances. The concern is that Turbine clearly appears to be moving backwards, not forward, with LotRO and should they continue in this direction, it will have an adverse and detrimental domino effect on the community and the game.

[Bansaw]

Originally Posted by Lizante

I applaud Turbine's out-of-the-box thinking RE: DDO. This will bring a lot of players into the game --

Funny you mentioned that, I was talking to some friends the other day about the fact that now that's it free we were going to check it out and see what it's all about.

a Tier 6 crafting system that falls flat compared to equipment available through the Volume 2 raiding and even the gear obtained from instances.

This has been a problem in EQ2 since pretty much the beginning. They have just recently upgraded the stats on armor and weapons to be an actual option when gearing your character.