Basically when the next expansion launches in the summer, they're going with a hybrid free to play/subscription style. You'll be able to play the game for free and make microtransactions to add character classes, races, equipment, etc. or you can go with a ($14.99) VIP subscription which grants you access to all the normal subscription features plus gives you 500 Turbine Points per month to buy things from the DDO store.
I'm not bound by the NDA since I'm not in beta, but I've heard rumors it's the "Favored Soul" class. Unconfirmed at this point, can't get anyone to crack but I saw a post on the DDO forums that mentioned that then promptly poofed.
Tried the trial a few months back and it was ok, but I despise the Eberron setting, and not that big a fan of the legitimized powergaming that is the post 3rd norm. I would love to see a Forgotten Realms MMO, or Dragonlance or one of the more fantasy settings.
I started playing the other day, made a berserker and I'm level 4 now in the 3rd adventure area. It's pretty fun, but like any MMO, you need a friend who is willing to be a cleric. Which actually isn't difficult, cause clerics are crazy overpowered. Trying to get more of our friends to mess around, I'm tempted to pay for VIP for a month and make a kung fu robot, but I'll eventually get both of those things from storyline quests anyway. So it's a tossup there.
I do like how the "premium" items are pretty easy to get through regular means in game, there's no special class of paying-only people with insane stats at level 1. Getting a +2 weapon at level 2 is nice, but you'll be swimming in +2 weapons shortly after, etc.
I do like how the "premium" items are pretty easy to get through regular means in game, there's no special class of paying-only people with insane stats at level 1. Getting a +2 weapon at level 2 is nice, but you'll be swimming in +2 weapons shortly after, etc.
That is a problem I had with the game on release. I don't really care for the Monty Haul approach to magic items in a D&D game. It just leads to an early esculation of plusses and minuses that is entirely unnecessary yet people nowadays seem to love their phat lewtz. Items that merely cause the devs to increse mob stats to overcome the inflated player stats derived from said items and so render a "reasonably built" multi-class character invalid.
Kotaku has posted a blurb describing how successful the change to a 'free to play' was for D&D Online, and it appears that it went very well for Turbine. More than one million players have joined since the change, and more importantly revenue is up more than 500%.
I've been meaning to try it out, though I've got a backlog of offline games I'm trying to get through. Nice to see the change is a success though.
