airwalkrr
Adventurer
Back in 2006 I tried D&D Online: Stormreach when it was first released. MMOs are a big thing after all. At the time I had yet to find one that really purchased my interest. And at the time DDO was no exception. The gameplay was clunky, exceedingly difficult, and not that rewarding.
A little over a year ago, I had all but forsaken D&D. As an old-school Greyhawk enthusiast I had had difficulty getting my group to enjoy the setting and didn't really want to use any other setting. So I had gotten my group to play Vampire, Mage, and Rifts, among others, all great games, but I had a hard time getting them to settle on something. Ultimately my group that had once been about D&D sort of fell apart.
I continued to play at EN World through PBP and it was okay, but not entirely fulfilling. Eventually even that lost my interest (the terrible EN World lag contributed greatly to that, but that is another story). Still, I continued to check EN World and other gaming sites from time to time, enjoying at least discussing and reading about the game if I couldn't really be part of it. And then I saw a banner ad with a beholder chasing a broccoli.
I am not the type to click on banner ads. In fact this may have been the first banner ad in my life that caught my attention. But it claimed that DDO was now free to play. "That could never be true" I thought, but lacking an outlet for D&D, I was desperate, and if it really was free, even if it was a crappy trial, I figured it might be better than nothing. After all it had been over three years since the game was released and they might have made it worth playing.
So I downloaded the client and started playing again and something magical happened. I discovered a game that, at its very essential elements, was still very D&D, much as it had been when I played it in 2006, but it had been vastly expanded. In fact the free portions of the game were more expansive and immersing than the original subscription-based game that was released. I was hooked on an MMO for the first time in my life. Not only that, but the developers of the game had stayed very true to the lore of Eberron, some of which I knew from the enormous stacks of Eberron books I had purchased with the intent of someday reading.
I began to pour through my Eberron books, sometimes to verify if plots in DDO were working as they worked in D&D, sometimes to learn more about a plot I had discovered in the game, but overall because I wanted to know more about a game world that had captured my imagination. I read my Eberron books cover to cover and finally realized what an incredible world it was. It wasn't just a great fantasy world, it was designed for D&D with D&D in mind and it made me want to play D&D again ever so much more. So I hooked up with a friend from my old campaign and my wife and we started playing again. The rest is history.
Sometimes now I wonder whether the same thing might happen with other games. I would love to see an MMO for Rifts for example. I talk to people in DDO all the time about D&D and it seems many of them are in a similar situation I used to be in, having played D&D before, falling out, but wanting to play again because of DDO. I am interested to know if anyone else out there has a similar story.
A little over a year ago, I had all but forsaken D&D. As an old-school Greyhawk enthusiast I had had difficulty getting my group to enjoy the setting and didn't really want to use any other setting. So I had gotten my group to play Vampire, Mage, and Rifts, among others, all great games, but I had a hard time getting them to settle on something. Ultimately my group that had once been about D&D sort of fell apart.
I continued to play at EN World through PBP and it was okay, but not entirely fulfilling. Eventually even that lost my interest (the terrible EN World lag contributed greatly to that, but that is another story). Still, I continued to check EN World and other gaming sites from time to time, enjoying at least discussing and reading about the game if I couldn't really be part of it. And then I saw a banner ad with a beholder chasing a broccoli.
I am not the type to click on banner ads. In fact this may have been the first banner ad in my life that caught my attention. But it claimed that DDO was now free to play. "That could never be true" I thought, but lacking an outlet for D&D, I was desperate, and if it really was free, even if it was a crappy trial, I figured it might be better than nothing. After all it had been over three years since the game was released and they might have made it worth playing.
So I downloaded the client and started playing again and something magical happened. I discovered a game that, at its very essential elements, was still very D&D, much as it had been when I played it in 2006, but it had been vastly expanded. In fact the free portions of the game were more expansive and immersing than the original subscription-based game that was released. I was hooked on an MMO for the first time in my life. Not only that, but the developers of the game had stayed very true to the lore of Eberron, some of which I knew from the enormous stacks of Eberron books I had purchased with the intent of someday reading.
I began to pour through my Eberron books, sometimes to verify if plots in DDO were working as they worked in D&D, sometimes to learn more about a plot I had discovered in the game, but overall because I wanted to know more about a game world that had captured my imagination. I read my Eberron books cover to cover and finally realized what an incredible world it was. It wasn't just a great fantasy world, it was designed for D&D with D&D in mind and it made me want to play D&D again ever so much more. So I hooked up with a friend from my old campaign and my wife and we started playing again. The rest is history.
Sometimes now I wonder whether the same thing might happen with other games. I would love to see an MMO for Rifts for example. I talk to people in DDO all the time about D&D and it seems many of them are in a similar situation I used to be in, having played D&D before, falling out, but wanting to play again because of DDO. I am interested to know if anyone else out there has a similar story.
