D&D Online to gradually transfer from 3.5 to 4e

[Hussar]

Honest question:

Is a community of roughly 50k players actually bad for an MMO? I know it's nowhere in the WOW league, that's true, but, is 40-50 000 players a bad MMO? I took a look at This site and there seems to be an awful lot of games in that range, including Second Life.

Is it the next WOW? Nope. But, it seems to be holding its own.

 

[amysrevenge]

There's no way DDO can gradually transition to 4E. You either go, or you don't. And there's no way they can go. It's all PR fluff.

 

[Jhaelen]

Is a community of roughly 50k players actually bad for an MMO?

No, it isn't. It's definitely sufficient to keep the game running, support it and make good money from it.

There's lots of 'small' MMO games that are below the perception level of the general public that are considered to be a success for their publishers.

In a recent interview a representative of a software company mentioned there are currently over 200 MMO games that are to be considered a success in the business sense. Most of these you'll never have heard of, many of them are just national phenomena.

 

[Jhaelen]

There's no way DDO can gradually transition to 4E. You either go, or you don't. And there's no way they can go. It's all PR fluff.

Of course you can! What would be the problem?

We're talking about software here. More specifically we're talking about a game with real-time action based loosely on a rpg ruleset. I cannot imagine what should be difficult to transition about that.

It's not as if we were talking about a virtual tabletop with fully integrated combat rules.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

I play DDO almost every day; I'd say I've averaged 15 hours a week since launch and that makes me a casual player.

Folks complaining about DDO not being a good game fall into three camps:

1) The game doesn't comport to their vision of D&D (or Eberron)
2) They can't solo
3) The game doesn't sport WoW's subscription base

Neither of these detract from the play value of DDO. It is a fantastic game.

As for "transitioning" it to 4e, it will be a snap. I got more good 4e previews from playing DDO than I got out of WotC. I am not being facetious-- there are huge chunks of the 4e design philosophy in DDO.

 

[Lord Xtheth]

WoW is a good game. DDO is not.

I'm glad I didn't pick up DDO now. IMO WoW sucks. I tried it twice and on both occasions I found the game lacking in fun, graphic quality, and social networking.
If DDO was worce than that as far as a game goes, I'm glad I skipped it.

 

[JustKim]

Having actually played DDO I didn't hate it. Between all the changes that've been made and the 4E transition, I might give it another try in the future.

 

[amysrevenge]

I'm glad I didn't pick up DDO now. IMO WoW sucks. I tried it twice and on both occasions I found the game lacking in fun, graphic quality, and social networking.
If DDO was worce than that as far as a game goes, I'm glad I skipped it.

I would think that people hating DDO who love WOW would be a *good* sign...

I also hate WOW (any game where you can get up and make a sandwich while your character still fights is too stupid for words, or where you can train your 3yo daughter to farm pelts), and love DDO.

 

[Aristotle]

1) The game doesn't comport to their vision of D&D (or Eberron)
2) They can't solo
3) The game doesn't sport WoW's subscription base

I'f I'm being honest, I haven't even looked at the game since the end of my free 30 days, and I didn't play much during that time because I was in the beta and was unhappy with the game at that point. My primary issue at that point was that it felt sort of two dimensional to me, but I understand they've added a lot. I may check out a trial account to see what's changed.

Otherwise I fall into category 1 above. What I really wanted was a game that made use of all of the history of the game. The zones and instances based on old modules and so on. I don't know if I would've been happy even if they did Eberron up right... but (at the time I saw the game) it really didn't feel like the setting was fully realized within the game either.

I won't apologize for thinking WoW is (or was) a better game. I'm obviously bored enough with it to be looking for the next best thing. I'll give DDO another shot before I make another disparaging comment about it though.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

I'f I'm being honest, I haven't even looked at the game since the end of my free 30 days, and I didn't play much during that time because I was in the beta and was unhappy with the game at that point. My primary issue at that point was that it felt sort of two dimensional to me, but I understand they've added a lot. I may check out a trial account to see what's changed.

I can tell you for sure that the game has come a long way since beta-- basically unrecognizable.

But without knowing what bothered you about beta, I can't guarantee it's fixed.

DDO is about builds and teamwork and kicking ass. It has the best combat system of any MMO out there... Oh an also the best dungeons, best traps, best interaction with game widgets, etc.

If you decide to try it, get on Thelanis and look me up. I'll take you through what I consider the best of the newest content.