Dungeons & Dragons Online Relaunches to Success

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
45,698
1
0
Dungeons & Dragons Online Relaunches to Success


The relaunch of Dungeons & Dragons Online [http://www.ddo.com/] as a free-to-play MMOG in the U.S. is a big success, according to Turbine's Adam Mersky, who said the game is racking up impressive numbers despite not yet being open to the public.

Turbine announced in June [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/92293-Dungeons-Dragons-Online-Going-Free-to-Play-UPDATED] that Dungeons & Dragons Online would switch from conventional subscription-based operation to a free-to-play model that would let players enhance the experience with "Turbine points" that could be spent in the DDO store on customized items, premium adventure packs and more. Gamers are given allotments of points as they progress through their adventures, while the more dedicated (or less patient) among them can simply buy points to spend on whatever they like.

That's apparently happening quite a bit, according to Turbine Director of Communications Adam Mersky, who said the studio is selling a huge amount of Turbine points even though the game is still in "head start" mode and only open to beta testers and previous subscribers.

"They all got a ton of points for being loyal subscribers, for being in the beta. We weren't really expecting a ton of sales... They had no incentive to. They already had access to all of the content as VIP subscribers, and we just gave them a buttload of points," he told Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/5353062/free+to+play-ddo-unlimited-already-thriving].

Yet in spite of all that, players are spending to get more. "They've gone through their points, and we've already sold millions more Turbine points, and we've not even opened up the world to the public yet," he said.

I don't see it as all that terribly surprising, really. Most "head start" players are going to be fans of the game already and will want to cut straight to the good stuff, which in this case appears to be the new Favored Soul class, "the hottest selling item" in the game, Mersky said. "[It] is unlockable in game, but all of our subs just went ahead and spent points on it, unlocked it, and they're playing it right now," he added.

It's good to see DDO getting off to such a strong start in its new free-to-play guise, although whether it will be able to maintain this level of interest with a larger and less-focused audience is still an awfully big question mark. Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited opens to the public on September 9.


Permalink
 

Arassar

New member
Nov 25, 2008
85
0
0
Hell, I like D&D and now that it's free, I'll definitely give it a shot. No reason not to, I suppose... uhm, I gotta go raid Naxx now.
 

cleverlymadeup

New member
Mar 7, 2008
5,256
0
0
this could be interesting, tho i won't play it.

i think the microtranscation thing is a way for mmo's to make money instead of having a subscription fee, let's hope it works for them
 

Crimsane

New member
Apr 11, 2009
914
0
0
Gotta love milking people who have too much money and too little common sense. Why limit how much they can give you with silly subscription fees, when you can run an item mall and have the idiots spend thousands?
 

Kojiro ftt

New member
Apr 1, 2009
425
0
0
I could get into this, if I were to upgrade my PC. I tried it with my free month back when it was new. While it was fun, nobody else I knew was playing and I'm not a fan of monthly subscriptions, so I let it pass. But now...
 

BladePHF

New member
Mar 24, 2008
49
0
0
Question I've had for a while now:

Will this ever be released for the European player-base, is it a NA thing only?
 

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
45,698
1
0
The free-to-play model is currently only available in North America. Whether it shows up in Europe will probably depend on how well it does here, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a change made relatively quickly.
 

Skizle

New member
Feb 12, 2009
934
0
0
ive been interested in trying out this game and now that its free i now have to wonder whats stopping me
 

Jondallar

New member
Mar 23, 2009
5
0
0
BladePHF said:
Question I've had for a while now:

Will this ever be released for the European player-base, is it a NA thing only?
Many Euro's play, you just have to play on the north american servers.

As a side note, many of the buttload of turbine points were not delivered yet so many impatient people jumped the gun and bought points (myself included)
 

Skratt

New member
Dec 20, 2008
824
0
0
I've played DDO, and even reinstalled it to check out the free to play. For me, it is pretty much the same game I didn't like before so it'll probably get another uninstall.

That being said, I hope they do very well in their micro-transactions. However, I hope they have enough common sense to not overprice the items - it seems some of the items may already be overpriced as they are "consumable" and would need to be repurchased from the store. The consumables should have a "hook" to get people to want to buy them.

Example: there is a potion that gives you extra experience for 3 hours. I can't remember it was like $.50 or $1 or something. I've used them in games like Guild Wars and rarely do I get the full 3 hour use out of that. So maybe the item should recharge itself every 7 days and allow you to buy multiple items and make it store exclusive. Or maybe give it 3 or 5 uses. I think they would sell very well.
 

Raincloud

New member
Mar 20, 2008
17
0
0
Skratt said:
I've played DDO, and even reinstalled it to check out the free to play. For me, it is pretty much the same game I didn't like before so it'll probably get another uninstall.

That being said, I hope they do very well in their micro-transactions. However, I hope they have enough common sense to not overprice the items - it seems some of the items may already be overpriced as they are "consumable" and would need to be repurchased from the store. The consumables should have a "hook" to get people to want to buy them.

Example: there is a potion that gives you extra experience for 3 hours. I can't remember it was like $.50 or $1 or something. I've used them in games like Guild Wars and rarely do I get the full 3 hour use out of that. So maybe the item should recharge itself every 7 days and allow you to buy multiple items and make it store exclusive. Or maybe give it 3 or 5 uses. I think they would sell very well.
FYI: The timer on the experience boost counts down only when you are actually playing that character. If you log off the game or onto another character, it stops the count down.
 

Skratt

New member
Dec 20, 2008
824
0
0
Raincloud said:
FYI: The timer on the experience boost counts down only when you are actually playing that character. If you log off the game or onto another character, it stops the count down.
I understand. :) 25%+ of my play time is spent in the town or waiting on other people, etc. I was just using it as an example, there are other items in the store that made me shake my head to think people might buy it, but I guess you never can tell what some people find "worth the money" when others do not. Cheers to them I guess and I wish Turbine all the best in their micro-transactions!