Ok, based on goings on in the march madness forums it appears many people are not aware that DDO exists. In an amateurish way to rectify this situation I hereby present to you for discussion purposes why I play DDO.
I have played P&P D&D for almost 30 years now. I started in high school in 1980. Over the years I think I have played every D&D based game that has ever been created from Pools of Radience to Baldur's Gate, Icewind dale and now DDO. I even played the arcade D&D game back in the day as well as the sega genesis D&D game whose name escapes me. I explain all this simply to illustrate I know at least a little something about dungeons and dragons.
I didn't start on the beta version of DDO, in fact i have only been playing since very late in 2006. I wished I had been able to play earlier but finances dictated otherwise. It is my understanding that in the very early days there were some serious problems with the game. Bugs of course as with any new game, a low level cap which meant you quickly could get your character to the maximum level and then were stuck with nothing to do and a fairly serious lack of content. Now, I don't know all of that for a fact, I wasn't there, but it is what I have heard from others who were there.
When I started the game I think the cap was 12th level although I am not positive, it might have been 14th. But at any rate, I tried the free 10 day trial and was hooked. in less than 10 days i had bought the game and set up my account. My previous MMORPG experience was playing Everquest from the original game through the planes of power expansion when I tired of the game and quit. I bought World of Warcraft and within my free trial period was so bored with the game I canceled before the initial 30 days were over. With DDO I jumped in with both feet and have never looked back.
I have found that, in my opinion, DDO has a rich varied environment full of adventure for every level range in the game. That's not to say all level bands are equal because in all honesty some are slighted slightly although there are still a lot of things to do. The game is based on the 3.5 edition of D&D which for me was a bit of a let down as I am a huge fan of 2nd edition. It is set in the Ebberon game setting which was created not by professional game designers but rather a long time player who submitted the setting and won a contest Wizards of the Coast did to coincide with moving to 3rd edition D&D.
The new starting area is nicely paced and gives people who don't know the game a good chance to get to know how the various game mechanics work. I don't like the difficulty in grouping at that stage based on how things are now broken up into stages of the starting area based on tutorial mode or not. After completing the starting area quests, gaining some decent starting items and a little cash, one moves on into the harbor of Stormreach and the next group of starting adventures. And that's the pattern for the entire game I suppose, you follow a sort of progression through the various levels, gaining ever stronger equipment as you go.
The character generation system has two modes, you can choose to follow a preset template or customize your character. Between choices of how you allocate your starting stats, your skills and your feats you begin a customization process with more variables than most games seem to bother attempting. As you gain XP you also gain action points allowing you to pick various enhancements to your character further customizing your choices. This allows for more possibilities than I know how to calculate although I am sure someone out there might have an idea.
There are several races you can start out playing, Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Halflings and Warforged. After gaining overall favor (I will explain that a bit later) totaling 400, you may create and play Drow elves. The classes on can play are Fighter, Ranger, Paladin, Barbarian, Monk, Rogue, Bard, Cleric, Wizard and Sorcerer. Any race can be any class and each has various strengths and weaknesses.
Within the game are various factions with which one gains favor. These are not adversarial, gaining favor with one faction does not cause you to lose favor with another. You gain favor through accomplishing quests which are "sponsored" by the associated faction. Quests have three primary levels, Normal, hard and elite. Some quests also have a solo option. The amount of favor you gain is based on what level of difficulty you accomplished the quest on. Normal for instance may grant 3 points, hard 6 and elite 9. These are not cumulative. Each quest favor is dependent on the highest level of completion. If you complete on elite in the above example you have 9 favor not 18 from a cumulative score. What is cumulative, is different quests sponsored by each faction for your total faction favor. Once you reach certain levels of favor within each faction you are granted various gifts or services.
Game play within DDO is very much of the style known as hack and slash. I realize this is not every one's preference but it does happen to be my favorite style. You talk to various quest givers and then undertake the given quest. Here is one of my favorite aspects of the game, in the vast majority of cases, travelling to the quest is a matter of moving about six steps in game. The entrances are mostly right there.
Another aspect I love about DDO is there is no farming. Every quest is an instant dungeon created on the spot for the individual or group that is undertaking it. There may be 20 groups all simultaneously doing the same quest and they will all be in their separate versions. Same with treasure chests, inside every chest is loot reserved for each member within a group. Nobody can ninja your loot because it is reserved for you and you alone. You have an option of allowing someone else to have it if you so desire but only you can make that call.
There have been several mods to the game since i started playing. All have been free. There is about to be in the very near future a new major expansion which will also be free. The level cap will be raised from the current 16 to 20th level. New areas and new quests will be available along with new monsters and new treasure.
Basically I love DDO because of the variety of play available depending on your personal style, (I tend to be a sword and board type), the sheer number of different quests spread out over all level ranges, and perhaps most importantly, the community at large. I have met so many friendly people that just want to play and have a good time that it is a joy to play the game even when things aren't going so well. Sometimes the monsters win. Now granted, I have run into a few jerks, but they are very much a minority. The vast majority of people on DDO are friendly and helpful and generous.
I realize this is a disjointed review of DDO, I am pretty much a casual gamer after all. But I love DDO and however long it exists, I plan to be an active part of the DDO world and community. If you want to check out the forums all you have to do is google DDO or stormreach and you should find the forums easily enough. There you will find people far better equipped to explain the game coherently than I am.
