I'm sure there are a lot of people (myself included!) who didn't quite know what to make of Turbine's Dungeons and Dragons Online going free to play. You see, most MMORPGs are designed, from the beginning, based on their subscription model (or lack thereof). Typically, Free to Play MMOs tend to focus more on levelling up and grinding because players can be lured into spending money on cash shop items that can then be used to level faster or just get an extreme advantage over other players. Subscription based MMOs, however, rarely include a huge amount of grinding; instead, most P2P MMOs focus on expansive endgame content to keep people interested and renewing their subscriptions. Not only this, but all P2P players tend to have an equal chance at advancing their characters in the game unless they decide to spend even more money on less than reputable sources (Gold Sellers, Item Sellers and Account Sellers, oh my!).

In considering this, it's easy to be concerned about games like DDO going towards the micro-transaction F2P system - will the game simply become a contest about who has the most money to spend? Well, a few days ago, Turbine invited me to go on a tour of their newly expanded Dungeons and Dragons Online, so instead of having to wait patiently for DDO to open its servers to all, I got to chat with Kate Paiz and Fernando Paiz, Senior Produce and Executive Producer of DDO, while they showed me exactly why Dungeons and Dragons Online will be one of the best Free to Play MMORPGs in the market.

First of all, Dungeons and Dragons Online will be taking the 'Free Realms' approach to their Free to Play content, mostly in that players will have access to about 1/3rd of the game without ever having to touch their Turbine points (the in-game equivalent of cash purchases). What is interesting, however, is the fact that players will be able to accumulate points throughout the regular process of playing the game. While I forgot to ask just how many points it was possible to gain without tossing out some cash, Kate and Fernando assured me that players could hit the level cap of 20 without buying anything, but it would just be a lot more difficult.

In fact, ease of playing is probably one of the key features in this Free to Play venture. While I was concerned that a player could simply drop up to $1000 on Turbine points and then subsequently whirlwind through the game (not as uncommon as you think), my guides assured me that DDO would be a game with a focus on smoothing out game play instead of 'buying' through it; Fernando stressed the fact that "there are many ways to solve different problems, but the store provides you with another way to solve those problems." In other words, for players who don't want to purchase something, they really don't have to, and they can get the same results with a little bit of work, while someone else who has a shorter amount of time may go ahead and make the purchase to continue.

Examples of this were given with the introduction of the summonable hirelings that players can buy. Players can call about three store-bought hirelings (at least that's how many we summoned!), while regular players are limited to one summon. As well, the DDO store sells a lot of neat little reagents that are commonly used when adventuring - while players can employ a large number of methods to replenish their supplies (via in-game hirelings, borrowing from their party, or just warping back to get the items, and coming back), Kate and Fernando pointed out that you could also easily purchase them from the DDO store. This is probably the best indication of how Turbine wants the DDO store to interact with players.

Finally, players can also purchase little 'content packs' that allow them the ability to access and explore the various instances found in the game. For players who are a little bit hesitant about making the full purchase, they can also get a friend to buy them a cheaper 'guest pass,' that allows them access to the instance for a limited amount of time, so they can explore and do quests until their time runs out. Kate and Fernando made a great point here when they noted that this change to an instance-by-instance purchase model was "a return to our roots," which is very true. Dungeons and Dragons has always been a game that could be played with little balls of paper ranging all the way to several high-tech laptops, figurines and mood lighting - it was entirely dependent upon how much of the 'experience' players wanted to purchase, and then they went out and bought just that. In this way, with DDO allowing players to pick and choose what they really want to check out, the game certainly does feel like it's returning to its roots.

In the end, I have to admit that I was very pleasantly surprised by the explanations given by the team when we talked about going Free to Play. While some may see DDO going Free to Play as a 'last stand' to get more players interested, and a way to get more money from power-users, Kate and Fernando summed up their decision by admitting that DDO went Free to Play because they got "the feeling that they could have a lot more players enjoying the game. We get a lot of feedback that says 'it's a great game, but I want my friends in here,' or that it didn't 'feel' like a subscription MMO." Either way, as a guy who constantly has to battle with getting his friends to play subscription-based games, I'm fairly certain that once Dungeons and Dragons Online goes free to play, this will be one MMO that will take very little convincing to get my friends and Ime to roll 'Team Pwyff' in Eberron.

See you there!

Christopher "Pwyff" Tom
Editor
ZAM.com