D&D online beta begins

[Triforcer]

Just read the FAQ...

No pvp, no crafting, solo content only at low levels, and death penalty?  Its like pure, 200 proof catass.

Seriously, the fun of DnD is/was the crafting of unique encounters.  A DM never had you enter the same dungeon and kill the same necromancer lord 1000x times in a row.  After the first week online when every dungeon has ever trap and secret door and such mapped out...how will they keep the DnD magic alive and prevent descent into generic raid MMO?

The only way I could see out of this would be randomly generated dungeons for groups, or static dungeons that randomly reassign the positions of traps/doors/rooms/etc. every time a group enters.  It would be the height of hilarity to spend an hour getting a group together, to wipe out in the first hallway in a giant pit trap, and have everyone walk back from town.  Or teleporter traps that put group members on another continent. 

[Hoax]

*surpress gag reflex*  I'm with Triforcer on this one, while I've heard good things about Bioware's console games and did enjoy NWN for a while despite the other players I dont see why anyone cares about DDO.  In fact nobody did last time it came up but now that there is a beta test people are psyched?  Bah I say to that, where is teh #hate?  What is this IGN?

[Signe]

Well, I never played D&D but I'll venture to guess that this game is like you lot sitting around playing the old fashioned way only you don't have to share your pizza, beer or pot. 

[WindupAtheist]

I like Calandryll and all, but releasing a catassy EQ-wannabe into what is now the Age of WoW?  The "grandaddy of them all" is going to end up a bloody smear beneath the boots of it's unruly descendant.  Oh it'll turn a profit.  If UO, AC, and SB can make enough money to keep creaking along, DDO will certainly keep the bills paid.  But beyond "OMG it's D&D!!" can anyone give me a reason to play this, and not the competition?

[stray]

Seriously, the fun of DnD is/was the crafting of unique encounters.

I was never heavily into it, nor have I ever GM'ed, but I thought the fun was just sitting around, bullshitting with friends, and playing the game together.

Also, knowing what and where the traps and secrets isn't as importan in a game based player skill. It's not the "what" and "where" so much as it is the "how".

To each his own, but fuck a bunch a damn crafting in a D&D game. I just want action/adventure ala Dark Alliance, with only some of the deep aspects of an MMO.

Lack of PvP is a disappointment, I'll agree there. But then again, even that doesn't make sense.

[stray]

I like Calandryll and all, but releasing a catassy EQ-wannabe into what is now the Age of WoW?  The "grandaddy of them all" is going to end up a bloody smear beneath the boots of it's unruly descendant.  Oh it'll turn a profit.  If UO, AC, and SB can make enough money to keep creaking along, DDO will certainly keep the bills paid.  But beyond "OMG it's D&D!!" can anyone give me a reason to play this, and not the competition?

EQ wannabe?

Umm..

No. This is Turbine.

Besides that, they're shooting for something more akin to an action RPG, but with more adherence to the D&D rules.

[Pococurante]

... you don't have to share your pizza, beer or pot.

I do love a happy ending.

[HaemishM]

It would be the height of hilarity to spend an hour getting a group together, to wipe out in the first hallway in a giant pit trap, and have everyone walk back from town.  Or teleporter traps that put group members on another continent. 

Tomb of Horrors for the win, biznatch.

[Signe]

 Like I said, I never played D&D, but a lot of people I know did and some still do.  (my brother in law, every thursday night)  You get a group together and go have some kind of D&D adventure, no?  Who needs crafting or PvP?  In the old fashioned game, I suppose PvP would consist of braining the guy next to you with your bong because he got you all eaten by grues.  (that might actually be a different game)  Soooo... you just sort of get to play D&D somewhat faster and with snazzy graphics.  I should think it would be a good fun on a rainy Friday night.

[Sky]

I'm not quite sure why we're doing this, I think I know, and I'll play, too!

You guys only got the obvious half of the joke. The other half being "I see London, I see France..."

No pvp, no crafting, solo content only at low levels, and death penalty?

I could live without the first couple if the game were fun. The last two will definitely kill it for me....definitely.

In fact nobody did last time it came up but now that there is a beta test people are psyched?  Bah I say to that, where is teh #hate?

Some people might like to actually play the thing and form their own opinion without frothing over a beta feature list. But go ahead and #hate on if it makes you feel cool. Personally, I'd like to see a well-done thief class, that's pretty much all I care about with this title. If thieves suck, I won't be playing, no big deal.

I'd like to see PvP done right before I worry about it not being in the feature list. Only Planetside does PvP right in the mmo world. Short of player skill on an even playing field, don't put it in the game.

[Pococurante]

Our current D&D campaign has a crafter character - me as it turns out.  The charaacter plays like a WoW engineer and I get stinking rich farming gold/mats off my team mates.

The actual process of crafting takes place between sessions, e.g. we work out by email who wants what, the GM transfers the assets to me, and at the recap of our next session the GM announces XYZ time has gone by and then gives a rundown of what each of our characters did in the meantime.  Just a way of building the backstory as we go and except for the hour or so the GM plotted the next session we burned up no time.

Which all goes back to the idea that leveling craft skills can always take place offline in a MOG instead of clogging up database servers and file systems with entities that have to be versioned and modified as game rules change.

Oh and to stay in the spirit of things...

[WindupAtheist]

EQ wannabe?

Umm..

No. This is Turbine.

Makers of Asheron's Call, AKA Everquest with shitty graphics.

Besides that, they're shooting for something more akin to an action RPG, but with more adherence to the D&D rules.

I see classes and levels as per usual, mandatory grouping, and XP loss on death.  Oh, and some meaningless pre-beta blurbage about how it'll be FUN!  Whoopee.

(Yeah, I know D&D invented the whole class/level thing and thus it's expected.  It's still shitty MMO design.)

[Rasix]

Makers of Asheron's Call, AKA Everquest with shitty graphics.

You might be able to make this comment about AC2, but not AC.  Well, except AC2 had really quite good graphics.  So, I guess we're lacking a smiley properly conveys, "you're crazy".

[Triforcer]

It would be the height of hilarity to spend an hour getting a group together, to wipe out in the first hallway in a giant pit trap, and have everyone walk back from town.  Or teleporter traps that put group members on another continent. 

Tomb of Horrors for the win, biznatch.

I've always wondered if any MMO would have the cajones to put in something like a permadeath dungeon.  Incredible loot, far better than anything in the game, but one mistake and your character is forever gone.  I'm sure it would be more trouble than its worth (lawsuits over linkdeath, catasses killing themselves irl, canceled subscriptions from the angry idiots who went through the 1000x disclaimers at the entrance and thought they'd be the different special one, etc.) but it would be fun to watch the forums after a few groups were wiped out.

[Cheddar]

EQ wannabe?

Umm..

No. This is Turbine.

Makers of Asheron's Call, AKA Everquest with shitty graphics.

Besides that, they're shooting for something more akin to an action RPG, but with more adherence to the D&D rules.

I see classes and levels as per usual, mandatory grouping, and XP loss on death.  Oh, and some meaningless pre-beta blurbage about how it'll be FUN!  Whoopee.

(Yeah, I know D&D invented the whole class/level thing and thus it's expected.  It's still shitty MMO design.)

Asherons Call was NOTHING like Everquest.  It was designed very uniquely and has had nothing but awesome support via monthly updates.



Edit. Utilizing quotes eludes me yet again

[Yegolev]

I've always wondered if any MMO would have the cajones to put in something like a permadeath dungeon.  Incredible loot, far better than anything in the game, but one mistake and your character is forever gone.  I'm sure it would be more trouble than its worth (lawsuits over linkdeath, catasses killing themselves irl, canceled subscriptions from the angry idiots who went through the 1000x disclaimers at the entrance and thought they'd be the different special one, etc.) but it would be fun to watch the forums after a few groups were wiped out.

This could be fun, for sure.  Hardcore D2?  The advancement mechanics would have to be different than the soup-of-the-day, maybe more GuildWarsy.  I don't know.  All I know is that you could make a badass dungeon if you have the ultimate death penalty, or even perma-screwing like limb loss.  The thing is, you would have to make the game enough fun so that you didn't have a seizure every time you lost your toon.

[Sky]

My old idea for death penalties: If you feel a game does not penalize death enough, wire clamps to your nuts and run voltage through them until you feel you've been punished enough for dying in a game. Meanwhile, I'll respawn and keep playing the game, thanks.

[Triforcer]

My old idea for death penalties: If you feel a game does not penalize death enough, wire clamps to your nuts and run voltage through them until you feel you've been punished enough for dying in a game. Meanwhile, I'll respawn and keep playing the game, thanks.

This should be curved in the computer monitor of every MMO dev ever.

[schild]

Was this posted? If not, let me reiterate:

Players eager to get their hands on Atari's upcoming Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach will have to wait a little bit longer, as the title's release has slipped from November back into the first quarter of 2006.


However, fans of the pen-and-paper fantasy game whose friends scoffed when they rolled a luck of 18 have a chance to get into developer Turbine's public alpha testing of the game, which officially begins today. To qualify, would-be heroes must register at the game's official Web site. Those with message board accounts at the site will receive priority selection.

Stormreach will be built on the 3.5 edition rules of Dungeons and Dragons, but it's definitely taking a new approach to the genre. The game worlds players inahbit will be smaller and less populated in order to foster a closer sense of player community, and so that player actions have larger ramifications. Experience and treasure will also be doled out based on how many quests are accomplished instead of how many enemies are killed.

Turbine is gaining plenty of experience developing massively multiplayer online role-playing games from high profile licenses these days, as its The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar is also due early next year. The company's previous work includes the Asheron's Call series of MMORPGs.

[WayAbvPar]

However, fans of the pen-and-paper fantasy game whose friends scoffed when they rolled a luck of 18

I would scoff too if one of my friends rolled a stat that DOESN'T FUCKING EXIST. Goddamned braindead marketing people are the boil on the ass of society. Does anyone who knows what the fuck they are talking about ever proofread this drivel?

[Bunk]

EQ wannabe?

Umm..

No. This is Turbine.

Makers of Asheron's Call, AKA Everquest with shitty graphics.

I actually often defend your rights to your opinions of UO, but this statement smacks of so much ignorance i would like to kick you in the balls right now.

[ahoythematey]

If I hadn't burned out on the game I would still be playing AC, it was the best overall MMO I've played to date.  The "shitty" graphics allowed for my talking whiz kid-esque computer to run the thing back when all my friends were playing it on their tiny gods.

[Margalis]

My impression of DDO was that it was a cross between a MMORPG and Phantasy Star Online. So I don't see no crafting and no PvP as a bad thing in itself. There is no single bullet point or set of bullet points that a game has to be good.

[stray]

The game has controllable defense.

For that alone, I'm a fanboi of it. In mmo land, that's a novel idea.

I couldn't care less if it was D&D or not.

[schild]

Wanna know what kills me about MMOGs?

After having played nearly all of the ones that have any place existing (and many that don't), it's safe to say I'm comfortable judging an MMOG simply by having one solo fight and one group fight. Though I'll judge more on the solo fight. I don't even need more than one skill.

They are the shortest game to review. Because despite being in a world someone tried to create, they are really just shitty combat games with some clever trappings.

In other words, I hope the combat is good.

To sum up the industry:
1. CoH - Combat good. Grind sucks. No economy.
2. EQII - Combat meh. Grind sucks. Decent economy. Beautiful environment.
3. WoW - Combat meh. Grind nominal. Power Guild driven Economy. Environment varies by taste. It's too big for me. Or my characters are too small.
4. Guild Wars - Combat meh. Free, for better or worse.
5. SW:G - Combat sucks. Everything sucks except the economy. Yes. Vapor Salesman > Jedi.
6. Planetside - Skill based. If you can dodge lag, you can dodge a bullet.
7. Lineage 2 - Grind, there is no combat. Can you make it to the economy?
8. Second Life - Second Mortgage.
9. MtG:O - Combat rules. Best economy. Most strategy. There is no world. It's why I'm not living in it.
10. UO - Dead Horse.
11. AC, DAoC, M59, AC2, AO, etc. - Who cares? Playing second fiddle to WoW. Money Sinks for developers. Move on. Innovate. Remove sand.

But hey, that's just how I see it.

[stray]

Umm...You forgot sb.exe

Other than that, I couldn't agree more (though I do believe AC deserves a dead horse category. Or "criminally forgotten". Something like that). EDIT: Wait, that doesn't make sense. How about "too criminally forgotten to be even be a dead horse"?

In other words, I hope the combat is good.

Like I mentioned, defense is key. I hope they stick with it. I've had enough of the "you hit me, I hit you, and we'll see who falls down first" type of combat.

[MrHat]

uh

12. SB - The Holy Grail (hint: it's poop inside the goblet, not the blood of Christ).

[schild]

Shadowbane failed to make the list because every time I typed it in I got an ie.exe.

[MrHat]

Shadowbane failed to make the list because every time I typed it in I got an ie.exe.

har har har

[stray]

I've very tempted to resub actually. Either that or AC.

[schild]

I've very tempted to resub actually. Either that or AC.

When you get the urge to do something like that, it's time to find a job that gives you more hours.

[stray]

Hey man, I need a pat on the back or something. Just 20 minutes ago, I resisted the urge to buy Madden.

[Signe]

After all these games I've played since leaving SB, just the thought of SB movement makes me weary.

[Stormwaltz]

To sum up the industry:

I continue to hope for the game that achieves the magic mix:

CoH combat + SWG economy + AC1 events = pwn

As for DDO, what I've read seems to imply a fantasy CoH with more tactical options. That is not a bad thing. Is it D&D? Not really. But what could be? A good NWN PW is the closest you're going to get to a tabletop experence with worldly scope.

[schild]

I'll admit this.

I have hope for D&D. The combat system sounds like a ramped up zelda with damage dealt via D&D rules. I'm ok with that. If it's actually like that. I remember some other games - cough - that promised more and didn't anywhere near deliver. I fear for Tabula Rasa.