If you ever wanted to try out DDO or LOTRO, you could try it now …

Alrik Fassbauer

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Hello,

the company behind DDO and LOTRO has just announced that both games will be open to everyone who has to stay at home because if the current crisis until later in April.

As I understand them, they do it so that everyone stays in good humour meanwhile the industry, districts, towns etc. gets closed.

Here is the announcement : https://www.ddo.com/en/friends

I respect their decision to help to not let people fall prey to the current hysteria.

'I wish it need not have happened in my time,' said Frodo.
'So do I,' said Gandalf, 'and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.'

Alrik
 
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Congratulations to Standing Stone LLC, great initiative on their part! :)
 
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Come to the DDO Hardcore server and see if you can survive these trying times. Say hello to Graylander if you see him. Lvl 16 Favored Soul who hasn't died yet but has been close a couple of times. :blush:
 
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If I only had patience for these games (MMOs) …
 
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Yeah I'm playing with two of my friends and we are trying to see how long we can survive. Hardcore server is pretty fun. If you die you're done.

I'm glad you're having a great time together, really. I am not being ironic here. It's that I don't think I would join a group in order to do raids and I believe I wouldn't find some fun playing just alone.

The only MMO I played (and even so, for a very few moments) was Funcom's Anarchy Online long time ago. When I uninstalled it, it was like "I'm done with it!". I never touched WoW, Everquest, Ultima Online, etc. Yes, I have both Albion Online and Black Desert Online installed in my Steam library, but it's my kid who plays them :)

Anyway, I once again commend Standing Stone LLC for their initiative :)
 
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Don't forget that the Watch has a Guild on the Khyber server for members of the Watch to play together. We have a regular session on Friday evening USA time. I think it's 7 pm east coast time. Everyone from the Watch is welcome; lots of help available too. :)
 
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If I only had patience for these games (MMOs) …

DDO plays almost like a solo C-RPG. It's good fun, in my opinion.

Almost all quests are instanced.

Only raids are group content, and a few quests with certain mechanics (like 4 persons standing on pressure plates).

I very often wish people would do games like DDO these days.



Edit : Doing quests with members of the Watch has its own kind of fun ! ;)
 
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The above link points you towards in an-game DDO Store coupon code which gives anyone access to all Adventure Packs until August, 31st, 2020

Until that date you can get as well "the quests from" the two Forgotten Realms DDO Expansions for 99 DDO Points, which is quite a steal, considering that these two Expansions themselves - which include these quests - must otherwise be bought extra. The only drawback is that this offer contains only the quests ("the playable content"), and no bonus of any kind.

DDO Store Sales: June 4th - 11th
Now Available!
Get the quests from Menace of the Underdark or The Shadowfell Conspiracy for 99 DDO Points each, now through August 31st!

Find them in the DDO Store in-game.
 
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This is the last weekend to get the quests for free, apparingly permanently !

Quote from the official announcement :

NOTE: This is your FINAL WEEKEND to redeem the Coupon Code DDOFREEQUESTS (1/Account) through the DDO Store to get free quests. Available to redeem through August 31st. Visit DDO.com/friendsforever for more information.

Source : https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthre...eptember-3rd?p=6354357&viewfull=1#post6354357

Quoted from there :

We would also like to provide a way for you to move forward with your gaming when our event eventually comes to an end, so in the coming days we will be providing a Coupon Code that will let you acquire all currently-available adventure packs permanently on your account(s)! However, you will need to act quickly, as this Coupon Code is available to redeem through August 31st, 2020.
 
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There is an important announcement regarding DDO :

DDO Market Sale!
Wed, 25 Nov 2020 19:35:36 +0000
Now until January 9, 2021, get 50% off:

Ravenloft Ultimate, Collector’s, and Standard Edition
Shadowfell Conspiracy Collectors, Standard, and Legendary Upgrade
Menace of the Underdark Standard and Base editions

These items will no longer be available after January 9th. New packages for the older expansions will be available at a future date, but may not include the exact same bonus items, so this is the final opportunity to get these specific packages with their listed bonus items.
 
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I don't know - I have heard they have the same strange system of armor sets upper level restriction like in LOTRO. So you come to Moria too late and you cannot wear Moria armor sets and they even stripped players from armors when they implemented it - some of the armors you had to buy quite expensive for in-game currency given from instances - this is how much they don't care about their player base. And now they cater everything in the game for the group of very hatefull tryhards/pvp players who are known for destroying other MMOs for casuals.
Things like that is what gives you depression, so it is better to stay away from that for me.
 
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I enjoyed DDO when I played it, but it's one of the most predatory games you could design. They shove in your face all kinds of real cash transactions at every turn. You die in a dungeon? Instant button to pay to resurrect. You need to get to a far away dungeon that is deliberately designed to be far away? Instant button to pay to teleport. Do you need healing/mana/inventory slots/anything at all? Instant button to pay to buy it.

Most of the content is locked behind paywalls, races, classes, dungeons, you name it. The VIP suscription bypasses some of it, not all (tons of stuff you need to actually buy the expansions to actually be able to play them). Also, unsurprisingly, the expansions have more elaborate dungeons with better loot than the "free" or even the VIP ones.

And that's not even the worst of it, there is a system by which you can "reincarnate", keeping bonuses from your previous character and increasing the stat points you get in general when creating the character. Each reincarnation costs a fair amount of money (I think about $10?) and of course, since the game invites you to go through this loop of level up - reincarnate, you want XP boosts for real money to get there faster.

Also, for us Europeans the lag is unbearable, since either they never bothered to put servers in EU, or they just can't figure out lag. Animations and collisions are all out of sync, sometimes by seconds.

All in all, good game, but way too many ifs and buts to make it playable for me.
 
Most of the content is locked behind paywalls, races, classes, dungeons, you name it.

Hence the post by Alrik; all content packs aside from the explicit expansion packs are currently free with the linked coupon.

And that's not even the worst of it, there is a system by which you can "reincarnate", keeping bonuses from your previous character and increasing the stat points you get in general when creating the character. Each reincarnation costs a fair amount of money (I think about $10?) and of course, since the game invites you to go through this loop of level up - reincarnate, you want XP boosts for real money to get there faster.

The game provides in-game, money-free methods to get the item(s) necessary for reincarnation.

That is not to say that DDO can't be expensive if you throw caution to the wind and go full-on pay to win (which there is most certainly an element of in the game), but there is hundreds of hours of content freely available these days (much more than, say, ten years prior). If you're looking for a casual MMO you can play around in maybe once a week, DDO offers a lot with little to no cost. If, however, you are the type of personality that wants it all! Wants it now! NOW NOW NOW! And will be playing the game as a second job, well then it can be a dangerous game for you, monetarily.
 
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My point is that it doesn't require a "NOW NOW NOW!" mindset to feel extremely limited and getting "pay now to get this" prompts shoved up your face 24/7. There are games that do this gracefully. DDO isn't one of them. Any cool race or class you may want to play, for example, is behind a paywall and then "pay 35 shards now to resurrect" is one of the most predatory things I've ever seen in a game, makes EA and Ubisoft look charitative grannies in comparison.

But then, everyone can try it and decide for themselves.
 
What prompts 24/7? The resurrect example you've cited is a one-time thing that you disable with a checkbox. Only 3 of the 15 classes are limited to store purchases (a 4th, druid, can be had with access to the Underdark expansion - which is $1 right now). The races, I will grant you, can feel claustrophobic, as there are only 4 in the free to play portion of the game.

While there are many examples of the game catering to the pay to win crowd, the majority of what you've mentioned is not it. I'd say you're either misinformed or being disingenuous.
 
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Never ever have wanted to try out either of them, but I hear they're pretty desperate for players. If I was forced to play any MMO it wouldn't be one where the property was commercially owned outside of computer gaming I think. I'd prefer something that was public domain so it could be added to by anyone.
 
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I don't need to convince anyone, really, I just thought this thread is being either dishonest and misleading, or just happily ignoring the most predatory monetization system I've seen in a non-mobile game. Genshin Impact is a joke compared to DDO, and as I said earlier, EA and Ubisoft appear as actually kind, giving companies in comparison.

I'm not trying to convince anyone, I don't care where you spend your time or your money. Just giving a heads up but in the end anyone can check it out without taking my word for it.
 
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