DDO to go Free to Play

Dungeons and Dragons Online announced recently that they are going to a F2P format. They will also continue a subscription format that gets all sorts of goodies over the generic F2P accounts {both will still have full access to the game, F2P can also buy or earn points to purchase most of the stuff subscribers get - VIP/F2P Comparison}. More info here : DDO Forums.

I had an account a while ago and used that e-mail address to sign up for beta and got in on the 1st wave, so I'm under an NDA. I don't want to go too much into anything, but I will say I'm having a lot more fun now than I did that last time I played. Enough that we actually resubbed our live accounts to play in addition to the beta.

The game itself is not something you'd really multibox, with no follow command and no macro system, however, they have the hireling system. Hirelings are purchasable party member "bots" that {as I've seen so far} come in fighter, cleric and wizard flavors. Currently, you can only have 1 hireling per actual physical player {purchased from ingame vendors}, but that will change {NDA}.

I have to say, it's a nice change of pace to just play one toon. It's even nicer to play DPS instead of a healer+, hehe. So there you go. Beta signup is here. F2P should start this summer sometime. Worth giving a shot, especially once it goes F2P.

I remember playing the trial. Had a blast on my Warforged Fighter :D. Ill have to look into trying it out again.

My biggest complaint about it, much like the thoughts I have about DAoC after having played WoW, is that the environment is "dead." Sure you have people walking around and such but everything just feels plastic and lifeless. And I really think that's the small stuff. If we wanna derail the discussion into the specifics of that, I'm game. ;)