Since DDO is now officially Free-to-Play, my mind predictably floats towards downloading it again. I participated in the beta, if you care to call it that. Unfortunately, at the time I was also actively playing Aion and one of them had to be cut; the choice was obvious. What I did play, I liked. The couple of dungeons I checked out were polished and fun, which is a definite mark in it’s favor now that it’s stacked up against the likes of Runescape. Given a choice between the two, I’m pretty sure I’d choose DDO 3 out of 5 times.
As I grew up, I never took part in any of the tabletop D&D sessions my older cousins did, so having this new option is especially intriguing. I’d actually looked into the game before I started playing WoW but gave up on the idea solely out of the pay to play aspect. A little known fact about most college students is that they’re po’. Not poor, not needy, just po’ and the result is the need to make sacrifices.
Now, however, I have this shiny new option. So will I get it? Probably, yes. I’m impulsive when it comes to games. I have to wonder whether or not I’ll actually login though. Unlike other F20 games like Free Realms, DDO doesn’t have that “in and out” factor for the new player. It may later on but I’m not sure. As a gamer with limited playtime, I like to get the most out of the few hours I get to spend.
I guess the purpose of this post is to ask, is there any hope of a quick hook with this game? I’m a fan of Turbine’s Lord of the Rings Online but DDO is going to be subject to the bumper effect. In my minds eye, I imagine Aion and LotRO as two sumo wrestlers and DDO as a little guy with taped up glasses trying to push in between them. Something is going to have to give and I’m betting that it won’t be man-boob. What do you think?
