Early Impressions of Dungeons & Dragons Online (DDO)I solved a few quests and I am now into Stormreach proper. The first of six districts in the city. Like many other Massively Multi-player Online Role Playing Game (MMORPGs), the world of DDO is spread over servers.
DDO is a game of instances with the shared world experience being limited to the six parts of the city of Stormreach. As such, I think DDO with its single player faction and lack of PvP (Player Versus Player) elements will lose out to other MMORPGs such as the World of Warcraft (WOW), Guild Wars (GW) and so forth. From my early impressions, the lack of a shared world feeling like in WOW will not foster a shared community loyalty and this will not lend itself to loyal players.
Another notable direction is the focus on dungeons (public or private instances). This game is a vast dungeon hack with one dungeon after another. Puzzles, traps and monsters. There seem to be little focus on the favour of the world, everything is there for gameplay, everything is functional. What is the city of Stormreach but just another large area with class-trainers and vendors? Thus, DDO feels vanilla.
With the focus on dungeons and puzzle-solving, there appears little room for what many will describe as grinding, the killing of monsters for rewards and power. You don't get xp for killing monsters in some areas. This will rile players as this has been the basis of so-called 'power-gamers' and will be for a long time to come.
The level cap for the game is level 10. I think it is far too little for hardcore MMORPG players. I suspect the level cap will be raised in future.
On the interface, it is unpolished. It feels clumsy. From the player perspective, one has to make a lot of adjustments during combat just to get a decent view of the affair. That is not a good sign. In desperate situations, I can imagine problems.
DDO is a game for single-minded people, it is for people who like dungeon-crawls. Unlike WOW which has dungeons for people who enjoy dungeon-crawls (raids), PvP for people who like fighting, grinding for power-gamers, a world full of flavour for people who enjoy fantasy, DDO is just a game with a single facet. As such, I doubt if this MMORPG has much staying power for me. A month? Two months? I don't know. It will still take a while to attain the maximum level and new modules will also be released.
All in all, it is a fairly enjoyable and decent game.
7 comments:
Actually, Shyue Chou,
It just rewards grinding in a different form. I know the law of diminishing returns kicks in after you've farmed a dungeon a few times, but it is still possible - which is another thing I don't like about it.
Hi Anthony, I read on the forums that people have finished all the quests by the time they are level 7. Thus, they had to repeat quests.
I suspect this problem will be solved by next month when more scenarios are released. And additional content.
Well, then one is forced to finish a quest, right? Without finishing, there will be no xp or rewards. No partial xp?
I am re-rolling a new character. I am switching to the same server as Colin and Wilson.
i find guild wars boring :/ haha
Guild Wars lacks a shared experience and social aspect despite having to form parties to go on missions.
It also lacks staying power and replayability.
You have played Guild Wars then?
Quoting someone:
"Very few people play MMOs for the "end-game pay-off." They play for the perpetual game. They play because it doesn't end. There is always something to do in the game.
Plus there is the social element, which always factors in."
GW and DDO lack that.
i played Guild wars before.. but just for a day or 2.. it's kinda boring :/
I came close to finishing all the quests.
My sister also played at the same time. She came even closer. She played a ranger type and was consistently able to beat larger monsters. I think she loves the game.
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