As some around here might remember, I was a big proponent of the direction DDO was going way back in the early design stages. I had read all the magazine articles, read between the lines, and I was definitely on the DDO bandwagon.
Some may have called me and those like me a fanboy back then, that I(we) would like anything with D&D stamped on it. Of course being part of a webcomic called Dndorks.com, the assumption can’t be completely thrown out. Still, at the same time I was pulling for DDO, there have been other D&D games I knew right away weren’t going to amount to much (Dragonshard anyone?), so I think I’m fairly able to tell the difference between what will be a good game and a bad one.
Having said that, the Dndorks crew pretty much quit playing DDO about a month after release, with most of us having characters in the lvl 3-4 range. Why? The game had some problems, something just wasn’t “fun”.
The game felt slow, it took forever to level, and many things felt clunky. Turbine isn’t known for the best UI, and the game showed it in a lot of the worst ways. Hey I like Turbine, I’m just tossing everything out there.
The developers seemed to be leading the game further and further away from its D&D core, and not for a more enjoyable experience. Many situations were problematic due to only partially implemented rules with alternate solutions.
An example of something they “fixed” with an alternate solution? Webs. I’m not really sure what the problem was with webs, other than that many encounters might have been too easy due to spamming web, while wizards complain that they are encouraged to just cast web (I know I don’t have 2 wizard characters only to run around casting web!). Their solution? To make giants immune to web. How is that a solution? I guess it makes web not the solve-all, but couldn’t they just use strength checks to break free? Bah…
The number of problems was too much, and we all quit playing. BUT, unlike many, we didn’t cancel our accounts. Module 2 was on its way, and some things in it sounded like DDO might still have a chance to live up to some of its promise.