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Role Playing (Games) Entertainment Games

D&D Online Stress Beta Begins 400

Posted by CmdrTaco from the virtual-d20s-never-get-lost-under-the-table dept.
kafka47 writes "Turbine's much-anticipated MMO, "Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach", is now opening up its stress test to Fileplanet subscribers. The registration is free, and it is a great opportunity for MMO and D&D fans to sign up and try out the game! Paid subscribers get a higher-rez client, but if you're curious about what DDO has to offer (and by all accounts, it's a lot) this is your chance to see it early."
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D&D Online Stress Beta Begins More

D&D Online Stress Beta Begins

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  • oh yay (Score:4, Insightful)

    by eobanb ( 823187 ) on Wednesday December 14, 2005 @01:21PM (#14257165) Homepage
    Looks to be Windows-only. Gee thanks guys. Also I apparently have to be some member of IGN and/or FilePlanet, both ad-ridden slow over-commercialised scourges of the Internet. Does no one understand that this stuff is mainly a ploy to get users to sign up for the forums and buy subscriptions? Get me an actual freely available download and a Mac or Linux version, otherwise I think I'll pass on this one.

    • Re:oh yay (Score:5, Funny)

      by Chmarr ( 18662 ) on Wednesday December 14, 2005 @01:24PM (#14257194)
      Us Mac users don't really play games. We're obviously too busy going "ooo ahhh" while moving the mouse over the icons in the doc with magnification turned on.

      </sarcasm>
      • That, and playing WoW :)

        -WS
      • Hey! Speak for yourself! I use Office on my Mac, and install UNIX packages with Fink. Oh, and I use it as a full-featured audio workstation. I play the Sims 2, also.

        I mean, where do you people get off thinking that...that...oh crap! I can't resist. *Shift-F9*

        Damn, that is cool. Now I'm off to drop more widgets into my Dashboard.

    • Re:oh yay (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 14, 2005 @01:34PM (#14257291)
      Actually I'm a member of FilePlanet - didn't cost me a penny. I've never visited the forums, never received emails from them and only use the site to get game patches from. As a non paying FilePlanet user, I'm still eligible to play the DDO beta for free.
       
      I think you're being a little hasty in saying that it's to push more people to their forums, more likely that a ready-made, limited userbase was there to be tapped for something like this, especially for testing purposes.

    • Re:oh yay (Score:5, Informative)

      by dougmc ( 70836 ) <dougmc+slashdot@frenzied.us> on Wednesday December 14, 2005 @01:37PM (#14257309) Homepage
      Looks to be Windows-only. Gee thanks guys.
      While I understand the sentiment, did you expect something else? Even NWN was supposed to support Windows, MacOS and Linux equally (and wasn't BeOS in there too?) but when it came out the reality was somewhat ... different. Even now, Linux is supported by NWN, but there's some issues, like no Bink video (of course, that's not really Bioware's fault, but either way, it's a limitation if you're actually playing the standard game.)

      Like it or not, Windows is what the vast majority of the gamers use, so that's who the developers develop for. How do we fix that? Well, we get more gamers to use Linux and to demand Linux support in their games. And these people need to be willing to pay for these Linux games -- wanting free versions won't cut it. So far, we're not doing very well in that front at all.

      And seriously, getting most of the commercial games that are available for Linux working in Linux is somewhat tricky. Getting OpenGL hardware support isn't difficult, but there's often other dependancies and such that have to be done before a certain game will work, and even when it does work it often doesn't work as well as the Windows version.

      Every time I have to defend Windows or explain why somebody chose Windows rather than Linux I feel like I'm in some sort of bizarro-world, since I'm a pretty serious Windows detractor. But ultimately, as things stand at the end of 2005, Windows is a better platform for gaming than Linux or MacOS -- the support is there, the games are there, and things generally work with little pain. The only platforms that can rival it are the various consoles (and in many ways, they do have it beat, and in many ways, Windows beats them.)

      Does no one understand that this stuff is mainly a ploy to get users to sign up for the forums and buy subscriptions?
      Sure, lots of people understand that. What's your point?
      Get me an actual freely available download and a Mac or Linux version, otherwise I think I'll pass on this one.
      OK, but lots of people will jump through their hoops, and a few actually will sign up for their forums and buy subscriptions, so I doubt that the creators of D&D Online and the IGN/Fileplanet people will really miss you that much.

      • Re:oh yay (Score:5, Insightful)

        by eobanb ( 823187 ) on Wednesday December 14, 2005 @01:55PM (#14257452) Homepage
        Hey, thanks for the comment. I do want to address something you said, though: But ultimately, as things stand at the end of 2005, Windows is a better platform for gaming than Linux or MacOS -- the support is there, the games are there, and things generally work with little pain. This doesn't really make sense except for the fact that Windows happens to have a greater userbase, which itself does not make the platform any better or worse for gaming than any other platform. It is just as easy or difficult to develop a game for other platforms, as Blizzard, id, Aspyr, Ambrosia, Shrapnel, etc. have demonstrated, as it is to develop for Windows.

        • But ultimately, as things stand at the end of 2005, Windows is a better platform for gaming than Linux or MacOS -- the support is there, the games are there, and things generally work with little pain

          This doesn't really make sense except for the fact that Windows happens to have a greater userbase, which itself does not make the platform any better or worse for gaming than any other platform.

          And I completely disagree. What good is a platform for gaming if there's no games that work on it? Like it o

        • Re:oh yay (Score:3, Insightful)

          by ranton ( 36917 )
          Actually, in my experience Windows is FAR easier to develop for than the linux platform. I have to do some linux programming when I need cluster-like speeds, but it is much easier to program with Visual Studio or Borland Developers Studio than any linux developing environments I have ever used. KDevelop is very nice, but doesnt approach a Windows quality IDE enviornment.

      • Re:oh yay (Score:3, Insightful)

        by jedie ( 546466 )
        hey,

        if you need to get more linux gamers to attract more linux-support from game developers... you get a chicken-egg problem:

        gamers won't come to linux if it's not supported by dev companies
        dev companies won't support linux if gamers don't migrate

        a better solution would be:
        more quality open source/linux games that can equal the polished commercial counterparts.
        free-games usually lack decent artwork or decent menus or whatnot... they even lack decent stories.

        so the plan is:
        - get bunch of talented people toge

      • Re:oh yay (Score:4, Insightful)

        by vertinox ( 846076 ) on Wednesday December 14, 2005 @02:56PM (#14257949)
        Windows is a better platform for gaming than Linux or MacOS

        Actually, from a developers standpoint, MacOS is the best choice because you generally know what the OS and hardware will always be. A Mac is closest thing in the computer world to a console. If you make a game that runs on Mac OS that year, you can generally assume most other Macs that run OS X will run it.

        With Windows and Linux you basically have to guess what most people might be using for processor, motherboard, sound card, video drivers etc... Direct X, OpenGL, and windows APIs generally help this by making all things universal but problems do arise for end users when they have some pretty whacked specs or quirky video drivers.

        However, from a publishers stanpoint, because of Mac OS small market penetration the Windows version makes more sense.

        Perhaps the x86 systems will change that, but that is pure speculation.

      • Re:oh yay (Score:2, Informative)

        by Doug-W ( 165055 )
        While I understand the sentiment, did you expect something else? Even NWN was supposed to support Windows, MacOS and Linux equally (and wasn't BeOS in there too?) but when it came out the reality was somewhat ... different. Even now, Linux is supported by NWN, but there's some issues, like no Bink video (of course, that's not really Bioware's fault, but either way, it's a limitation if you're actually playing the standard game.)

        Actually that is Bioware's fault, from the rad game tools website:

        The Bink


      • But ultimately, as things stand at the end of 2005, Windows is a better platform for gaming than Linux or MacOS -- the support is there, the games are there, and things generally work with little pain.

        Arguably, no you are wrong.

        The only points that you have brought up, basically state that the reason why Windows is a better platform is because the developers develop for it. Please note that this is *very* different from Windows actually being the better platform.

        If the developers have actually developed

    • Re:oh yay (Score:3, Insightful)

      by AviLazar ( 741826 )
      Yes, that is exactly what they want to do. Give you a free copy of the game without having you register. Because you know, when they want beta testers, they don't want to be able to contact them.

      If you are that paranoid, use a bogus e-mail, and bogus home address/phone number.

      • Re:oh yay (Score:3, Interesting)

        by david.given ( 6740 )
        If you are that paranoid, use a bogus e-mail, and bogus home address/phone number.

        You might be interested in DodgeIt [dodgeit.com]. It's a site that provides unsecured, public, read-only email inboxes. To use it, simply send an email to somerandomphrase@dodgeit.com... and then go the the website, enter 'somerandomphrase' into the box, and see your message. No setup required.

        The mail's kept for a short period of time, it's mostly anonymous (DodgeIt could theoretically record the IP address of incoming connections and

    • Re:oh yay (Score:3, Funny)

      by DogDude ( 805747 )
      I agree. Along those same lines, I happen to have a 1954 Alfa Romeo, and you can't get those plastic window rain gutter things to fit them. They don't make them to fit my car! Those stupid window rain gutter people are not going to get my business, or any other business from 1954 Alfa Romeo owners. Bastards!
    • Loki Games [lokigames.com] agrees with you. Unfortunately they shut down their business that was porting games to Linux.

      All irony aside, you have the right idea but Linux has a lot of room to grow before it can be a competitive platform in the gaming market.
    • 1. Windows is the dominant OS. Like it or not it's the big boy on the block. MMOs have to reach the largest block of users possible for the least amount of work possible. Developing for Windows makes economic sense. Linux is an unproven market for gamers. Look at Loki, they tried it and it never took off

      2. IGN/FilePlanet do these things because they provide bandwidth to ship out the files. Very few other places out there offer this service. This makes the stress test distribution process easier for

  • Dice included? (Score:3, Funny)

    by TPJ-Basin ( 763596 ) on Wednesday December 14, 2005 @01:23PM (#14257189) Homepage
    How do they deliver your 20-sided dice via snail mail?

  • Does a game like WoW hurt a game like DDO? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by eldavojohn ( 898314 ) * <eldavojohn@noSpAM.gmail.com> on Wednesday December 14, 2005 @01:25PM (#14257207) Journal
    I'm curious as to what slashdotters really think about this subject.

    Here we have a possible new MMO and, trust me, I'd love to try it and be a paying customer. However, I'm deeply involved in another major MMO right now (WoW to be exact). I know many people who also will not try other MMOs because their current one is too infatuating.

    Furthermore, if the most popular MMO has most of the population of gamers (like WoW does), doesn't this hurt the industry?

    Yes, I know this has probably been covered in another thread but I was hoping someone could give me good reasons to stop trying to get to level 60 with my priest and spend my valuable free time trying to get into DDO. After browsing the site, I'm definitely going to go home and give this one a shot but what about all the MMOs that aren't slashdotted?

    I'm reminded of an old friend from high school who hated the game franchises on the older consoles (like Mario Bros) because he was certain that their high pricing and continuous rehashing of the same story line not only stifled creativity but turned off gamers looking for something fresh. What do you think?

    • Re:Does a game like WoW hurt a game like DDO? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Red Flayer ( 890720 ) on Wednesday December 14, 2005 @01:33PM (#14257275) Journal
      "Yes, I know this has probably been covered in another thread but I was hoping someone could give me good reasons to stop trying to get to level 60 with my priest and spend my valuable free time trying to get into DDO."

      For me, it's all about finding new things, having new experiences. And grinding to hit level 60 in WoW doesn't do that for me. I'd rather play the early & mid-game in twenty different titles than play through to the endgame in one.

      However, I don't know how DDO differs from WoW. Until you try it, you won't know either. So maybe a reason to try DDO is that it could be much more fun. A few hours trying it out would be worth the chance, right?

    • Re:Does a game like WoW hurt a game like DDO? (Score:4, Funny)

      by Manchot ( 847225 ) on Wednesday December 14, 2005 @01:45PM (#14257369)
      I'm reminded of an old friend from high school who hated the game franchises on the older consoles (like Mario Bros) because he was certain that their high pricing and continuous rehashing of the same story line not only stifled creativity but turned off gamers looking for something fresh. What do you think?

      If you're playing Super Mario Bros. for the story, then you're playing it for the wrong reasons.

    • To be nice, WoW is advertised as a simple action MMORPG. Basically RPG Light. To be nasty, WoW is for leet kiddies who think numbers are part of the alphabet.

      DDO from so far as I have it followed is going to be bearded. NWN/Baldur Gate rather then Diablo. If anything it is going to be even more anal the Everquest (although hopefully in depth not endless grinding) so your typical WoW gamer is NOT the kind of customer they want.

      Everquest 2 is more of a target and trust me on this, getting people away from E

      • I understand your point, but somedays when I take the bus from Ottawa to Montreal I just really fucking want to get to Montreal. Other days, I want to just take a ride and enjoy the scenery. Either way, the 'fun' is in getting to Montreal...I just have a different attitude about it. I don't think either game will be mutually exclusive. You can play both and find what you need.

    • Short answer: it depends (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Moraelin ( 679338 ) on Wednesday December 14, 2005 @03:00PM (#14257975) Journal
      It depends on whether it'll actually be a better game than WoW, or just another "we've got a great franchise, so we can release any crap" exercise.

      WoW itself also faced bigger franchises and established market leaders and won by being the better designed game, at least at lower levels. Whatever (legitimate) gripes you might have with the end-game grind, if you took someone new and gave him a level 1 account to every single MMO, chances are he'd find WoW the most fun.

      That's what put WoW ahead, not franchise name, not "but everyone already plays EQ, so why would they even try a new MMO?", not anything else. The better designed game won.

      And it had plenty of established competition. E.g., _the_ MMO at the time was EQ. All your MMO playing friends played it, your guild was on EQ, etc. Why would you move to move to WoW.

      And EQ2 was just being released. For all other fame it might have had among gamers, _the_ name in the MMO market was Sony. (Think by comparison of another market. For all the fame and market Microsoft or Sony have, if you're into, say, platform games, then you think "Nintendo". Between a release by Microsoft or Sony and one from Nintendo, the platform fan will instinctively be more interested in the Nintendo release. Now you might be more interested in MS or Sony for other genres, but for platformers Nintendo is _the_ big name in the market. The same held for Sony and MMOs.)

      Yet WoW handily won. Why? Because it was the better game.

      Again, I stress that it wasn't just Blizzard's name or the Warcraft franchise. Bigger franchises, backed by bigger names, went down the garbage bin of the MMO market. E.g.,

      - The Sims Online was based on _the_ bestselling PC game of all time. You know, the one that outsold any of Id's or Epic's or Blizzard's games, or a few of them combined. (And that's without even counting the sales for the 7 expansion packs.) For every single die-hard Warcraft player, the Koreans included, there were several of us TS gamers just waiting to move our virtual lives online. Yet for all the franchise name, and EA's marketting, TSO peaked around 100,000 subscribers and stayed there.

      - SWG. Now that game was based on probably _the_ biggest franchise in history. Every single SW fan had waited for it like it was the second coming of Obi-wa... err... of Christ. If you have the patience to dig through the archive at PvP Online, Scott has a strip in which he captures the very essence of that expectation: one in which a character says goodbye to his friends, and says that having been a SW die-hard for all this time, he expects to never leave the SWG world once it's launched. That's how every single SW maniac felt about it.

      Yet we ended up going back to other games, or later to WoW. Go figure.

      What this huge rant is getting to is: the same applies to any other game. If DDO will be the better game, it _will_ unseat WoW, just like WoW has unseated the established names and franchises before it. If it will be the more traditional kind of "let's release some crap now and worry about balance or bugs later" MMO, it won't.

      And I don't think this kind of Darwinism hurts the industry at all. The net result is that the good games and design elements survive (just look how much EQ2 rushed to copy from WoW for example), and the crap shrivels and dies. On the whole, we gamers are better off for it.

      And maybe, just maybe, it will also force the industry to realize that quality _does_ sell. It's good and fine to have better screenshots (EQ2 has much better ones), or franchise names (SWG), or be the sequel to the best selling game (TSO), but at the end of the day, the higher quality game is the one that gets more of the market. And in the end that was the upper hand that Blizzard had all the time, even with their previous games.
    • Free market forces. If DDO is better, people will flock to it, otherwise people will stay with WoW.

      I've played most of the new MMORPGs to come out in the last 5 years...All of them that had a free trial, and a few others to boot. I stuck with the ones I liked for a while, and the ones I didn't like, I tossed.

      I'm pretty big into WoW right now, but if a new MMORPG came along that I like better, I'll play it. Why not? Nobody owns my business, I haven't sold my soul to any MMO company, though I can't really bea
    • Yep, that's exactly what held WOW back from success. EverQuest had a completely dominant position in the world of MMORPGs, had pretty much locked up the customer base. When a superior product (WOW) came along, they just couldn't get people to try it, given their commitment to EQ. That's why WOW was such a sad failure in the marketplace. Now that WOW is in the dominant position that EQ used to hold, DDO is similarly doomed.

    • Furthermore, if the most popular MMO has most of the population of gamers (like WoW does), doesn't this hurt the industry?

      It only hurts the developers pockets.

      In theory, a 100,000 MMO vs a 1,000 MMO isn't much different for the player experience if they keep their population concentration on an even server load. Instead of the 100 servers the 100,000 MMO has the 1,000 player game just puts everyone on a single server.

      On most MMORPGS, the most one can technically interact with is around 64 players at once at

    • Re:Does a game like WoW hurt a game like DDO? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by NetFu ( 155538 ) on Wednesday December 14, 2005 @04:16PM (#14258539) Homepage Journal
      MMO's are like running restaurants or establishments that occupy people's time fairly exclusively (can't simultaneously eat in 3 different restaurants). They have to work to hang on to their customers. They don't and they'll lose them to an upstart.

      That's what I saw happen with WoW and EQ2. I didn't start playing WoW from the beginning, I got into it 4 months after launch -- something like March 2005. I started playing EQ2 in November to December of 2004. Mainly because it looked really cool, and I played EQ years ago.

      After 4 months of EQ2, I started hating to play it like I was going to work. I was going to sit down one weeknight to play it for an hour or so before going to bed -- to keep working on my character -- and at the end of the 60-90 minutes I realized I had just thrown away those 60-90 minutes just trying to recover my body after dying repeatedly.

      I realized that I seriously felt like I was *paying* someone to abuse me. (S&M, anyone?)

      I heard someone mention World of Warcraft and how it's like EQ2 but better, so I checked out a few reviews. After reading reviews, I decided to try it, and liked the (almost) complete lack of punishment. I felt like I was appreciated as a customer, and not being mugged on a daily basis.

      Sure, I make stupid mistakes in WoW and waste some of my time, but I have never gotten up from playing it feeling like I just completely wasted my time on frustration.

      Sure, WoW isn't perfect and people complain about various aspects of the gaming experience, but it's still the best overall experience out there right now, which is why it reigns supreme. It's kind of like a restaurant or dining experience.

      This doesn't hurt the industry, it just guarantees competition and better quality. Like a restaurant, if the latest MMO is way better than any other, everyone will flock to it and the crappy ones will be forced to change to compete or die.

  • I think it's a great chance... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by OakDragon ( 885217 ) on Wednesday December 14, 2005 @01:26PM (#14257212) Journal
    I think it's a great chance for non-gamers like me (well, pretty much) to see what all the MMORPG fuss is about, especially under the D&D banner. I think I might do it.
    • I'd say just the opposite. As a non-gamer, betas and stress tests are the WORST way to find out what's up with the game. If you are not a fanatic, wait 3 months from launch before buying, that way you can catch some decent reviews, miss the inevitable launch issues and initial down time, and there will be more experienced players that can help you in game.

      -Rick
    • Yea, because what you want is to play with all the kids too young to have a credit card. It's well known that the freaks all disappear once the credit card is needed, happens in all MMORPG.

      Avoid "stress test" time like the plague.

    • Re:I think it's a great chance... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Shihar ( 153932 ) on Wednesday December 14, 2005 @02:17PM (#14257635)
      Non-Gamer kills the skeleton for the 100th times:
      "Uh, why am I killing skeletons again?"

      Gamer:
      "To get to level 5!"

      Non-Gamer:
      "What do I get at level 5?"

      Gamer:
      "Improved fireball man!"

      Non-Gamer:
      "What do I do with the improved fireball?"

      Gamer:
      "Shit, man, you need improved fireball if you want to get to level 6."

      Non-Gamer:
      "So I am getting to level 5 so I can get to level 6?"

      Yeah... better you just not show non-gamers what MMORPGs are all about. Unless they addict easily, they are probably just going to think you are insane and need to get out more.

      MMORPGs are a bad habit that I kicked a while ago. Wake me up when someone grows a pair and offers something new... and by new I don't mean prettier graphics or a refinement of the old formula. If you can stip the core game play down to "killing stuff to get to the next level", count me out.
    • If you want to check out another MMORPG, you can get a 10-day free trial of World of Warcraft from File Planet [fileplanet.com], or a 14-day trial from the current issue of Maxim Magazine (with Cindy Crawford on the cover). I did the 10-day trial from File Planet and ended up buying the game.

  • site seems to be quite slow... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by msh104 ( 620136 ) on Wednesday December 14, 2005 @01:27PM (#14257220)
    but you could still take a look at the movies ;)
    http://www.gametrailers.com/gamepage.php?id=1869 [gametrailers.com]

    In general the game looks pretty good, I watched a few of them and in general it looks like "yet another hack and slash" party.

    In other words: I don't think it will really offer anything more about other MMORPG other then a different set of terrain...

    to bad..

  • Another cyber-drug (Score:5, Funny)

    by Ixne ( 599904 ) on Wednesday December 14, 2005 @01:30PM (#14257250)

    Looking at those screenshots, it looks like EverCrack on steroids. I dare not try it. Must... not... try...

  • Arrg. Why not Torrent??? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Maxo-Texas ( 864189 ) on Wednesday December 14, 2005 @01:39PM (#14257333)
    All they had to do was torrent af few copies out- no need to blow their own bandwidth or force people to use IGN file networks.
    • How much do you think IGN/Fileplanet paid for them to release the stress test exclusively over their site(s)? The D&D name carries alot of weight, so I'm guessing quite alot.
      • They could, however, let the files go out freely as long as F***planet remains the only holder of the registration keys.

        That would give them all the exclusivity they want and let them encourage people to register for their service without making it impossible to get the download.

        On the other hand that would undermine their image as _the_ place to download games from, so it's probably not a good idea at all.

  • A.K.A. "Monty Haul" Online (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Sign up early, see what's behind door #3. Ah, a +5 broadsword. Haul it over to eBay for some nice coinage.

  • DDO Already Nerfed (Score:2, Interesting)

    by ranton ( 36917 )
    I have played dungeons and dragons most of my life, but somehow I just knew that I shouldnt get my hopes up for this game. Instead of being a fun and competetive game they seam to have catered to only the carebears. With a lack of real PvP, I know that I will probably never play this game. I guess I can understand why this is, since the D&D game system is not very well balanced. They probably just couldnt make a balanced online game so they just made it so you couldnt compete with other humans.

    I jus
    • If you are complaining about the PvP in DDO, I question how much you played Dungeons and Dragons in the first place. The entire focus of the game is on cooperative play. If your play is focused on PvP, then Dungeons and Dragons in ANY format is not a good game for you. I recommend Guild Wars...
    • Why do you need "high-level content?" If the game was fun to play while you trained to your max level, why not just start up a new character and do it again? If the game was not fun to play while you trained to your max level, how is adding PvP worth the enormous amount of time spent bored while you trained your character? There are already plenty of games out there that are boring, tedious journeys where at the end you just compare e-penises with other players for "fun."
  • I logged in and got the key.

    Then noticed that they only offered the 1.5GB 'low res' client for DL. You need to pay for subscription of Fileplanet to DL the 'high res' version (2.5GB)

    Sorry. If you don't want me to see your game in the maximum shiny version (yes, my system can take it, thankyouverymuch), without making me pay for it to Fileplanet, I'm not interested. Turbine's karma is already pretty much busted - they canned AC2, and have not published anything worth two cents since.. umm... sometime las

    • I'd agree with all that you said, but I would point out some things that Turbine has done right. Turbine continues to add content to the original Asheron's Call. That game has been obsolete for quite some time now, but there are still a few people who hang on... I never played AC2, but AC had amazing seamless "one world" technology. Yes there were dungeons to be entered, but one could essentially run all over the huge AC landscape without artificial gates or barriers to different portions of the world.
  • Because someone has to say it!

  • Bloody Marketing.... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Volanin ( 935080 ) on Wednesday December 14, 2005 @01:46PM (#14257394)
    From the FAQ:

    Q: How are participants for the Stress Test Event selected?

    We are offering a limited number of Stress Test Event slots as an exclusive to FilePlanet members. Stress Test Event access will be offered on a first-come first-served basis until the total number of Stress Test Event accounts has run out.

    Q: I was accepted into the Stress Test Event. Does this mean I'm in the Beta now?

    No. The Stress Test Event is separate from the Beta. Acceptance into the Stress Test Event will grant you access to special servers for three days only.

    Q: If I am a FilePlanet member, where do I go to get signed up?

    http://www.fileplanet.com/promotions/ddo_stormreac h/stresstest/ [fileplanet.com]


    Come on...
    Looks like FilePlanet just want boost its members numbers... again.
    Nothing to see here, move along.
  • I played the beta for about 2 weeks... In my opinion it wasn't that fun.

    I just remember this one part in the game where I was in a room and there were easily at least 50 barrels to destroy for items. After 5 minutes of clicking on barrels to attack & destroy them to see if one of them supposedly had this key I was looking for, I decided that this game definitely wasn't for me.

    Now I only played D&D (the table-top RPG) for a few months on the weekend with a group of friends. I didn't really

    • Re:Didn't like this game. (Score:5, Funny)

      by oracleofbargth ( 16602 ) on Wednesday December 14, 2005 @02:55PM (#14257927) Homepage

      Now I only played D&D (the table-top RPG) for a few months on the weekend with a group of friends. I didn't really get into that either (they took it WAY too slow, all had characters in levels 3-4 after playing this certain campaign for easily 3 years), but I don't remember any instances where we had to break into a room, and destroy tons of barrels to find this "hidden" key.


      In pen&paper, that's the kind of thing that gets glossed over with a "search check". Or just say that you destroy every barrel in the room untill you find it. It's as simple as the player maybe saying one sentence, and perhaps having to roll the dice once or twice.

      If your tabletop DM were to try to run a game like an MMO does, he would have set down miniatures of their characters and each barrel, and the conversation might have gone something like this:

      Player1: I destroy all the barrels untill I find the key.
      DM: Ok, which barrel do you destroy?
      Player1: All of them.
      DM: No, which one do you bash in first?
      Player1: Alright, I'll play along, the one on the left.
      DM: Ok, make an attack roll.
      Player2: It's a barrel, it ain't going anywhere!
      DM: I have to know how much damage you do to the barrel.
      Player1: I'm just beating on it untill it's destroyed!
      DM: But you didn't roll to attack, how can you know if you really hit it?
      Player3: I fireball all the barrels. Does that destroy them?
      DM checks his notes, measures the room for radius of effect of the fireball, then replaces mini barrels with mini piles of ash.
      DM: Yes, that destroys them.
      Player1: Ok, so we have the key now. I just dug around in the ash untill I found it.
      DM: No, which pile of ash are you going to search?
      Players all stuff the pile of minis down the DM's throat.

      • Re:Didn't like this game. (Score:5, Funny)

        by sgant ( 178166 ) on Wednesday December 14, 2005 @03:55PM (#14258384) Homepage Journal
        Well, doing the PnP version you could also do a form of this that drives the DM crazy.

        DM: Ok, you're in a room with 3 barrels inside of it, what do you do?

        Player1: My character does what is appropriate to find whatever clues are inside the room and discovers them if there are any.

        DM: Um...what are you talking about?

        Player1: Well, I'm role playing.

        DM: what?

        Player1: I'm role playing. I'm role playing a character that is smarter than I am. Since he would know what to do and I wouldn't, the only way I can say it is to tell you that he does the appropriate thing.

        DM: Um, why don't you just tell me what he does.

        Player1: Because I have no idea what he does. But that doesn't mean he wouldn't know what to do. Don't penalize my character just because the person playing him is dumber than he is.

        DM: Ok, I quit...is there any Mountain Dew left?

    • Re:Didn't like this game. (Score:3, Informative)

      by Pxtl ( 151020 )
      I always wonder why people fixate on D&D as the only PnP RPG? I mean, it's a solid game, but it seems to be stuck in the past. I played a fair number of Steve Jackson, White Wolf, West End, and Palladium titles, and D&D seems to be stuck in the past like the Palladium ones.

      I wanna see a Fading Suns MMO. Or even better, Paranoia.
  • I can sequester myself for days on end with Soda and Pizza. I won't even have to see the other geeks I am campaigning with (or against). It's a win-win!

  • er.. how many of these things do we need? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by EvilCabbage ( 589836 ) on Wednesday December 14, 2005 @02:06PM (#14257539) Homepage
    seriously, how many fucking MMORPG's do we really need? I got into WoW for a month before I got sick of the grinding, I fire up Guild Wars every now and then for a quick 'fix' of gaming with a few close friends (that I actually know on this physical realm we inhabit..), but then what? How many alterations on hack/slash/walk/repeat can there really be?

    Am I in the minority of gamers when my real life is far more important than spending 5+ hours a day wandering aimlessly through someone elses fantasy world?
    • " seriously, how many fucking MMORPG's do we really need?"

      None. But just because it's not your thing, or you had a bad experience with one or two, doesn't mean that there aren't plenty of people who enjoy MMORPGs, and actually look forward to variety.

      You think the games will ever get better if there isn't constant competition from new games?

      "Am I in the minority of gamers when my real life is far more important than spending 5+ hours a day wandering aimlessly through someone elses fantasy world?"
      • "None. But just because it's not your thing, or you had a bad experience with one or two, doesn't mean that there aren't plenty of people who enjoy MMORPGs, and actually look forward to variety."

        Where's the variety though? Hack and slash with a different colour pallete and someone elses character set? Thrilling, I'm sure.

        "You think the games will ever get better if there isn't constant competition from new games?"

        Honestly? Nope. I'm fairly certain they're well aware that they only need to keep a mod
  • I was just browsing through the screenshots and I saw a sword-wrangler taking a swipe at a giant's shins. Does this kind of kill the suspension of belief that is to easy to make when playing with paper & pencil?

    So how realistic is the fighting anyway? I think in 'real life', if you managed to strike a sword across a naked shin *just once*, you have a disabled giant. Do you have to make 40 hacks and then the giant vaporizes? Or do the D&D rules already cover this?

  • Stress Hah! Try RPGing for 24 hours ... (Score:5, Funny)

    by joelsanda ( 619660 ) on Wednesday December 14, 2005 @02:29PM (#14257747) Homepage

    These kids have it easy. Why, in my day, we'd start White Plume Mountain or Temple of Elemental Evil on a Friday at 4pm (enough time to get off the bus, grab the backpack with books and dice and pedal over to someone's house) and game straight through until Sunday morning.

  • Well, having read the Gaminggod synopsis the thing that struck me most was that you were REQUIRED to have a balanced party to progress.

    The high end game in Everquest became like this, and this triggered a lot of casual players to leave. I've known LDoN (Lost Dungeons of Norrath) groups take so long to get together that by the time you have a quorum, it is so late in the evening that players have not got long enough left online to actually finish the adventure properly. Some players have families, or work in

  • My 2 cents! And notes... (Score:5, Informative)

    by antdude ( 79039 ) on Wednesday December 14, 2005 @02:47PM (#14257876) Homepage Journal
    I played it last night for an hour. It looks pretty especially the indoor places, but for some reason the engine wasn't smooth like WoW. I thought it was lags, but it was still not smooth even at 6 AM PST. Taverns (those are cool -- better than WoW's inns) are so laggy for me. Solo instances(?) are smoother, but not that smooth. Outdoor areas lag too for me. I had turn things down like use billinear, distance view lowered, etc.

    I did not like its GUI. I think it was just too big especially when my maximum screen resolution is 1152x864. I prefer WoW's.

    I loved the character setup. I made a hot chick with red long hair [grin]. Its setup reminds me of City of Heroes and City of Villain's. I also like the video clips (I wonder how much disk space these took up) showing each player class. I played as a barbarian since I like meelee fightings. I only got off the second boat after training. I will play more later hopefully. A lot of commands are similiar if you know WoW like: /laugh, /dance, /p for party talk, etc.

    Note that it it is only until THIS Saturday! Yep, it's a short test! Then, it's over. Downloading takes a while (1.6 GB for the standard client). You can apply for an account before installing. Note you need to be subscriber on those download sites to get the high quality package. The game was choppy for me with everything ON and without antialias on my XFX NVIDIA GeForce 6800 (128 MB), Athlon 64 3200+, and 1.5 GB of RAM.

    Other notes/FYI:

    FYI from FAQ [gamespy.com]:
    # Monday at 9:00am PST registration servers go live
    # Tuesday at 11:59am PST game servers go live. If you received a key and created your stress test event account you can begin playing the game
    # Friday night player event starting at 3:00pm PST and ending at 7:00pm PST. Everyone in the stress test will have the opportunity to win a closed beta account
    # Saturday at 11:59pm PST game servers close

    To compare, I still like WoW more so far. Check out other posters' comments on Blue's News [bluesnews.com].
  • I noticed no Windows 2000 in this stress test! See the requirements [gamespy.com].
  • I never thought I'd see the day. The site seems dead now. This is great. Even their massive bandwidth cannot handle the iron fist of the SLASHDOT!
  • IIRC, Turbine has been the only vendor to support/ignore player based 3rd party applications. Many, many AC 'players' max out characters by pressing the 'Start' button and then come back 5 days later to see how their character is doing.

    If DDO supports macroing ( like Decal ), then this game is screwed.

    Note to Turbine: For the love of God, please hire some QA people to check updates before you launch them.

  • DDO isn't for everyone. (Score:5, Informative)

    by MaWeiTao ( 908546 ) on Wednesday December 14, 2005 @03:18PM (#14258121)
    I've been in the DDO beta for about a week. It looks better than I expect from what I had seen of the most recent screenshots. Although, while the females look very attractive the males are rather ugly. Not to mention that they look out of too shape considering they're adventurers. The graphics, however, are a lot better than I had expected from what I had seen in screenshots. It isn't quite on the scale of EQ2, especially as far as character detail is concerned, but the water effects look great and the lighting and bloom is nice. It also runs quite well. I have a 3ghz P4 with a 128mb Radeon 9800 Pro and I play the game at full detail getting roughly 25fps to 30fps. Maybe not perfect, but very playable. As for the game itself, I was underwhelmed. It's extremely tedious. The whole game seems to be designed around making progress as slow as possible. It also takes a little bit of time before you get the hang of how to fight and I cant say I like having to double-click on everything. The previous week I had tried the WoW 10-day trial and found that game very easy to get into and enjoy. Levelling is excruciatingly slow, right from the start. It took me hours to fill up my first XP bar and when I finally did I discovered I was still level 1. There are 4 or 5 ranks per level. And there are 10 levels total. I predict a casual gamer will take a month to reach level 2. The highest level character I found online was level 7. A friend mention that the game currently doesn't have any endgame content, but I can't confirm that either way. And the problem with that is that your progression is limited by your level and the quests you complete. You're restricted to the docks until you complete a few quests. Then you're stuck outside the main city walls until you complete another set of quests. You can't move on to another city until level two. At least there seem to be a lot of quests available, but the environments tend to all feel the same despite changing tilesets. The puzzles are neat, and quests don't consist of defeating everything in an instance. But it's still a grind. You don't get XP for defeating anything other than some bosses. XP is earned for completing the quest. Fairly early on I also realized that the game is heavily geared towards grouping. While there are benefits to instancing it tends to isolate you from the greater world, especially since the rest of the world is nothing but cities. While there's no travelling to deal with, for me it makes the experience less immersive. It seems like it follows a model similar to Guild Wars except that game is free. I don't think your average gamer is going to find DDO particularly appealling, especially those drawn to MMOs like WoW. If you're a big fan of Dungeons & Dragons you might enjoy this game immensely. It seems this game is a bit more demanding than others, which means it may lure some from EQ/EQ2. However, not having an open world to explore and no crafting may make it a turnoff. If the developers were expecting DDO to have broad appeal I think they're going to be disappointed. I expect this game will attract a select group of gamers.

  • Ugh (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Lord_Dweomer ( 648696 ) on Wednesday December 14, 2005 @03:30PM (#14258209) Homepage
    You know, its one thing to offer exclusive tickets to a stress test through a sponsor like Fileplanet. Everybody knows its scummy, but its pretty much accepted at this point (unfortunately). But to actually REDUCE THE QUALITY OF THE GAME to people who don't want to pay these corporate whores is mind boggling. They really must have a set of Adamantine Balls +5.

    Betatests are an excellent opportunity to find bugs and game issues and fix them, as well as give your testers a taste of what the game will be like.

    In this day and age where the MMORPG market is completely saturated and the only way to actually get players is to hook em early and hope you're good enough to topple the current titan (WoW), it is NOT a good idea to be putting an intentionally crippled product into the hands of potential customers, no matter how much IGN/Fileplanet may be paying you.

    Not to mention it is a complete slap in the face to every gamer out there who is damn well aware of how easy it is to release a client via bittorrent for a simple stress test.

    This isn't a betatest folks, this is a sponsored marketing campaign for IGN and Fileplanet that you have to pay to truly enjoy. I for one won't be playing this game ever, although it is a shame because I'm a longtime player/DM and love NWN. Guess I'll just stick to that game.

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