PAX East 2010: Half-Orcs and Guild Housing Coming to Dungeons & Dragons Online
“Didn’t Dungeons & Dragon: Online gain a million new accounts since going free-to-play?” I asked the producer of Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited, Erik Boyer.
“Yeah, we’re now in the millions, but get this: since going free, we’ve doubled our subscriber-base. Two times as many people are paying to play DDO now that you don’t have to.”
“I knew that would happen,” I replied with a smile. One of the largest problems with DDO was the dwindling community, and it made sense to me that an influx of players would bring old subscribers back.
“I wish you would have told us. We would have loved to have known that.”
Since the release of Ebberon Unlimited, Dungeons & Dragons: Online has grown quite a bit. The game itself has changed to adapt to the new pricing model, and both new and old fans seem to be taking to it fairly well. In order to continue the success, Turbine has big plans for future updates to the game. It started off with Update 3, which came out in February, and added free high level content, a “casual” difficulty type to instances, and removed leveling sigils, which prevented free-to-play players from progressing without eventually spending money. Now, it’s possible to go through the entire game without dropping a dime, though it’s still obviously beneficial to visit the DDO Store from time to time. Learn more »
Interview: Satine Phoenix from “I Hit it With My Axe”
Have we become a porn site? HA! I wish. No, but we did interview Satine Phoenix from “I Hit it With My Axe,” my new favorite thing on the internet. We’ll be posting more coverage weekly, so check back for that. In the meantime, here’s the star herself: Learn more »
Review: I Hit It With My Axe: Episode One: Meet the Party
What happens when porn stars and strippers play Dungeons & Dragons? As it turns out, the same thing that happens when the rest of us do. Hold on to your butts, folks, it’s a review of I Hit It With My Axe: Episode One: Meet the Party.
“I Hit it With My Axe” Mixes D&D and T&A Starting Today
For a gamer, The Escapist is where the guy from Austrailia talks really fast and makes fun of games. Apparently, it’s more than that. It has been announced today that The Escapist will be starting a new reality show called “I Hit it With My Axe,” where porn stars play Dungeons & Dragons. It launches today, and will run for one year, once a week. In other words, we all have one more thing to do one more time a week. 2010 just got a hell of a lot better.
io9 interviewed Satine Phoenix, where she talks about their characters, why they play, and what edition of D&D they’re rocking. Here’s an excerpt:
PAX EAST is Next Week!
Next week is PAX East. What does this mean? Glad you asked. For years, PAX has been the greatest blend of tabletop/video gaming in the industry, and for the first time, the convention will take place on the East Coast. Boston, to be specific. We’ll be covering it LIVE from the show floor, so expect a huge amount of news during the show. Keep an eye on both Gamervision.com and PenandPaperPortal.com for all of the news, previews, and interviews from the Penny-Arcade Expo.
So, anyone else attending?
XKCD On Why to Organize Your Game Cupboard
Can’t say I’ve run into this problem before. Then again, I have a hard time actually qualifying this as a problem. Falls more in like with “variant rule.” I’ll need to go shopping for some dice and get to work.
Campaign Coins Review
Recently, a box of Campaign Coins showed up on my desk. In the past, I’ve dabbled in using tangible objects in my RPG sessions, but I’ve usually ended up going back to a hands-off approach to Dungeons & Dragons. The problem, usually, is that things need to either be completely imaginary, or match up perfectly. As we’ve posted about in the past, there have been times where even using the wrong minis can harm campaigns. They can make things feel… silly, something I was worried about when I cracked open the box and saw packs of coins inside. Luckily, while they didn’t change my game dramatically, the tangible feel definitely added something. Learn more »
Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited Surpasses One Million New Accounts
A few months ago, Turbine revamped Dungeons & Dragons Online, re-branded under the name DDO Unlimited, to be one of the first large MMORPGs to offer a free-to-play side to an already established subscription model. Previous users could, essentially, continue playing without hindrance, while new players could jump into a limited version of the game with pay-to-play barriers that could be hurdled with either microtransactions, a subscription, or a massive amount of play. Hopes were that it would bring more traffic to the dedicated, albeit somewhat desolate community. According to a press release sent out earlier today, it has done just that, reaching over 1 million new users since the update.
“The response from players to DDO Unlimited has been nothing short of phenomenal,” said Jim Crowley, president and CEO of Turbine, Inc. “We’ve known all along how great this game is and by implementing an innovative new model that put the players in charge of how they pay and play DDO Unlimited, we’ve successfully expanded our reach and injected new energy into the game. Without a doubt, DDO Unlimited is a hit!”
This is great news for Turbine and the game’s community, which I was actually a part of for some time. I likely spent more time exploring Ebberon than I did in nearly any other MMOG I’ve played, and am happy to hear of the game’s success. Now if they can only get the rumored console port pushed to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, we’ll have a real contendor on our hands. Come on, guys, you can do it, shatter that wall.
The press release is below, and if you haven’t already, download DDO Unlimited. It’s free, for Gond’s sake. You’ve no excuse not to. Learn more »
Preview: Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising
“So, who here has played Dawn of War II before?” asked Jeff Lydell, one of the producers of Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising, the stand-alone expansion to Gamervision’s 2009 Strategy Game of the Year. My hand shot up as I scanned the room proudly, feeling like one of the only kids in class to complete a homework assignment. I hadn’t just played Dawn of War II, I’d loved it, and spent dozens of night staring at the computer screen, clicking my units across the map, fighting back the Tyranid swarm. Whatever the follow-up to the developer’s question was, I was prepared, and I noticed I was one of the few in the room who had played the original. “Great, you’ll be playing against each other in multiplayer when we start the demos.” My enthusiasm was shattered: many of the other writers attending the event had exhaustive experience with Dawn of War II’s multiplayer. I’d played it. I’d played it a lot. But I hadn’t played it in months, and certainly wasn’t at a competitive level. As I walked over to the section of computers that were put aside for the “experienced players” I began to wish I had kept my hand down, but eagerly anticipated getting a hands-on with the expansion. Luckily, before diving into the multiplayer, we were given a brief rundown of the changes, and a chance to play a few select levels of the single player campaign to see what the Blood Ravens are dealing with post-Tyranid invasion. The answer? Chaos.
Sanctioned Tabletop Tournaments Coming to Wizard Comic Con Tour
For the first year since forever, Wizard’s Comic Con will have sanctioned tabletop tournaments. In a press release about the announcement, tour producer Shamus said, “By setting up sanctioned gaming tournaments we can give our fans the space they need to do battle. Bringing in tabletop gaming tournaments gives players the comfort of a professional setting and draws a wide range of opponents for the truly competitive atmosphere that fans crave.” For fans of Warhammer, this is indeed great news. For the rest of us, it helps legitimize the hobby. Well, among… Comic Con goers, at least. Hey, it’s something. The press release is below.
Learn more »
