The True Price of DDO Unlimited Free to Play & Getting the Most Out of Free to Play

[Furluge]

Greetings DDOers,

Recently I have written two articles on my blog about DDO which at the behest of my guildies I am posting here for everyone to see in the hopes that the greater community may find them to be useful. The two articles are as follows.

The True Price of DDO Unlimited Free to Play (http://furluge.com/2009/09/15/the-true-price-of-ddo-unlimited-free-to-play/) - This article provides in depth analysis of the Free to Play Premium accounts, price structure, exchange rates of USD to Turbine Points, and gives real USD price conversions for Adventure Packs, Leveling Sigils, Account Options, and gives you a realistic idea just how much real world cash getting the features you need and/or want will cost you in the Free to Play pricing scheme. Beware! Charts ahead!

Let Free-dom Ring: Getting the most out of DDO Free to Play (http://furluge.com/2009/09/18/let-free-dom-ring-getting-the-most-out-of-ddo-free-to-play/) - This article lists all of the Free to Play quests by level and the favor they grant and explains how Turbine Point rewards are given out based on the favor milestones your reach. It talks about how many free Turbine Points are available to the Free Player and Premium accounts, what you'll have to do get those points, and what you'll need to spend those points on given the holes in the free quest lineup.

I hope everyone finds these two articles helpful. If you like what you see here please consider telling your friends about www.furlugedepot.com or even subscribing with such services as Google reader or RSS. :) Enjoy

[Furluge]

I'd like to give a big thank you to everyone who's been reading this article. I'm astonished by the kind of traffic I've gotten from people passing around this article. To celebrate I've put up a poll to choose a (lame) gift to celebrate my first time getting over 1000 hits. :) As always the URL is www.furlugedepot.com

[Paxtor]

After looking over both articles, I'm less convinced by this "free to play" slogan I keep hearing. DDO "Unlimited" seems to have a shocking number of limitations embedded into it. In reality, perhaps it should be called DDO "Unlimited for Paying Customers" or perhaps DDO "Pay to Play". That seems more like it.

Anyway, great job on these articles. They were very informative and well organized.

[sonicchill]

Very well done.. I actually knew that it's much better to just subscribe instead of purchasing store points. I'm sure it's different for everyone but I think more people will find it cheaper to just subscribe.

[Furluge]

Thanks for your comments. If you like the site please pass www.furlugedepot.com around. :) As for if it's worth it or not, it really just depends on how little you intend to buy. For those of though who want all the quests, races, classes etc. though it's not such a great deal a la carte.

[OnyxBMW]

I have to say thank you for this compilation, really.

It's a real eye-opener as to the flaws with the turbine store's pricing model (namely, too expensive all around). It costs you about a lifetime subscription to many newer release MMO's to get 4 characters up to level 20 with most/all character options (I imagine you can leave out certain races/classes if you don't want them to make it cheaper).

I really think Turbine should lower the price on many of the things, or at least bundle a lot of stuff together for discounted prices, think of it like buying an expansion. Guaranteed 20ish hours of gameplay, maybe a race and class or two, for like 40 bucks. Would probably draw in more money from people who don't want to pay on a monthly basis...

[Praleon]

It's a good, logical analysis, but it doesn't say much in terms of scoping out a single, realistic cost of a character.

For one, unlocking ALL of the adventures is pretty unnecessary...Guest passes are in the game for this reason, and in my playing, I've been invited into premium areas 3 times now and had guest passes purchased for me by VIPs...

I don't think any free player would ever unlock every adventure... every race... every class, etc...

So, yeah, I understand the point of breaking down the prices, but the turbine points system is not implemented to allow free players to have "dollar equity" with paying players. It's made to allow people to play at their own pace.

Look at the prices in terms of real play scenarios:
Free player: "Oh, I don't think this guy is a very good character... is it worth advancing past level 8? No, okay, start new character" = $0

Pay player: "ditto" = $15

Also, your first sigil can be earned pretty easily with favor reward turbine points, and/or possibly gotten as a quest reward, so there's potentially no charge for those.

Another play scenario:
"Oops I forgot to play DDO for 3 months"
Free player = $0
Pay player = $45

These things happen. I've paid for at least a few months of several MMOs, months in which I never even loaded the executable.


Here's another thing, if you're a casual player, you won't see much of a difference between free and pay play after level 5 or so... and here's why... the GRIND slows down gameplay enough that it really might be a whole month between levels 8 and 12 for you. Why pay $15 for THAT month? It's a $2 sigil.



Realistically, what does a DDO free player pay?
Well, if he's intelligent, you're probably gonna range from $0 to something like $20-$50 a year... I say $20 because you may really want to unlock an extra character slot, buy a couple sigils, I say $50 because you might want to unlock a couple adventures later in the game.

I say "per year" because the grind is pretty tough in this game, especially if you haven't leveled up to 20 before, and, since you have 2 free character slots, and all the time in the world to play for free, why bash your brains out blowing through levels at the fastest possible rate?

DDO went free because it was failing (this was predicted on these very forums years ago, and met with taunting cries of "oooh the sky is falling"... well, it fell). It's a great game and all, but if you are going to spend $15 per month, unless you really just ADORE this game, there are other MMOs... plus, if your total "MMO budget" is $15 per month, why not play DDO for free, and pick up a currently successful pay MMO and play 2 for the price of one?

I've paid for this game for over a year, btw.

[Dominio]

looks like Turbine really wants to make some cash in that store of thiers...to think that you have to pay so much for so little!!...its almost an insult to compare it to other mmo's when you talk about dropping 300 bucks into TP's a year, eh...for what you get for a monthly VIP subscription...at 14.99 a month...180<285 any day....no matter how ya spin it

[Dominio]

then again, figure the 500TP per month, 6000 TP in a year...lol...is there ANY reason why someone would NOT go VIP....

[darkdawn1]

I went and bought around 10K points. So for 140 bucks I got the races, classes, and almost all the mods. Plus with the purchases I got the premium membership which expanded my character slots to four. Now, if I quit in 9 months or less I will have wasted my money so to speak versus a VIP. However, if I play for a year or two, then I got a good deal. It's kinda like the lifetime membership for LOTRO but for less.

I am really loving my time playing DDO, so in my particular instance, I think I did alright. Others may feel differently, I understand that. :)

edit* mind you if you wait and try to purchase mods/races/etc... when Turbine offers deals, the money goes much farther.

[momagkromag]

This whole F2P ordeal is mainly, in my humblest opinion, just a ploy to get new memberships and paying customers.

It's simply a marketing strategy.

Other than that, great work on breaking it down.

[Rumbaar]

Well any business model is get new members and paying customers.

[Savior505]

I am really loving my time playing DDO, so in my particular instance, I think I did alright.

mind you if you wait and try to purchase mods/races/etc... when Turbine offers deals, the money goes much farther.

I did the same thing as you, currently is the pax action - for 50 bucks you get 6900 tp - http://www.ddo.com/ddostore/915-pax-power-points, and also there are 20% discounts for monk class and for some adventure packs. I am very happy now, i love this game:)

[badassbilly]

Greetings DDOers,

Recently I have written two articles on my blog about DDO which at the behest of my guildies I am posting here for everyone to see in the hopes that the greater community may find them to be useful. The two articles are as follows.

The True Price of DDO Unlimited Free to Play (http://furluge.com/2009/09/15/the-true-price-of-ddo-unlimited-free-to-play/) - This article provides in depth analysis of the Free to Play Premium accounts, price structure, exchange rates of USD to Turbine Points, and gives real USD price conversions for Adventure Packs, Leveling Sigils, Account Options, and gives you a realistic idea just how much real world cash getting the features you need and/or want will cost you in the Free to Play pricing scheme. Beware! Charts ahead!

Let Free-dom Ring: Getting the most out of DDO Free to Play (http://furluge.com/2009/09/18/let-free-dom-ring-getting-the-most-out-of-ddo-free-to-play/) - This article lists all of the Free to Play quests by level and the favor they grant and explains how Turbine Point rewards are given out based on the favor milestones your reach. It talks about how many free Turbine Points are available to the Free Player and Premium accounts, what you'll have to do get those points, and what you'll need to spend those points on given the holes in the free quest lineup.

I hope everyone finds these two articles helpful. If you like what you see here please consider telling your friends about www.furlugedepot.com or even subscribing with such services as Google reader or RSS. :) Enjoy

Can you explain how someone would convert to a free account without losing their main. I am VIP and most of my toons I don't care about. what is the process like to convert to "free to play", which by your excellent breakdown indeed is not free lol.

[Vellrad]

Can you explain how someone would convert to a free account without losing their main. I am VIP and most of my toons I don't care about. what is the process like to convert to "free to play", which by your excellent breakdown indeed is not free lol.

5 year old necro won't help.

Try necroing some 2006 thread that will help.

[tapster]

Can you explain how someone would convert to a free account without losing their main. I am VIP and most of my toons I don't care about. what is the process like to convert to "free to play", which by your excellent breakdown indeed is not free lol.

It depends on what you character is. If you have any features you need to buy to use such as arty or halfelf then you need to buy them to unlock your character. If you have all free to play stuff like human fighter then you're golden. Any gear you've acquired from quests you keep.