Is DDO Worth Playing For Free?

[andycooly33]

I quit about 2 months after ddo became free because i was told after lvl 12 this game is near impossible to play for free because you have to grind for about 50 hours just to get some adventure packs to expand. But i think this game is auwesome and really wanna play for FREE so is ddo worth playing for free for LIFE?

[Robi3.0]

how much money is your time worth?

[Lorien_the_First_One]

Yup, read Robi's guide. You can do it...if your time isn't worth much.

[Daehawk]

They are adding 4 more F2P quests, 1 Level 13, 2 Level 15, 1 Level 18. That you can farm forever for xp to hit 20 if you want to. But honestly the packs aren't that hard to acquire. I'm VIP at the moment, and have most of the high level packs bought when I was Premium. Try for packs that would help you out the most or the Most Favor for Lowest TP costs, Robi's guide has a break down in them about Favor per TP.

There are also 7 servers. If you just did the first 50 Favor on each of those you should have around 700 TP from that. Any packs that go on sale you should be able to get one of them.

Sigils are going away so don't bother buying them with TP unless you really want to level in a rush till it comes out. I know all my main characters I play the most I bought them all for 10 TP each when they went on sale even though I had the hunch that they were going away. And I don't regret it, it's been nice leveling them without farming the same quest 25 times to try to get a sigil.

[wyn_ashford]

not to get sidetracked or anything, but when did they say the leveling sigils were going away?

[Daehawk]

not to get sidetracked or anything, but when did they say the leveling sigils were going away?


No Level Sigils Required

All players can now play DDO without needing to acquire level sigils to progress their characters to level 20! Enjoy unlimited leveling in DDO Unlimited!

Update 3 Release notes.

[andycooly33]

hmmmk ill probaly play but can i ask whats the estimated amount of grinding for tp would it take to get to lvl 15, 18 and 20? Also wat server has heaps of nice low lvls to party with?

[Daehawk]

hmmmk ill probaly play but can i ask whats the estimated amount of grinding for tp would it take to get to lvl 15, 18 and 20? Also wat server has heaps of nice low lvls to party with?

All depends on your play style and groups you get. Grinding for tp to get levels 15, 18 or 20 you could probably get to 15 easy with just Demon Sands or Gianthold. 20 with just Vale of Twilight. But that also means that you will have to put time into slayers and such. All of those has some nice xp from quests and wilderness. Vale has 2 wilderness zones that give I think it's around 400k - 500k xp or so for completing them both.

The more packs you get the more TP you can grind on a character. There are a few TP farming guides you might want to look at. I don't have their links on me though. I think someone might though.

[MightyKrendarian]

Playing any online game free for life is a question best answered in its gameplay. How do you like the game? I like DDO and just like the 2wo or 3ree others I've played, don't base your evaluation too much upon any of the bad experiences that others playing the game have given you.

[andycooly33]

i still cant decide if this games worth playing for free i just wanna know how much time of grinding tp would it take to get to lvl 20? And do u think its worth playing for free or should i play another f2p mmorpg instead?

[twix]

If you have to think this hard to play something for free not sure if you'd like ddo anyways.But hey give it a shot.Whats the worst you can lose ? Surely isnt your money

[Impaqt]

i still cant decide if this games worth playing for free i just wanna know how much time of grinding tp would it take to get to lvl 20? And do u think its worth playing for free or should i play another f2p mmorpg instead?

Sheesh.

If ya have to ask, Its probobly NOT worth it for ya...

How are we supposed to know how YOU play? What could take 20 hours for one Player may take you 30 hours.. or 10....

the game is FREE... Play it and see how ya like it....

yes, it takes a LOT of grinding to open up content... for FREE..... thats the point.... Turbine isnt a Charity organazation. they WANT people to spend money. If you want to abbuse the Free to play option, you are going to have to do stuff over and over and over and over and over and over......

[Therigar]

I think the answer to OP's question really depends on how much content you want to experience. Certainly it is possible to play to L20 w/o ever purchasing any content using real money. By careful character planning and use of the available character slots it is possible to build enought Turbine Points to purchase every adventure area.

Thus it is possible to play the entire game and all content for free -- assuming you earn the TP.

[Lorien_the_First_One]

I think the answer to OP's question really depends on how much content you want to experience. Certainly it is possible to play to L20 w/o ever purchasing any content using real money. By careful character planning and use of the available character slots it is possible to build enought Turbine Points to purchase every adventure area.

Thus it is possible to play the entire game and all content for free -- assuming you earn the TP.

It will actually be getting easier in update 3 when additional free mid & higher level quests are added. There aren't a lot of them, but they are there.

[andycooly33]

hmmm ill think about it :D

Its just last time i was drove out of the game by not being to get into a guide because i was a F2P Player -_-

[huflung]

hmmm ill think about it :D

Its just last time i was drove out of the game by not being to get into a guide because i was a F2P Player -_-

i think you mean GUILD... but anyways.. you will prolly find it again that you won't be able to get into X guild because you are F2P...

the big thing for F2P players is they do not have the content that these guilds are looking for their players to have.. dont take it personal...

[Anderei]

F2P gives you a very very fair chance to test a game and decide if its worth you some bucks. Compare that to WoW one week limit or something like that. Or other MMOGs don't even let you in at all before buying it.

Is it worth to play.... X? What playing "worth"? Either you have fun or not.

[adamkatt]

He was posting the same garbage 2 months ago... play or not...
put 20 into the game its enough for the packs you will need to get to 20...


If thats still too much you can go here for some older free games!!

http://www.homestarrunner.com/firsttime.html

[Zippo]

I quit about 2 months after ddo became free because i was told after lvl 12 this game is near impossible to play for free because you have to grind for about 50 hours just to get some adventure packs to expand. But i think this game is auwesome and really wanna play for FREE so is ddo worth playing for free for LIFE?

If it is so "auwesome" as you put it, would it not be worth investing a few bucks a month to keep it "auwesome"???

[Thailand_Dan]

I think I am in agreement with others when they say, if you have to think that hard about, it probably is too much of a bother for you. But, the game is worth playing, for me. Check out my guide if you are looking to see a fun way to unlock content: http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=208850

Using the strategies outlined there, I've unlocked Catacombs, STK, Tangleroot, Sharn Syndicate, Sorrowdusk, the Desert, and an extra character slot. And I'm close to unlocking Deleras...All for free.

[ProdigalGuru]

The adventure packs have a lot of equipment that is bind-to-account as rewards. GOOD rewards.

If you want a level 20 character, you are going to want a lot of this gear. Not getting it will make you feel inferior, because you will be.

So no, considering your proven mentality, you would not enjoy it for free.

I blame the schools.

[Halo_572]

I would be very surprised if you played it that you didn't think it was worth paying something for anyway.

I have just bought my first 1750 TP for $19, which for me is £12.50. For a game I have been playing for three months that means £4.16 a month so far and dropping every day. I have bought STK and Tangleroot with my free points and just bought Sorrowdusk Isle with my pay points. I still have 1500 left and will only buy packs when they are on offer.

As long as you don't use the points in stupid ways - buying +1 swords and healing potions - then these will last me around 6 months at the speed I play at. Is £12.50 so much to ask for 6 months worth of entertainment i.e. £2.08 a month?

I think some players are getting caught up in trying to get everything for free and ruining their experience as it becomes a grind to achieve this.

For me it is a comparison, in the UK a pint of beer in a pub is £3.00, a 500ml bottle of Coke from a shop £1.00 and a bar of chocolate 50p. It wouldn't be difficult for me to defer any of them for one month to pay for what it has cost me so far to offset it.

Whether or not VIP is good value I can't comment, I can't justify any subs to any game as I do not have the time to invest in getting the return and don't worry about any extras it could get me. I am already happy enough with buying the access I want and it is proving of more than high enough quality to justify.

[Thailand_Dan]

You hit it on the head, Halo. DDO is a fun game, and well worth $15/month, IMO. But, even if you want to take it slow and go the P2P route, that's double. In addition, even if someone cannot/will not pay a single pound for the game, there is still an option open for them to play a lot of the game for free, and eventually (with enough grinding) to unlock every single quest and almost every perk of a VIP, for free....and people still complain.

[Zippo]

I would be very surprised if you played it that you didn't think it was worth paying something for anyway.

I have just bought my first 1750 TP for $19, which for me is £12.50. For a game I have been playing for three months that means £4.16 a month so far and dropping every day. I have bought STK and Tangleroot with my free points and just bought Sorrowdusk Isle with my pay points. I still have 1500 left and will only buy packs when they are on offer.

As long as you don't use the points in stupid ways - buying +1 swords and healing potions - then these will last me around 6 months at the speed I play at. Is £12.50 so much to ask for 6 months worth of entertainment i.e. £2.08 a month?

I think some players are getting caught up in trying to get everything for free and ruining their experience as it becomes a grind to achieve this.

For me it is a comparison, in the UK a pint of beer in a pub is £3.00, a 500ml bottle of Coke from a shop £1.00 and a bar of chocolate 50p. It wouldn't be difficult for me to defer any of them for one month to pay for what it has cost me so far to offset it.

Whether or not VIP is good value I can't comment, I can't justify any subs to any game as I do not have the time to invest in getting the return and don't worry about any extras it could get me. I am already happy enough with buying the access I want and it is proving of more than high enough quality to justify.

I'm not going to try and "make you see the light" so to speak. But (and this is just rough figuring) the monthly sub would only come out to like 8 or 9 (how the hell do you do the lbs symbol you use??? Never had to use it before and I honestly can't figure it out) pounds a month. Roughly 3 beers a month. Doesn't seem too much of a stretch but ultimately you pick what works best for you and what you can justify.

For the record I don't want this to start that downward spiral of sub vs premium which is better topic that has been done to no end in about 100 some odd pages total in various threads.

[Vanshilar]

It all comes down to how much foresight and planning you put into the game. If you spend your TP on hair tonics and stuff, then yes you won't have much TP to buy packs. If you're careful about how you use your TP and quest experience, you should be able to get up to level 20 as F2P.

From the F2P quests and wilderness slayer experience, you can get up to level 14-16 (depending on how careful you are with your experience). From there, you can make a few 100-favor characters on the different servers to get enough TP to get the Vale of Twilight pack. That's all you need to get to 20.

As I mentioned however, it takes some discipline to do this:

* Starting around level 7-8, you need to keep yourself "over-exped", i.e. hold off on levelling until you're at near the max exp for the next level. For example, if you're at level 7, then you can start leveling up as soon as you reach rank 36. However, wait until you're say halfway through rank 40 before you actually level up. This allows you to stay longer at a lower level and hence not have as much to worry about in terms of the level penalties.
* Do the quests at the appropriate level. If a quest is level 6 in the compendium, then you can do it at level 7 on normal, level 8 on hard, and level 9 on elite, without incurring an exp penalty. The exp penalty is just 10% if you're one level too high, or 25% if you're two levels too high. As you level up, you should look at doing quests on elite that are 3-5 levels below you, rather than doing quests on normal at your level. What this means is that if you're level 11, you should be doing level 6-8 quests on elite, rather than doing level 9-10 quests on normal. This saves your higher-level quests for later. Doing it this way, you can reach level 14-16 (depending on how careful you are about it).
* Do the wilderness areas at their max level. For Searing Heights it's level 10, for Ataraxia it's level 14. Although for example you can do Searing Heights at level 4, doing it early will rob you of the chance to get the experience later on, when experience is harder to come by.
* Once you've exhausted the F2P quests, you can get the Vale of Twilight pack with your TP. If you still need a bit more TP then a few characters on different servers, going up to about 100 favor, will be enough. Wait for the Vale to be on sale, to save yourself 140 TP. The Vale, with its combination of quests/raids and slayer areas, will be enough to get you to level 20.

The above is if you're looking to get to level 20. If you're looking for a breadth of quests rather than going for level 20, you can make level 12 characters ad infinitum fairly care-free (i.e. you don't have to worry as much about the experience and such), and try out lots of different character combinations, and get some of the lower-level packs instead. The choice is up to you.

Is it worth it? Well, that's up to you. As already mentioned, Turbine isn't a charity, in the end they do have to make money to survive. On the other hand, Turbine gives you a wealth of options to explore their game without having to pay any money. Whether or not it's worth it depends on whether or not you feel like playing. But not being able to level up shouldn't be a large hindrance on that decision, if you're careful about it.

[Zlingerdark]

What are you asking here? Is a game worth playing, for FREE? Well, that is entirely up to you. It is a ridiculous question, as you can see numerous folks all have a different opinion on worth of the game. To some it is worth paying a monthly sub, to others it worth dropping a few bucks here and there for TPs if you do not like to grind for them, and to even more others, it is totally worth playing without dropping a penny and grind like crazy for TPs.

So really the question you have to ask yourself, is it worth playing at all? If the answer is yes, then step two is is it worth dropping a few bucks for TPs to become premium, or grind for it? If the answer is neither, then this game is not for you. However, if you choose to grind or pay a little as you go, then this game is for you. I take it that the monthly sub is really out of the question for you, (as it is to me also) then certainly this is not the game for you.

Grinding for TPs is not all that difficult either, especially if you are like me. I paid a few bucks to get a bundle of TPs which makes you a Premium account and 4 slots per server instead of 2. With those 4 slots you can easily recycle a character once they have achieved 100 favor, and repeat until you have the TPs you need for the pack you want to get. Or expand your bank, by having a shared bank. Do not waste TPs on the items in the store, as you will likely get those eventually via loot in game. But keep playing and before you know it you have more TPs, and enough to get a pack.

So really are you asking if a FREE game is WORTH playing? That is a no-brainer if you actually LIKE the game. If you are worried about getting to cap as soon as possible, then that is an entirely different matter. You will have to expect it to take time if you do not want to drop a dime.