How Does a Returning Player Actually Subscribe?

[The_Drow]

Recently I saw some great advertising for Ravenloft and thought I'd return to DDO after a many year break. I suppose I was fooling myself though. After trying to log in last Sunday I kept getting a "No Subscription to DDO" error, which would be accurate. It seems there is no way to subscribe except from within the game? But it won't let me log in...

Knowledge Base says to try making a new account if attempting to play on an older Turbine account, that's not happening, I spent Turbine Points unlocking things and am not throwing all those away just to see if I will enjoy DDO again.

I put in a help ticket, it's now been three business days with no answer. Is that typical? How long should I expect to wait?

Is there a process to restore an old Turbine account so I can subscribe and play?

Wasn't it free to play anyways?

[TPICKRELL]

Your in game account should work as free to play regardless, so it sounds like something is messed up in their database with regards to your account.

You should be able to log in, just with restrictions on content and number of character slots based on being free to play.

Subscriptions are now managed in the in game store, which is convenient when you can log in, but sucks for your situation. You may have to wait for a GM to help.

BTW depending on how long ago you were here, your in game account and your forum account may have been merged in the interum so your in came username and password should match your forum username and password.

[The_Drow]

Thanks! I shall continue to wait for a response to the ticket. I've already changed password and the game launcher recognizes that, but won't let me in without a sub.

[Engoril]

It's not actually a sub that is missing, it is a game key attached to the account. For instance, I have two old accounts. One I can only play DDO on and the other I can only play LOTRO on. If I try and play DDO on the LOTRO account I get the no sub message. They separated the accounts when the european codemasters servers closed, and the accounts transfered to Turbine. The separation is because I have a lifetime LOTRO account which comes with free points every month, so they will never allow it to also play DDO

No big deal to me, I'm VIP on DDO, but I'm pointing this out to highlight my observation that the account must be enabled for a game for you to be able to login. There was a time when Turbine could provide a key to enable this, like the key you got when DDO first released, but only if the account was suitable (my LOTRO account would not be).

Creating a new DDO account comes with this missing game key. You don't actually get sent one, but internally one is attached when it is created by them.

[Cordovan]

This error is typically caused by a mis-spelling of the User Name. In many cases, this happens because the person typed in the wrong user name, but that user name is actually used in our other game (LOTRO, in this case). It's probably worth trying the Forgot Your User Name? link to see if that resolves it.

[The_Drow]

Cordovan -- I just tried that but it seems I am using the correct username. Engoril seems to have hit the nail on the head in his comment. I am using a former Turbine account which is also lifetime VIP for LotRO. Does this mean that I have to create a new account to play DDO again? If I remember right, I had spent turbine points and unlocked several features, dark elves and such. Does that mean I lose all of that and my characters?