In August, Turbine is re-releasing its Dungeons and Dragons based MMORPG, Dungeons and Dragons Online Stormreach, as Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited, switching from a subscription business model to free to play with an item shop. Below I'm going to go over some of the reasons you should be playing this August, as well as some of the reasons you may not want to, based on release notes and my experiences in the Beta.

10 Reasons not to Play D&D Online: Unlimited

1. Higher level content is a group effort.
Higher level regions in game, mostly revolving around raids and areas level 10 or greater, tend to require parties of actual people, or at the very least, high level hirelings. This is due to the nature of the game and the rules it is based on. Taking on the Warforged Titan, for example, as a single hero may not go so well. In fact, you more than likely wouldn’t even make it to him, as the groups of enemies along the way, including powerful warrior mobs and spellcasters, would rip you to shreds. Typically, being a warrior class against more than a single spellcaster or a high level caster, approaching the lines of Demons, Beholders, and Dragons, is a combination that ends up in defeat. Likewise for spellcasters assailed by multiple, fairly strong warrior mobs will find themselves mowed down rather quickly. So, if you’re not into playing with others, or at least controlling extra hirelings, approaching higher level content may be a quick turn off to the game.

2. Currently, it is only going free to play in North America.
As of the current information released, currently only the servers operated in North America, being ran by Turbine, will be going to the new business model. This means that only the servers in North America will free to play. Codemasters announced that the European business model for the game would not be changing any time soon, and hence not going free to play, though that they would be monitoring the success of the new model in North America.

3. It doesn't function well on some lower end machines.
If you take the time to read over the minimum and recommended specs for the game, you’ll find that they require very modest computers in terms of processing and graphics power to play. The truth of this is that, while you can run the game using both the minimum and recommended computer specs, you’re not going to be able to fully enjoy the graphics and visual aspects of the game. Running it near the minimum specs, you will have to of course have all of the graphics settings turned down as low as possible to be able to play. The recommended specs will get you almost to the middle of the performance line for graphics, granted nothing else running in the background to bog down your machine. Now, if you want to run on higher settings, or support DirectX 10, you’ll need a much higher end machine unfortunately, as even with the recommended settings certain dungeons, city areas, and effects can cause performance to drop greatly.

4. The new forced logout system can be annoying.
Something that was introduced into the game originally, but that has just recently been implemented (or fixed to be more accurate), is the forced logout system. After so many minutes of inactivity (being AFK or the like), a dialogue will be displayed on the screen telling you that you will be logged off shortly if you do not respond. After the dialogue is displayed, after a couple of minutes of further ignoring the dialogue, the game will log you out and minimize. Afterwards, more often than not, when you log back on, you’ll be back in the last town or safe area you were in prior to starting. This proves to be extremely frustrating and time consuming, especially if you’re working with your guild or a group of friends on going through a quest chain or adventure pack, approaching a raid and the like, and everyone needs to take a short break to restock and regroup in real life.

5. There’s too much to do and too little time to do it.
At any given point in time, for a character of a certain level, there is an average of 5 to 20 different quests, explorations, or other things that can be done. Now, while the in game quest system is nice in helping you track what you have, it's hard to keep track of everything you currently have to do and what is available to do. In game help and adventure viewing can aid players in seeing what they can do, but even then the amount of different options, whether it's just quests, crafting, or anything else, can be very daunting. Most of the time, depending on your play style, you want to login and do a few quests or whatever else, without having to spend the time to actually decide what there is to do, followed by actually doing the activity in the first place. And this leads into another aspect that may give allot of people trouble…

6. It gives players little to no direction in progressing through the game.
The game of D&D Online is a game of exploration. This includes not only combating monsters, finding loot, exploring new locals, and progressing in your class, but also exploring what it is in many ways you want to do with your character, and how you want them to progress. This little activity, whether it leads to joining parties, crafting powerful weapons and armor, or just strolling through the country (and killing the local mobs or running for your life), is one of the largest parts of exploration. However, it is also a reason that, when playing, you may find yourself not being given much direction to progress in. Often times, the lack of direction, whether it is knowing what to do next or just trying to find the NPC you need to complete a quest, can be tiresome. And while it’s all in the name of exploration, sometimes you wish they’d just give you a “teleport to NPC for reward” or at least an arrow to guide you there.

7. Leveling can be repetitive.
While players can progress with their character in the game world through means of ranking and eventually leveling up, this can often become a tedious task in game. Often times, you'll find that you've completed all of a given set of quests for your current level, whether in Solo or Normal mode, and that you're still several thousand experience points from getting to the next level and opening up new quests. This usually leads to having to repeat several of the previous quests you've done, usually in a harder mode for kicks or on the previous modes you've played, just because they're too hard for you otherwise currently. While leveling does have its rewards and opens up new content, it can be very tedious and daunting to have to repeat yourself, especially for higher levels.

8. Player vs. Player can be very unbalanced.
While this is supposed to be primarily an objective look at the game, this area comes very personal to me. In most games, I enjoy being able to play from both a Player vs. Environment (killing monsters, etc) and Player vs. Player perspectives. I enjoy being able to test my skills and abilities against other players.
Now, my problem with Dungeons and Dragons Online and player vs. player is that, while I love the concept and still enjoy it in the game, the balance is horribly broken. This is, mainly in part, due to the rules that the game is trying to emulate.
Firstly, one on one combat in taverns, with two physical warriors squaring off tends to be decently balanced, depending on your class. In my experience, a Fighter vs. a Paladin or a Barbarian vs. a Monk have all pretty balanced skills and options against each other. The same could be said of spell casters going against each other, Wizard vs. Sorcerer and the like.
However, in one on one, a Sorcerer or Wizard vs. any of the warrior-like classes will typically be far superior, and that is just a fact of life. In every small brawl I've played in thus far, while it's been fun, as soon as my Paladin or Ranger comes up against a Sorcerer, I just hope the battle ends quickly and they decide to finish me off with a Fireball or powerful Lightning Bolt instead of picking away at me with an array stream of Melf's Acid Arrow and Magic Missiles. This could be a personal flaw in my abilities, but from the talking in game, I feel it really is more of just the rules the game uses.

The truth of it is this: the game was designed and balanced around the D&D 3.5 Rule Set, which by its very nature is not that balanced. It was never intended to be, following those rules. Hence, while the battles, whether you're in a group or solo, against other players can be very fun, expect for certain outcomes to be cut and dry. It's just the way the world works and is not for everyone.

9. And then, there's the item shop...
While the game is touted as “free to play”, much of the higher level content of the game, from many of the raids and other adventure packs, are only available through the store. As you progress through the game, there is a great deal of freely available content, but the amount of content for any given level gradually declines, eventually to where progression may not require, but will be greatly aided by purchases through the item shop. Aside, after you've completed all free content, only purchasable content will be left. So, it could be considered that the game may not in fact be completely “free to play”. At the same time, we should remember that Turbine is a business, and that at the very least, you get to keep what you pay for, even if we do it begrudgingly.

10. And lastly, it's based on the Dungeons and Dragons Rule Set.
While the rule set the game is based upon is robust and understandable, it has its many limitations. For those people who are veteran official Dungeon Masters or Players who have spent long hours memorizing the 3.5 Rule Set, D&D Online may disappoint you. This is because, while the game is based on the D&D Rule Set, it is also intended for a much broader audience and has many features which intend to make the game more active and skill based rather than rule based. The real-time fighting, which mixes dice rolls for hit scores with players actually trying to hit the creature with their weapons, hacking as fast as they can, may remove many notions of D&D and remind us more of something like Diablo or similar games with less finesse.
Likewise, the Rule Set may discourage you if you have no previous experience with them. Much of the way the game is structured and many of the descriptions for skills and spells are based off of the rule set, which can be in some ways arcane and foreign to most game players. Also, the basis which partially reflects player skill, but places a heavy emphasis on chance, may greatly turn you off, as not all things in the game are in your control and many aspects of the game are determined by the “roll of the dice”.

Overall, I would suggest that anyone that has made it through this article try and pick up the game if you can. While it has many pros and cons, the game offers a unique experience that is in many ways unlike any other game on the market currently. The rules the game follows, while flawed for some purposes and possibly mystical to some, offer a clear and understandable foundation for the game, which once adjusted to, is easy to pick up on and use to your advantage. If anything else, the long hours and polish that Turbine has put into the game provide something interesting and different to play, while you're waiting for the next be game.

Don´t forget to check out "10 Reasons to Play Dungeons & Dragons Online: Unlimited" also written by Bradley!

Article by Bradley, Freemmogamer.com - Posted 8/2/09