The Underdark has gone ‘live’ but did the blogosphere notice much??

The new DDO expansion pack is live

So last night, in anticipation of the new DDO expansion dropping, I logged on to DDO for the first time in about a month and I had so much fun, it provided a necessary respite from wow and DAoC, and whatever else I have been sporadically sampling of late. I probably won’t be playing it until at least early next month, when I get some time to really explore it, but I wanted to see how much of an impact the news has been having on the mmo blogosphere. Apparently, with some many gaming options out there, even the news of an expansion pack for a great f2p game like DDO has competition.

Although Ten Ton Hammer has a very detailed look at the new expansion, will smaller more fan driven blogs have similar content? Massively.com reported earlier today that the game is available for download from Steam, (fantastic!) but the bulk of their report came from a Turbine press release which did include an interview with the developers.

Other bloggers barely noticed it, it seems.
Tobold, for one, has been writing a lot about D&D table top gaming, as he has been interested in D&D 4E of late, but it doesn’t appear as he is playing DDO much these days, or at all. Tobold writes about puzzles and riddles in mmorpg games and previous to this he was blogging some more about pen and paper D&D. Other blogs focused on diverse topics such as The Secret world beta weekend, discussion of the changing nature of the mmo industry and saturation in the marketplace, and one how movies based on video games usually suck, while the Ancient Gaming Noob is writing about Little Big Planet.

As for me, I think I will be running with some DDO PUGs in Stormreach to get into the mood of DDO once more. It has always been a great game for grouping and running instances, and while it may or may not be as much fun as wow, I think one mistake people have made in the past is comparing it to other mmorpgs. Turbine really has a unique property, while the license may not be unique with Cryptic bringing Neverwinter into the MMO milieu, the game’s mechanics and fully instanced dungeons are a fun and different experience, which is why I keep coming back, at least periodically. Yes, I am excited about playing in the Forgotten Realms setting, and yes I will be giving my warforged toon another go at it in the weeks to come.

Crawling back into the action with Dungeons and Dragons Online

Normanoz, my WAR goblin squig herder has been sadly neglected of late, due to my fickle habit of jumping from game to game

So it turns out that I had been doing it all wrong.

While running around Stormreach the other night I ran into a number of friendly players who pointed out that my warforged paladin built was all wrong. Sure, I had somehow managed to advance four levels, but stats mean a whole heck of a lot more in ddo than in your average mmo, so I asked what was the best combo for a warforged just starting out life and it was unanimously suggested for me to re-roll as a wizard.

Now I know what you’re thinking, didn’t I say last time around that I was thoroughly enjoying warhamer online and was going to make it my summer project to level up my goblin squig herder until my heart’s content?

the first time I did Misery's Peak in DDO I was delighted to see an actual dragon in the game

Yes, but I have been either too lazy or to busy, or maybe both to play around with quieting my noisy vid card. Everytime I log on to Mythic’s game it sounds like it’s going to explode, so I decided to lay off and play some DDO in the interim, Turbine’s game is rather smooth in my ancient rig and my interest in DDO was undoubtedly rekindled by last week’s real table top session in Neverwinter while at Pasadena.

At any rate, I was having fun with my new DDO toon, as I learned how to prepare spells and quested through the newbie zone before shipping out once more to the harbor.

Below is a screenshot detailing my wizard’s stats. Pretty cool!

My stats, pretty awesome I would say

This game is quite deep, at least for me, there are plenty of zones I have yet to explore, so DDO should keep me satisfied until I return to WAR. For Destruction!!!

There are reporters in Stormreach, what a great surprise!

Dungeons and Dragons Game Day

Members of the Pasadena D&D Meetup group playing on Saturday at Game Empire

I know this is a blog about retro-mmorpgs, not rpgs or even table top games per se, but I thought I would talk about D&D today because if it weren’t for the iconic table top, pencil and paper game, it is very doubtful that the RPGs and MMORPGs we enjoy today would even exist.

Over the weekend I had the pleasure of venturing out to Game Empire in Pasadena where they hold a monthly meeting of the Pasadena Dungeons and Dragons group. I had intended to take some photos and write an article for a South Pasadena website of the D&D Game day which was taking place Saturday in honor of the Neverwinter campaign setting with an exclusive adventure entitled Gates of Neverdeath, but I figured since I was there I would also get my geek on and play a few game encounters.

The tools of the trade- image courtesy of kaijuville.blogspot.com

I was not disappointed with the experience. The group is very friendly and the DMs are very good and know a lot about D&D in general and 4th edition in particular.

So I grabbed some d20s, my character mini, and a pre-gen character sheet and sat down for a morning session of frolicking and adventuring in Neverwinter.

Our party was tasked by the DM  to protect precious cargo bound for the city of Neverwinter, but on the way there our paladin was under heavy fire from an archer while on the ship and upon disembarking Fargrim, my level 1 dwarf Slayer slipped through a throng on the way to the Neverdeath graveyard where he was bloodied repeatedly by malevolent creatures.

At first I secretly contemplated the possibility of trying to “gank the DM” by acting obnoxiously and asking noobish questions, but gave up on that plan after seeing how hard he was working to make this a memorable gaming experience. He also did quite a bit of coaching by explaining moves that I and my allies failed to pick up.  Overall the experience was quite positive, and despite the fact the stereotype of the role player as a geek or a lifeless nerd still permeates society, I saw people from all walks of life having fun and enjoying themselves. True, there were fat dudes and the stereotypical socially awkward ones there too, but I was among them, reveling in our common geeky endeavors, and isn’t that what it’s all about?? I shall go back next month.