Why Dungeons & Dragons Online Went Free to Play

chevalier · Thu, 11th Jun '09, 12:04am

Gamasutra wanted to know too and went and asked the right guys. Director of communications Adam Mersky confirms money will buy access to stuff but says it won't buy you XP:

"We wanted to make it so that the guy with the biggest wallet doesn’t have an unfair advantage," says Mersky. "All the best loot is still in the game, and the hardcore can play their way from level one to 20 totally free."

And then he says it wasn't because the business was doing poorly:

Such a transition lends itself to speculation that perhaps the game was not continuing to succeed on a subscription model, but Mersky says that’s not the case. "If that were the case, we wouldn’t have kept rolling out two, three, four updates a year. We were doing fine as a business."

They discuss more things but that's what you'll need to read at Gamasutra.

The Magister · Thu, 11th Jun '09, 10:23am

Pity it's only free for North America

Thu, 11th Jun '09, 12:04am	#1
chevalier SPS Account Holder Senior News Editor Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: I wish I were in the land of coffee... Posts: 16,675 Like: 2 Liked 1 Time in 1 Post vBActivity - Stats XP: 62,754 Level: 62 vBActivity - Bars Level Completion: 24.53% Daily Activity 3.53% Weekly Activity 2.52% Monthly Activity 2.73% Achievements	Why Dungeons & Dragons Online Went Free to Play Gamasutra wanted to know too and went and asked the right guys. Director of communications Adam Mersky confirms money will buy access to stuff but says it won't buy you XP: "We wanted to make it so that the guy with the biggest wallet doesn’t have an unfair advantage," says Mersky. "All the best loot is still in the game, and the hardcore can play their way from level one to 20 totally free." And then he says it wasn't because the business was doing poorly: Such a transition lends itself to speculation that perhaps the game was not continuing to succeed on a subscription model, but Mersky says that’s not the case. "If that were the case, we wouldn’t have kept rolling out two, three, four updates a year. We were doing fine as a business." They discuss more things but that's what you'll need to read at Gamasutra.

Thu, 11th Jun '09, 10:23am	#2
The Magister SPS Account Holder Gentlemanly Wizard Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: My Arcane Santuary Posts: 2,364 Blog Entries: 5 Like: 0 Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts vBActivity - Stats XP: 5,494 Level: 23 vBActivity - Bars Level Completion: 8.11% Daily Activity 3.53% Weekly Activity 2.52% Monthly Activity 2.73% Achievements	Pity it's only free for North America
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