You know what’s always fascinated me? The connection between Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons and Dragons Online. These two MMOs are very much like siblings with the same developer “parents” and some shared DNA, yet the pair are distinctly different in more ways than not.
I’d be very interested to see SSG’s internal demographics showing what percentage of LOTRO players enjoy DDO and vice-versa, as I’m sure it’s greater than zero. As someone who mains LOTRO and occasionally dabbles in DDO, I felt compelled to answer a question that’s danced through my mind more than a few times: Is DDO a game that I’d recommend to LOTRO players?
This is a tricky question to answer because in truth, these games are quite far apart in design and function. Yet before I get to their differences, let’s take a look at what they share because that is important if you want to bring someone over from a sister title.
LOTRO and DDO both operate under SSG, draw from a well-known fantasy IP, and share a core game engine (albeit one that was modified greatly from each other). We know that the two MMOs do share some developer, community manager, music, and engineering resources, although the exact overlap is kept secret by the studio. The two games also have the same website and forum design, have experimented with special server rulesets, are upgrading to 64-bit server tech, and — this is obviously the most important feature — boast daily gifts.
I should also note that the two MMOs embraced a free-to-play model early on, allowing players to earn premium currency to spend on content and other store offerings. That feature continues to set these games apart in the genre.
However, that’s about the end of their similarities. Any LOTRO player wandering over to DDO thinking that this will operate in a similar fashion as a so-called WoW-clone will find him or herself splashing around in a pool of confusion. This is because DDO isn’t really like any other MMO out there, including LOTRO. There’s a higher barrier to entry as a neophyte must learn the somewhat complicated ins and outs of this unique title.
Dungeons and Dragons Online draws from an older D&D ruleset and has a fiendishly complicated character system that’s perhaps the most obtuse in the MMO landscape. That also means that an experienced and informed player can create a wonderfully wide range of builds that is only limited by the imagination.
It’s also a game that’s, for the most part, focused around mission instances. These are usually more involved than your typical MMO dungeon, featuring a voiced “game master” narrator, puzzles, lots of story and dialogue beats, deadly traps, and exploration. Some of these can be incredibly short, while others will take you an hour or more to beat.
DDO does plenty of other things differently than the normal crowd: It doesn’t allow players to automatically regenerate health, there are plenty of situations where you can be one-shot, gear often boasts strong abilities attached to them, and a major core gameplay loop is “reincarnating” your high-level character back to level 1 in order to gain more potential stat points.
It’s not an automatic recommendation, is what I’m saying. DDO is an acquired taste for many, but one that when it is acquired can become downright addicting. I find its chunky graphics, bizarre mishmash of D&D campaign settings, weird humor, and freeform character design refreshing in a sea of copycat MMORPGs.
It is a title that is worth checking out, as evidenced by how much we stream it here on Massively OP, and I think it’s easier to convince LOTRO players to give it a try on the basis of our familiarity with the developer. The game might be wildly divergent, but the passion, skill, and quirks of the studio is something we Middle-earth adventurers know all too well.
So yes, I would recommend DDO to pretty much everyone, including LOTRO players, as long as you go into it understanding that it’s got a very different feel and structure than other titles. Embrace the weirdness, and you might find that it embraces you back. Or you’ll hate it. I can’t predict your reaction, after all.
Every two weeks, the LOTRO Legendarium goes on an adventure (horrid things, those) through the wondrous, terrifying, inspiring, and, well, legendary online world of Middle-earth. Justin has been playing LOTRO since its launch in 2007! If you have a topic for the column, send it to him at [email protected].