D&D Online: Eberron Unlimited Interview
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The decision to take DDO to a free to play business model had been in the works for nearly a year, though much of the actual work has only been accomplished in the last several months. Turbine, after taking Lord of the Rings Online and DDO to the Asian market, found that it was somewhat 'behind the curve'. The most successful MMOs in Asia are typically run on the microtransaction financial model. However, Turbine didn't necessarily want to go completely free to play, yet it didn't want to stay on the traditional subscription method either. Instead, a unique 'hybrid' system was developed that is an innovative tailor-made system specific to DDO itself.
In fact, DDO, according to Kate Paiz, is a natural for this type of content delivery: D&D has always had module-based delivery.
"Finish one module book," she said, "and you buy the next book. DDO simply takes up what D&D players are familiar with and takes it to the next level."
What was made abundantly clear during our discussion was that fact that the player's in game experiences will not shift in any significant way. What will happen is that the player base will grow and expand and that players will have choices in how they want their game delivered: Subscription (VIP model), "ala carte", or utterly free to play.
