The Casualties (of whatever game we play) guild is trying to put together a static group for DDO, something I’m rather interested in. DDO is a tough MMO to crack, because it’s not only forced grouping, but also suffers more than most if you join a bad PUG group due to how the quest instances are designed. It’s not just about rushing from boss mob to boss mob picking up pixels, and if your PUG group is just trying to finish the quest asap, it’s not nearly as much fun. From that perspective, it’s not hard to see why it’s a niche game, yet from a pure MMO gamer perspective, that’s exactly what these games should reward, right?

I actually have a DDO account since the games beta, and had a good time in the first few months of live before my guild out leveled me and I sort of lost interest. I like it’s more active combat style, I like the overall lore/setting, and you can’t really go wrong using D&D rules. I resubbed that account last night, and after a good 3 hours of patching I was all set. To my surprise Turbine has upgraded the graphics engine since I last played, adding DX10 support. When maxed out the game looks like a brand new 2009 release, rather than a game from 2006, so hats off to Turbine for that. I rolled a fighter and played through the first few quests in the new starter area.

I’m going to mess around with a few races/classes just to get a feel for things while the Casualties group gets itself ready, hoping to test out the hireling system and see how far someone can really progress solo.