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DDO 2005: A Year in Review

by Karen "Shayalyn" Hertzberg

January 1st is typically a time of reflection; we look back at another year gone by, and ponder how we've spent it. In the online gaming world, particularly as it relates to games in development, things are no different. Another year passes and progress advances toward an ultimate goal—the goal of releasing a massively multi-player online game (MMOG) that has taken years to conceive and create.

The January 2005 producer's letter from Judith Hoffman, Executive Produce of Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach (DDO), proclaimed from the DDO.com website:

“Welcome to 2005! You could feel the change on January 3rd, when we all got back into the office. Only a couple days had passed since December, but now we are in Ship Year. Now we are in Beta Year. We're in for one of the biggest years of our careers.” And while Turbine may have been in Beta Year for their game-in-production, it didn't turn out to be Ship Year, after all. Ultimately, though, both devs and fans alike would probably admit that delaying a ship-date goal to make certain a game is finely tuned and ready for launch is a good thing.

February was a quiet month on media fronts, but in March, an interview with Hoffman revealed some major changes for the game's user interface (UI). “DDO doesn't play like any other online role-playing games out there,” she said, “and our first stab at a user interface reflected that with a WASD-based control set combined with mouse-look targeting. Based on feedback and focus tests, however, a lot of players had trouble with the UI, so we've added an alternative interface with the mouse cursor for targeting, which should feel more familiar to online role-playing veterans.”

By April, Turbine was able to announce that DDO had entered alpha beta, and was accepting applications from the site's “members only” forum. On April 20, registrations opened to all as Turbine prepared to kick off the exciting first stage of beta testing.  By April 29, Turbine had successfully tested the beta selection process and the client download system. Momentum was definitely building. While Turbine staff played and tested the alpha build of the game, fans waited anxiously for public beta servers to open.

As it turned out, fans would be waiting awhile before they would have the opportunity to step foot in Eberron as beta testers. Fortunately, news from the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) began trickling in during the month of May to help appease growing appetites for DDO-related information. In preparation for the big event, Turbine released a game trailer, which appeared at FilePlanet.com. A few days later, Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna threw fans a juicy bone in the form of an E3 update that included gameplay movies. On May 25, MMORPG.com released it's E3 report. Fans of DDO may not have been able to play beta yet, but at least there was no lack of media attention.

In June, awards from E3 began to roll in, and Turbine had taken home no less than five for its game, including Ten Ton Hammer's Editor's Choice Award.

As the months ticked by, with Turbine still testing DDO via internal beta, and servers not yet open to the public, the game-hungry natives were growing restless. Information came in the form of gaming site interviews, such as this one, with DDO's lead designer, Ken Troop, at MMORPG.com.

Finally, on August 1, potential beta players received the news they'd been waiting for—the first round of beta invites had been sent, and on August 9 the DDO beta went public. Later that month, Turbine seized the opportunity to show off DDO at GenCon, the prominent and long-running gaming convention where the legendary pen-and-paper role-playing game, Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), has oft been showcased. D&D fan and DDO community member, Mattllow, experienced the thrill of lifetime when he partnered up with Dungeons & Dragons co-creator, Dave Arneson, to take on a drow scorpion.

In late September, Turbine announced that it had reached a milestone number of beta registrations—over 125,000. And yet, only a few thousand players had been admitted to date, leaving a lot of restless natives still chanting and drumming around Turbine's fire. "We appreciate everyone's excitement and support for the title,” said Jeffrey Anderson, president and CEO of Turbine. “We apologize to everyone who has been patiently waiting for an alpha invite, but we just couldn't accommodate more than a few thousand alpha players at this time.”

October brought a media blitz. Articles and interviews poured in, and excitement for DDO was at a fever pitch. Over 150,000 registrants waited for an opportunity to play alpha beta, and over 100,000 community members had subscribed to the official forum. Turbine's DDO marketing campaign had officially begun.

In November, we learned that DDO would be the first MMOG to feature integrated voice chat. (Voice chat in current MMOG titles involved using a third-party chat client (such as TeamSpeak or Ventrilo) connected to a third-party server.) DDO also featured as the cover story for PC Gamer. To add to the growing hype, the magazines were published with code keys, each having the chance to unlock one of 5000 beta spots.

And finally, on December 22, DDO fans received an early Christmas present. The wait was over—the game was made available for online pre-order. And as if the offer wasn't tempting enough, we learned that the pre-order package came with enticing goodies such as a 10-day beta pass and a pre-launch head start.

2005 proved to be an active and exciting year for Turbine and DDO. On February 28, 2006, the doors to the online world of Eberron and the city of Stormreach, with all it's dungeons and adventures, will open to North American gamers. European gamers will be able to jump into the fray some time in March. Although 2005 did not turn out to be a Ship Year for Turbine as anticipated, it's likely those extra months of waiting will pay off with a polished product on release; one that will turn out to be everything we've been waiting for.

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