Introduction
The market for massively multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPGs) is a crowded one. There are multiple titles all offering to satisfy the need that many of us have to explore the boundaries of virtual worlds and share those worlds with others. MMORPGs promise the opportunity to experience life as a superhero, a Star Wars bounty hunter or an enterprising starship captain. The most prolific experience offered, however, is that of the fantasy realm adventurer.
Through the generations of MMORPGs - from Ultima Online to EverQuest, down through Asheron's Call, Dark Age of Camelot, and Shadowbane - the only constant has been swords and sorcery. One could argue that all of these games are a direct result of a single phenomenon: the pen-and-paper role playing game called Dungeons & Dragons. It was D&D, first published in 1974, that brought so many of us together in musty basements for long hours with twice-warmed pizza and a two liter of Pepsi, to take on the evil inhabitants of each other's imaginations. Despite the modern MMORPG being a direct descendant of D&D, until now the progenitor of this genre was conspicuously missing from the roster of popular online computer games. There was no official Dungeons & Dragons MMORPG to move the beloved franchise into the digital world. That has all changed now, with the release of Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach (DDO).
The Original Dungeons & Dragons Game Guide
When venturing into a battlefield already filled with both fallen and thriving combatants, it is wise to size up the biggest threat first. Obviously then, if the goal of DDO is to carve out a niche of players as a fantasy-themed MMORPG, then World of Warcraft (WoW) cannot be ignored. Boasting a subscriber base of six million players, Blizzard Entertainment's epic juggernaut has become the new standard in the multiplayer fantasy field (though the original D&D RPG is said to have 20 million players worldwide). However, now 18 months old, and with the expansion titled The Burning Crusade still off in the distance, many players feel that they have seen all that World of Warcraft has to offer. Some of the disenchanted believe that the endgame is nothing more than playing a slot machine that takes three hours to pull the lever. So what does the most successful fantasy MMORPG of all time have to fear from a new game based on the most successful fantasy license of all time? Grab your iron rations, chainmail armor and 50 inches of rope, and let's find out.
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