Tag: Forgotten Realms

Turbine Breaking Out The Forgotten Realms


Less than a week ago I discussed findings on the Dungeons and Dragons Online forums by sleuths far more skilled than myself, that Turbine has been buying up domains relating to Forgotten Realms and “____ of the Underdark,” as well as related to the fictional deity Lolth. Well that speculation has come to fruition, in a far shorter time than I had expected (generally domains are registered when the work is still in the “we can trash this if we ultimately don’t like it” stage, to prevent information leaking and squatters taking the domain). Turbine has announced the upcoming expansion to Dungeons and Dragons Online: Menace of the Underdark.

Menace of the Underdark takes place in the Forgotten Realms village of Eveningstar, and the area surrounding King’s Forest. Players will battle the forces of Lolth and the Underdark Drow. To aid them in their fight, the level cap is being raised to 25, and players will have access to the new Druid class.

Happy birthday, Dungeons and Dragons Online. A new class, Forgotten Realms, and an upcoming free adventure pack? Color my account reactivated. Menace of the Underdark is expected to hit sometime this summer.

(Source: DDO website)

Turbine Vs Cryptic: Turbine Introducing Forgotten Realms?


In the past, I’ve discussed the ongoing “fight” between Turbine and Cryptic Studios over how Cryptic’s upcoming Neverwinter MMO will directly compete with Turbine’s Dungeons and Dragons Online. After an undisclosed settlement with Turbine, Cryptic made it clear as day that Neverwinter is not an MMO, and never will be an MMO. That being said, when Perfect World Entertainment purchased Cryptic, the developer did a flip and announced that the game would be a full open world MMO.

According to DDO Cast, Turbine has been busy purchasing domain names relating to Dungeons and Dragons, as well as Forgotten Realms. The optimist in me wants to believe that Turbine is planning on throwing the first punch by expanding the game into Forgotten Realms territory, and pulling back any customers who might have left for Cryptic’s game. The pessimist in me, however, feels the need to point out that companies buy domain names all the time for a variety of reasons. A selection of domains are below:

ddounderdark.com
ddoforgottenrealms.com
ddo-motu.com
lolthiscoming.com (Lolth is coming, thank you comments.) 

But why is this relevant? The Dungeons and Dragons community is fractured (to say the least) when it comes to Eberron and Forgotten Realms, to the point where some won’t even touch Turbine’s MMO because it takes place in the former rather than the latter. In the event that Turbine does launch a Forgotten Realms expansion, it would offer a substantial increase to their potential player base.

(Source: DDO Cast)

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Cryptic To Announce New MMO: Late Summer


Picture related?

Back when Cryptic announced they did indeed have a third MMO planned, the lines in many of our (bloggers) heads drew together very quickly: Cryptic is owned by Atari, who is being sued by Turbine under allegations that they were trying to sabotage Dungeons and Dragons Online, so they could turn around and market their own secret Neverwinter Nights MMO (Neverwinter Nights is based on third edition D&D). When asked what franchise he would most like to work on, his answer being “Godzilla and Dungeons and Dragons.” I speculated in the article that this would reignite rumors of a Cryptic D&D MMO.

And reignite it did. In a recent interview with Bill Roper, MMORPG.com asked “Do you have anything to say to the D&D Forgotten Realms MMO rumors?”

“I can’t speak to the specifics of what we’re doing, but it’s true that we have another game in the works. We won’t be making an announcement until late summer, and we’re still a ways off from launch. I can say that this is a game and a franchise we’re very excited about. I think people are going to pleased and a bit surprised with what we’re doing in terms of the game, how we make it, and even how we sell and support it. The game is being developed around new design principles merged with Cryptic’s community-first approach to ongoing development.”

MMO Fallout will be here late this summer with all the news as to Cryptics new MMO.