Dungeons and Dragons Online goes free

Apparently the next update sometime this summer will make the game free to play with the usual optional subscription plans for extra bonuses. Does anyone play this? I think I played the trial back when it first came out and I remember nothing about it... probably not a good sign.

I always wanted to try it out, but I was put off by the integrated voice chat. I love grouping when I have the time, but having a community expectation to talk seems a bit frustrating at times because I know, having sat on Vent for countless hours, I don't always want to talk, and especially not to random people.

I do want to try it now that it's free for the game's sake.

I played it when it first came out. Got my char to level 7 then lost interest.

You would think that of ALL the MMO's, that Dungeons and Dragons, the mother of all RPG's, should be the most successful. Going free is not a good sign. I've never tried this game but I never heard anything good about it to even try it.

In 1984 I begged my Mom to bring me to the local hobby store on Saturday where some kids would play D&D in the back room. The night before on TV we just happen to be watching some typical garbage PBS program that was linking D&D to Satan worshipers. Needless to say I never got to play D&D as a kid, LOL!

25 years later I don't know if I want to bother with this game. (Maybe if Satan actually did make it I would play?)

TommyHolly said:

In 1984 I begged my Mom to bring me to the local hobby store on Saturday where some kids would play D&D in the back room. The night before on TV we just happen to be watching some typical garbage PBS program that was linking D&D to Satan worshipers. Needless to say I never got to play D&D as a kid, LOL!

25 years later I don't know if I want to bother with this game. (Maybe if Satan actually did make it I would play?)

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Was it the 60 minutes program about Patricia A. Pulling?

Patricia A. Pulling - (30 June 1948 – 18 September 1997) [1] was an anti-occult campaigner from Richmond, Virginia, and the founder of Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons (BADD), an advocacy group that was dedicated to the regulation of the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) and other such games.

Pulling formed the organization after her son Irving committed suicide[2] by shooting himself in the chest[3] on June 9, 1982. Irving was an active D&D player, and she believed his suicide was directly related to the game. The grieving mother first filed a wrongful death lawsuit against her son's high school principal, Robert A. Bracey III, holding him as responsible for what she claimed was a Dungeons & Dragons curse placed upon her son shortly before his death. She also filed suit against TSR, Inc., D&D's publishers. She appeared on an episode of 60 Minutes which also featured Gary Gygax,[2] creator of Dungeons & Dragons, and which aired in 1985.

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I think I remember this program. It would be interesting to see it again with adult eyes.

- Blackstar

I remember watching a movie Tom Hanks was in called Mazes and Monsters. It was actually pretty good at the time.

IRL, AD&D can be a lot of fun if you get a group of people who have a sense of humor about them and aren't hardcore and dress up to play the part. That's just a liiiiiiiiiittle bit too much for me, but to each their own.

Yup... I'm not sure if that was the exact show becuase I was 10 at the time. I remember seeing Mazes & Monsters with Tom Hanks on CBS, (thought it was lame because it had neither) and all those news reports against D&D. I just remember all that anti-D&D, Satan is everywhere, hysteria everywhere you looked at the time. (During this same time, long before Global Warming hoo-hah and Man-Bear-Pig, Al Gore got his start suing musicians for having Satanic messages that would supposedly make people want to try suicide, LOL.)

D&D seemed like a fun game, although it attracted a more cerebral less physical crowd, it had nothing dangerous about it. Just goes to show that parents and people in general will try and blace the blame on everyone but themselves for thier mistakes. (Just like the way they've shifted the blame to video games now.)

If chocolate covered banannas became the new fad that swept the world, people would shift the blame to that. Too bad D&D got so much negative publicity over nothing...

TommyHolly said:

Yup... I'm not sure if that was the exact show becuase I was 10 at the time. I remember seeing Mazes & Monsters with Tom Hanks on CBS, (thought it was lame because it had neither) and all those news reports against D&D. I just remember all that anti-D&D, Satan is everywhere, hysteria everywhere you looked at the time. (During this same time, long before Global Warming hoo-hah and Man-Bear-Pig, Al Gore got his start suing musicians for having Satanic messages that would supposedly make people want to try suicide, LOL.)

D&D seemed like a fun game, although it attracted a more cerebral less physical crowd, it had nothing dangerous about it. Just goes to show that parents and people in general will try and blace the blame on everyone but themselves for thier mistakes. (Just like the way they've shifted the blame to video games now.)

If chocolate covered banannas became the new fad that swept the world, people would shift the blame to that. Too bad D&D got so much negative publicity over nothing...

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Never paid attention or heard much about the bad press on it. (I was too busy playing it having fun.)

I only played a while with local friends and never went 'hard core'. I think I played Axis & Allies more. But my favorite D&D one was this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_City_(Dungeons_&_Dragons))

I can remember the imagination and fun it sparked as a kid. Pure joy.

- Blackstar

I miss playing D&D with my friends.

One of our DM's joined the military, And the other DM...well...He was our friend for a while...but that friendship status ended after a while due to many many reasons.

My G/F's dad also used to play D&D when he was a kid. Him and his friends used to LARP, and would use the entire town in their larping sessions.

Maybe i'll give D&D online a try. Doubt i'll end up paying for a subscription, but it may be decent enough to be a time killer. I need something to fill up time until Star Wars: The Old Republic comes out.

My generation just missed it. I only played 1 real DnD game. I am a huge fan of the BG and NWN series of games. Wish I had the time to get involved in a real DnD group.

My generation pretty much missed it too. All I had was the cartoon which I was a huge fan of. I used to love this show on Saturday mornings on CBS!!



When Napster first came out, I downloaded all the episodes and rewatched them. Besides "Venger" popping up in 3 out of every 4 episodes, they held up pretty well over the years. Then more recently, I found out that the show was cancelled without warning and there was even a script fo a final episode that was planned, but never allowed to complete.

Here is a link to the script for the final episode: http://www.michaelreaves.com/pdf/requiem_sec.pdf

The final episode entiled "Requiem" of D&D the cartoon had to do with the kids finding Venger's soul trapped in a tomb. It turns out that Venger is the Dungeon Master's son and that all the enemies they've encountered so far are also prisoners in this 'realm'. They free Venger from the curse and he turns into a noble man that gives them a portal to thier home finally. The episode ends with the kids staring at the portal unsure if they really want to go home?