MMO- The Turtle is going on Vacation until July 1st!!

Well Turtle-Heads I wont be posting or updating until Weds July the 1st. The Turtle is going on a trip to the great state of Vermont so I will be out of my shell for a week. Take care and thank you guys for the visits and the support. I have receive an amazing amount of support for my blog and I will be putting my content onto my own website sooner rather than later because of the support and interest. So stay tuned for the big website announcement in the coming weeks. On my site I will be able to offer you guys full forum support so you turtle heads can talk about what every you wish and whatever games you want. Also I will be having featured materials and even contests for you guys to win Games, Hardware and even Beta Keys to the biggest games. Big Big things are coming for you loyal Blueturtlecafe readers and I will provide you all with V.I.P. cred on my new site. Thanks again and remember that the place to get all your daily MMO and RPG news is Blueturtlecafe!

MMO- 10 Survival tips for Dungeons and Dragons Online

Ten Tips For Survival

Ten tips for survival in Turbine’s Dungeons and Dragons Online.

If you’re a fan of small groups and solo content or if you’re just starting off into Dungeons and Dragons Online, you might be suffering a varying amount of frustration. Here are ten tips for surviving in X’endrik:

Pick up everything!

Grab that gold, check those mushrooms, and pick up that pack! It’s an expensive world, and you’ll need all the cash you can get. A lot of your income will of course be from completing missions and trading loot, but sometimes you’ll notice your coffers looking slightly bare. Make full use of your storage to collect every treasure bag and item you can, then put aside some time to go and hand in your treasure to those that seek it, and sell anything you don’t need. The more money you have the more help you can give yourself.

Find that vendor!

There are several important vendors dotted around; potion vendors who are a useful source of buffs such as extra wisdom, health, strength and intelligence, and brokers (look for the blue dots for brokers) who sell quality specialised items; weaponry, clothing etc. Be aware that these brokers also buy valid specialised items for more than regular vendors do. If you are rewarded high value specialised loot and need some quick coin, sell it to the correct broker.

Hired help.

Mercenaries are available for hire. Hireling vendors will sell you a single use merc of your choice which you can summon and control in mission. Fighters, Wizards, Clerics, Magicians of varying levels are available to help create a more balanced party should you want to play alone or in a personal group. Note that you cannot hire a mercenary that is higher than your own level and that some mercenaries can be intentionally difficult to control. However, should a merc be killed in the line of duty, simply pick up the soul stone and recover at a shrine as you would any other party member.

Keep your options open.

To save space or to earn quick coin, it’s often easy to pop into an inn and sell everything you don’t currently have equipped. However, you might want to keep some choice items reserved for future use. Some quests will require you to adapt to them, different enemies, elements and traps can be countered with a different suit of armour, a robe, a sword or even a pair of boots.

Don’t forget, all X’endrik residents have access to a bank account. If you don’t quite trust yourself with a prized possession, pop into the bank or visit a banker character to drop off items as needed.

Tailor yourself to your mission.

It’s tempting to just ignore the quest back-story and just click yes until that ‘quest bestowed’ sound rings out, but you may be missing out on important clues to the mission that lies ahead; enemy type being the most important. For instance, you may be proud of that +2 flaming axe, but against level 7 fire elementals it’s not so hot. Worse still, some enemies can damage your weapons very quickly if your character cannot save against it…suddenly finding yourself with a broken weapon mid quest can be a cause for restarting if you cannot repair. It’s worth keeping a cheap club standing by for circumstances such as this, especially when dealing with ghasts and slimes.Wizards and Sorcerers, if you have limited spell space don’t forget to prepare the spells you’ll need first. Most if not all damage spells will work in any mission, but a physical barrier may require a spell to overcome. A good rule is to always keep feather fall, underwater ability and an intelligence boost handy.

It helps to keep different cloaks/armour standing by too. If a quest involves undead monsters a cloak/piece of armour that reduces undead can be useful.

Prepare yourself

Ideally when entering a mission you want everything you need at your fingertips. There are two methods you can use to respond more quickly to threats or urgent requirements. First are the toolbars, of which you can add more.

Click the box with the arrow to add another toolbar to the game window.Organise your needed items in new toolbars such as different weapons for different enemies, health potions and buff potions, and spells. This can be a life saver when suddenly put into quick combat.

The other method is keyboard shortcuts: Go to the options panel, click the key mapping button on the right, and scroll down to the shortcut bar section.

Here you can map keys or key combinations to your most used items, for example: your health potions are in Shortcut Bar 1 slot 8, and you want to access them quickly by pressing CTRL + H, click Shortcut Bar 1 slot 8 as shown in the image and assign the key you want.

Experiment with both to see which you prefer.

Take your time!

You may recall an old adage ‘slow and steady wins the race’. Well, in an actual race that makes no sense, but here it applies quite well. Often the idea of running straight through a quest to get the XP seems quite attractive, but you’ll be missing a trick or two. Each mission gives bonuses for the work you do.

Killing monsters: Stop and wipe them out, check every room and corner to get an aggression bonus.

Not killing monsters: If you prefer to be discreet….so be it. You get a bonus too! This requires you to keep the kill count low or to none…so be really discreet.Disarming traps: disarming a certain amount of traps rather than going through/around gives you a bonus.

Secrets: If you get those messages telling you the air has changed…it means that there is a secret door nearby (or someone needs to lay off the beans), do a quick search to discover them.

Breakables: Break it all! Barrels, vases, pots, smash it to bits! Do it enough and you’ll get a reward, plus personal satisfaction…

Bonuses will stack so each new bonus will increase the total score and not the base score which really starts to add up!

It’s also prudent not to rush into every situation, unless of course you know the quest like the back of your hand. A sudden trap, ambush or closing gate could easily cut you off from your party and a level restart due to death means an XP hit.

Déjà Vu

If you find you’re stuck, be it lack of XP or a quest you can’t complete, go and do some quests again. Revisit some earlier quests, complete them and get XP, loot or coin all over again. Might sound dull, but Turbine has thought of that, allowing you to crank up the difficulty level if you wish. Going from Normal to Hard to Elite increases the level by one each time, so a level two quest on elite will be a level four equivalent. With higher levels brings increased dangers but also higher rewards, including favour with the various alliances.

Repeat too often though and the available XP for each quest will take a nose dive.

Hammer time.

If you really want that +3 haggling ring, or have 100 string beads you can’t be bothered to take to the harbour, take a visit to an auctioneer. If you want it, someone will have it. If you have it, chances are someone out there will want it. Auctions take a commission of course, but if you’re willing to wait, the payoff may be much better than buying from a broker or simply discarding what you don’t want to carry around.

First contact.

Don’t forget, if you’re at an early level, everybody you see around you was also there at one point. Behind each character is a human being, and if they are indeed human, it won’t hurt to ask for help. Ask politely, and ask only once. If you start to hound people you may get reported, and even more importantly…they won’t like you very much.People at the same level as you are in the same boat as you. So start a party and reach out to people. You’ll be able to complete that nagging quest and more importantly, you might make some new friends. The core of every MMORPG is about co-operation and friendship. So don’t be a stranger for too long.

MMORPG- Dungeons and Dragons Interview

Thanks TenTon Hammer for the great interview! The Turtle always thought this game should be structured this way and I think it means only good things! I know I will play it now.

Answering some of your DDO free-to-play questions.

Few massively multiplayer online games have been as scrutinized as Dungeons and Dragons Online. Based off a legendary intellectual property, many gamers were surprised when features of the game were different than normal MMOs and included highly instanced areas, small servers, and a number of additional quirks that simply weren’t the norm. Fast forward three years, and DDO has come light years from its beginnings. In a recent announcement, the developers at Turbine revealed that DDO would be going free to play, and Ten Ton Hammer quickly got on the phone with the developers – Adam Mersky, Fernando Paiz and Kate Paiz – to get the details.

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Ten Ton Hammer: Why go free to play? What drove you to make this decision? Why do it now? Why not three months earlier or later?

Adam Mersky: We were just as E3, and there were all these free to play games on the show floor this year. We’ve been in Asia for awhile now with our product, and we’ve seen the power of this model. As leaders in this space, we needed to do something with the free to play model.

After examining things, we realized that DDO was actually a pretty good fit for it. If you look, you can go back and examine how the original D&D IP was marketed: As you went through your adventures and wanted more options with your group, you just hopped down to the hobby store and picked up another book, better dice, or better miniatures.

The joke is that Wizards of the Coast and TSR actually pioneered micro-transactions. They always made you want to go back and buy more.

That right there fit in with the game, but the way DDO is set up also was a…

Kate Paiz: A natural fit.

Adam: I think it’s important to note that this isn’t a bolted on solution. We didn’t just want to toss an item mall into the game and see what happens. We’ve put well over a years worth of work into this to sort of “re-engineer” the game and fit this model.

We didn’t want people’s worse nightmares to happen, i.e. “I have a bigger wallet, therefore I’m going to be the best player in the game.” We’re going to have distinct types of players – VIPs, casual purchasers, and free players – all be able to interact together in the same world in a balanced and entertaining way.

That was really the fit. We would have done a free to play game no matter what the circumstance, but the best part was that DDO was a perfect fit.

Ten Ton Hammer: Rather than simply opting for an item mall, you’re using a sort of hybrid subscription model / freemium / micro-transaction system. What drew you to this monetization method rather than just having an item mall or just unlocking features with a subscription?

Fernando Paiz: One of the things we started to see as we took a look at how we might monetize a free to play scheme with DDO was a natural inclination to want to charge for the content somehow. We wanted to give enough of the content away that you could play for free and enjoy the game, but ultimately we wanted to find a way to charge for content.

There’s a large number of players that are still subscribed to the game and enjoying it every day, and we didn’t want to lock them into a new model. We didn’t want them feeling like they were going to need to spend a hundred or two hundred bucks to get everything that they were enjoying previously with Turbine.  So we gravitated towards, what in some ways is a risky move, this hybrid model. We think that once you look at it and how it works, you’ll see that’s it’s kind of the ala carte menu rather than the all you can eat menu.

And I think it works very well. If you’re someone that was hardcore and played DDO all the time  – ten plus hours a week and running characters to level cap all the time – you’re definitely going to want the subscription VIP model. On top of that, it also comes with a few additional benefits for our VIP customers.

On the other hand, if you’re somebody that wants to take some time to make your way through the game and you play more casually, yet you don’t want to be pressured to get $15 worth of value out of the game every month, you have the option to go at your own pace and pay as you go.

It’s all about giving players that sort of flexibility and choice.

Ten Ton Hammer: There’s definitely going to be some chatter about this on the official forums, good and bad, but in particular what can you tell the players that are going to be upset about this decision? What can you tell them to assuage their fears?

Adam: I think the only gamers that are really disappointed over this whole announcement are those folks that aren’t getting their free content today, which is what they were hoping to find waiting for them. Most of them are also disappointed that they’ll have to wait until beta is over to access the new content we’ve got in the game.

While we don’t want any of our players to be upset, that’s about as good a response to this sort of announcement that you can have.

Kate: One of the things that’s nice about the way we’re making this change is that our current players are basically getting the same sort of content and payment style that they had before. The experience for them doesn’t materially change with the exception of an item store that allows them some conveniences for easier moment to moment gameplay if they choose to accept it. Part of our VIP program is giving our players 500 points that they can spend a month in our store, so they get a lot of value.

Now obviously this is a change and that makes people nervous and that causes anxiety – and we’ll see that in the forums – but we’re keeping an eye on it so that we can better our services and ensure that people that had been enjoying our game continue to see that value.

What we hope people will see out of this is a better DDO. The current subscribers shouldn’t see a change in their status, and now the other folks can choose to pay and play at their own pace.

Fernando: Just to restate and emphasize some of what Kate just said there, I think the tact that we take with some of those skeptics out there is that we haven’t changed the core of what’s great about DDO today. On the contrary, we’ve worked to make the game better, and everything that we did to the game is optional.

We urge people to give it a try. We were very conscious of the idea to not “sell the endgame.” We’re not selling the loot that you’re questing for. We’re not selling a quick route to level 20. That’s not what’s there.

These are small conveniences, small XP boosts. Those players that are the hardcore players can continue being experts in the game and kicking ass in the dungeons like they always have.

Ten Ton Hammer: As a subscriber, I recently received my VIP newsletter discussing all the new features. Are current subscribers going to any sort of additional goodies to kind of ease them into this transition? Or will they just receive the same VIP benefits as the average Joe?

Fernando: Yeah, I think it’s safe to say that we’re going to be giving our subscribers some sort of additional liquidity. I don’t know if we want to divulge all the details, but we’ll certainly be doing everything that we can to make our players feel very welcome and to encourage them to try out the store. We don’t want them necessarily reaching for their wallets in the first little bit, so along with the VIP benefits, we’re going to be doing some additional introductory things as the service rolls out.

Adam: And if you haven’t seen them already, make sure you check out all the VIP benefits here. (http://www.ddo.com/vip)

Ten Ton Hammer: We’ve talked a lot about what the VIP folks are getting, but what does a free player have access to?

Kate: Free players are going to be able to access the bulk of the content in Stormreach and nearby environments. The far flung environments are going to be available in our content packs, which are going to be in the store, but many of the “common” zones players experience in the early levels of the game will just be there available for them to access.

We have a new leveling mechanic where you need to find the leveling sigil, which you can quest for, but if you’re impatient and don’t want to quest for it, you can buy them in the store. We want to make sure that free players have the option to either spend a little more time leveling up, or can just use the convenience that the store offers.

But there’s just a tremendous amount of content already there, for free, that players can come in, enjoy, and have a good time with.

Additionally, anyone that owns one of the adventure packs can purchase a guest pass, and they can invite players it that may not have purchased the content. Those players that use the guest pass should be able to have fun in that area for an entire night, and I think that’s going to be a great way for subscribers or ala carte purchasers to pull in people that are a little more casual.

Ten Ton Hammer: Looking forward, what kind of change will this new system have on the content updates that you have in DDO? I imagine we’ll still see some free additions, but are we going to begin to see more additions to the game that are VIP only or purchase only or something along those lines?

Fernando: I think you’ll see use experiment a little bit with the model and how best to optimize it for our players. But as far as things in our immediate plans, I think you’ll see us continuing to release a lot of content and if you’re a VIP you’ll have access to it first. It won’t necessarily go on sale the very first day the content is live, so players won’t be able to buy it from the store the first day. Eventually, everyone will be able to buy it from there even if they’re not a VIP.

As far as features go, we don’t have anything in mind that’s going to be VIP only, but we certainly reserve the right to add thing to the VIP offering as well as add things that are going to be free for all players. We’ll do whatever is appropriate for what the service needs at the time.

Ten Ton Hammer: Now that DDO has hit the level cap, the next things that you’re going to be working on in the D&D core rules are things like the rest of the races, classes, and the epic levels. Could we see those come in as items that you’d need to purchase from the store?

Fernando: Yeah, I think you’ll definitely be seeing some things like that, and there will be some available even at the beginning of the service. You’ll certainly see some new things going in there, and maybe some content that VIP players will have to pay for – even though that hasn’t been finalized. There’s also content that can be unlockable through the game, but if you don’t want to spend the time to unlock those characters, you can purchase them from the store.

Ten Ton Hammer: Obviously you’re switching to a F2P game because you believe that you can make more money in this sort of business model than you could with a straight subscription plan. Why did you think that was the case?

Fernando: Absolutely this is a learning experience for Turbine for the future. This doesn’t necessarily mean anything for LOTRO or Asheron’s Call. But as a company, absolutely we’re learning from what we do in this project and how to apply it in the future.

In terms of DDO in particular, we did start by taking a look at DDO and LOTRO and what we might be able to do with this type of model. The reason DDO rose to be the top candidate was because it is already our non-traditional MMO. It isn’t the traditional open world, work your way up through level cap in the EQ, AC, WoW style. It’s already a little bit different, and it’s a different type of game. It’s not full of those open world shared spaces, it’s highly instanced, and a variety of different sorts of play styles are involved in the game.

Even at launch, we heard rumblings that this wasn’t exactly what people were expecting out of a subscription model game, and the subscription was a barrier of entry for the number of people that we’d like to see play in the game, even though the game’s been doing well for three years.

We saw the potential to use this big brand of D&D Online and relaunch it to a wider audience. We then wouldn’t be tied down by a subscription.

Ten Ton Hammer: Were you just waiting for the free to play model to mature before releasing DDO in this sort of scheme?

Adam: It’s really a combination of things. The West had to learn this buyer behavior thing. Would you have ever purchased just one song five years ago? You had to watch the Sopranos when the Sopranos was actually on five years ago. Now you can watch it whenever the hell you want.

I think that this is coming isn’t purely because we want to make more money. We have a much broader audience today than we did three years ago when DDO launched. If we go back ten years ago, MMOs were an elite club for the super hardcore. We have people in LOTRO that had never touched an MMO in their lives.

We’re seeing a big diversification. WoW is sponsoring the halftime show in the NBA playoffs. The games are becoming more mainstream.  At the end of the day, this isn’t about business models, this is about player choice. The debate in the free-to-play versus the subscription has always been just that, the black and white choice. Now Turbine is coming out with a model that gives you a broader proposition. You need to give players a choice on how they’re going to play their games, and then you’ll attract a different audience.

By bringing this model to bear, we’ve effectively eliminated the number one barrier to MMOs: the subscription.  On the other hand, the main reason why people play MMOs is because their friends do. And what’s exciting about this is that if Fernando and Kate are VIPs and I go in to try it out, you can purchase a guest pass to invite me in to a specific adventure that I don’t have access to. Then I have that option to check out the content and really see if this is up my alley or not before I go out and buy it.

Ten Ton Hammer: Thanks for your time, and good luck with the new version of DDO!

MMORPG- Top 10 MMO’s of All Time

Top 10 mmo’s all time

1.Everquest- Since it’s release in march of 1999 it has defined the genre of what we call MMO’s. The WOW of it’s day.Everquest has had far reaching influence from WOW to it’s own sequel EQ2. No other MMO has had the impact on the industry as EVERquest.Spawning countless spin offs on multiple platforms and across all media. Now running in it’s 10th year and showing no signs of stopping.This really is the number one.

http://everquest.station.sony.com/

2.Ultima Online-The grand-daddy of all graphical mmo’s. Released even before the mighty Everquest (1997) Ultima Online was the first mmo to reach 100,000 subscribers. Ultima online is a sandbox type game allowing the player to create craft train and fight. The game is noteworthy for it’s PvP.It is still played today by thousands of players.

http://www.uoherald.com/news/

3.Asheron’s Call- Some would  agrue for this to be the number one spot on our list. Boasting highly original monsters and game design this ancient game is still running today with a rabid fan-base. Many elements of Asheron’s Call were radically different from most mmo’s including a world that was not divided into level zones. Also the character’s level doesnt determine the out come of a battle but the skill and gear of the player does. (At the time that was unique) The Vassal system was a great addition as well. Asheron’s Call was and is a more complex offering than most other games on the market.

http://ac.turbine.com/

4.World of Warcraft- World of Warcraft. What can be said about the 800 pound gorilla of MMO’s. Played by more than 11.5 million people today, even after being on the market for 5 years now, this game is an unstoppable force in the industry. Hardcore gamers and Hardcore MMOers may scoff at having this game at  number 4 but it deserves it.  Blizzard does what they always do in game design. They take a genre that people like and polish it, make it run on anything and make it accessible to everyone. MMO’s before Warcraft were looked at as a more hardcore, elitist genre occupied by uber gamers with uber amounts of time to spend on them. Warcraft removed alot of the time sinks required by most MMO’s. World of Warcraft has opened the doors for a new generation of MMOers. They brought in people who have never gamed much less MMOed.That is the sign of something special. WOW indeed.

http://worldofwarcraft.com

5.Dark Age of Camelot- DAoC is still the Turtles pick for how to do PvP in an mmo right. It was not a free for all but a structured world were Realms fought Realms and what you did in player combat mattered. The game stuck a little too close to the fantasy staples in PvE but the classes, the world and the combat was and is still a cut above what many games,including Mythic’s own Warhammer(sorry fans), attempt today. If you like PvP and have not played Dark Age of Camelot do it now. Seriously go do it.Now. GO!

http://www.darkageofcamelot.com/

6.Final Fantasy IX- Bringing the detail of the Final Fantasy universe to the mmo space was a challenging task but one that Square was able to do. Not only on the PC but also onto consoles. The game is a grouping mmo all the way and makes to bones about it. Solo friendly it is not but that is a design choose that has served them well.With the recent reveal of FFXIV online the future of this game could be in trouble.

http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/index.shtml

7.City of Heroes- The first real super hero MMO came out and from the begining became the darling of the MMO world. With the best character creation system on the market you were really able to create the super hero of your comic geek dreams.The mission structure is perfectly contructed like you are playing a comic book. With the addition of the Villians game and user generated content this game still has legs but is going to see formitable competition from the likes of Champions Online and DC universe Online.

http://www.cityofheroes.com/

8.Runescape-Arguably the second biggest MMO in the world with a reported 8.5 million players. What is amazing about that number is they have no players in Asia. The area that encompasses the most of Blizzards WOW subs. This is the largest free to play mmo in the world. Featuring realtime combat and no classes to pick when creating a character. Players are given freedoms that many pay to play games cant offer. Running in Java the game runs on basically any computer which, I am sure, does’nt hurt it’s numbers.Runescape,like Everquest and WOW, is responsible for thousands of gamers being introduced into the world of MMO’s.

http://www.runescape.com/

9.EVE- Hands down the best space/sim mmo on the planet. With a depth that scares lesser gamers this MMO is a masterpiece of design and execution.More of a true virtual world than most games. With great politics and graphics you really feel a sense of immersion not felt in other games. The developer CCP is one of the best developers of MMO’s ever. They are a company that takes the concerns of their players serious. If you have not played EVE go do so right now!

http://www.eveonline.com/

10.Guild Wars-I know alot of people do not consider Guild Wars to be a ‘real MMO’ but I think it. You play on line,group with other people, do quests, it has PvE and PvP it has classes and skills and dungeons. I say if Dungeons and Dragons Online is an MMO than so is Guild Wars. What makes Guild Wars such a great game was how many things about standard MMO’s they took a chance to change. Sure the level cap was too low but with a new game released every so often,which could be played without the one before it new content was not a problem. They took a chance with no subscription fee and it payed off selling millions. They added the ability to hire party members if you did not have friends to play with. They took a chance with making everything outside of towns instanced so that you and yours could go adventure with griefers or wait. The highly anticipated Guild Wars 2 will be coming soon and looks to follow in the footsteps of the first games.

http://www.guildwars.com/

Well there you have it friends. Blueturtlecafe’s list of the top ten MMO’s of all time. There were some notable selections left off the list and a couple honorable mentions that I list below. There were also some arguments as to the placement of some of these either higher or lower but in the end I am happy with the list. Any comments are highly encouraged and please, let the Turtle know what your top ten list is in the comments. Thanks for reading!

Honorable mentions:

1. Star Wars Galaxies- if it had stayed the way it was before the changes it would be in the Turtle’s top 5 but after the changes it does not make it to the top ten.Still if your a die-hard Star Wars fan you should at least experience it.

2.Everquest 2- Say what you will about this ‘sequel’ but the amount of content in this game is staggering. Plus the variety of locals and the quality of the sound and graphics for a 5 year old game is still on par with the best out there. With more voice overs than anyother MMO out today, this game was a little ahead of it’s self and had the dubious honor of releasing so close to World of Warcraft.
3.Lineage 2- This game has alot of content and alot of options for the player to experience. If only the game was not so grind heavy.

4. Lord of the Rings Online- Great production values, solid game mechanics and possibly the best Lore of any game out there.  A solid, if uninspired, AAA MMO.

5. Neverwinter Nights- I know this is not an MMO but Neverwinter Nights allowed the player to create an mini MMO with the Aurora toolset that Bioware provided. Hundreds if not thousands of persistant world servers are around and played today. Providing everything a commercial MMO has to offer. With recent rumors of a possible NWN MMO being released in 2011 (as the Turtle was kind enough to let you know about 😉  Those fans may yet get their wish of a true Neverwinter Nights MMO.

6. Vanguard- After one of the worst launches in MMO history this game has actually been able to pull itself up and dust off most of those nasty bugs and become a solid MMO experience. With a huge, non-instanced world, a ton of classes and races and flying mounts this game is one of the best pure group dungeon cralwers around today.

finally..7. Age of Conan- This game is another MMO that suffered from a bad launch. It has made great strides to please it’s fans and has since added alot of the promised features at launch. With arguably the best graphics in the genre and a brutal in your face type of realtime combat it offers a different take on the standard fantasy mmo.

Well thats all for now Turtle-heads I will be back next week with the next top 10 list so stay tuned and please feel free to leave your comments!

MMORPG- DDO going free to play!

Turbine Announces DDO Unlimited!

June 09, 2009

TURBINE® ANNOUNCES DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ONLINE®: EBERRON UNLIMITED™

Free Digital Upgrade Introduces Unlimited Free Play and Raises Level Cap; Beta Begins Today

WESTWOOD, MA – June 9, 2009 – Turbine, Inc. announced today the start of the Beta program for Dungeons & Dragons Online®: Eberron Unlimited™ (DDO Unlimited), a free digital upgrade for Dungeons & Dragons Online®: Stormreach™. DDO Unlimited will raise the level cap and add major new content, as well as make the game free to play for everyone. The new DDO Unlimited delivers heart-pounding game play featuring the industry’s best combat system, a massive world with state-of-the-art graphics and gameplay, and a rich set of features that until now could only be found only in premium subscription-based MMOs. Launching later this summer, DDO Unlimited will introduce an innovative new pricing model that allows players to download and play for free, purchasing adventure packs, items, and account services a la carte from the new DDO Store, or to subscribe to get unlimited access to all of the game’s content. Players interested in getting a sneak peak of the new DDO Unlimited can sign up for a chance to participate in the Beta program at http://www.ddo.com.

“Our team has spent years crafting DDO Unlimited into a powerhouse experience featuring cutting-edge graphics, a kick-ass combat system, high level content, and cutting-edge social tools. Today marks a major milestone as we prepare to launch the world’s most exciting free MMO,” said Kate Paiz, Senior Producer.

“Turbine is blazing a new trail with an innovative new pricing structure that will deliver a new era of choice for the growing market of online gamers, and we are very excited to invite players to work with us in the DDO Unlimited Beta program as we redefine how people play and pay for MMOs,” added Fernando Paiz, Executive Producer.

DDO Unlimited delivers the best combat of any MMO and the most heart-pounding action this side of a keyboard, plus a lot more!

Brand New Content & Features – DDO Unlimited will deliver a new class, increase the level cap, introduce new adventure packs including a new 12-player raid, major combat improvements and more!

The Fiercest Combat – DDO Unlimited features an extraordinary and heart stopping combat experience that requires players to fully engage in the battle by relying on their wits and reflexes in real time. No more clicking skills and watching the action from the sideline.

Mind-blowing Visuals – Explore a vast and dangerous online world that features the most advanced graphics in the industry and is stuffed with the legendary monsters, glorious treasures, devious traps, mind-bending puzzles and endless adventures from the world’s best known RPG.

Full-featured MMO – Experience sophisticated systems found only in the best games including auctions, arena death matches (Player versus Player), NPC hirelings, gambling, crafting, and powerful social tools for finding a group, forming a guild or planning an epic raid!

Easier Than Ever! – DDO Unlimited gets you playing in minutes instead of hours, using new proprietary Turbine technology. Creating a new character is incredibly simple with guides and templates that speed you through the process. Features an all-new new player experience that gives gamers their first taste of excitement quickly while teaching them how to play solo or with a group of fellow adventurers.

DDO Unlimited is based on the world-renowned DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® franchise of Wizards of the Coast LLC, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc.® (NYSE: HAS), under license to Infogrames Entertainment S.A.® Published by Atari, Inc.®, DDO has been enthusiastically received by many gaming critics, including The New York Times, PC Gamer, Game Informer and many more. For the latest information, please visit www.ddo.com.

About Turbine

Turbine, Inc. is the premier creator and operator of massive, persistent online worlds that foster powerful social gaming communities. Turbine is the largest privately-held online gaming studio in North America and has created some of the world’s most popular and award-winning online games, including The Lord of the Rings Online™, Dungeons & Dragons Online®: Stormreach™, and Asheron’s Call®. For more information on Turbine, its products and services please visit www.turbine.com.

About Atari

New York-based Atari, Inc. develops interactive games for all platforms and is one of the largest third-party publishers of interactive entertainment software in the U.S. The Company’s 1,000+ titles include hard-core, genre-defining franchises such as The Matrix™ (Enter The Matrix and The Matrix: Path of Neo) and Test Drive®; and mass-market and children’s franchises such as Nickelodeon’s Blue’s Clues™ and Dora the Explorer™, and Dragon Ball Z®. Atari, Inc. is a majority-owned subsidiary of France-based Infogrames Entertainment SA (Euronext – ISIN: FR-0000052573), the largest interactive games publisher in Europe. For more information, visit www.atari.com.

About Hasbro

Hasbro (NYSE: HAS) is a worldwide leader in children’s and family leisure time entertainment products and services, including the design, manufacture and marketing of games and toys ranging from traditional to high-tech. Both internationally and in the U.S., its PLAYSKOOL, TONKA, MILTON BRADLEY, PARKER BROTHERS, TIGER and WIZARDS OF THE COAST brands and products provide the highest quality and most recognizable play experiences in the world.

About Wizards of the Coast

Wizards of the Coast LLC, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. (NYSE:HAS), is a worldwide leader in the trading card game and tabletop role-playing game categories, and a leading developer and publisher of game-based entertainment products. The company holds an exclusive patent on trading card games (TCGs) and their method of play and produces the premier trading card game, Magic: The Gathering®, among many other trading card games and family card and board games. Wizards is also a leading publisher of role-playing games, such as Dungeons & Dragons®, and publisher of fantasy series fiction with numerous New York Times best-sellers. For more information, visit the Wizards of the Coast website at http://www.wizards.com.