Dungeons and Dragons Online is 20 years old. 20! That's mad. I'd briefly played at launch and burned out even before starting to blog, then went back a few years later when it went free to play (if I can believe myself), as did Melmoth (probably; with the various blog migrations I lost the author details on individual posts, and while I can usually tell us apart occasionally I'm not sure if I'm me or him). That means I missed what would have been the 20th anniversary of City of Heroes (Alas, poor CoH! I knew him, Statesman: an MMO of infinite skuls) and World of Warcraft (I've obviously successfully unsubscribed from any of its marketing literature and any last vestiges of MMO blogs, social media, or what-not). DDO hasn't been irritating enough to unsubscribe from, evidently, so when the newsletter turned up with the promise of a new archetype for free and assorted other anniversary celebrations, I thought I'd get it patched up and have a look.
Blimey. I mean, fair play for still going, but it took some getting used to - never mind character abilities being like a 747 cockpit (that definitely was Melmoth, one of his classics) (also, apologies for the lack of media since migration, but I'm sure you get the idea) pretty much everything about the the game, the interface, the control mapping was a struggle to remember. "You can speak to an NPC called “Giver of
Gifts”, located on Anniversary Island, which is accessible by speaking
to the NPC Fred in either House Jorasco or House Phiarlan near the
location of the 10th Anniversary Event" says the news page. Well, triffic, if I had the first clue where the 10th Anniversary Event was, or what a House Jorasco might be, that might be useful...
I did find him, in the end. After rolling a new character on a new server, heaven knows where I'd left the last one 15 years ago. And then logged out again. Not sure I'll be back in a hurry. Maybe for the 30th anniversary! If both me and the game are still going then...
