I know I barely went into it here, but one of my weekly pleasures is now at an end. The Monday night World of Warcraft group I shared with Brent, Brendan, Darren, and Adam is no more. Instead, we’re doing something just a bit new and different. Very different, at least, but not in actuality all that new. We’re going to be playing Turbine’s Dungeons and Dragons Online.

I have to say – I’m really pumped about this. Since jumping into the MV gig fulltime, I’ve really had the chance to compare and contrast the offerings from different developers. Most MMO companies are really strong when it comes to new content. Blizzard gets a lot of props for the work they do, and rightly so, but for my money the king of patch content is actually Turbine. Their work in Lord of the Rings Online is nothing short of phenomenal. These guys have, no joke, released something like two or three entire expansions-worth of content since LOTRO launched last year. Each one is seperated out into “Books”, chapters in the game’s ongoing story that have the players dogging in the heels of the Fellowship proper. The most recent patch, Book 13, added a fantastic snow zone and a mind-boggling amount of content.

LOTRO’s sister-game, Dungeons and Dragons Online, had been lost in the weeds for some time. I’m not sure why, not having been a very active member of that community, but my impression well through the end of last year was that development kept apace of player demand but wasn’t really wowing anyone. That has very much changed in 2008, as Turbine moves DDO to stand beside its Tolkien-esque offering on the field of MMO battle. The most recent expansion to Dungeons and Dragons online (Module 7), ushered in the first of two brand new classes being added to the game this year. The Monk s a unique DPS-style charcter, with a lot of purely asian flavour you don’t see in the unarmed classes from other games. The other class coming this year is D&D’s Druid, a shape-shifting/animal-summoning/nature magic casting frontiersman that should be a pretty unique offering inside the DDO world.

As much fun as we were having with WoW, it seemed like time for a change. So myself, Darren, Bendan, and Brent will be taking up the d20 starting next Monday. I’ve got a Cleric charcter on the Arggonessen server from allll the way back when my EQ2 group tried to form in the first place. As you might recall, our original plan was to play DDO on Wednesdays; an inability to get the DDO client running on my friend Brian’s PC lead to our eventual adoption of EQ2 as our weapon of choice. I now will have the opportunity to correct that oversight, with insight into a brand-new version of a not-very-new game.

My character, Terrima, will be leading the healing charge of course. Brendan is going to be adopting the Fighter class, while Darren is going to be a Rogue. Brent is excited about the possibility of playing one of his favorite classes again, bringing the Monk class to the gaming ‘table’ with flourish. Not the most balanced party, but certainly one that will be able to take on a number of unique challenges. It’s my hope that DDO’s non-standard mission system will be perfect for a small-sized group.

Cameron wrote in a recent PvE that he thinks DDO needs to change some tunes before it’ll be a great game, and I can’t fault him for some of his great ideas. That said, I’m still really quite looking forward to delving deep into a game I never gave enough of a chance in the first place.