I have had the weirdest experience with this game.

I beta tested it. (thanks to Cutter again, that was his doing) I hated it. I even came here and bitched about it.

So fast forward to early last week. On a whim I jumped in again. A week later I am still playing. I have one of every currently available class going. Other than "leadership" I still think crafting is a complete joke, but the gameplay itself I have found strangely addictive. Not only that, my experience with the instance and skirmish que system has been brilliant. OK, it can take a while sometimes to get in, but the groups themselves have been just fine. I had one bad experience and really that was only because one particular person decided to be an ass and not because of the game itself. I hate PUGs with a passion. Always have. This has easily been my best experience with them, particularly in a relatively new game.

Like someone else said, I too spent money (10 bucks I think) on a couple of extra character slots. Nothing else. I see people on mounts etc, but I have yet to be tempted to do anything aside from extra bank slots. I have some coins left, but I am going to save them and see what races and classes they release in the future.

I am a harsh critic of Cryptic, and this game clearly has some growing to do, but I have to give credit where credit is due....I am having fun despite all of my previous bitching and preconceptions.

Now, will I still be having fun a month from now? I suppose that is something only time will tell. Staying power is what a lot of these new MMOs seem to lack.

edit: Forgot bout the foundry...love it. Another feature that is still evolving, but I love the concept and strongly approve of developers who do something like it. City of Heroes and Star Trek Online are the only other two games I have experience with something like this and I liked it in those as well. Exploits will be found, *shrug*, I don't use them and what other people decide to do with their time is not my concern. One of these days I will try one of the 5-man foundry missions and see if they are as fun as the solo missions I have been playing.

This game came out of nowhere for me. I just started playing it based on something I read here and I have been having a blast. The foundry is especially good and has some great quests so far.

I have not done the instances or PvP yet so can't comment.

Also the game feels very very packed in every zone at all hours day and night.

As for the game being free? Well I have not purchased anything other than adding two char slots for 500 zen ($5.00)- I might add more bank slots and bag slots at some point. The game gives you more than enough for free.

There is a gambling aspect to this game I have seen with these nightmere lockboxes. The game makers must be making a fortune selling keys from their store.

HorrorScope wrote on Jul 7, 2013, 14:39:
More like a week if you are hammering it fairly hard. Several people in headstart (+3 days) were max leveled when the rest got in.

They used a foundry exploit that let them max level in under a day.

That being said, I played semi-core and it only took about 30 hours all up to hit max level.

The worst thing is, the store/crafting/mounts etc are all really punitive in an attempt to get you to buy zen. 45 bucks for a mount. 40 bucks for a companion that doesn't explode in 45+ content when someone looks at it.

Typical crytpic. Linear game, no replayability and they gouge the everloving shit out of you on the way through.

The Foundry for this game is amazing and what NWN should have had for ease of use. That's the only upside to this game. It's a shame because the zones are look great. It's just such a shallow, boring, repetitive ARPG. Had thy made this a proper CRPG it'd have a solid decade of longevity, instead of the year it'll have. Knew this was coming soon as they were bought out by PWE though. I wish someone who cared would buy the entire IP from WOTC. Wish they never would have got it to begin with.

Julio wrote on Jul 7, 2013, 14:07:

Rossafur wrote on Jul 7, 2013, 12:51:
If you can run all the way through an MMO in a single month... that's a problem

And if you played hardcore it could take much less than a month. Not much content, and it's not replayable with the same character. The community built quests are pretty cookie cutter and not very interesting.

More like a week if you are hammering it fairly hard. Several people in headstart (+3 days) were max leveled when the rest got in.

Rossafur wrote on Jul 7, 2013, 12:51:
If you can run all the way through an MMO in a single month... that's a problem

And if you played hardcore it could take much less than a month. Not much content, and it's not replayable with the same character. The community built quests are pretty cookie cutter and not very interesting.

Panickd wrote on Jul 7, 2013, 09:45:
I ran through all 60 levels of Neverwinter (solo except for the missions you're forced into a group for which are entirely optional) as a trickster rogue in a little more than a month and had a blast doing it.

If you can run all the way through an MMO in a single month... that's a problem (though that may not even be that uncommon anymore, and probably a good chunk of the reason they've never been able to recapture the appeal of the original EverQuest for me).

If Cryptic is running this anything like STO, I'm keeping away. STO is so unstable since the last patch it's like they built the patch with code from the beta. Lag, frequent drops on zoning, and my personal favorite - being in game but unable to move, interact or log out. They built a reputation for reintroducing bugs when they were running City of Heroes but to reintroduce bugs from launch day is just stunning.

I ran through all 60 levels of Neverwinter (solo except for the missions you're forced into a group for which are entirely optional) as a trickster rogue in a little more than a month and had a blast doing it. Didn't spend a single dime on the game either. What drove me away from it was the fact that it has well over a dozen different currencies that are all used for different things and it's not always apparent where to go or what you need to do to get the currency you need for the thing you want. It's a fun F2P game but it may skew too free for it's own good. At no point did I ever feel the temptation to spend any money on it at all.

Neverwinter has minimal staying power. We need a real D&D game.