It’s been 15 years since Dungeons and Dragons Online has been released, and Standing Stone Games’ executive producer Rob Ciccolini has been around for nine of those years, so he’s got plenty of things to talk about in an interview, remarking about the game’s longevity, it’s connection to the greater lore and expansion of D&D, and its overall population.
According to Ciccolini, DDO has stood the test of time for a number of reasons, including well-designed dungeons, deep systems, the flexibility to play solo or in groups, and the evergreen draw of D&D itself. He also touts the game’s abundance of content, whether it’s the dungeon encounters and their variety or the combinations of characters players can try. As for the game’s playerbase, Ciccolini remarks about how new releases and expansions are always a draw, but notes that the playerbase consists mostly of player groups that play together regularly.
At the tail end of the interview, Ciccolini talks about the game’s potential lifespan beyond this year, noting that DDO will likely carry forward for a long time due to a sense of character agency and a game that’s continually changing.
“One of the things that happens is there’s a certain kind of player where, when you invest your time into an ongoing long storyline game like this, you feel as though your time is well spent because that new content rolls out and these characters offer things you can experience over and over again.
“The other thing that I think helps these games is you’re playing your own character. You have a lot of character options. The character is your own. You’re not adopting a persona that someone else thinks is cool.”
