Are you playing Neverwinter yet? I went in to this open beta expecting to complain about all of the things wrong with it. Instead I find myself excited about all the things right with it!
From a MMO view:
If you want to level by crafting, you can.
If you want to level by following the official story, you can.
If you want to level by killing mobs left and right, you can.
If you want to level by completing player generated content, you can.
From a RPG view:
This is a visual representation of the D&D I grew up with and love.
Want to go solo and experience a new world? You can.
Want to group with others and take on harder content? You can.
From a RP view:
Well, role-playing is a bit of a challenge in any MMO. Too many people don't understand it and seem to enjoy making it harder for others. No real difference here. As I understand it the unofficial RP server is Mindflayer. Check out Neverwinter RP for more information.
I really enjoy The Foundry. This is where other players create D&D based adventures for people to play. Just like the old days when an inspired GM would create an adventure and then guide a group of players through it. Now you don't need dice, paper, pencils or a group to do it. This also provides great access to D&D for those that didn't/don't have others to play with. We don't all have time to schedule a weekly gaming session to complete an adventure for weeks on end. With this we can jump in whenever we have time to spare.
The game is free to play and you can enjoy it without spending a cent. However, Perfect World will be more than happy to take your money should you wish to spend any. I haven't seen anything in the money store that you must have to play but I've come across a few nice things. One of the spending motivators Perfect World has is locked boxes. Boxes with great, rare and super rare loot drop in game as you kill things. Not all the time but often enough. If you want to open the box you need to buy a key from the money store. What if you don't want to spend the money to open the box though? (what's in the box? what's in the booox?!) You can buy them from the Auction House in game for game currency. It will take longer to get them this way but you will have way more adventure. If Perfect World does the boxes in Neverwinter as they have in other games each type of box will be a limited release. Once they are gone the company won't drop any more like it. This would be your only chance to get _____mount / item / whatever the super rare is.
I'm having a great time playing this game and I look forward to many more adventures.
