A new upgrade for Dungeons & Dragons Online, named Eberron Unlimited, is coming at the end of the year, bringing a higher level cap, more quests, a new class, and, quite surprising, a change in the subscription model of the game, making the game a free-to-play subscription, but with optional extras purchasable through the game’s in-game store.

Turbine Inc., operator of Dungeons & Dragons Online, announced the closed beta plans for the new game, announcing that the new upgrade to the DDO game will be available during the US summer months, transforming subscription-based the massively multiplayer online roleplaying game from paid-for to free-to-play, and will rely on VIP subscriptions and in-game micro transactions, for revenue. They promise that the quality of gameplay will not be sacrificed for the free-to-play accounts, and that any items for sale in the in-game store will all still be available to be found through normal adventuring, in fact, certain higher-level items will not be for sale at all, those items only being available through in-game hacking-and-slashing.

Opening the D&D Online universe to a wider audience is definitely a great idea, and will likely bring bigger revenue to the company, as these kinds of models of free-to-play-but-buy-other-stuff often end up hooking players to the game, allowing these new players the opportunity to spend their cash. The difference between the free accounts and the monthly subscription VIP accounts is access to actual human customer support, where the free accounts have access to the automated support system only. As promised, VIP accounts do not have better gaming experiences than the free accounts, however free accounts will be limited on number of characters, limited to certain classes and races only, and certain geographic areas will only be available to VIP accounts. Doesn’t exactly sound like free accounts will have the same “full experience” as VIP members though, does it?

Even though this is all in all good news, the fact that South Africa still has expensive bandwidth means that even if not paying a monthly subscription to be allowed to play the game, any reasonable amount of gameplay will likely burn through your ADSL cap, that we’d end up needing to purchase top-up bandwidth just to keep playing. Not exactly win-win.