In this week's Dungeons and Dragons Online adventures, the Critical Mass guild came across a bit of a challenge, and not in the game. With last week's vote guiding our hero to spend his hard-earned Turbine Points on an adventure pack, not everyone in the group had those same points to spend. So we spent our playing time gaining favor, which can be turned into Turbine Points.

In lieu of an in-character story this week, I'm going to spend some time explaining Favor and the DDO store for anyone who is curious about how this all works. I'll also explain our next poll, as I'd like you to vote on the specific Adventure Pack in which our hard-earned points will be spent. Follow along after the jump for more!

Love can sometimes be a fickle thing, but I'm pretty sure that I love what Turbine has done with the DDO Store in Dungeons and Dragons Online Unlimited. I'll admit that initially I was a little concerned with the concept of an in-game store, but after playing with it at bit and asking some questions my fears have pretty much melted away.

I was lucky enough to be given a developer tour of the Dungeons and Dragons Online Unlimited beta last Friday, and had a thoroughly good time. The DDO Store is a streamlined and snappy experience. The store doesn't simply attempt to shove its wares onto the unsuspecting player. Instead, it attempts -- and largely succeeds -- in being a helpful, generally friendly addition to the game.

Gallery: DDO Unlimited Tour

Turbine has released twelve new screens for their revamp of Dungeons & Dragons Online, which will add the "Unlimited" modifier sometime after its current beta run. In our gallery, you'll find several looks at the various windows and interfaces in which the non-subscribing players will have the opportunity to purchase additional content piecemeal, while they play.

It's pretty interesting to see a previously pure subscription style game go this direction, and we're very curious to see how it plays out for Turbine and the Dungeons & Dragons Online community. This business model shift could bring in a lot of new blood, and may in the long run bring about additional content that wouldn't have been possible to develop otherwise.

If you really want to know more about the upcoming changes and exactly what they mean for DDO and its community, check out our interview with Turbine on the subject, our write-up on the topic by Massively's Colin Brennan or our recent Massively Speaking podcast with DDOCast host Jerry Snook. Can you tell we're interested in this one yet?

Dungeons and Dragons Online going free to play is undoubtedly an awesome announcement. But exactly how awesome of an announcement is it?

Yesterday we were all over the announcement, covering the basics of what can be expected with this changeover from subscription based to free to play. But now, I'd like to break that down even further, and really look at the changes in an in-depth manner.

Certainly not everything about the new version of DDO has been defined by Turbine, but we're going to take a look at the basics of what this new version offers and compare the ups and downs of what's being offered. By the time we're done looking over the new system, you'll be able to answer that one burning question that's plaguing your mind.

Is free to play DDO worth it for you?

The cons of the whole switchover

Item malls that offer players the ability to purchase items or item upgrades degrade the gaming experience. We've been over this before -- letting Mr. Moneybags deck out his character at level 1 so he's 10x more awesome than everybody else is a major downer to people who don't have the money.

While I've pored over the text that Turbine is released, it doesn't appear that they will be offering items like weaponry or armor. They will be offering "items of convenience" to the players. My best guess is things like potions, perhaps portals, resurrection scrolls, things such as these. Even though these are low powered items, they can still annoy you when Moneybags can teleport all over the place and you're left walking and taking the slow route.

This con is, however, offset by the fact that points can be earned by actually playing the game. It sounds like they are attempting to make the cash shop available for everyone, not just the Moneybags of the world. This will be interesting to watch, as no other developer as truly tried this in the American market.

"I could easily see some players offering up items in the auction house above the amount that a free player's wallet could hold."

The big con to this is the limited play that free players get. Limited auctions and limited mail are two nasty inconveniences in their own right, but limited gold storage and limited chat seem to be the features that take the cake. How would you like it if you couldn't chat in all of the chat channels, or were restricted to how much you can say in game? Even worse, limited gold storage may mean that you might not be able to purchase the best items from the auction house simply because your wallet just doesn't hold enough.

I could easily see some players offering up items in the auction house above the amount that a free player's wallet could hold. This is going to inconvenience the player further because it's going to restrict how the player can interact with the auction house and interact with the vendors in the world.

Another two bites out of the pro pile are the fact that free players rank lower than DDO VIP subscription players in the login queue and free players don't get access to customer support. This means that a constant influx of DDO VIP players could easily keep bumping free players back in the login queue, should the server become overpopulated. While I don't exactly see this happening, it could become problem should the lines really get backed up. I know I wouldn't like to see that my place in line as number 27 get jacked backward to 30 or 35 just because a few subscribers chose to log in.

Lastly is the fact that free players are stuck with the online knowledge base and the forums as their source of aid should they encounter problems. I can foresee some free players attempting to play the game, getting stuck on some odd technical problem, and then becoming unable to solve it simply because the knowledge base doesn't have their problem on file. You're going to inevitably lose some people over this, just because they don't want to deal with the frustration of attempting to make a free game work. It's a free game, so if it doesn't work, just move onto the next game.

The bottom line?

The final thoughts for all of this is you should weigh it for yourself. If you want to save some cash and you like Dungeons and Dragons, then this might just be the experience for you. If you're looking for a second quality MMO to have as a side-game, then this might also be what you want to pick up.

If you're someone who's easily frustrated by limitations, however, then you might not enjoy this experience. Some of the stuff, like decreased auctions, gold storage, and chatting capabilities might hamper gameplay just enough to turn off some people.

But, don't take my word for it. Judge the game for yourself when it hits free to play status later this summer.

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Turbine has just announced that Dungeons and Dragons Online will be moving to a free-to-play business model, and we have the inside scoop. Be sure to read our complete coverage of the changeover, and look for more info as DDO Unlimited approaches launch.