Dungeons and Dragons Online, Good for Groups?

I see that Dungeons and Dragons Online is now free to play. How is that game structured? Do you create parties and travel? Or is it more free world-ish? I ask because I am looking for games to play with a group of 8-10 people and was wondering if it would be worth looking into.

Also, is the game playable without buying content? (By playable, I mean is it fun to play without buying content?)

Solution 1:

It's a largely instanced system, similar to Guild Wars. You instant-transport between hubs and run instanced quests out of those hubs. (If you're not familiar with instancing, it basically means you go into a private clone of an area with only your group. No random strangers wandering by.)

There are three types of areas, according to their website:

• Quests: Instanced for 1-6 people, small area with a storyline to play through.
• Adventure Areas: Instanced for 1-6 people, wide open area to explore, with dungeons and outposts within it.
• Raids: Instanced for 1-12 people, more challenging quests

So, if you just want to jump into quests/raids with a small to medium size group, this sounds like a good game. If you like to solo or explore a big open world, maybe not so much.

Solution 2:

To answer your question about playing without utilizing the micro-transaction portion of the game.

The game begins with you being capable of playing almost all content that you are capable of handling. This changes after roughly 10-15 hours of play where free instances become more scarce. However, just by playing and hitting certain levels of renown (gained from completing missions) you earn Turbine points to utilize in buying additional content. This gaining of free points is not fast but the keyword "free" does exist.

Playing with friends on the harder difficulies where role specialization becomes more important and having a built in VOIP for a completely free game is a blast.