Dungeons & Dragons Online Rogue Insights at GamerGod

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GamerGod has taken a longer look at the rogue class in Turbine's upcoming Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach and the effect is a long essay on how the game finally gives the rogue some due appreciation as opposed to all other MMORPGs. Here's a snip:

Does this sound like a rehash of a D&D pencil and paper session? Isn’t this how a rogue’s life should be? Turbine certainly thinks so, and with Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach, the rogue class finally gets an upgrade. Dungeons & Dragons has long been known as the granddaddy of all RPG’s, and since it is over 30 years old, its classes, skills, feats, and races have been tried by millions of gamers and proven to be both effective and exciting. Since the inception of the fantasy based Massively Multi-Player Online Role Playing Game, the characteristics and attributes for the classes each game has created have been at least loosely based on pencil and paper D&D. In many cases, those translations have failed to hold true to their D&D roots, but never more than in the case of the oft neglected rogue class. Many of the MMO’s out there contain a rogue class, but none of them have fully explored the nuances and subtlety that make up a complete rogue. World of Warcraft, Everquest, and Everquest 2, the current heavy-hitters of the fantasy MMO world, have all attempted to redefine what a rogue is, and have all fallen woefully short of the mark set by D&D over three decades ago.

What is a D&D rogue supposed to be? The beauty of PnP D&D is the versatility it affords in creating a character. Many MMO’s have removed this creative ability because although it gives you an opportunity to have vastly different builds, it also allows you to “gimp” your character, making it ineffective in its intended role. EQ2 has gone so far as to remove any user ability to alter what a character receives. As you advance in level, your character receives pre-determined skills and abilities based on class over which you have no control. This guarantees that you can’t gimp your character true, but it also guarantees that your character is exactly the same as everyone else’s.

Read the whole thing at GamerGod.