Now that they are offering the ability to pay for free, I’ve finally downloaded, installed and started playing a game I’ve long been interested in: Dungeons and Dragons Online.

How does the game make money if the download is free and so is the ability to play? Well, you can buy some expansions and special in-game items at the DDO Store; it’s a business model used in strategy games like Evony, but a bit more ambitious than anything tried by an MMO prior to this.

After all, even one of the most notable pioneers of free monthly play MMOs, Guild Wars, charged for the software, at least; DDO isn’t even doing that – at least not for the main game.

Here’s the down-low: While I haven’t yet played deeply into the game, I will say it sizzles smoothly along on my nVidia 1GB 9800GT-powered system, and looks great doing so. And with a nice enough opening movie, character creation system and an opening sequence that matches up well with Dragon Age: Origins, Dungeons and Dragons Online is worth far more than its price of, well… free. It might even feature free directory submissions for all I know!

I’ll get more specific as I play more deeply into the game, but for now, it’s all positive.