I tried it when it came out, but its almost total lack of resemblance to the Eberron described in the tabletop game books caused me to lose interest.
It certainly takes some liberties (usually due to game design requirements), but it takes heavy advantage of Xen'drik's nature as an "anything goes" type of setting. The game's raids revolve around agents of Argonessen vs. Xen'drik giants, a plot to activate a warforged titan, the Blood of Vol and the Church of the Silver Flame teaming up to stop a mad lich, townsfolk being brainwashed by Quori to join the Path of Inspiration, creatures from Xoriat driving citizens mad, devils from Shavarrath invading in an attempt to turn the tide against the Angels and Demons, etc.
Best of all, the game made a dramatic turn-around in revenue and subscriber base when they went Free to Play several months ago, so the game is currently one of the more thriving MMOs. They've been having regular updates every two months or so.
Heck, Turbine currently puts out more Eberron content than WotC has in years! ;)
I've been playing DDO for years now and love it. Contrary to the previous post, the game is actually remarkably faithful to Eberron, to the point that a lot of players complain that it's not enough like Forgotten Realms
The Church of the Silver Flame being involved in resurrecting people? Churches, rather than House Jorasco, selling healing services to adventurers? Glowing magical support pylons for the docks? A warforged paladin as the very first paladin class trainer you encounter?
Give me a break.
I'm pleased you enjoy it, I know a couple of thousand people do, but it's pretty careless with the feel and details of Eberron.
The Church of the Silver Flame being involved in resurrecting people?
Churches, rather than House Jorasco, selling healing services to adventurers?
I'm not sure what's wrong with this...
From a roleplaying perspective: Yes, in Khorvaire, House Jorasco (or "House J," as DDO players typically refer to it) has a monopoly on healing, but this is Xendrik. It's meant to be the "anything goes" sub-setting in Eberron, where the frontier nature allows standard power structures to be challenged.
From a business perspective: The early designers of DDO seemed to try to make it a more "generic" game that could appeal to more than just Eberron fans. Standard D&D settings tend to put healing square in the hands of churches, so the game's ressurection bind point mechanic was based around those assumptions. As the game has gone on, however, the devs have made a greater effort to make the background more Eberron-specific. To use this as an example, when visiting the House Jorasco ward, the Church of the Silver Flame representative makes a comment about how the Church is pooling its resources with Jorasco to "better serve adventurer's needs."
Glowing magical support pylons for the docks?
What on earth is wrong with that?
A warforged paladin as the very first paladin class trainer you encounter?
Again, I really don't see what's wrong with that, Eberron as a setting has made numerous mentions of warforged paladins. But if it really bothers you that much, they recently revamped the game's introductory adventure series, and the warforged paladin trainer is no longer there. I actually miss him *sniff*
Give me a break. I'm pleased you enjoy it, I know a couple of thousand people do, but it's pretty careless with the feel and details of Eberron.
There are a lot more than a couple thousand playing it currently, as the "relaunch" last fall attracted about a million new players:
www.tentonhammer.com/node/81509
Seriously, the game is being held up as the new model for financial viable MMOs outside of WoW.
As for "carelessness with details," I think you're missing one of Eberron's greatest strengths: it's a game that has ALWAYS encouraged players to tinker with the setting to fit their specific needs. As a MMO, DDO has different needs and expectations it has to deal with than a table top game would, and the devs have done their best to accomodate those needs while staying remarkably faithful to the original setting.
I really can't emphasize enough how funny it is to me that I'm arguing this, since I'm used to having to defend the dev's choice to tie the game's background very firmly to Eberron, a decision that constantly ticks off old school D&D players who never accepted Eberron as a legitimate setting. I've had to explain to new players why the drow that you fight in the game are running around in Xendrik's deserts and jungles with war paint worshipping a scorpion god (or fire, in the case of the Sulatar) rather than slinking underground with scimitars and worshipping a spider goddess. Or what Shavarrath is and why the devils you fight come from there rather than the Nine Hells. Or why you need to choose between "Aerenal" and "Valenar" when you make an elf, and why the latter gives you bonuses with scimitars instead of longswords.
Ah well. Just goes to show that there's never any way to please everybody
The Church of the Silver Flame being involved in resurrecting people? Churches, rather than House Jorasco, selling healing services to adventurers?
The impression I got was that this clerics=healing was there for the people not into Eberron specifically, but just a DnD MMO. However, if you know that this is a problem, and ask the right questions, any Silver Flame cleric will tell you that the clerics don't actually raise you.
They fight through the hordes of enemies that killed you and retrieve your body, so House Jorasco can raise you.
This is much more fitting with Eberron's "PC-classed people are special" mentality, and specifically that clerics are the knights of their faith, just as much as Paladins are.
Glowing magical support pylons for the docks?
This I found rather jarring too. The docks district of Stormreach as described in the City of Stormreach supplement sounded a lot more ramshackle and less magic-infused.
However, I can see the reason for "magicing-up" the city, namely to infuse the one major point of civilization in the game with as much influence from the rest of Eberron to make it feel like Eberron, even if it makes it feel a bit less like Stormreach specifically.
As an example... the magical support pylons and magical lazer-cranes. Both are things that I'd always imagined seeing in Sharn (and are described as being there in the City of Towers supplement book). However, since the game doesn't go to any other city but Stormreach, they included elements of Sharn there, so it would all feel more "Eberronian".
A warforged paladin as the very first paladin class trainer you encounter?
...So? I agree that the combination is a rare one, and rarities are usually in the class of PCs. But considering that you'll see about a dozen warforged paladin PCs in the first town, having one NPC trainer that's a bit of a rarity doesn't seem like all that big a deal.
Plus, the Hobgoblin Fighter trainer more than makes up for it. Hey look! Hobgoblins as helpful NPCs! What's more Eberron than that?
As far as it being careless witht he details, my only major gripe is the House Jorasco models. They aren't nearly small enough to be halflings. Rather just look like 5-foot tall humans.
You occassionally get quests where you'll helping hobgoblins who are searching for artifacts to aid them in return the lost goblinoid empire, or help ogres whose tribe has been taken control of by trolls and humans who are all cultists of the six. There are "monster" race helpful npcs in every ward of the city(or darn near). The Church of The Silver Flame sends you out to eradicate cultists, with extreme prejudice.
It's all very Eberron, very Xen'drik, and very DnD.
and very, very fun.
just don't spend too much time on the forums if you like 4e. Because you'll be annoyed. :P