After playing closed beta and open beta, i feel that is really isnt P2W.
You need "patron" status to build homes, farms, castles etc, or you could find someone who is a patron and become a part of his family / guild and use their lands to farm etc. Patron is a sub like vip in ddo.
There is nothing really on the merchant that gives you an overwhelming advantage over f2p. There are little potions that restore labor points, but you could easily trade someone for for these as pretty much everything bought on the p2w store is tradeable.
The character builds are pretty awesome - your toon is a blank template that you can make into anything. Don't like being a cleric ? Change it. You have 3 "class" combinations, some of them work in synergy and some dont. There are overall about 120 mixes with about 10 or 12 being viable. I am not sure how typical ddoers would enjoy combat because it is pretty involved - i.e. certain abilities chain together to give "combos" which could be anything, stunning, knock down, flying, setting someone on fire... You can't sit there autoattacking. If you liked playing old school monks then you would probably enjoy it.
The "quest" storyline is pretty much like any game except ddo, you are lead to different areas following breadcrumbs. Of course, you don't have to do that, you can do what you want. I think it is possible to get to 50 without ever killing a mob. It would be boring, but possible.
One of the mounts is a dairy cow. The dairy cow special ability is "cow pie". The cow pies have little exclamation marks above them like any gatherable resource. If you "gather" a cowpie you become paralysed. In areas where automining is rampant it is so fucking funny watching people falling on their asses paralysed.
The graphics are pretty sick, the game is fun. We spent a good 2 hours ganking randoms out of one of the cities, it was such a laugh. A level 46 came and chain killed us, we reported him as a murderer and he ended up in a tribunal. He was found guilty and sentenced to 45 mins in Jail. We then broke into jail and broke him out.
I should have recorded more, but ill try and edit what i have and post.
Check out this vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUDnDsIV11w&list=UUw1JmZBeDQShQk5AuZ8cdcgThis is kind of the game i have been waiting to play... There are lots of things that annoy the shit out of me, but i realised that they are mostly to do with the UI and not the game.
I will be on the server starting with S, with the regular toon name if you want some help establishing yourself.