Feedback from the Casual Perspective...
(This is from a casual, non-raiding player, semi-guild involved, wanting to just log on an play, oh and *not* usually a DDO Forum presence...heh...:rolleyes:)
*First off: my DDO subscription $s are *not* guaranteed and these changes make me reconsider my (limited) game time committment to DDO (which is my first, and only, MMO). If I am not having fun anymore..regretfully it will be "buh-bye Turbine" (probably to online 4th Ed D&D, since I am in DDO for the D&D experience more than the MMO experience..and heh I can play a freakin' DRUID in 4th Ed. early next year instead of maybe 2009 in DDO, eh? :p).
*I work nights, and thus am usually only able to play after midnight CST, which makes my DDO prime time offset from most others (except those wacky drunk Australians @ 3 a.m....man are they fun!). So as much as I love my guild, I end up PUGgin it most often. PUG play will become most unattractive in this new system, and thus most of my game time will be a "Negative Game Experience" thus resulting in DDO-frustration and thus lack of desire to play (and more encouragement to move on to other entertainment options...)
Case in point: a PUG last night was doing badly, but my lowbie Ranger CMW wand-whipped them back from death time and again (heh had a cleric who *never* ran out of sp...as he *never* healed even when asked...:mad:). Cost to me: several CMW wands plat expediture @ 500 plat/wand. With the new system, if you add MORE "repair plat" costs on top of this, why would I "stick it out" with a mediocre PUG in order to complete a quest? LOTSA "PUG-dropping" will ensue in DDO, making it harder to get together, then keep together a decent group from now on... I usually don't mind helping along newbies and donating lowbie items I have collected (UA items, lesser Devotion rings, +1 weapons to those who only have masterwork, etc) but these "noob-luvin'" practises will have to stop, as I will need all my cash to just keep up on repairs from now on.
*"Time, time, time, see what's become of me....as I look around at my possibilities...
So you ask, why not just encourage better play, coach the noobs on what they are doing wrong and foster better party play? I simply do not have the time to "instruct and teach" every new PUG i jump into on how to play correctly. Heh...it's a PUG man! ;) Many noobs do not WANT to listen. Or are just not skilled enough in the game to master their party roles as needed. And with the "item death damage" implementation, BAD PUGs = HIGHER PLAT COST JUST TO RUN ANY QUEST. I should therefore eventually give up on PUGs and stick to my Guild, as most have mentioned will become their gaming preference as well. Oh wait! My guild is mostly asleep when my DDO Prime Time comes around...well...guess I will be playing less from now on...which does *NOT* allow for all the new "Grinding Play Time" that DDO is trending towards, eh? (Grinding to get new Dragonshard Fragments, Dragon Scales, Relics, loot-searches for assembling "basic adventuring gear" since "handing down" items to lowbies is being discouraged via binding, etc ad nauseum). Oh, I should just find a new guild that is on when I am, or only stick to my Friends list, "reliable" players when I notice they are on? Ummm...talk about KILLING the sense of welcome and wonder that DDO used to provide to a new player. NO ONE will want to include noobs in a PUG, as it most likely will result in party deaths, and thus Item Damage/plat loss. Turbine, you are choking off the influx of new players with this...do you NOT want DDO to make any $?:confused:
*"TWINKING" IS A NECESSARY AND EXPECTED ACTIVITY FOR THE CASUAL PLAYERBASE
We do NOT have the time to grind decent items for ALL of our character builds over and over. It is simply not feasable for the limited time we have to play. Gods forbid we even get to pull any Raid loot at all with the new low-drop-rates (no, I will probably NEVER do a raid "20 times." Ever. On any toon.). It is why we enjoy the Auction House. Since I CAN'T run my characters over and over to try and pull a Planar Gird I do enjoy the option of purchasing one off the AH when I can afford it. Sometimes I spend hours in the mornings just shopping for good deals, posting items for sale I don't need on any of my builds, and generally getting my "E-bay Fix" (without having to spend any real-world green...heh..sweet). NEWSFLASH: this is part of the "fun" of playing a MMO for me. If the AH dries up...well, less DDO time in my future, more likelyhood that I will drop my DDO time-investment soon.
"Hand-me-downs" are also vital to the casual player, and removing them will leech a lot of the fun out of the game for my kind of player. In the PUG mentioned above, I played a "twinked" lowbie Rogue1/Ranger3, with a +1 flaming longbow and +2 mithral chain, dual-weilding Sickles of Syphilys ;) , all of which was mailed from my mid-levels when they no longer needed them. These are items that I would have had to "grind" to get at that level, and by the time I ground myself up enough to get them...I would be higher level and no longer need them, eh? :mad: If we have to bind everything to keep it, then destroy or vendor-dump said bound items instead of having the option to mail to new, different builds...well...once again THE FUN IS GONE. Also to note: if my Ranger had NOT been "twinked" with a few good items, and been able to blow a few CMW wands because my higher level toons had mailed him a few thousand plat to "get by on"...then guess what? Our PUG would have party-wiped, I probably would have dropped group, been unable to find another group at 3am, logged off for the night and been discouraged from logging on the next day to face such a situation again and again. Can you say "Negative Gaming Experience?"
:eek:Uh, Turbine? Do you realize that you are virtually guaranteeing that I HAVE to go buy plat now?:eek:
I would never have considered it before, but these changes almost make it mandatory that I have a ton of plat now to support the gaming style that I have time for. I have never bought plat, and even have harrassed the players whom I knew were doing it, but now I will have to look at it differently. :( After all, the AH prices will now SKYROCKET, and only those with inflated shopping budget cash will be able to afford to shop there (remember, shopping in the AH is one of my favorite DDO activities..you are making DDO less enjoyable to me...). Yes, I hear the obvious answer: Dude, why don't you just play more and grind your own items? A friendly reminder: my type of player doesn't have the time committment to do this. I am not looking foreward to being a "part of the problem" with plat sellers, but hey, Turbine is now forcing me to go this route if I want to keep playing DDO. (So the new changes do not really help solve any of the DDO Economy problems, just make them worse...)
*In summary:
- Less "fun time"
- More "grinding time"
- = less DDO Luvin'
I realize that these opinions probably do not jibe with where most of you regular DDO Forum posters are coming from, so this is mostly intended as a communication to any Turbine staff watching. If implemented as stated, my future with DDO will, sadly, be short. Please consider some of the points from our "Casual Player" perspectives, eh? :D
Thanks, and thank-you for an excellent game so far. Don't make us leave it, please.