I sense the "super secret project"...

[Deathseeker]

Ok, here's my latest conspiracy theory...

1. Risia brought down last week for "secret project"
2. Turbine puts character signatures into the forums
3. Turbine CEO has repeatedly mentioned the "next wave" for MMO's being a mixing of in-game and out of game social experience (like facebook for game characters).

What appears to be a minor fluff item is actually a test linking their game database to the forums IMO. I think this is a precursor to a lot more coming in the area of mixing in-game and out-of-game interaction.

Come on Tolero...getting warm? Am I like a like a burning hands wand, or an Aerritrikos Delayed Fireball with a failed save?

[ace_mason]

I think you are swimming in lava naked with berryman throwing flasks at you.

[miracle23]

This super secret is sure taking a long time. I hope it is something spectacular, or Turbine crew will be guilty of overhype on an unseen scale.

[Deathseeker]

I think you are swimming in lava naked with berryman throwing flasks at you.

Have you seen Berry try to throw them? The lava is certainly the bigger threat...

[Mindspat]

2. Turbine puts character signatures into the forums
3. Turbine CEO has repeatedly mentioned the "next wave" for MMO's being a mixing of in-game and out of game social experience (like facebook for game characters).

What appears to be a minor fluff item is actually a test linking their game database to the forums IMO. I think this is a precursor to a lot more coming in the area of mixing in-game and out-of-game interaction.

Wasn't there supposed to be ladder boards for PvP matches and other events?

You're number 2 above, what is that and is it already implemented?

[Strakeln]

Wasn't there supposed to be ladder boards for PvP matches and other events?

They had them at one time, the connection to the game caused tons of lag.

Interestingly enough, we started having lag issues about 2-3 months ago when Turbine did some super-secret update that they wouldn't tell us about. Then, all of a sudden, without downtime, we have character signatures...

Hmmmmm....

[RavenStormclaw]

Fine I can't keep it to myself anymore. My cousin know's someone who know's someone who's the sister of the lead developer for DDO. The super secret project is awesome.

In it we will be able to take a portal to a strange new world. This new world is called Middle Earth. Stomrmreach will be invaded by hobbits and we in turn will invade Hobbiton and surrounding lands. Should be good!

[DSC]

Since LotRO has just released http://my.lotro.com/ , I'd say you're spot on.

[Gol]

Since LotRO has just released http://my.lotro.com/ , I'd say you're spot on.

Let's not confuse "super secret" with "super lame", ok?

[The10man]

this Super Secret Is Sure Taking A Long Time. I Hope It Is Something Spectacular, Or Turbine Crew Will Be Guilty Of Overhype On An Unseen Scale .

/qft

[Ciphertazi]

Really hope this isn't the "next step" in MMO's because its been around a long time in different various states....



http://eq2players.station.sony.com/characters/index.vm

http://www.magelo.com/home.jspa

http://guilds.camelotherald.com/guil...Akatsuki&g=269

[Inkblack]

New hardware engine, part of the effort to port to consoles. Xbox will be the first one supported.

[Lorien_the_First_One]

They had them at one time, the connection to the game caused tons of lag.

Interestingly enough, we started having lag issues about 2-3 months ago when Turbine did some super-secret update that they wouldn't tell us about. Then, all of a sudden, without downtime, we have character signatures...

Hmmmmm....

I think that's a bit tinfoil hattish. The fact that the info is out of date and includes deleted chars suggests that the forums are not connecting to the live databases either directly or through and agent but instead to a datastore. That store could be populated through a mirror at off peak times (ie - 4am EST probably keeps it out of the way of 99% of the playerbase). If the live servers has an active db backup then it could also be running the mirror off of the backup server.

[Delt]

New hardware engine, part of the effort to port to consoles. Xbox will be the first one supported.

I doubt it. And as someone who plays DDO with his wireless 360 controller often (melees only), I shudder to think how the'll fit in the more complex classes/clickies control-wise.

[Uproar]

Really hope this isn't the "next step" in MMO's because its been around a long time in different various states....



http://eq2players.station.sony.com/characters/index.vm

http://www.magelo.com/home.jspa

http://guilds.camelotherald.com/guil...Akatsuki&g=269

I can already hear the developers reply to the above, "but... but... it is all new. This time it's AD&D 3.5 (in a future mod: 4.0) compliant! Now you see don't you!"

[Mockduck]

Ok, here's my latest conspiracy theory...

1. Risia brought down last week for "secret project"
2. Turbine puts character signatures into the forums
3. Turbine CEO has repeatedly mentioned the "next wave" for MMO's being a mixing of in-game and out of game social experience (like facebook for game characters).

What appears to be a minor fluff item is actually a test linking their game database to the forums IMO. I think this is a precursor to a lot more coming in the area of mixing in-game and out-of-game interaction.

Come on Tolero...getting warm? Am I like a like a burning hands wand, or an Aerritrikos Delayed Fireball with a failed save?

I like your way of thinking. It definitely makes sense. It would be interesting to have a forum-based way to track PvP, have leaderboards, character sheets, quest completions and tons of other data around. Sort of like a Facebook thing for our characters.

Tolero's already said that leaderboards are coming back, so this is probably a bit of a stress test to check game-board interaction before bringing back the leaderboards.

[Hokiewa]

one super secret project that has been discovered yet not commented on.........All ddo servers reside on the Brandywine server of LOTRO....Not a suggestion, it's a fact....

[Mindspat]

I doubt it. And as someone who plays DDO with his wireless 360 controller often (melees only), I shudder to think how the'll fit in the more complex classes/clickies control-wise.

Sony Online Entertainment and Lucas Arts were convinced they would be able to port Star Wars Galaxies to a console. The change that ensued took 32 professions that could be mix/matched (much like multi classing in DDO but better) and stripped it down to only 9. It went from a skill based game to level based pseudo twitch and lost an estimated 75% of the subscriber base in a month. These changes are known as the "New Game Enhancements" (ie, nge) even though they were anything but enhancing.

The "nge" is a text book example of how to ruin your product and alienate your fan base.

I have seen comments in the past which elluded to "nge" stylized alterations to the gameplay and mechanics of DDO although it was more due to my suspicious behavior then empirical data.

[Vardak]

Ok, here's my latest conspiracy theory...

1. Risia brought down last week for "secret project"
2. Turbine puts character signatures into the forums
3. Turbine CEO has repeatedly mentioned the "next wave" for MMO's being a mixing of in-game and out of game social experience (like facebook for game characters).

What appears to be a minor fluff item is actually a test linking their game database to the forums IMO. I think this is a precursor to a lot more coming in the area of mixing in-game and out-of-game interaction.

Come on Tolero...getting warm? Am I like a like a burning hands wand, or an Aerritrikos Delayed Fireball with a failed save?

I sure hope your wrong about this... Asheron's Call had a decal app provided access to not only your character information, but essentially any character (that had the necessary plugin). Hmm there was also a method for full character respec, if you had the patience, months and months of patience.

[Deathseeker]

Sony Online Entertainment and Lucas Arts were convinced they would be able to port Star Wars Galaxies to a console. The change that ensued took 32 professions that could be mix/matched (much like multi classing in DDO but better) and stripped it down to only 9. It went from a skill based game to level based pseudo twitch and lost an estimated 75% of the subscriber base in a month. These changes are known as the "New Game Enhancements" (ie, nge) even though they were anything but enhancing.

The "nge" is a text book example of how to ruin your product and alienate your fan base.

I have seen comments in the past which elluded to "nge" stylized alterations to the gameplay and mechanics of DDO although it was more due to my suspicious behavior then empirical data.

While I agree such a change in DDO to classes would be the "finger of death" for the game, I dont' see their behavior going that direction. You wouldnt introduce monks and all these PrEs if you were gonna turn around and strip or consolidate classes.

I do think porting to consoles is a possibility, but I doubt they'd change the class mechanics to do it.