Permadeath, Roleplaying and Communication

[Borror0]

At the risk of stating the obvious, one of the main draw of MMO's is playing with other players.

It's for that reason that MMO's possess multiple features enriching that aspect of gameplay: private messages, mail, guilds, voice chat, user chat, merging chats, LFMs, etc. The more players interact, the more engaging the game becomes to them. Like-minded players can regroup and find their fun in a game - making the game more fun and generating profits for the MMO company.

For that reason, turning /tell off was a stupid idea but that was not what I wanted to talk about.

This addresses to both the playerbase and Turbine.

About an hour ago, I came across this post, which illustrates the problem really well: it's hard for a new player to find its place in DDO. While a player may just enjoy the playstyle offered in PuGs, that may not be the perfect fit for everyone... and that's a problem.

The post I linked above is a player who is looking for roleplaying partners. While we both know there are a few - small - RPing groups in DDO, these are hard to find for a new player. Same applies to permadeath and other possible playstyles I may not be thinking of. If we could only facilitate the entry for those players with less conventional playstyles, then we'd gain out of it.

For players with unconventional playstyles, advertising your guild in the Free Trial Forums would be a great start. Make it be known and easy to find from browsing the forums so that like-minded players can find you and enjoy the game in their own way.

Though, a lot rests on Turbine.

Few players take the time to read the forums and the ones that do cannot post in the forums where those threads usually are (free trials cannot post in the Perma-death & Static Groups Forum). Creating a new forum in the free trial section would be helpful. One reserved to roleplaying could be a great addition - it would be interesting to see how it turns out - and a forum for player matching is another obvious addition.

Since few will actually read the forums, there are other changes that could be done to increase the communication between players. Informing new players of those alternative playstyles, those smaller communities, should be found and added. Although I am lacking the suggestions on how to do that, I am sure there is a way. Maybe a "Looking for Guild" panel, where permadeath and roleplaying would be choices? Not sure. Maybe there's a better way. Maybe a welcome message when you first open the game?

Anyway, just some food for thoughts and, hopefully, change.

Thanks for reading,
Borror0

PS: To the RPers, I invite you to go help this guy while I still got your attention and you have not done it.

[caution]

At the risk of stating the obvious, one of the main draw of MMO's is playing with other players.
Since few will actually read the forums, there are other changes that could be done to increase the communication between players. Informing new players of those alternative playstyles, those smaller communities, should be found and added. Although I am lacking the suggestions on how to do that, I am sure there is a way. Maybe a "Looking for Guild" panel, where permadeath and roleplaying would be choices? Not sure. Maybe there's a better way. Maybe a welcome message when you first open the game?

I would be the first to vote for having a separate "permadeath only" server!

To me finding guilds is something I do from my in-game experience, and not sure if your "looking for guild" would help too much. I hate to offend all guilds at once, but I think DDO without a guild is not that critical (even with the limited friend system we have at the moment).

Roleplaying is a problem because DDO that is very much an action game, and unfortunately I have no solution to that except for running your own groups, and specifying "roleplayers only".

Searching back to when I first played the game, I remember the the LFG was different, and in some respects was better. I think what I remember was that you had "looking for group". I remember as a newcomer that this was an easy way to get playing, and good for finding players. Being up there meant people could send me tells, unlike the current system which plays down this functionality.

Unfortunately only Turbine has the stats on that.

[Borror0]

I would be the first to vote for having a separate "permadeath only" server!

Not really a wise move since it's probably a too small demographic.

[Missing_Minds]

Not really a wise move since it's probably a too small demographic.

And you couldn't get everyone to agree on "the rules" either.