Do you know why this game isnt a huge success?

[Dartwick]

The instances are awesome. The best in online gaming.

But its such a bloody headache getting getting all the right people spoken too in the right order and finding the right guy in town that people get discouraged and quit.

Sure some people endure it and will talk about how easy it is, but you notice how many people try the game then quit? Thats the problem.

In Pen and Paper you dont have to spend 15 minutes running around the room before you start making sure you touch all the chairs in the right order. But that essentially what you have to do in this game.

It should be much easier and faster for a group of friends or a pick up group to get into a quest instance.

[Garth_of_Sarlona]

Once anyone in the group (e.g. the leader) has the quest, they can share the quest via the quest journal. Perhaps that will resolve your issue?

Garth

[captain1z]

I dont think thats it at all. Most games I know require you to do stuff in a certain order and dont always tell you what that order is.

Games you would also hate = Myst and any other game like Myst

I think the issue was and still is that people can cap extremely fast and if you not into making alts, the end is just that much closer for you. Feeling limited, whether its a level 4 cap or level 20 cap is why some people drift off.

[ArekDorun]

Once anyone in the group (e.g. the leader) has the quest, they can share the quest via the quest journal. Perhaps that will resolve your issue?

Garth

This only works on single quests. For all the quest chains I've been on, you have to go back and talk to the original questgiver between Chapters (each chapter can contain multiple quests), and you can't share later quests in the chain with folks who haven't finished and turned in earlier ones, iirc. This may not be much trouble most of the time (the questgiver isn't all that far out of the way, or hard to find), but I've been on 2 chains where it's been a bit of a headache (WW after finding Vahn's corpse - you have to trek all the way across WW and talk to the guy at the entrance to Part 1 before you leave, and the Sharn Syndicate line of quests - you have to go back to the guy that starts the quest chain between quests, and he can be a bit out of the way).

Also, it doesn't work when you're not in a group and don't know where the quest you want to go on starts (or the area you want to explore is) - I've had to search (on the web) for the entrances to both Tangleroot and Sorrowdusk, for instance, to even know where to begin looking for them - There's no indication where they're located in the Adv. Pack descriptions, and I haven't been able to find a way to search for quests by what adventure pack they're in in-game. To me, this last part is very frustrating.

--Arek

[Missing_Minds]

Sounds like you have issues with something most gamers call a "learning curve". Once you start remembering how the game works, problem solved.

[Arnya]

The mechanism to advance chain quests can indeed confuse some people; but is a good filter for dumb and/or lazy players.

It is very, very confusing to read the text in the NPC interactions. Also very challenging is opening the quest journal and reading the information in the quest description.

The last mod has seen a lot of the nice elements of this MMO removed or dumbed down for the lowest common denominator.

This is not smart, it is catering to people who will not get to endgame anyway because they can't work out the basics...

These are the same people who get confused by the cardinal points of the map, or having to read more than one line of DM text, let alone party chat.

Frankly, we can do without these types of players.

BTW: It is really annoying being asked to share Durk's got a Secret' - considering they moved the NPC to approximately 2 metres from the quest entrance (6 feet for you wierdos ).

[BlackSteel]

i dont see how the quest implementation with npcs is any different than say WoW or alot of other MMO's. quest givers have exclamations over their heads.

[Dartwick]

The mechanism to advance chain quests can indeed confuse some people; but is a good filter for dumb and/or lazy players.

This is the perfect example of why feed back from existing players is totally useless in a failing game.

You have a player trumpeting the importance barriers ability turn away new players - barriers that have nothing at all to do with core game play.

In fact Arnyas post when analyzed is a good argument for my position.

[Absolute-Omniscience]

I think the issue was and still is that people can cap extremely fast and if you not into making alts, the end is just that much closer for you. Feeling limited, whether its a level 4 cap or level 20 cap is why some people drift off.

The cap isn't what pushing people away. I've played all mmos from world of warcraft to guild wars, and as it is now, DDO is probably the one it takes the longest to cap in.

[Hendrik]

This only works on single quests. For all the quest chains I've been on, you have to go back and talk to the original questgiver between Chapters (each chapter can contain multiple quests), and you can't share later quests in the chain with folks who haven't finished and turned in earlier ones, iirc. This may not be much trouble most of the time (the questgiver isn't all that far out of the way, or hard to find), but I've been on 2 chains where it's been a bit of a headache (WW after finding Vahn's corpse - you have to trek all the way across WW and talk to the guy at the entrance to Part 1 before you leave, and the Sharn Syndicate line of quests - you have to go back to the guy that starts the quest chain between quests, and he can be a bit out of the way).

Also, it doesn't work when you're not in a group and don't know where the quest you want to go on starts (or the area you want to explore is) - I've had to search (on the web) for the entrances to both Tangleroot and Sorrowdusk, for instance, to even know where to begin looking for them - There's no indication where they're located in the Adv. Pack descriptions, and I haven't been able to find a way to search for quests by what adventure pack they're in in-game. To me, this last part is very frustrating.

--Arek

Use the provided in-game tools to EASILY find the entrances, how easy is it to follow a big gold arrow?

[Hendrik]

This is the perfect example of why feed back from existing players is totally useless in a failing game.

You have a player trumpeting the importance barriers ability turn away new players - barriers that have nothing at all to do with core game play.

In fact Arnyas post when analyzed is a good argument for my position.

Your 'argument' was invalidated with your first sentence.

[ghettoGenius]

I think some people really miss the point of this game. Adventure, exploration, discovery, surmounting challenges as a group (or individual), these are the goals DDO aims to achieve. I think the devs did a good job of creating that atmosphere while at the same time not making it feel so linear. This isnt Gauntlet where there is basically one direction you can move in. The complexities add to the challenge and thus the rewards. You would have really been twisted if you were among the first to try out crafting lol.

Sure you do some running but not nearly as much as some MMOs and with the map, quest tabs you're getting alot of information to help you find dungeon entrances and npcs ... much more than some DMs would give you. A little patience goes a long way here.

[Aspenor]

I am pretty sure this isn't why the game isn't a "huge" success. More players leave over other things than NPC's.

What it really comes down to is stigma and name recognition. In this computerized world, Warcraft was a known game for ages and much more popular than DnD. Lord of the Rings is a massively famous name.

DnD carries a stigma of soda-swigging nerds and is not quite as popular as the aforementioned titles.

[ArekDorun]

Use the provided in-game tools to EASILY find the entrances, how easy is it to follow a big gold arrow?

Very easy....once you're in the area with the actual quest, have the quest assigned to you, and (in explorer areas) have already been to the target location at least once.

I have yet to find a way (maybe I've overlooked it, I AM new) to have the game lead you to either the entrance to an explorer area or the initial giver of a particular quest, or to give any direction at all when you're not already on the same map as the quest you want to do (I can understand the game not pointing you the way to something in an explorer area that you don't already know where is).

These are minor points, as I can use out-of-game tools to find the info I want, or simply ask in-game for a "who and where" on a particular quest/area, and go from there. It's just inconvenient.

--Arek

[cdbd3rd]

Use the provided in-game tools to EASILY find the entrances, how easy is it to follow a big gold arrow?

Equally as impossible as reading text and/or opening a map and mousing over icons...

Or moving around in a game...

Too many new folks seem to want to just stand in a spot, push a button, and have a door moved to them (al a Monsters, Inc.) to enter.

[WolfSpirit]

DnD carries a stigma of soda-swigging nerds and is not quite as popular as the aforementioned titles.

-
Hey!
I drink Beer.
AND I've been Wildly successful with girls my whole life!
I'm the Anti-Nerd in a Nerds World.
-
(sniff sniff) I love you guys!
<gulp gulp Burrrrrp>

[Healemup]

BTW: It is really annoying being asked to share Durk's got a Secret' - considering they moved the NPC to approximately 2 metres from the quest entrance (6 feet for you wierdos ).

Wow, what size monitor do you use?? I can only get it to be about a foot at most (that's 1/3 meter for you that can't judge distances). j/k

[BurnerD]

The dev team has made on ongoing effort to make the game easier for newer players. Are they done yet? probably not.

I know I started playing this game before alot of the changes were made and I was able to figure it out without too much trouble. I'm not a Harvard graduate (but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night) so I think I am probably a reasonable representation of the average gamer.

I did have a problem finding a quest giver once... and all I did was ask in the next couple of groups I joined and got the answer.

Part of the fun of a game for me is figuring things out. I do agree that a couple of the quest chains could be confusing to new players, but if you ask nicely someone will help you.

The thing you have working against you as a new player is that there is a fair number of new players who are obviously making NO effort to figure things out for themselves. They spam the general chat channel with questions they could easily find the solution to if they made even the slightest effort. Unfortunately this makes it harder for the new players who have good questions to get them answered.

Likewise you get an answer you don't like in your forum post and you immediately stereotype the rest of us and our advice. If you are naive enough to think that every post you make in these forums (or forums of any other game) will be met with only polite agreement then online gaming may not be for you.

Good luck in figuring things out. Ask around and there are many veterans who will help.

[adamkatt]

The instances are awesome. The best in online gaming.

But its such a bloody headache getting getting all the right people spoken too in the right order and finding the right guy in town that people get discouraged and quit.

Sure some people endure it and will talk about how easy it is, but you notice how many people try the game then quit? Thats the problem.

In Pen and Paper you dont have to spend 15 minutes running around the room before you start making sure you touch all the chairs in the right order. But that essentially what you have to do in this game.

It should be much easier and faster for a group of friends or a pick up group to get into a quest instance.

Yeah, i never liked puzzles either..

[Vivanto]

The only thing that's "driving people away like mad" is that it isn't spoonfeeding the newbs. But compared to what it used to be it's still a LOT more dumbed down and still all the new guys are whining about it. Guess what, we still managed to find our ways around and the game prevailed.