Positive vs. Negative Development Paths

[Samadhi]

Let's look at two ways that Turbine can take in their developmental cycle.

Negative - "Why are people leaving? What don't people like? How can we address these issues?"
Pretty straightforward, in this viewpoint, the dev team takes feedback about what people don't like, see what is most common, and try to address it.

Positive - "What makes people choose DDO over ____? What converts a onetime player into a longtime customer? Let's emphasize these traits."
This viewpoint attempts to enhance and build upon the strengths of DDO, so as to maintain what is unique about DDO, and build a larger longterm customer base.

Obviously, BOTH points of view should be incorporated into any developmental design scheme being implemented.

The question: Is this the case? Or are the lead developers, those making decisions, focusing too much on the Negative path, even if it is at the expense of the Positive path? Is the focus becoming so much on bringing in new players, that there is little attempt to build DDO's strengths / convert new players into a lasting customer base?

It would be my contention that, at least in the release we are seeing scheduled for this month, as well as the last two prior to this one, that the viewpoint is heavily slated towards the Negative path. That there is minimal attempts to build on DDO's strengths; and instead focus is very heavily slated towards making as many changes as possible to "fix the negative" even if, in the process, the positive is being sacrificed.

Now, just because this is my perception, does not make it true. Hence the post. Is this your perception as well? Do you think they are being more balanced than this presentation describes, or that it actually goes the other way? Is this tilt only showing in certain aspects of the dev cycle but not others? Thoughts?

[moops]

What baffles me about the whole 2wf/2hf change, 2d6 thing as well as the way Renown is going to work is this. .

Didn't DDO just have its biggest year ever? Just win a bunch of awards? Get the most new players? Why change it so much?

To me obviously they were doing something right, and 2d6 didn't turn that many people off, People loved the combat system ---And now we got this weird Renown system in which many people, esp new players won't qualify because they are not guilded or they can be taken advantage of which will surely turn them off. . .and it adds a whole other level of grind--which the biggest compliment I hear from new players is "I don't have to grind, I can just do the quests, I love the stories." which is followed by "I love the Combat system"

And sure people can still just do the quests, but there is a whole social aspect attached to the grind for renown.. .where as with favor no one has a clue if you've got 600 or 2600.

And while I think or guess an Airship will be cool--it seems to me like Im trying to play a whole other game, it reminds me of my moggle.

I will definitely miss checking out people in taverns, can we see other people's ships and at least wave to them?

[Eladiun]

Path Three: What will generate the most sales in the DDO store?

[Tobril]

the viewpoint is heavily slated towards the Negative path.[/B]

That's because the light path costs a lot of action points and doesn't give them a 500 point nerf-strike.

[Eladiun]

What baffles me about the whole 2wf/2hf change, 2d6 thing as well as the way Renown is going to work is this. .

Didn't DDO just have its biggest year ever? Just win a bunch of awards? Get the most new players? Why change it so much?

Success breeds arrogance.

[Drfirewater79]

Let's look at two ways that Turbine can take in their developmental cycle.

Negative - "Why are people leaving? What don't people like? How can we address these issues?"
Pretty straightforward, in this viewpoint, the dev team takes feedback about what people don't like, see what is most common, and try to address it.

Positive - "What makes people choose DDO over ____? What converts a onetime player into a longtime customer? Let's emphasize these traits."
This viewpoint attempts to enhance and build upon the strengths of DDO, so as to maintain what is unique about DDO, and build a larger longterm customer base.

Obviously, BOTH points of view should be incorporated into any developmental design scheme being implemented.

The question: Is this the case? Or are the lead developers, those making decisions, focusing too much on the Negative path, even if it is at the expense of the Positive path? Is the focus becoming so much on bringing in new players, that there is little attempt to build DDO's strengths / convert new players into a lasting customer base?

It would be my contention that, at least in the release we are seeing scheduled for this month, as well as the last two prior to this one, that the viewpoint is heavily slated towards the Negative path. That there is minimal attempts to build on DDO's strengths; and instead focus is very heavily slated towards making as many changes as possible to "fix the negative" even if, in the process, the positive is being sacrificed.

Now, just because this is my perception, does not make it true. Hence the post. Is this your perception as well? Do you think they are being more balanced than this presentation describes, or that it actually goes the other way? Is this tilt only showing in certain aspects of the dev cycle but not others? Thoughts?

Negative -

Why are people leaving?

because turbine doesn't listen ... they implement changes that cause more problems and headaches then they fix then add DDO STORE items which cost the player more money on top of there monthly sub as work arounds like +5 hearts of wood for one weekend .. .in reply to totally screwing over ranger 6 builds with update 5's BS twf changes to help crybabies who dont know how to build a dps toon do more equivalent damage on there gimped s&b toons.

I know 4 guildies that left the game this month after spending two days on lama and deciding that Turbine has no clue what the players want nor how to fix there bad coding and poor desgin flaws and rather then make the game more DnD like they take the DnD feel right out of it then remove what little dnd is left from spell discriptions too.

What don't people like?

what people dont like is dumbing down the game for the smallest denominator ... what people dont like is massive gameplay changes that take 4 years worth of hard work and grinding for weapons and items and then totally destroy all that making it seem like a complete waste of time cause some one on the dev team doesnt understand what is actually causeing the problems with there coding.

and we sure as hell dont like not being talked to when we are freaking beta testing for free.

How can we address these issues?"

we can address these issues by turbine learning to speak to the players before developing changes that screw everyone over ... and try to come up with ways that will achieve the balance and lag control issues with new gameplay systems the players dont want to quit the game over.

Positive - "What makes people choose DDO over ____?

real time combat that is directly assosiated with the name sake DnD .... oh wait that is all gone in update 5 ...

so currently its the nice graphics and shear lack of better options on the market but that wont be for long SWTOR and DCU are both due out this winter.

What converts a onetime player into a longtime customer?

community and word of mouth advertising .... again in update 5 serious lack of either .... community is in uproar more fighting and anger on forums then ever before and more people openly talking about leaving the game cause turbine has lost all sight of its DnD roots and the DnD feel in there mmo ...... now more people are wishing atari won the law suit so we could have a good DnD mmo in NwNonline.

-------------------

the truth is even people who have loved this game and fought through the hard times like me are starting to lose sight of the future of this MMO ....

it seems as though Turbine cares more about DDO store sales then they do the player base ... and who could blame them ... if players keep cycling in and out they are fine ....

I personally hope that they can turn this around cause i love this game... but as of today i am just counting the days till a better mmo hits the market so i can leave this hunk of junk and move on to something worth my monthly sub fee ...

it seems like turbine takes one step forward (pre's for example) then 10000000000 steps backward (combat changes .... DDOstore only products that where promised years earlier as in game items like respec option that wouldnt put you down to lvl 1 and cost you twice as much exp to level)

There used to be a time when i would get excited about the future of this game .... when i would spend most of my time creating what would you like to see added to this game and why threads ........

now i fear the next updates rather then get excited about them....

I fear what are they gonna screw up next ...

I fear who is getting nerfed this time ...

I fear how many of my uber toons become gimped this time ... .

I fear how much TP is fixing all the screw ups due to there changes gonna cost me ...

I fear the day when i say i would rather play wow then DDO .........

If turbine could say something to make me not have these fears .... i would be impressed ... .as for now ... .when my account is up i am changing my sub never agian will i pay for a year at a time or 6 months at a time for this PoS game.

and when i do finally leave ..... Turbine will never see another dime of mine agian ... atari is already on that list .... and if warner doesnt start kicking some turbine ass ... they will be too.

[moops]

Negative -

Why are people leaving?

because turbine doesn't listen ... they implement changes that cause more problems and headaches then they fix then add DDO STORE items which cost the player more money on top of there monthly sub as work arounds like +5 hearts of wood for one weekend .. .in reply to totally screwing over ranger 6 builds with update 5's BS twf changes to help crybabies who dont know how to build a dps toon do more equivalent damage on there gimped s&b toons.

I know 4 guildies that left the game this month after spending two days on lama and deciding that Turbine has no clue what the players want nor how to fix there bad coding and poor desgin flaws and rather then make the game more DnD like they take the DnD feel right out of it then remove what little dnd is left from spell discriptions too.

Snip

But do they even want VIP subscribers?--in reading these threads I've been quite shocked by the overwhelming amount of players who need to purchase Adventure packs to test stuff out. . .And these people are posting constantly and many have a different game view than those who have been around for awhile.

It seems that there are more Premium and f2p players now, so if the VIP people aren't on lama testing stuff or are a small minority, I don't even know how they can be heard.