An Open Letter to the Devs

[thoryndar]

I wish to preface this by stating that I do not intend this to become like every other letter concerning player desires for game changes, however, I am sure parts of it will.

With that being said:

To the Development Team, I pray that you read this carefully, and think about every point I am about to bring up.

For the record, I am an On Call Computer Systems Admin, and have been for 10 years. I am very aware of some of the technical challenges that come with coding, and I have experience with engineering (wire frame) software, but not specific to game design.

I have played 4 separate MMOs, and have Beta tested for one of them.

I have also played Dungeons and Dragons (pen and paper) since 1989, 2nd Ed, 3rd Ed, and 3.5.

In short – I have been a gamer for the majority of my life.

Friday evening, after a guild raid train, a few of us sat in the Marketplace, on voice, discussing “problems” with the game. A range of issues were brought up. I will not attempt to speak for my guild mates, who have different concerns and different experiences, but it seemed to me that we all had some gripes. For purposes of this letter, I wish to address my own.

1) Lack of High End Content

All MMOs suffer from the same problem, eventually, and that is capping. There DOES come a point when you have pretty much done all you can do. For that reason, level caps are increased, new content is introduced, and new life is breathed into the game.

It actually bothers me that with the wealth of higher level players, that new content was created for mid level charachters, especially when the ease of getting through those intended levels is a very fast one.

Right now, to me, as it stands, there isn’t a whole lot I haven’t done, and I am personally worried about the game becoming stale…which leads me to my second point.

2) Extreme Repetition

I personally run 8 characters, most of who are below level 5. This means to unlock the max amount of favor, I have to run the same quest at least 2 times (Hard, then Elite.) On 8 characters, this equals out to running the same quest 16 times. Now, why do I do this, besides XP?

For favor. So that I can unlock basic functionality of the game (IE – inventory slots.)

There are only so many times that you can run through a quest and have it remain “challenging.” Before long, you know where every chest, trap, secret door, and mob is, to the point where you can run it blind. Instead of the game being fun, and fresh, it becomes a case of boredom, something done out of necessity rather than the fun of the quest.

So, Epic Mode gets released…so I can do the quest AGAIN? For sub par upgrades? What part of this sounds like a fun time?

3) Lack of Lore

I do understand that Turbine may not have ALL rights associated with D&D. That does not excuse a lack of new monsters. “What is this guy talking about?”

Treants. Carrion Crawlers. Griffons. Archons. Angels. Named Gods / Bosses (Acererak, Asmodeus, Baba Yaga, Geryon, the Lady of Pain, Lolth, Strahd, Tarrasque, and Vecna, to name a few.)

EACH of these “Gods” could have chains upon chains of adventures associated with them.

What about “Classic Dungeons?” The Temple of Elemental Evil. Tomb of Horrors. Ghost Tower of Inverness. The Giant Series. Labyrinth of Madness.

**YES, I understand that these are 2nd Edition Dungeons. YES, I understand that we are playing in Eberron.** That does NOT mean that these couldn’t be retuned to fit in the current campaign, and I’m not even talking about exact replications, either – just something along those lines.

Part of the reason you have such a large player base is because people like me, who came from the PnP version of D&D, wanted to see, fight, and overcome these well-known figures. It’s a let down when we can’t, WHATEVER the reason is, be it licensing, or problems “fitting it into the existing world of Eberron."

We play and live in a fantasy world where the only limit to what is possible should be imagination. One of the major DRAWS of this game is that we can, LITERALLY, create whoever we WANT to be. Why can't we quest wherever we want as well?

Fighting the same skeleton at level 20 that I was fighting at level 1, just with more powerful attacks and more hit points does not make a revolutionary monster to me, and continues the problem of repetition.

4) Known Bugs Seemingly not Getting Addressed

My single biggest specific issues – the healing effect for Defender of Syberis III not kicking in, 30% striding not properly working, and Myddo not properly updating.

I know that MYDDO was / is in beta (and I'm pretty sure it is handled by a different team than the people who takes care of the game itself,) but it’s a kick to the face to see a lottery system implemented, before characters are actually being displayed properly. It’s a new paint job on a car that still has rust leaking through. Sure, the new paint looks great, BUT IT’S STILL RUSTY.

5) A Full Plate Wearing Class getting lower AC than builds with cloth

I honestly do not even want to go into this, as I am aware of the enormity of the problem, why it happened, and the only ways to “fix it,” but I DO believe a change should be made.

I want to make it a point to state – I have not said one word about the new combat system, I am NOT asking for upgrades to my equipment, I am NOT asking for you to “make things easier” for us.

I do not want ONE person reading this to think I hate the game - quite the opposite, actually. There are things that make DDO different and better than ANY other MMO out there:

The combat system is awesome.
The graphics are beautiful.
The inclusion of traps and trap removal is ground breaking.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Development Team, we, the player base, do NOT just sit here and write forum posts to you because we have nothing better to do. We write them because we love this game, and we see problems with it – GENUINE, SERIOUS problems. We try to offer suggestions, continually, in an effort to help you improve this game.

Isn’t that what you guys want?

Now comes the shocker:

I’ve only PLAYED this game for 9 months.

I am NOT one of your subscribers that have been here since day one. I am NOT one of the people who has had the “nerf bat” swung at him a thousand times.

Do you understand that after 9 months, I am already beginning to lose interest?

I beg of you, to hear me, and hear the other thousands of players who have already addressed every item I’ve discussed in this post, and thousands more, and to take steps into correcting them.

I ask you to please remember: just a year ago you guys won awards for being the best MMO available.

Is that REALLY something you guys want to let dissipate? I hope not, because today in the world of MMO’s and competition, those awards are something to be incredibly proud of.

You stand out.

I love playing this game, and I want to see it succeed. I will be here until the day you guys choose to shut down the servers for good – IF there is a fun factor and incentive to do so. If I see a decline, I cannot say the same.

Thank you for your time. ANY official responses to ANY topic I just mentioned would be appreciated.

~Thor~

[gwlech]

+1 well said.

However,

You don't understand, this all falls on deaf ears pretty much. The majority of the DDO community is blissfully unaware of these things, and is happy for low lvl content, and running ww and the depths over and over. The Devs honestly don't have much to lose from a few people on the forums.

[kingfisher]

fyi, this is how you sound to the devs

[kinar]

As far as #5 is concerned. This is the way it has been in PnP ever since the additions of monks.

[Wickednisse]

+1 rep, well said and I could not agree more!

[Darwinnon]

/signed

Nice summary of most things that make me think twice about staying on as a VIP right now...

[Missing_Minds]

I thought Venca was Grayhawk, hence would be really out of place here.

But in that same tone, I've often wondered why they haven't put in more Ebberon lore into the game. I've always guessed that it has to get OK'd by WotC so the best things they can do is create for the world in their region.

That and new monsters cost and arm and a tentacle to make.

[Uryamore]

3) Lack of Lore

Eberron is not Toril. Read up on the Eberrron lore yourself, you'll find the game is doing fairly well.

There is a lot of room for expansion within the lore, but they are doing fairly well so far.

[Angelus_dead]

2) Extreme Repetition

I personally run 8 characters, most of who are below level 5. This means to unlock the max amount of favor, I have to run the same quest at least 2 times (Hard, then Elite.) On 8 characters, this equals out to running the same quest 16 times. Now, why do I do this, besides XP?

What an incredibly comical thing to say.

[Drakos]

1) Lack of High End Content

All MMOs suffer from the same problem, eventually, and that is capping. There DOES come a point when you have pretty much done all you can do. For that reason, level caps are increased, new content is introduced, and new life is breathed into the game.
....

2) Extreme Repetition

...

There are only so many times that you can run through a quest and have it remain “challenging.” Before long, you know where every chest, trap, secret door, and mob is, to the point where you can run it blind. Instead of the game being fun, and fresh, it becomes a case of boredom, something done out of necessity rather than the fun of the quest.

...

These two are counterdictive to each other. You complain about them adding new low level quests instead of higher level content, then you turn around and say you get boared running the same low level quests over and over again to grind out favor. So which is it?

3) Lack of Lore

I do understand that Turbine may not have ALL rights associated with D&D. That does not excuse a lack of new monsters. “What is this guy talking about?”

Treants. Carrion Crawlers. Griffons. Archons. Angels. Named Gods / Bosses (Acererak, Asmodeus, Baba Yaga, Geryon, the Lady of Pain, Lolth, Strahd, Tarrasque, and Vecna, to name a few.)

You say that you want them to insert more Lore into the game, but then you mention a bunch of lore that is not part of the seeting being used in this game. Yes you try to handwave the inconsistancy by saying that they could rework the content to be more Eberron centric, but in doing so they it is no longer Lore nore recognizable, because any lore in it has been changed to become Eberron.

Take for example Asmodeus, to make him Eberron compatiable you would have to change where he is from, because Eberron conmology does not have the Nine Hells. The Eberron equilivant is not structured the same and already has a ruler.

[Lorz]

What an incredibly comical thing to say.

You said that much better than i would have....and yes it is extremely funny....but in a SAD kinda way.

[thoryndar]

These two are counterdictive to each other. You complain about them adding new low level quests instead of higher level content, then you turn around and say you get boared running the same low level quests over and over again to grind out favor. So which is it?

I think you are misunderstanding, so let me rephrase this: NEEDING to run the same quest over and over and over, so that I can unlock something BASIC becomes boring. Run STK 16 times, and tell me how much you love the quest.

Run "Invaders!" multiple times just so you can get a decent item for ONE character, and then do it for 7 more.

Flag 8 characters for Gianthold - that's 480 relics you need to collect.

Get Boots of Anchoring for 8 toons.

I didn't say I wasn't happy that they are adding content. I stated that the level range for the content they chose to implement, in my opinion, was a poor one, given that the majority of players are playing at level 16+.

You say that you want them to insert more Lore into the game, but then you mention a bunch of lore that is not part of the seeting being used in this game. Yes you try to handwave the inconsistancy by saying that they could rework the content to be more Eberron centric, but in doing so they it is no longer Lore nore recognizable, because any lore in it has been changed to become Eberron.

Take for example Asmodeus, to make him Eberron compatiable you would have to change where he is from, because Eberron conmology does not have the Nine Hells. The Eberron equilivant is not structured the same and already has a ruler.

First, I SPECIFICALLY stated: **YES, I understand that these are 2nd Edition Dungeons. YES, I understand that we are playing in Eberron.** That does NOT mean that these couldn’t be retuned to fit in the current campaign, and I’m not even talking about exact replications, either – just something along those lines.

So, because it has already been written, it can't be adjusted? You are ACTUALLY stating that no new history can be created.

Think it's a major pain to add to history and Lore?

"The Death of Horoth has caused a rift to open in the Devil's Battlefield. From the deep depths, a new evil dwells. DDO Proudly presents a new chapter : "Shavarath: The Deep" - an Adventure pack for Players Level 18-20."

I just created a new chapter in 3 sentences. I didn't mess with the exsting foundations - I built upon them. It's not THAT difficult.

Just because someone is listed as a ruler doesn't mean they neccessarily still don't bow to someone else.

[spyyder976]

I wish to preface this by stating that I do not intend this to become like every other letter concerning player desires for game changes, however, I am sure parts of it will.

With that being said:

To the Development Team, I pray that you read this carefully, and think about every point I am about to bring up.

For the record, I am an On Call Computer Systems Admin, and have been for 10 years. I am very aware of some of the technical challenges that come with coding, and I have experience with engineering (wire frame) software, but not specific to game design.

I have played 4 separate MMOs, and have Beta tested for one of them.

I have also played Dungeons and Dragons (pen and paper) since 1989, 2nd Ed, 3rd Ed, and 3.5.

In short – I have been a gamer for the majority of my life.

Friday evening, after a guild raid train, a few of us sat in the Marketplace, on voice, discussing “problems” with the game. A range of issues were brought up. I will not attempt to speak for my guild mates, who have different concerns and different experiences, but it seemed to me that we all had some gripes. For purposes of this letter, I wish to address my own.

1) Lack of High End Content

All MMOs suffer from the same problem, eventually, and that is capping. There DOES come a point when you have pretty much done all you can do. For that reason, level caps are increased, new content is introduced, and new life is breathed into the game.

It actually bothers me that with the wealth of higher level players, that new content was created for mid level charachters, especially when the ease of getting through those intended levels is a very fast one.

Right now, to me, as it stands, there isn’t a whole lot I haven’t done, and I am personally worried about the game becoming stale…which leads me to my second point.

2) Extreme Repetition

I personally run 8 characters, most of who are below level 5. This means to unlock the max amount of favor, I have to run the same quest at least 2 times (Hard, then Elite.) On 8 characters, this equals out to running the same quest 16 times. Now, why do I do this, besides XP?

For favor. So that I can unlock basic functionality of the game (IE – inventory slots.)

There are only so many times that you can run through a quest and have it remain “challenging.” Before long, you know where every chest, trap, secret door, and mob is, to the point where you can run it blind. Instead of the game being fun, and fresh, it becomes a case of boredom, something done out of necessity rather than the fun of the quest.

So, Epic Mode gets released…so I can do the quest AGAIN? For sub par upgrades? What part of this sounds like a fun time?

3) Lack of Lore

I do understand that Turbine may not have ALL rights associated with D&D. That does not excuse a lack of new monsters. “What is this guy talking about?”

Treants. Carrion Crawlers. Griffons. Archons. Angels. Named Gods / Bosses (Acererak, Asmodeus, Baba Yaga, Geryon, the Lady of Pain, Lolth, Strahd, Tarrasque, and Vecna, to name a few.)

EACH of these “Gods” could have chains upon chains of adventures associated with them.

What about “Classic Dungeons?” The Temple of Elemental Evil. Tomb of Horrors. Ghost Tower of Inverness. The Giant Series. Labyrinth of Madness.

**YES, I understand that these are 2nd Edition Dungeons. YES, I understand that we are playing in Eberron.** That does NOT mean that these couldn’t be retuned to fit in the current campaign, and I’m not even talking about exact replications, either – just something along those lines.

Part of the reason you have such a large player base is because people like me, who came from the PnP version of D&D, wanted to see, fight, and overcome these well-known figures. It’s a let down when we can’t, WHATEVER the reason is, be it licensing, or problems “fitting it into the existing world of Eberron."

We play and live in a fantasy world where the only limit to what is possible should be imagination. One of the major DRAWS of this game is that we can, LITERALLY, create whoever we WANT to be. Why can't we quest wherever we want as well?

Fighting the same skeleton at level 20 that I was fighting at level 1, just with more powerful attacks and more hit points does not make a revolutionary monster to me, and continues the problem of repetition.

4) Known Bugs Seemingly not Getting Addressed

My single biggest specific issues – the healing effect for Defender of Syberis III not kicking in, 30% striding not properly working, and Myddo not properly updating.

I know that MYDDO was / is in beta (and I'm pretty sure it is handled by a different team than the people who takes care of the game itself,) but it’s a kick to the face to see a lottery system implemented, before characters are actually being displayed properly. It’s a new paint job on a car that still has rust leaking through. Sure, the new paint looks great, BUT IT’S STILL RUSTY.

5) A Full Plate Wearing Class getting lower AC than builds with cloth

I honestly do not even want to go into this, as I am aware of the enormity of the problem, why it happened, and the only ways to “fix it,” but I DO believe a change should be made.

I want to make it a point to state – I have not said one word about the new combat system, I am NOT asking for upgrades to my equipment, I am NOT asking for you to “make things easier” for us.

I do not want ONE person reading this to think I hate the game - quite the opposite, actually. There are things that make DDO different and better than ANY other MMO out there:

The combat system is awesome.
The graphics are beautiful.
The inclusion of traps and trap removal is ground breaking.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Development Team, we, the player base, do NOT just sit here and write forum posts to you because we have nothing better to do. We write them because we love this game, and we see problems with it – GENUINE, SERIOUS problems. We try to offer suggestions, continually, in an effort to help you improve this game.

Isn’t that what you guys want?

Now comes the shocker:

I’ve only PLAYED this game for 9 months.

I am NOT one of your subscribers that have been here since day one. I am NOT one of the people who has had the “nerf bat” swung at him a thousand times.

Do you understand that after 9 months, I am already beginning to lose interest?

I beg of you, to hear me, and hear the other thousands of players who have already addressed every item I’ve discussed in this post, and thousands more, and to take steps into correcting them.

I ask you to please remember: just a year ago you guys won awards for being the best MMO available.

Is that REALLY something you guys want to let dissipate? I hope not, because today in the world of MMO’s and competition, those awards are something to be incredibly proud of.

You stand out.

I love playing this game, and I want to see it succeed. I will be here until the day you guys choose to shut down the servers for good – IF there is a fun factor and incentive to do so. If I see a decline, I cannot say the same.

Thank you for your time. ANY official responses to ANY topic I just mentioned would be appreciated.

~Thor~

Yes, if you want to play multiple toons, you will have massive repetition, it goes without saying. Don't zerg to the end or you will have nothing but extreme repetition of high-end quests while not experiencing the meat and fun of the low and mid ones. FYI, ALL games always re-use monsters and upgrade them to higher levels. This isn't something DDO created nor are they the sole perpetrators. If you are tired of extreme repetition, take a break; new mods are being made all the time. When you have 100-ish toons or even better, closer to 210, then let me know that are bored from extreme repetition, but with 8 toons below level 5, um, I just laughed at you.

[Hafeal]

So you have a 8 characters most of whom are below 5th level and you are worried about ... end game content? While end game content may be a concern for 4+ year players or power-gamers who forget what color the sun is, the amount of content now more than doubles what the game started with years ago.

In addition, we have a consistent release of content since the game converted to DDO:EU from DDO:Stormreach and a promise of content to come. Hmmm ... I am sure you will see high level content coming in the not so distant future. As it is, choices for players joining DDO today are pretty **** good, imo. No, it isn't WoW, but I don't think that is what DDo is striving to be. Further, at the end of the day, DDO tends to have players that not only want a quantity of quests, they want quality. Quality takes time - always has, always will. And some quests that come along - well, some will like them and some won't. The nice thing is, if you find a style of quest now that you don't like, you can skip it.

All in all, if you want to hear real complaints about lack of new content, you can try the lean "year" when subscribers were dropping like flies and nothing was happening, the lfm panels were deserts and the idea that there could be more than one instance of any instance was a myth.

[thoryndar]

When you have 100-ish toons or even better, closer to 210, then let me know that are bored from extreme repetition, but with 8 toons below level 5, um, I just laughed at you.

So, you laughed because I made multiple charachters, deleted some, rerolled and started new, so I could get a better sense of what each class is capable of? Interesting - I thought doing that was called "becoming a better player."

My POINT is that I've been playing 9 months, and I'm already bored. The thought of going through the quests AGAIN isn't especially appealing to me.

For the record, my main is capped, and my guild raids ToD and Shroud twice a week - you aren't talking to someone who is brand new to the game. You ARE talking to someone who has already been through all of it and is contemplating doing it all over again for little excitement.

[joaofalcao]

/signed

Especially for new monsters. Dragons are cool, but are not everything. Chimeras, Sphynx, Undead Tiranossaur(that was my first big foe in Pnp), there are a dozen of cool DnD monsters that are not yet released.

And hey, Dragonscale armor was preety cool. I Would like to make myself more armor from the hides of thing I kill.

[sirgog]

+1 well said.

However,

You don't understand, this all falls on deaf ears pretty much. The majority of the DDO community is blissfully unaware of these things, and is happy for low lvl content, and running ww and the depths over and over. The Devs honestly don't have much to lose from a few people on the forums.

Many players may buy the new adventure pack - but most likely they aren't buying it in addition to all the older content, they will be buying it *instead* of some of the other content it competes with, level-wise, like Necro 1-2, Delara's Tomb, Sentinels and so on.

[AestorTheKnight]

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Development Team, we, the player base, do NOT just sit here and write forum posts to you because we have nothing better to do. We write them because we love this game, and we see problems with it – GENUINE, SERIOUS problems. We try to offer suggestions, continually, in an effort to help you improve this game.

Isn’t that what you guys want?

This is definitely true

Lot of good points in here too.