Either Turbine is crazy, or...

[Entelech]

Turbine just made a big DDO store announcement.

(1) Update 7 goes live October 20th. Races go live for Premium / F2P in the store on the 22nd.

(2) Prices for existing races will be changing at that time.

(3) Drow will now be MORE EXPENSIVE THAN WARFORGED.

Clearly, it's that third point that got me scratching my head.



Either Turbine's marketing department has gone insane (which is entirely possible) or they've got an unannounced improvement to Drow coming up with U7. And it's one that they're not going to need to do much coding for, or we'd already be seeing it on Lamannia.

And I have a guess, just a guess, as to what this might be. Let the rampant speculation begin.

My theory is that they're removing the 28-point build lockdown on Drow.

Instead of being 28 point builds on first life, and 30/32 on first and subsequent TR's, they'll be able to use Champion status and be 28 or 32 on first life, then 34/36 on TR's like everyone else.

(1) They're not making any money off Champion Status or Greater Reincarnates from Drow players.

(2) It's a source of confusion for new players.

(3) Even with the extra stat points, Drow are hardly going to be overpowered given their useless SR and terrible weapon lines. Especially standing next to some raging Half Orc Barbarian with a Min2 Greataxe and Titan Gloves.

(4) It would give Drow a clear reason for players to pick them. More stat points.

[Cam_Neely]

my guess is that only people that dont care about price buy the drow. Its very easy to unlock for free via favor, so the people that buy it are the ones that come in and buy it without knowing to much about the game. I figure the drow sales are very low currently, and wont change much with the price change.

[MrCow]

(3) Drow will now be MORE EXPENSIVE THAN WARFORGED.

Drow are already more expensive than Warforged (Drow - 795 Turbine Points, Warforged - 595 Turbine Points). They just increased the price of both races by 200 Turbine Points.

[SINIBYTE]

It's a balancing act, if the price differential between WF and HOrc was too vast, people would opt to buy the significantly cheaper one. Since they're so close in price now(with the price change), peope will say "oh well, it's only another 200 points, I'll go with the more expensive option".

[TheDearLeader]

Drow are just that cool? Or something like that... >.>

I dunno. Playing a drow was fun, because my locals DMs normally wouldn't allow it. Then I realized that the point-buy system really wasn't going to favor Drow.
And that Drow don't get SR like they do in PnP (11+Class Level),
or Darkvision,
or Spell-like abilities.

So its.. literally just a dark elf. And elf with extra pigmentation. With stats in three different places, where most classes will only need one or maybe two of those stats.

[Memnir]

This is because Drow are, and I quote, just that cool!

[Entelech]

True, this could also be a "let's rip off the newbies" strategy. Turbine has run with that one before. After all, if they were linking price to popularity and power, then Warforged would be 2000 TP and Drow would be free.

Maybe I haven't been playing long enough to have QUITE lost all hope.

[rimble]

I bet Drow sell pretty well. They're deceptively seductive with their +2 to three stats and -2 to one (undervalued by noobs) stat vs Warforgeds +2 to one (undervalued by noobs) stat and -2 to two stats. Drow also get that Drizzt attraction (which is of course an entirely different type of Drow), and many don't find the robots "D&D-like".

[Memnir]

True, this could also be a "let's rip off the newbies" strategy.

The Store is a pretty good indicator that P.T. Barnum's theory on the birthrate is pretty spot-on.

[SINIBYTE]

Drow would be free

Technically, ...they are.

[delicious.crab]

I'm VIP and I've spent some $$$ in the turbine store for things like bank space and other QoL stuff... but I bought the drow with favor. I think I may just do the same here. (Although it looks like it'll take a lot longer.)

[therobb]

It's all about aesthetics.

All the vampire loving goth kids want to play drow characters.

[Darsith]

Turbine just made a big DDO store announcement.
-snip-

For the life of me I can not seem to find a date related to any of those posts. Myself and many others in my guild have been eagerly awaiting the announced date of this release.

[Eladiun]

my guess is that only people that dont care about price buy the drow. Its very easy to unlock for free via favor, so the people that buy it are the ones that come in and buy it without knowing to much about the game. I figure the drow sales are very low currently, and wont change much with the price change.

Agreed, unlocking Drow is trivial. Why would anyone actually buy them unless they totally did not understand the favor system?

[Entelech]

For the life of me I can not seem to find a date related to any of those posts. Myself and many others in my guild have been eagerly awaiting the announced date of this release.

Wowsers.

They changed the splash page for the DDO store announcement.

This page, which you get to by following the "Read more here" link in the original announcement, listed the races as available October 20 for VIP and October 22 for purchase.

It no longer lists a date.

[Kace]

Warforged: very tough, only way to get 'em is to buy em, = cheap

Drow: very weak, get them for free just starting the game = expensive


The only thing I can think of is they have drow artificially high in the expectation that no one will buy them, but when they've earned the favor points to unlock them, it will appear they get something valuable?

Marketing guys don't play ddo, but have googled Salvatore and got dollar signs in their eyes?

They made drow cool but since nobody plays them, no one on Lammannia noticed? And then I guess they'd have to bump up the favor unlock to 4000?

[Diib]

My honest guess is that for some (many?) The drow's equivalent of a 32 point build is what makes it more attractive than a WF. A casual reading of the material under the compendium could lead one to think that the prices of WF + 32 point characters combined is a much more expensive purchase than getting a "32 point equivalent" character and a sweet looking race in the deal.

If you see the drow price as including the race and a fast way to a 32 point character AND don't really understand the favor system, suddenly the drow pricing would make sense... and perhaps even seem attractive.


Or maybe they really are just that cool?

[Entelech]

The argument that "marketing people are ignorant morons" is also a theory that's hard to argue against.

Unfortunately.

But to be brutally honest, I don't think your average Marketing twit will be aware of Salvatore's novels if they don't play the game they're responsible for promoting.

Most of the marketing types I've intereacted with are too busy shopping for clothes to do any reading at all.

[Bilger]

The way I see it is they are making drow more expensive because they are considered

1. a favor character and

2. 32 pointer in a way.

Where the WF are 28 pointers if haven't bought 32 pointers.

That is probably there reasoning behind it or atleast my geuss to why the drow are more expensive.

[Rasczak]

lol Drow are more because they are technically 32pt characters...bunch of muppets....also while we sit here knowing that a drow is terrible if you have 32pt's, Drow sell.....they cool....they just better off standing at the back while the big boys do the job