Question on update decisions...

[AMDarkwolf]

I just wonder... is it the practice for turbine now, when developing new content, to just 'push it though' and 'IF' there's no HUGE negative reaction, let said content go live?

It seems to me that a lot of 'low quality' decisions have been made in the last year by turbine, every one seemingly a 'frantic grab' for new cash, with little(if any) thought put toward the product's long term vision. The offerwall is one of those examples (QUICK lets sell our clients emails) and this new crafting fiasco(Which, logically, you reverted) and now this 'new' new crafting fiasco (Lets require max possible favor grind to craft. YAY more monies for those packs nobody wants)

Do you not remember the promise (God help me, I wish I could find and link it) where you guys said something to the effect of 'Crafting will give our more casual players, those who do not have time to raid, or run some of the longer quests, an alternative to greensteels and raid gear!'

I do understand you need to make money, but it seems each update in the past(Even the 'new free' packs) were just attempts to 'SELL' more **** from the ddo store. I do get that you need to keep the bucks flowing, but do u have to be so obvious? Is Turbine really in such danger of going belly up that you need to do this?

Wouldn't it be better for you, and us, if you provided more 'options' to change our 'look' and sold that(and many would buy, look how many bought the crappy armor kits u made) or is your development team so thinned out?

All I ask, turbine, is please TALK to your players and get feed back and LISTEN to that feedback before u push content though. Its nice that in this case u did, But it seems to me u do it reverse. (AKA Push content though and hope we dont' hate on it too much, if not, u think 'we does good works' and let it go live)

[Lavek]

good post

[rodallec]

imagine how many boring posts someone or some people would have to read about all the silly stuff players want implemented...

but yeah more communication with community please!

[Claymorep]

Yes, it should be wonderfull!

Why can't they use Genasi way of developing? If I understood well:

He do his research
then develop new usable and niche items,
then post in a tread and wait reactions and ideas
then he changes when needed
we have good items
and woila!

All happy, nice work and a sign that in Turbine there is someone that listen players for a long term and nice game.

Is this so hard to do?

[insaneuou]

Nice post!

[Tammuz]

I'm reading about the Offer Wall; seems I missed it as I had not come back yet. Whats the 'new' crafting VS the 'new' new crafting?

[Mister_Peace]

Whats the 'new' crafting VS the 'new' new crafting?

The "new" crafting involves using raid loot and tome-page-turnins as ingredients, along with astral diamonds or tomes or epic tokens.

The new "new" crafting doesn't use raid loot or tome-page-turnins, but may use other difficult-to-get items such as yugoloth or silver flame potions. It may still use astral diamonds or tomes or epic tokens. We don't know exactly what it involves, because it WASN'T PREVIEWED before being released live.

[Symar-FangofLloth]

I just wonder... is it the practice for turbine now, when developing new content, to just 'push it though' and 'IF' there's no HUGE negative reaction, let said content go live?

Changes that don't involve class tweaks, new or revamped missions, and other similar types of content are often skipped over the "preview" servers.
Its nothing new for Turbine, really, its just that it really hasn't been this insane of an idea before.

[whitehawk74]

I thought that the new business model was to give us Part 1 and 2 of an area for free and the other 4 parts were Pay2Play or VIP. Reminds me of the old ShareWare days.
I think it worked great for the Lordsmarch Plaza Quests.

... and yes, I think it would be fantastic if the developers communicated more, even if it was to say 'no'. Silence is irritating.
I've seen some great ideas here that could make Turbine more money, but as they dont reply I can only assume that these ideas wont be implemented.
I wonder if they even read them.

[AMDarkwolf]

I thought that the new business model was to give us Part 1 and 2 of an area for free and the other 4 parts were Pay2Play or VIP. Reminds me of the old ShareWare days.
I think it worked great for the Lordsmarch Plaza Quests.

Yes, and I (and so many others) FULLY support this business move, its smart for them, its good for us(we get to 'preview' stuff) and its fun. Hell even if only part 1 is f2p and parts 2-4 are p2p im good with it, if one don't like the 'general' feel of a pack, he/she can avoid, or if like me, if you like the look of the items, you buy.

but requiring item shop items just to upgrade, or to 'be on level' with others bypasses BOTH the premium and vip's -- it pretty much forces EVERYONE to drop cash in the store, even your vips who stood by you though the thick and the thin. (Im not vip, and never have been, but I feel these guys deserve some respect, a lot more than they get.)

Im not down with your crafting direction, Im not down with the 'use astral diamonds' move, and for the most part, Im not down with the 'this is our idea of casual playing, all 1500 hours spent doing it' thing.

Turbine: Powered by your fans --- > How about you learn what that means turbine. Let us have some say.

[Seikojin]

Yes, and I (and so many others) FULLY support this business move, its smart for them, its good for us(we get to 'preview' stuff) and its fun. Hell even if only part 1 is f2p and parts 2-4 are p2p im good with it, if one don't like the 'general' feel of a pack, he/she can avoid, or if like me, if you like the look of the items, you buy.

but requiring item shop items just to upgrade, or to 'be on level' with others bypasses BOTH the premium and vip's -- it pretty much forces EVERYONE to drop cash in the store, even your vips who stood by you though the thick and the thin. (Im not vip, and never have been, but I feel these guys deserve some respect, a lot more than they get.)

Im not down with your crafting direction, Im not down with the 'use astral diamonds' move, and for the most part, Im not down with the 'this is our idea of casual playing, all 1500 hours spent doing it' thing.

Turbine: Powered by your fans --- > How about you learn what that means turbine. Let us have some say.

Uh, you missed the memo. All over the place Madfloyd mentions that the additional items for crafting being a mistake. But the tomes and diamonds to purified dragonshards... He wants feedback on that, not complaints. And to make those shards, you can use item shop items, or find them as loot in the game. I didn't see any shop only items for ingredient requirements.

[Seikojin]

Development schedules are the reason you have this. Someone who does not talk to the community sets a time and tells everyone else if they are flexible on that time.

To make that timeline, bugs have to be let go. So they are looked at and considered against that timeline. Then you get the whole 'if this will cost us more to fix after it is released' situation where if the answer is yes, they hold off on the release until it is good.

That is common business everywhere.

I would like more feedback from the devs too. But they have a lot of work in front of them.

[whitehawk74]

I dont think i have met many casual players. Honestly I dont think MMOs should cater to the person who occasionally drops in for 2 hours on a weekend.
2+ hours a day would be more like it. Way more for me and those I run with.

[wisdomstorment]

I dont think i have met many casual players. Honestly I dont think MMOs should cater to the person who occasionally drops in for 2 hours on a weekend.
2+ hours a day would be more like it. Way more for me and those I run with.

I'm a "casual player" in terms of gametime. I have a job, a family and studies that take up the bulk of my life. I "drop-in" for about 3-4 hours every weekend to chill out with an online version of a game I've been playing since the late 80's. I usually run in a static guild with people I've gamed with for over two decades, all of whom are geographically separated and have lives and commitments of their own now. I PUG when my guildies are not available. I've paid money to Turbine to get packs and options I feel are relevant to me. You're saying that DDO shouldn't cater for someone like me?

The beauty of MMO's are that they allow one to game in a manner of their own choosing - soloers, groups, powergamers, casual players, etc, etc. Why shouldn't they be allowed to enjoy the game in their own way?

[Letrii]

What is this offerwall?

[sigtrent]

What is this offerwall?

It was a way you could get turbine points by taking surveys or buying products from other companies. The problem was that the folks who Turbine contracted to provide that service were notorious for selling your information to yet other companies and some of the offers were pretty close to fraudulent.

At the time it was a very popular model for facebook games and such to make money with. The fan community here is pretty sharp and knew a lot about how underhanded the company was (not Turbine, the other one) and voiced their disgust that Turbine would throw their customers under the buss like that.

Turbine very quickly took it down. I think they didn't quite realize either how shady that company was, or how dramatically their fans would react to it. At any rate their response was swift and the offer wall was history within the week. Unlike what the poster says though, it was more than a year ago, more like two years back, very early in Free to Play.

[Letrii]

It was a way you could get turbine points by taking surveys or buying products from other companies. The problem was that the folks who Turbine contracted to provide that service were notorious for selling your information to yet other companies and some of the offers were pretty close to fraudulent.

At the time it was a very popular model for facebook games and such to make money with. The fan community here is pretty sharp and knew a lot about how underhanded the company was (not Turbine, the other one) and voiced their disgust that Turbine would throw their customers under the buss like that.

Turbine very quickly took it down. I think they didn't quite realize either how shady that company was, or how dramatically their fans would react to it. At any rate their response was swift and the offer wall was history within the week. Unlike what the poster says though, it was more than a year ago, more like two years back, very early in Free to Play.

I've used something like that for Station Cash before.

[Letrii]

Complaints about them being a terrible choice of ingredients is a form of feedback.

[Cyr]

Complaints about them being a terrible choice of ingredients is a form of feedback.

^ This.

Seriously people need to get it the memo. Negative feedback is still feedback and just valid as positive feedback. Sometimes people do not like something. That is important to know.

[scottmike0]

Im just glad the the crafting madness is subsided so that we can get back to questing and collecting te real loot!