Introduction! And a brief Producer's Letter.

[ProducerRowan]

Hello! I’m Aaron Campbell, the new Franchise Director for Dungeons & Dragons Online.

Some of you may know me from The Lord of the Rings Online where I’ve managed production (most recently as Senior Producer) since 2006. In reality I’ve only moved about four rows over, so I’m closer to Erik Boyer (Senior Producer Glin) than Kate Paiz (Executive Producer for LOTRO). Like always, I still see them both every morning.

My first day on the job, the DDO team gave me a trivia challenge. I’ve been playing D&D for almost 30 years now, but I barely passed. It went something like this….

Q: What is your favorite edition of D&D?
A: AD&D 1st Edition, although I started with the red box “Basic” set.
Q: What is your favorite class?
A: Paladin (the 1st Edition version, complete with vow of poverty)
Q: What is your favorite setting?
A: Dragonlance… no, Planescape. Auuugghh!*

We’ve got a great year planned for you, headed into 2014. Here are some highlights.

Update 19: The Shadowfell Conspiracy! Level cap to 28, new adventure areas in Wheloon and the Stormhorn mountains, and of course new Iconic races.
Update 20 (late 2013): Epic True Reincarnation! (We’re still gathering your feedback and input)
Update 21 (early 2014): A new threat (complete with multiple dragons), and a tribute to a classic Forgotten Realms module.

And more…

The team is thrilled to be going strong after over 7 years online, especially as we approach Dungeons & Dragons 40th Anniversary in 2014. We owe our success to you, our dedicated fans. Thank you for loving this game – we’ll keep making it bigger and better.

*All respect to Monty Python.

[Tscheuss]

Nice to meet you, sir.

Now, with all due respect, could you all please fix and finish the old stuff before piling on the new stuff?

Please?

[enochiancub]

Welcome, and thanks for the letter.

I sincerely apologize for what this thread is about to become.

[Fedora1]

Hello and welcome.

Okay break's over, back to work with you. Go on, go!

[Grubbby]

Welcome.

I'd say more, but I don't quite know what the role and responsibilities of a Franchise Director are, so... just... Welcome.

[GoldyGopher]

Welcome to the Dark Side.... wait a second...

Could you tell us in general terms what you do in your new position?

[Grosbeak07]

Welcome, and thanks for the letter.

I sincerely apologize for what this thread is about to become.

Yep. Welcome.

Better put on a flame retardant suit...

[Tyrande]

Hello! I’m Aaron Campbell, the new Franchise Director for Dungeons & Dragons Online.

Welcome to DDO!

Some of you may know me from The Lord of the Rings Online[...]

Tried to play a hunter on LOTRO but stopped at level 18. Can't get myself to play LOTRO again...
I even purchased a collector's edition of the LOTRO box but sold it later on due to lack of playing.

Update 20 (late 2013): Epic True Reincarnation! (We’re still gathering your feedback and input)

If you could update us with the direction of where this is going? We were discussing this in our Fall Of Truth raid last night and some were confused, some of them were silent, hopefully some news coming from you.

Update 21 (early 2014): A new threat (complete with multiple dragons), and a tribute to a classic Forgotten Realms module.

Multiple Dragons? As in young dragons like the Fall of Truth? Doesn't seem that new. Or is it multiple dragon heads on one dragon, i.e. a hydra or a mutated ancient wyrm?

P.S. Oh yes, you better have purchased extra fire insurance!

[Teh_Troll]

Q: What is your favorite edition of D&D?
A: AD&D 1st Edition, although I started with the red box “Basic” set.

I like you already.

[Teh_Troll]

Q: What is your favorite setting?
A: Dragonlance… no, Planescape. Auuugghh!*.

Dude . . . you make a Planescape expansion and you'll turn this grumpy old troll into the biggest Turbine fanboi in existence.

An expansion . .. with a set of packs for each plane to come out every month or two . . . it'll be like crack to Whitney Houston.

[Teh_Troll]

Q: What is your favorite class?
A: Paladin (the 1st Edition version, complete with vow of poverty)

This class needs your help, badly!

[Dandonk]

Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome

[FuzzyDuck81]

A tribute to a classic forgotten realms module... hmm, my money's on some kinda similar thing to undermountain, which would be a great chance to show off all the upcoming changes to stealth & dungeoneering mechanics (lotsa lil hidden thingies to ferret out etc) plus would have plenty of scope for a wide variety of different monsters, some puzzles & other challenges instead of the more typical "just kill everything" stuff.

[Cynning]

welcome to DDO!

Any plans to?
1) Introduce new base Weapons? Spear, Flail, ect.,
2) Introduce any new Player Races?
3) Introduce any new Player Classes? (other than the proposed Iconics)
4) Plans to tackle old bugs/new ones introduced with new expansions?
5( Intentions to Epify old quests (which seems to have died already as new quests are being introduced that do not have epic access)
6) Fix Loading Screen issues?
7) Fix access to forums for most Browsers? I think this turns off new players researching/exploring for a new game, not to mention 7 years of data that is no longer accessable to the majority of players?
8) Provide In Game GM's with more opportunities to help players as opposed to the generic "I'm sorry but..."
9) Continue to Epify /Update old outdated gear?
10) With Enhancement Changes to provide an opportunity for players to "redo" their toons conpletely from scratch while retaining current xp and ED's. While few builds will be broken, the reality is that some will and that is a major turn off for the game.


I'm sure you have a lot of great ideas and we have a lot of wonderful things coming, but I think these are a summary of a lot of the questions most asked on the forums. Thanks, and again, Welcome to DDO!


Battlehawke

[Lerincho]

I truly hope that you will take us in a better direction than your predecessors. The direction over the past two years has been appalling considering the treatment of VIPs/founders and types of content focused on in regards to very trivial things being reworked prior to major, long existing bugs.

How about some insight into new races (i.e. GNOMES)? New classes (Psionics)? Maybe some fun with character customization by being able to adjust height/weight?

[HatsuharuZ]

Tell you what, if you can somehow add Castle Anthrax to the game (possibly as part of a new Shavarath adventure pack), I'll go VIP just so I can play it.

However... I have no idea what you actually do, or how you are going to affect DDO as a result....

[ProducerRowan]

A few answers...

I manage production (building stuff) and the business (balancing our checkbook) much like Fernando Paiz. Same role, different title.

About weapon types, we've discussed whips and chains. Shadar-Kai get the first taste of this. It fits thematically.

We've also discussed Gnomes, but the way we'd have to distort Dwarf bodies is quite disturbing and may violate the Geneva convention. So this one is not on the roadmap (at this point).

[Teh_Troll]

I truly hope that you will take us in a better direction than your predecessors. The direction over the past two years has been appalling considering the treatment of VIPs/founders and types of content focused on in regards to very trivial things being reworked prior to major, long existing bugs.

How about some insight into new races (i.e. GNOMES)? New classes (Psionics)? Maybe some fun with character customization by being able to adjust height/weight?

A new producer gets an open mind and a fresh start as far as I'm concerned.

I just hope I don't regret my probably foolish optimism.

[Tocawe]

Welcome to the better Turbine game.

Update 20 (late 2013): Epic True Reincarnation! (We’re still gathering your feedback and input)
Update 21 (early 2014): A new threat (complete with multiple dragons), and a tribute to a classic Forgotten Realms module.

Thanks for the timeline.

I'll assume Update 21 is set in the Forgotten Realms, even though the wording doesn't confirm it 100%.

As someone who aren't a fan of FR, I really hope Update 20 is set in Eberron. Otherwise we would go 2 years with only one new raid on no new quests set in Eberron. Dark Sun or Planescsape would also be acceptable, of course.

[Charononus]

Update 20 (late 2013): Epic True Reincarnation! (We’re still gathering your feedback and input)

Feedback to your proposals was almost universally negative. In all seriousness what more do you need to gather, 90% or so at a guess of your players(customers) that felt strongly enough to post hated the proposal.