Saving DDO, The New Forgotten Realms Era.

[Mercureal]

Sorry for the length of this, but hopefully this will show some insight.

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You know, I'll admit, it's not the perfect solution, in fact, it may not even be a good solution, but it is a solution.

And when you consider "the sundering" or whatever the revamp to FR is called, is on the horizon, something should be done to address it and monopolize upon it, because there is this really great opportunity to pull in a lot of FR fans to this game setting up right in front of us, and it would be a shame to see such an moment go to waste.

You've clearly put a lot of thought into this, expended a fair bit of of effort with all of the typing and responding, and you seem to have good intentions.

But you don't honestly think that anyone at Turbine is going to do anything with this, do you? I don't think they're in the market for unsolicited and massively system-changing suggestions.

[Talon_Moonshadow]

Well, this is a great question, assuming that it is not a rhetorical question.

I mean on one hand, we could say that a lot of what we see going on, is just the ebb and flow of a game and a company, staff comes and goes, log-ins peak and dip with the seasons, it's just the nature of the game.

We could even attribute it's state to the fact that it is an 8 year old game, and this is just the nature of things in the market, and DDO, as far as it's standing, is in fact doing quite well. It may be seeing better returns in then it has in years, and is in fact on a growth spurt, and that the lay-offs could have been nothing more then a legitimate reorganization to optimize productivity.

And if that is the case, then this idea is just one of countless others to get lost in the wind, and blow away, good or bad being meaningless attributes to apply to it as it is not needed and thus a worthless idea at it's inception.

I was serious. (sorta)

I've been hearing for eight years now how DOOMED! the game game is.

I do believe we are getting less and less new players.
I do believe many old players have moved on.

But we seem to be getting new content faster than before.
(of course I am still scarred from the "coming soon" days)

IMO, it doesn't need saving.


However.....
I have never understood why Turbine does not advertise this game very much.

Advertising is what every company does to market their products, yet I see next to zero advertising for this game.

If it does need saving, IMO you save it through advertising.

[Orratti]

There are already ways in place to keep new players separate from vets. Guilds, chat channels, leveling stones. epic content grinds. Does epic tr start you off at lvl 1?

It would be easy for turbine to separate new players from vets. Just put vets in higher lvl content and keep them there.

As for adding a whole new chain of leveling content with the intent of keeping vets out by making the loot low powered, well that certainly wouldn't have worked for me. That would be the first place I would gravitate towards. New leveling content with no monty haul yep I'd be there in a minute.

You really want to save DDO? Buy it from Turbine.

[Rixaen]

2nd E boxxed realms set came with a premade adventure called shadow dale. one of the 0 lvl npcs in town is walking around with a magical belt, you have a guy who detects magic, that 0 lvl commoner is as good as dead. Guess what its a belt of stone giant strength.

From there a well played group can and will aquire a **** load of adamantine, and an entire group of freed from slavery dwarven smiths who with any kind of diplomancy will happily reward their saviors with entire gear kits of the stuff. Even my guys tent spikes where made of addy after that. Not to mention your now have a great underground base of operations to buff up and encourage the dwarves to maintain and defend, bring down some human allies from the dales, and boom time to start a under dark adventure making war upon the drow.

This all from a lvl 1-3 premade adventure to get you started in the realms.

Since you are blind OP here you go, and yes this guy is 100% correct about the starting premade module that came with the FR boxxed set for 2nd ed. My own experiences in it where similar where we all ended up with loyal dwarven allies and a virtually unlimited supply of adamantine.

[Ungood]

Deal.
As soon as you stop with the idea threads. They're both on the same level, content-wise.

LOL. Sorry Mem, again, not going to happen, but do feel free to stop in and drop a picture with your obligatory nihilist response

[Memnir]

LOL. Sorry Mem, again, not going to happen, but do feel free to stop in and drop a picture with your obligatory nihilist response

Obligatory nihilism? Hardly, my friend. I agree with good ideas, only heaping derision and nihilism upon the bad ones.

I'll leave it to you to extrapolate from that what you will.

[Ungood]

You've clearly put a lot of thought into this, expended a fair bit of of effort with all of the typing and responding, and you seem to have good intentions.

But you don't honestly think that anyone at Turbine is going to do anything with this, do you? I don't think they're in the market for unsolicited and massively system-changing suggestions.

Of course not. But it's like watching a your buddies taking trash and then one of them turns to you and says "Hold my beer and watch this". As you put down your Rolling Rock, and take that cold frosty Samuel Adams in your hand, while your wife is rushing to get the Go-Pro, you can't help but say "You know man, I wouldn't do that if I was you"

Well, You know, they are not going to listen to you, just as assuredly as you know you are going to finish off their beer while they are being hefted out of the pile of shredded skin and blood by the paramedics who will take them to the hospital.

But, I just had to say something. If they listen, they listen, if they don't, then they don't. I saw a problem, I tried voice a solution, if they read this and it starts a reaction to a totally different idea, then good for that too.

Such is what it is.

[Ungood]

Since you are blind OP here you go, and yes this guy is 100% correct about the starting premade module that came with the FR boxxed set for 2nd ed. My own experiences in it where similar where we all ended up with loyal dwarven allies and a virtually unlimited supply of adamantine.

Yah I read that.. Addy and a single belt, assuming of course killing the guy does not make you outlaws, with a bounty upon your head now, barred from most towns, and all that joyous fun.

But still, a belt of Giant Str and some Addy armor, is not much, it's not even +1 armor, it's just "Addy Armor"

And I bet, tent spikes meant that his DM was laying on the "here is a ton of stuff for you because I want you to like me" routine.

[Ungood]

Obligatory nihilism? Hardly, my friend. I agree with good ideas, only heaping derision and nihilism upon the bad ones.

I'll leave it to you to extrapolate from that what you will.

Mem, ever since I have started to read your posts, you have presented nothing but a depressingly nihilistic approach to almost everything Turbine has done, including letting you into the Mournlands Program, and according to you, their one good idea has been the anniversary cards.

We shall just have to deal with the fact that we won't share the same view on what is a good idea or a bad one, such is life. Moving on.

[Memnir]

Mem, ever since I have started to read your posts, you have presented nothing but a depressingly nihilistic approach to almost everything Turbine has done, including letting you into the Mournlands Program, and according to you, their one good idea has been the anniversary cards.

Then you've either not been reading my posts for very long - or you don't pay very close attention to what you read.


C'est la vie.

[Ungood]

Then you've either not been reading my posts for very long - or you don't pay very close attention to what you read.

Just the last 3 years or so, and I am not the first one point this out to you. Just go read what you had to say about the player council to get a feel for your vibe on this forums, come on, you even made a whole post about wanting to leave the game, but don't listen to me, go ask someone you trust to tell you the truth, and then ask them if you have been acting like depressed nihilist or not. If they say "No", then you get to cling to that and go back to posting happy pictures again.

In the end, I disagree with you on this, and since you did not offer any reason at all to agree with you, this exchange is settled.

[Memnir]

So you really haven't been paying attention, then. Good to know.

You can disagree with me, that's fine. It just seems like disagreeing with you that's the cardinal sin. You've made that crystal clear by now, Un. I won't sully your precious thought-experiments any more and make you spastic with unrest over the unmitigated gall in doing so. I'll just read em and laugh to myself. Because as funny as my pics are at times - brother, the idea that this would improve the game is funnier by far. Your observations in general are pretty good jokes, as well.

Ciao, Un. Have the last word if you want. Because like all the other words you post - it won't mean much in the end. I only kept at it this long to see if I was right about you or not. You didn't disappoint, and I wasn't wrong. The exchange is indeed over, at least for me, because you simply aren't worth continuing on with.

[Ungood]

So you really haven't been paying attention, then. Good to know.

You can disagree with me, that's fine. It just seems like disagreeing with you that's the cardinal sin. You've made that crystal clear by now, Un. I won't sully your precious thought-experiments any more and make you spastic with unrest over the unmitigated gall in doing so. I'll just read em and laugh to myself. Because as funny as my pics are at times - brother, the idea that this would improve the game is funnier by far. Your observations in general are pretty good jokes, as well.

Ciao, Un. Have the last word if you want. Because like all the other words you post - it won't mean much in the end. I only kept at it this long to see if I was right about you or not. You didn't disappoint, and I wasn't wrong. The exchange is indeed over, at least for me, because you simply aren't worth continuing on with.

I was going to respond with some jab to try and put you in your place, but really, that never works, people get defensive, they get full of themselves, and their vanity and pride get in the way of being reasonable, and nothing but trite stupid posts follow. This exchange being a prime example of that, which I guess you are really no better then anyone else here, which is a shame, because I had in the past thought highly of you, which is why I was rather upset that you post something so flippant, then be rather nasty about your reasons for doing so, in the end I am rather bemused I was wrong about you.

But hey, I have been wrong in the past, what's one more thing to be wrong about.

[Ungood]

I was serious. (sorta)

I've been hearing for eight years now how DOOMED! the game game is.

I do believe we are getting less and less new players.
I do believe many old players have moved on.

But we seem to be getting new content faster than before.
(of course I am still scarred from the "coming soon" days)

IMO, it doesn't need saving.

If that is true, then this idea has no worth.

However.....
I have never understood why Turbine does not advertise this game very much.

Advertising is what every company does to market their products, yet I see next to zero advertising for this game.

If it does need saving, IMO you save it through advertising.

Actually, this game gets a lot of web advertisement space, it commonly makes the list on "Top Free MMOs" on most charts, along with LOTR.

So, people looking for an MMO to play will see DDO exists. They were the Game of the Week a while back on Steam, when they first went that route.

There is no lack of it's presence in the MMO world, MMORPG has written several articles about DDO, and Turbine and DDO in particular are hailed as the Company and MMO that made the move to make MMO's Free to Play, and there are more Blogs and Gamer Reviews, both good and bad, that talk about DDO, then you can shake a stick at. It's out there, and it's known. It has Buzz going on about it all the time.

So, when you say "Advertisement" what do you mean? What do think they should be doing? What More could they be doing?

[the_one_dwarfforged]

i dont think this idea really makes a whole lot of sense. i could see the appeal but not at this stage of ddo. from a practical viewpoint it definately makes no sense and will likely never happen because it would mean turbine has to backtrack on stuff theyve already paid for. as far as the community and interactions with noobs goes, i do what i can to not be a complete dbag to them but i dont always succeed. basically making a whole new game, or really any change to game play big or small wont make people who are unwilling to make the effort i try to do things any differently. if i thought there were noobs in the game who could be mentored i would invite them to my guild and teach...but i left an lfm up for elite korthos recently and didnt get a single hit after going afk for about 30 minutes. if ddo needs saving and/or can be i think i agree a lot with the guy who said advertising will be the way. on the other hand though ddo is a very niche game. probably going to stay more or less the way it is now until it finally ends i think.

[the_one_dwarfforged]

What More could they be doing?

not pando/awesomium/akamai **** that probably deters potential new players who would rather not invest in a game that doing fishy stuff

[BigErkyKid]

For the purpose of separating vets from newbies, which by the way is an excellent idea, why not just think of a clever LFM option to sort them out? For instance, while this might not be feasible, an option to leave out all TRs.

I do dislike, a lot, the current power creep. And I do agree that a lot of veterans are the worst publicity for the game. Just perhaps setting up a whole new world is a bit much and probably not a priority for turbine.

PS - By the way, impressed at the politeness of your answers. Just a suggestion I wish I could follow, do not play with the trolls.