Not Dead

[acdccod]

Everyone says DDO is dead,elite players don't care about the average player. I usually don't group but I was on Thelanis and said what the hell I'll join these groups even though I'm under powered I told them that before I joined mind you all. What a night 2 groups I got 250k xp and the nicest groups I've ever been in. They had patience, Came back and helped me finish quest. Just want to say thanks to those players on Thalanis DDO is still alive and kicking.

[ivstuntman]

thelanis has been the raid server for quit some time. Pathfinder has been hurtin, and my argo has been small as well.

[Enoach]

I am so glad to hear one other person has realized that there are lots of nice people in game to play with.

Glad you had a great time - Shout out to those unknown/named people that included you and left a good impression.

[katz]

i just returned after quite a long break, and despite the doom n gloom... the LFMs are about as active as they were when i left. i've joined a few groups here and there... everyone's been nice.

[SiliconScout]

The only (and I honestly think ONLY) true plus from making the game so damned easy (for the most part) is that jerks don't NEED to group anymore so they don't tend to show up in groups.

Unfortunately we lost quite a few good players to get there and I wouldn't say it was a net positive.

[Chilldude]

Everyone says DDO is dead,elite players don't care about the average player. I usually don't group but I was on Thelanis and said what the hell I'll join these groups even though I'm under powered I told them that before I joined mind you all. What a night 2 groups I got 250k xp and the nicest groups I've ever been in. They had patience, Came back and helped me finish quest. Just want to say thanks to those players on Thalanis DDO is still alive and kicking.

I honestly believe that like 5 years from now, long after the official plug has been pulled, there'll be nothing left of DDO but a 3rd party server run in some dude's basement. There'll be a free ad based online forum where the 7 people who still play gather to discuss the important topics of the day, and a main recurring thread will be how DDO still isn't dead.

2 years ago the population was pretty low. There were people talking about a server merge and other ways to bolster the community. When I returned a few months back after a nearly 2 year break from the game I was astonished at how low the population has become, it makes 2 years ago look like the good ole days. I've never seen any MMO with a population this low, it's actually kinda spooky and creepy like the scenes in post apocalyptic movies where the main character is walking through an empty city.

Even events like CC and Mabar (whatever it's called now) are super creepy and strange. Where the docks in CC were once flooded with people running to and fro, on dozens of different shards mind you, now there are but one or two people standing motionless. I took a run through Delera's graveyard whenever this latest event first started, I made several laps of the graveyard but only ran into 1 other person. There was a time when it seemed like the entire graveyard was covered wall to wall with players.

Sure, once in awhile there are LFMs, but you can watch them and they last for hours with only 1 or 2 people ever joining. There aren't any raids, even 2 years ago when the population seemed to getting very low there were raids at all hours of the day and night. Two years ago you could throw up an LFM for all the Shroud flaggers in the Vale and before you were done with the first one you'd have a full party. Contrast that by today and you can run all the flaggers in the Vale with an LFM up the entire time and never fill.

So while you might look at a comatose patient on a vent with stage 3 pancreatic cancer and say they are not dead because the heart monitor keeps blipping away, they sure aren't going to be dancing the Watusi anytime soon (or ever again, most likely).

[Valniel]

I honestly believe that like 5 years from now, long after the official plug has been pulled, there'll be nothing left of DDO but a 3rd party server run in some dude's basement. There'll be a free ad based online forum where the 7 people who still play gather to discuss the important topics of the day, and a main recurring thread will be how DDO still isn't dead.

2 years ago the population was pretty low. There were people talking about a server merge and other ways to bolster the community. When I returned a few months back after a nearly 2 year break from the game I was astonished at how low the population has become, it makes 2 years ago look like the good ole days. I've never seen any MMO with a population this low, it's actually kinda spooky and creepy like the scenes in post apocalyptic movies where the main character is walking through an empty city.

Even events like CC and Mabar (whatever it's called now) are super creepy and strange. Where the docks in CC were once flooded with people running to and fro, on dozens of different shards mind you, now there are but one or two people standing motionless. I took a run through Delera's graveyard whenever this latest event first started, I made several laps of the graveyard but only ran into 1 other person. There was a time when it seemed like the entire graveyard was covered wall to wall with players.

Sure, once in awhile there are LFMs, but you can watch them and they last for hours with only 1 or 2 people ever joining. There aren't any raids, even 2 years ago when the population seemed to getting very low there were raids at all hours of the day and night. Two years ago you could throw up an LFM for all the Shroud flaggers in the Vale and before you were done with the first one you'd have a full party. Contrast that by today and you can run all the flaggers in the Vale with an LFM up the entire time and never fill.

So while you might look at a comatose patient on a vent with stage 3 pancreatic cancer and say they are not dead because the heart monitor keeps blipping away, they sure aren't going to be dancing the Watusi anytime soon (or ever again, most likely).

Yes the population is low but there is no point at all to be in city except walking to a quest (and we can teleport too). I see more people in cargohold than in the harbor...

[Taimasan]

I honestly believe that like 5 years from now, long after the official plug has been pulled, there'll be nothing left of DDO but a 3rd party server run in some dude's basement. There'll be a free ad based online forum where the 7 people who still play gather to discuss the important topics of the day, and a main recurring thread will be how DDO still isn't dead.

2 years ago the population was pretty low. There were people talking about a server merge and other ways to bolster the community. When I returned a few months back after a nearly 2 year break from the game I was astonished at how low the population has become, it makes 2 years ago look like the good ole days. I've never seen any MMO with a population this low, it's actually kinda spooky and creepy like the scenes in post apocalyptic movies where the main character is walking through an empty city.

Even events like CC and Mabar (whatever it's called now) are super creepy and strange. Where the docks in CC were once flooded with people running to and fro, on dozens of different shards mind you, now there are but one or two people standing motionless. I took a run through Delera's graveyard whenever this latest event first started, I made several laps of the graveyard but only ran into 1 other person. There was a time when it seemed like the entire graveyard was covered wall to wall with players.

Sure, once in awhile there are LFMs, but you can watch them and they last for hours with only 1 or 2 people ever joining. There aren't any raids, even 2 years ago when the population seemed to getting very low there were raids at all hours of the day and night. Two years ago you could throw up an LFM for all the Shroud flaggers in the Vale and before you were done with the first one you'd have a full party. Contrast that by today and you can run all the flaggers in the Vale with an LFM up the entire time and never fill.

So while you might look at a comatose patient on a vent with stage 3 pancreatic cancer and say they are not dead because the heart monitor keeps blipping away, they sure aren't going to be dancing the Watusi anytime soon (or ever again, most likely).

Yea I can imagine DDO something like this....

[Six_Gun]

[Gannicus]

I honestly believe that like 5 years from now, long after the official plug has been pulled, there'll be nothing left of DDO but a 3rd party server run in some dude's basement. There'll be a free ad based online forum where the 7 people who still play gather to discuss the important topics of the day, and a main recurring thread will be how DDO still isn't dead.

2 years ago the population was pretty low. There were people talking about a server merge and other ways to bolster the community. When I returned a few months back after a nearly 2 year break from the game I was astonished at how low the population has become, it makes 2 years ago look like the good ole days. I've never seen any MMO with a population this low, it's actually kinda spooky and creepy like the scenes in post apocalyptic movies where the main character is walking through an empty city.

Even events like CC and Mabar (whatever it's called now) are super creepy and strange. Where the docks in CC were once flooded with people running to and fro, on dozens of different shards mind you, now there are but one or two people standing motionless. I took a run through Delera's graveyard whenever this latest event first started, I made several laps of the graveyard but only ran into 1 other person. There was a time when it seemed like the entire graveyard was covered wall to wall with players.

Sure, once in awhile there are LFMs, but you can watch them and they last for hours with only 1 or 2 people ever joining. There aren't any raids, even 2 years ago when the population seemed to getting very low there were raids at all hours of the day and night. Two years ago you could throw up an LFM for all the Shroud flaggers in the Vale and before you were done with the first one you'd have a full party. Contrast that by today and you can run all the flaggers in the Vale with an LFM up the entire time and never fill.

So while you might look at a comatose patient on a vent with stage 3 pancreatic cancer and say they are not dead because the heart monitor keeps blipping away, they sure aren't going to be dancing the Watusi anytime soon (or ever again, most likely).

First off I love how you use vale quests in your example and say you cant fill. Shows you either play on way off peak hours or do not run in that level range very often. Every time I post vale elites BB the party fills before I finish the first quest. Usually when I get in that range there is already an LFM up for it aswell. I am not sure on other servers but Orien is going strong. I post LFM's alot of times when I play and I always get some hits regardless of what I am running, alhough I stick to the popular xp/min quests my LFM's usally fill and I am not talking about dailies.

[Braegan]

I see that; and raise you this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4rR-OsTNCg

[NaturalHazard]

Im glad someones experience has been different, for me its been a lot less people with pugging and taking a long time to fill raids, with the raids we can start early we shortman and often do not fill when we get to the point were everyone has to be in. With questing its quite rare to get a full group even doing the more popular chains. Im really glad that we do not need *healers* otherwise it would be all day to try to fill for raids. The who panel seems to have much less people. When I play during off peak times which is main playing time where I live I see 1-2 lfms up. A look in the who panel shows much less people than I use to see before. when I started playing and for a few years we could fill raids even with the wait for healers at those hours. Now its a don't even bother. I have talked to a few people in guilds and they tell me their guild numbers are much lower than what they use to be.

I guess I should of gone to thelanis?

I had to solo a lot of my 15-29 latest life.

Hopefully stuff is still selling in the store to keep the lights on.

[MistaMagic]

I honestly believe that like 5 years from now, long after the official plug has been pulled, there'll be nothing left of DDO but a 3rd party server run in some dude's basement. There'll be a free ad based online forum where the 7 people who still play gather to discuss the important topics of the day, and a main recurring thread will be how DDO still isn't dead.

2 years ago the population was pretty low. There were people talking about a server merge and other ways to bolster the community. When I returned a few months back after a nearly 2 year break from the game I was astonished at how low the population has become, it makes 2 years ago look like the good ole days. I've never seen any MMO with a population this low, it's actually kinda spooky and creepy like the scenes in post apocalyptic movies where the main character is walking through an empty city.

Even events like CC and Mabar (whatever it's called now) are super creepy and strange. Where the docks in CC were once flooded with people running to and fro, on dozens of different shards mind you, now there are but one or two people standing motionless. I took a run through Delera's graveyard whenever this latest event first started, I made several laps of the graveyard but only ran into 1 other person. There was a time when it seemed like the entire graveyard was covered wall to wall with players.

Sure, once in awhile there are LFMs, but you can watch them and they last for hours with only 1 or 2 people ever joining. There aren't any raids, even 2 years ago when the population seemed to getting very low there were raids at all hours of the day and night. Two years ago you could throw up an LFM for all the Shroud flaggers in the Vale and before you were done with the first one you'd have a full party. Contrast that by today and you can run all the flaggers in the Vale with an LFM up the entire time and never fill.

So while you might look at a comatose patient on a vent with stage 3 pancreatic cancer and say they are not dead because the heart monitor keeps blipping away, they sure aren't going to be dancing the Watusi anytime soon (or ever again, most likely).

Seems that you must be on the wrong server then. Khyber is full of people tr'ing and etr'ing so there is normaly a good amount of lvl15+ quests in the lfm. Of course it all depends on what time of day you play and must raids these days are filled via channels or put out to pug with the last few spots available

[MistaMagic]

Congratulations to the OP on finding a nice group of players. You will find that once you get to know them better you will always be welcome in there group/raid

[bsquishwizzy]

Sure signs of DDO heading to obscurity is that you'll hear very little from the devs. There will be no more additions, and they might focus strictly on bug fixes.

Given we just got gnomes, we're going to get dragon born, we've had the Slave Lords added, they are going to do Ravenloft, and so on it's pretty safe to say that DDO is very much alive. Because new content costs money. And when the decision is to eventually shut off the lights at a given date, their first priority will be to milk every last precious penny they can from their customers before the switch is actually thrown. And I don't see any evidence of that happening.

That being said - you never really know what's going on WAY behind the scenes at WB that not even Turbine is aware of.

My hope is that given the longevity of the game, someone somewhere is looking to go DDO part Deux to keep the business rolling strong.

[Taimasan]

Everyone says DDO is dead,elite players don't care about the average player. I usually don't group but I was on Thelanis and said what the hell I'll join these groups even though I'm under powered I told them that before I joined mind you all. What a night 2 groups I got 250k xp and the nicest groups I've ever been in. They had patience, Came back and helped me finish quest. Just want to say thanks to those players on Thalanis DDO is still alive and kicking.

My suggestion, join that guild NOW. This is how you form 80% of your grouping in DDO is through relationships. You will get more gear more playtime, faster in my opinion.

[Chilldude]

First off I love how you use vale quests in your example and say you cant fill. Shows you either play on way off peak hours or do not run in that level range very often. Every time I post vale elites BB the party fills before I finish the first quest. Usually when I get in that range there is already an LFM up for it aswell. I am not sure on other servers but Orien is going strong. I post LFM's alot of times when I play and I always get some hits regardless of what I am running, alhough I stick to the popular xp/min quests my LFM's usally fill and I am not talking about dailies.

Off peak hours didn't exist. I play at all hours of the day, whenever the mood strikes, which is the same now as it was 2 years ago, as it was 5 years ago. I sometimes play in the morning, in the afternoon, peak hours, late night, even late late night. 5 years ago it didn't matter what time you logged in, there'd be a wide selection of LFMs to choose from, including raids, at any time day or night. If by chance none of that was what you were looking for, you could throw up your own LFM and it would fill within minutes. A couple years ago, the population was a lot lower, but you could still do pretty much anything you wanted any time you wanted, certain raids would take longer to fill than others, but there were no off peak hours.

I found what you said rather difficult to believe so I just stopped by Orien. As I suspected, it was just as dead as Thelanis at this moment. A few LFMs with 1 or 2 people nearly done with the quest and no raids what so ever.

If you can't do what you want when you want to do it, there's not much point to playing an MMORPG when there are hundreds of first rate single player RPGs that are designed around soloing.

[Enoach]

...

I found what you said rather difficult to believe so I just stopped by Orien. As I suspected, it was just as dead as Thelanis at this moment. A few LFMs with 1 or 2 people nearly done with the quest and no raids what so ever.

If you can't do what you want when you want to do it, there's not much point to playing an MMORPG when there are hundreds of first rate single player RPGs that are designed around soloing.

Ok, did you put up an LFM for what you wanted to do to see how quickly it filled on Orien? You know "Being able to do what you want when you want in a MMORPG", is more than waiting for an LFM but also being proactive to ask others to join you.

That would seem to be part of your criteria. Always keep in mind that generally a filled group does not show up on the LFM panel .

Now I'm not saying the population is high like in the hay days. But there is still a decent group of people out there, but sometimes you have to take the initiative.

One thing that is also different is that there is a large segment of the population now only plays 1 character. Back in the day the largest segment played multiple characters, switching characters when they see something they want to run. This can have an effect on how the population is seen especially now that players are more divided by the 30 levels that now exist in game. Even if the population stayed at its highest point it would still seem like it decreased because the player base is further spread out.