What does SSG have planned for the future?

[Loromir]

I love DDO and SSG. I've played DDO for over 9 years and have supported the game with my money. I am happily VIP and have no plans to end that anytime soon.

With that being said...DDO and LOTRO are very old games by MMO standards. While I'm sure there must be some revenue stream (Otherwise SSG would not exist)....it can't be that much....but what do I know.

I hope SSG has some plans for the future to justify staying afloat. There is just only so much you can squeeze from old titles like these. I hope SSG is working on some new game (Be it DDO2, LOTRO2....or GoT1....hmmm....maybe?)

I fear the sugar daddies known as LOTRO and DDO can only last for so long.

No comments required...just some internal ruminating on my part. Carry on.

[systemshaker1941]

SSG has neither the manpower nor the capitol to launch a new MMO. I suspect the "plan" is to milk as much out of the existing titles as possible through a series of expansion packs and joyless cash-grabs, all while lowering operating expenses and hemorrhaging staff. Eventually the game will go into maintenance mode as they keep on just enough staff to keep the lights burning while whoever actually owns the company cashes a check. Finally, if Asheron's Call is any indication, we will get about 1 months warning before the on/off switch is moved to "off" and the entire game, servers, website, and memory disappear in a moment that will, at worse, give a jedi somewhere something he mistakes for mild indigestion.

It's sad but that's the only direction they can go. Too many short-sighted decisions. The good news is we still have at least 3-4 years, minimum.

[banjo174]

I think everyone would be surprised by how successful in terms of revenue DDO really is. If they went public with it. I think its doing a lot better than people think.

[systemshaker1941]

Oh I agree. It's doing well enough to support a good sized full-time staff and new content releases are seeing return on investments.

But there's no growth. With no effort being put towards player retention new or otherwise, the only option is to try to suck as much money out of an ever-shrinking player-base as possible. While that will be enough to keep the game in content-updates for a good long while, it IS eventually going to run out. Unless there's a massive paradigm shift towards better player retention, the game is ultimately doomed.

[Elfishski]

SSG has neither the manpower nor the capitol to launch a new MMO. I suspect the "plan" is to milk as much out of the existing titles as possible through a series of expansion packs and joyless cash-grabs, all while lowering operating expenses and hemorrhaging staff. Eventually the game will go into maintenance mode as they keep on just enough staff to keep the lights burning while whoever actually owns the company cashes a check. Finally, if Asheron's Call is any indication, we will get about 1 months warning before the on/off switch is moved to "off" and the entire game, servers, website, and memory disappear in a moment that will, at worse, give a jedi somewhere something he mistakes for mild indigestion.

It's sad but that's the only direction they can go. Too many short-sighted decisions. The good news is we still have at least 3-4 years, minimum.

I think you're only half right... they clearly are targeting and milking the existing player base with expensive expansions and other offerings (season pass), but I wouldn't say it's joyless - it's hard to find anyone who wouldn't say that Ravenloft is amongst the best content if not THE best in the game (we'll see if Sharn lives up to or exceeds that), and they're also clearly not lowering their expenses since going independent. Prior to that there were no new monsters (maybe we'd get one reskinned old monster model once every couple of years), no new art on anything, and frankly some incredibly boring content over a fairly long period of time. Whatever money they are earning from all the cash-grabs seems to be re-invested into the game rather than being siphoned off into some other venture from a larger company (see: Infinite Crisis), and devs show a lot of enthusiasm for their work, so there's a lot of room for optimism.

On the other hand, there are some terribly short-sighted decisions, starting with not bothering on customer retention at all. I've personally had fairly good support when I've had a problem (never a major one), presumably as a VIP, but we have a friend who hadn't played for years and was returning but had some purchase problem with Ravenloft. A couple of months later after repeated efforts at contacting support and a complete lack of response they're playing a different game instead and who would blame them? Without making more effort on retaining new players, players that have problems with purchases, or people with broken characters after TRs noting some long-running threads, then the decline of the game will be inevitable.

[systemshaker1941]

I think you're only half right... they clearly are targeting and milking the existing player base with expensive expansions and other offerings (season pass), but I wouldn't say it's joyless - it's hard to find anyone who wouldn't say that Ravenloft is amongst the best content if not THE best in the game (we'll see if Sharn lives up to or exceeds that), and they're also clearly not lowering their expenses since going independent. Prior to that there were no new monsters (maybe we'd get one reskinned old monster model once every couple of years), no new art on anything, and frankly some incredibly boring content over a fairly long period of time. Whatever money they are earning from all the cash-grabs seems to be re-invested into the game rather than being siphoned off into some other venture from a larger company (see: Infinite Crisis), and devs show a lot of enthusiasm for their work, so there's a lot of room for optimism.

On the other hand, there are some terribly short-sighted decisions, starting with not bothering on customer retention at all. I've personally had fairly good support when I've had a problem (never a major one), presumably as a VIP, but we have a friend who hadn't played for years and was returning but had some purchase problem with Ravenloft. A couple of months later after repeated efforts at contacting support and a complete lack of response they're playing a different game instead and who would blame them? Without making more effort on retaining new players, players that have problems with purchases, or people with broken characters after TRs noting some long-running threads, then the decline of the game will be inevitable.

I'd say the season pass was definitely a joyless cash-grab; and just because new content is good doesn't mean it's not a cash grab. Look at the prices for the expansion vs. what was actually provided. It's great content but it seems like for $130 they could have made it a whole lot more worth our while. They didn't go the extra mile because they knew enough of us would buy the expensive one anyway. Granted, I'm something of a hypocrite since I absolutely pre-ordered the ultimate fan-bundle; but that's another matter.

It's true there are definitely some very passionate, dedicated team members working on DDO; but they aren't the decision-makers. And the decision makers seem to think its ok for someone to lose all their best items in a TR glitch and not get them back; even when it literally costs SSG nothing.

[Memnir]

Their plans for the future involve the past, or at least possible pasts. The plan also dabbles not-so-casually into the realms of summoning dark forces, quantum-zombies, event horizons, and the farm-league for the Illuminati.


It's all either going to go very very well... or very very not well.

[Yokido]

Dark Ages of Camelot, one of the main precursors to MMOs as a whole is still alive and kicking in "maintenance" mode with 5k~ players.

Something to consider when we think about whether DDO can make it or not long-term.

I think we need more socialization in the game to allow it to last a longer time. One of the key things that has kept DAOC alive so long is it's thriving pvp system, which keeps things entertaining in the long scheme of things through competition and socialization... DDO's PVE-only system is vulnerable to "rust" because once the updates stop flowing for a long enough time player engagement drops sharply --- the socialization aspect is only gained through teamwork, and teamwork isn't such a big deal once the content is easy, which is an inevitability when content isn't updated in a PVE-only system.

How can DDO do it?... Through casual tavern brawls? Encouraging more PUGs? Running old content just for kicks/tricks? Implementing some type of minute-but-rewarding pvp system? Who knows.