This game has stopped being fun

[harmlesslarry]

I know I have no life, but its so rare to get a group in this game due to the elite/reaper disparagement that you introduced, where the people with low reaper points and lives have to grind out elite lives while the rest of the people do reaper because they already have them. On top of that its becoming pretty exclusive, with the stronger players keeping to themselves. I cant solo reaper so I cant start an lfm on reaper, and that means no one will join me. Merge the freaking servers already. Seriously. Do you even care about longevity of this game?

[Uska]

The powercreep killed it for me long ago

[gnarledmaw]

I know I have no life, but its so rare to get a group in this game due to the elite/reaper disparagement that you introduced, where the people with low reaper points and lives have to grind out elite lives while the rest of the people do reaper because they already have them. On top of that its becoming pretty exclusive, with the stronger players keeping to themselves. I cant solo reaper so I cant start an lfm on reaper, and that means no one will join me. Merge the freaking servers already. Seriously. Do you even care about longevity of this game?

The problem is entirely in your own mind. Its a problem many players with no real life have. Stop cheating your way through lives, er, I mean zerging, ah no, "grinding" and the problem goes away. Dont play the stupid games theyve tacked onto the standard game and lead your own party on E. Solo or if your machine allows you can have your own pentaboxing party.

Mentioning your primaries name and server might also be s good way of finding players here that might come run there.

Intentionally lagging fewer servers will not help.

[Karthunk]

Join a guild with active players

[droid327]

I was pretty excited when the XP changes first hit and the Reaper first-time bonus was taken out - Reaper was the same XP as Elite. That would've taken away a lot of the mentality of "R1 is the default difficulty" mentality and gone a long way towards restoring the idea that Reaper is a special mode you play just because you want the added difficulty of Reaper...it was supposed to be an isolated play mode, Reaper points were only supposed to apply while in Reaper, etc. But they added it back in, so XP peaks at R1.

Elite should really be what everyone is running if they're just looking for quick TR advancement. But as long as they're incentivized to run in R1, that's going to be where the line falls.

[harmlesslarry]

I don't want to zerg. I also don't want to sit for an hour with no one joining my LFM, which I seem to do a lot.

What is the point of this game? Its a team based adventure to travel through content and enjoy time spent with people to make friends or just be social.

This aspect of the game is seriously crippled. Not to mention that lately no one is using their mic. I haven't really made any friends for months.

So what else is this game? Its the opportunity to try different classes. Ok, so theres that. We do this by repeating the same content over and over, and don't get me wrong; there is plenty of content, Im not complaining.

But what else is this game, really? Its the ability to become strong enough to blast your way through content. IMO, this is what the game is ACTUALLY all about. Now we come to zerging through lives to get to that point, and that is where the game has lost its value.

[GramercyRiff]

The powercreep killed it for me long ago

The power creep and OP stuff is what keeps me playing.

[Maldorin]

The power creep and OP stuff is what keeps me playing.

Yet what I find interesting and a bit ironic is the reports of people having so much fun on the HC server.

What makes HC fun? I'm not sure but I think rolling everyone back to equal has something to do with it. The other factor I think and not unrelated is having an active server with tons of grouping.

So maybe sometimes less is more.

Save the game! Rollback to 2011!!!

Ok joking joking.

I'm just saying the layers and layers of complexity, added grind and other junk maybe haven't really helped in the long term.

[Kalapurka]

I know I have no life, but its so rare to get a group in this game due to the elite/reaper disparagement that you introduced, where the people with low reaper points and lives have to grind out elite lives while the rest of the people do reaper because they already have them. On top of that its becoming pretty exclusive, with the stronger players keeping to themselves. I cant solo reaper so I cant start an lfm on reaper, and that means no one will join me. Merge the freaking servers already. Seriously. Do you even care about longevity of this game?

Love the doom posting

[GramercyRiff]

Yet what I find interesting and a bit ironic is the reports of people having so much fun on the HC server.

What makes HC fun? I'm not sure but I think rolling everyone back to equal has something to do with it. The other factor I think and not unrelated is having an active server with tons of grouping.

So maybe sometimes less is more.

Save the game! Rollback to 2011!!!

Ok joking joking.

I'm just saying the layers and layers of complexity, added grind and other junk maybe haven't really helped in the long term.

Yeah HC is great for something different. I was tongue in cheek about the OP stuff. I mean I like it, but it's not the be all end all.

[TedSandyman]

The problem is entirely in your own mind. Its a problem many players with no real life have. Stop cheating your way through lives, er, I mean zerging, ah no, "grinding" and the problem goes away. Dont play the stupid games theyve tacked onto the standard game and lead your own party on E. Solo or if your machine allows you can have your own pentaboxing party.

Mentioning your primaries name and server might also be s good way of finding players here that might come run there.

Intentionally lagging fewer servers will not help.

You are very, very wrong. This is very much a problem for many of us. It is becoming harder and harder to get anyone to join your party even if you put one up on E or even R1. And yeah, soloing IS about the only option. A sad, sad option for an MMO.

[Sam-u-r-eye]

You are very, very wrong. This is very much a problem for many of us. It is becoming harder and harder to get anyone to join your party even if you put one up on E or even R1. And yeah, soloing IS about the only option. A sad, sad option for an MMO.

I recently started a new character to gauge new player experience on live servers.
It's absolutely awful.

My first life tempest can solo r1 but sometimes its a huge struggle. If I switch to inquis it should be cake but that would ruin the point of the character.

[Drecas]

I feel you, OP. I don't really play this game that much anymore, if I want to play a single player rpg, I got Witcher 3 for that.

[Potatofasf]

You are very, very wrong. This is very much a problem for many of us. It is becoming harder and harder to get anyone to join your party even if you put one up on E or even R1. And yeah, soloing IS about the only option. A sad, sad option for an MMO.

Is the game reality now... Solo it or give it up... Sad!

[gnarledmaw]

I don't want to zerg.

But you do, or at least that's what youre occasionally arguing for. If you are running reaper then youre choosing to run with the crowd that thinks they are somehow actually becoming more powerful, the ones that grind, because its a job, for xp/min and all the rest of that that comes with that group. As you've astutely noted earlier, there is no fun, its not about the challenge, its solely about the power.

I also don't want to sit for an hour with no one joining my LFM, which I seem to do a lot.

That is an altogether different issue and arguing to break the game further wont fix it. Unfortunately, there aren't many good answers to that with the game in the stage that its in. The realistic options then are some version of soloing, moving servers, or finding someone to come to your primary server. Maybe it shouldn't be that way and letting management know that youre unhappy with that state is a valid reason to post. When you have a complaint with a service you are paying for it is important to let those that make decisions know your thoughts for future improvement but that doesn't change the reality of the moment. Ive suggested posting your primary characters name and server but you haven't. I can understand why to some degree but you could have sent me a personal email. My primary is Sarlona but Im on all the servers. I could visit you there or you could come over here where I see E runs all the time but youre still out here griping.

What is the point of this game? Its a team based adventure to travel through content and enjoy time spent with people to make friends or just be social.

Is it? Ive made that same point on these forums myself. Where youre getting confused is in understanding that there are generally two very different groups of players left, the gamers and the DnD players.

This aspect of the game is seriously crippled.

It is. The gamers only recognize power and it is the only goal. If you haven't purchased everything and ground everything until you've broken the game then "you don't contribute and are useless". Look through the threads and youll find things like...

"I just soloed Tgammwne Gbentnst on R10!"
Really? Apparently I should care. Cordo, this guy is craving attention, could you send him a code for a cookie?

"I just earned 49bazillion reaper points"
Another one needs a cookie Cordo. Youre falling behind.

"I just finished my 457th life in 3 months."
Cordo! Emergency! Cordo! (No response, he ate all the remaining virtual cookies and went home.)

What do they actually achieve? Well, they've arrived at a place that doesn't exist in DnD, the imported idea of "End Game". Not just playing at 30 but "Final Build End Game". What is this "End Game"? This is where you've broken the game and "theres nothing to do." You then grant yourself the right to hang out on the forums and tell the devs they are morons for not implementing another Whizbang button and telling everyone that you have quit and wont come back unless the devs add whip swords as a weapon type and implement a Whoop-de-doo script to celebrate how important you are because that certainly will make the game better. See how much fun that is? WHOOO! Right there in black and white. F-U-N! These are people you want to play with? No, they aren't playing, because its not recreation.

Youre looking for recreation which are the online DnD players. They aren't worried about the destination, there isn't one, its all about the journey. Not too long ago I spent 2hrs and 20 minutes in a longer quest that would have taken the gamers...a little over 15 minutes? Why did I stay with this group? I have my own reasons and don't need a cookie so that's not important. What was important is that I was grouping and enjoying it. I was in no hurry to get anywhere else. Of course there aren't many of us left it seems or at least hardly any that bother to visit the forums and speak up.

Ive already spent too much time on this (couple hours of interruptions here) and Im sure Ill have triggered a lot of snowflakes by responding...
The short version is that it has to do with personality types (lets call it that). Long ago under Turbine, with who knows what pressure possibly from above, it was decided that large numbers of players like you and I making regular small purchases (Im not exactly talking about "microtransactions" here) was not as good of a model as courting smaller numbers of whales. Certain problem personality types that have done more damage to the population than any dev decision ever could were allowed to cause problems because they are overly represented among the whales. Many of the whales cant imagine that there is some degree of "power" they don't have and would drop half their trust fund for a +50 tome were such a thing available. I would just laugh at them for offering it.

Its the single thing underlying many of the threads (P2W, rudeplayer/pots, etc) that doesn't go spoken of often. Ive told the story elsewhere about the player that died in real life and knowing that they were chose to spend some of their last hours screaming until the headphones distorted because the wrong imaginary person was wearing the wrong imaginary hat. Its not real and they haven't achieved power or any special status. Some people don't grasp that its just a game. Some do but are willing to pay someone dearly to pretend its real.

[gnarledmaw]

You are very, very wrong. This is very much a problem for many of us. It is becoming harder and harder to get anyone to join your party even if you put one up on E or even R1. And yeah, soloing IS about the only option. A sad, sad option for an MMO.

No, you misunderstand. Crossing too many thoughts there. The grind. The grind is imaginary. It doesn't exist. Nobody is making you have to have all of those lives. Nobody is making you grind all the best gear. Only you can do that to yourself.

Parties and difficulty are whole different issues.

[Requiro]

Yet what I find interesting and a bit ironic is the reports of people having so much fun on the HC server.

What makes HC fun? I'm not sure but I think rolling everyone back to equal has something to do with it. The other factor I think and not unrelated is having an active server with tons of grouping.

<...).

That's why, they should consider another Permadeath server only for Premiums and F2P. Then servers (VIPs and Premium/f2p ) will compete each other (in new layers of leaderboards). Reset every 6 month.

Good and healthy competition is always good for longevity of the game.

[Enoach]

It appears to me that the OPs theme seems to be that they would have more fun playing with other people. Something I can respect.

Often times I notice on forums with this discussion is there is usually more then 6 people that pipe in with, "yes, I want to play in a group. But no one joins my LFMs"

So the forums does attract some attention, what efforts are these players taking to coordinate with each other - There seems to be some like-mind possible compatibility in goals.

Just a note, one reason why some players do well in DDO is because they have mastered the Social aspect of the game, by attracting others that share similar goals. I recommend starting there, use the forums for your server to coordinate. Or find people in your own guild that you match up with.

[Alisonique]

I had been soloing for ages and then , by mistake, clicked on the make it open button and ever since have picked up folk who want to group up and had fun. Seems you can get groups going even if you are expecting to solo.

[psykopeta]

I know I have no life, but its so rare to get a group in this game due to the elite/reaper disparagement that you introduced, where the people with low reaper points and lives have to grind out elite lives while the rest of the people do reaper because they already have them. On top of that its becoming pretty exclusive, with the stronger players keeping to themselves. I cant solo reaper so I cant start an lfm on reaper, and that means no one will join me. Merge the freaking servers already. Seriously. Do you even care about longevity of this game?

Take a break, i do it quite often (today i'm taking another break) cause for me it's pointless to farm so many times the same thing, solo most times... And ppl even use templates or the same exact build which in a row kills several purposes of the game (build variety, quests variety and mmo part of rpg)

So in the end we lose players, but bots remain lol

You can play another game, don't play games or... Well, staying isn't something i would suggest you right now, very few players (but very active in forum) are worried enough to leave DDO die as their single player game, so i would come and go occasionally, that's what i do, and when i play DDO i do it for fun, not for some imaginary objective cause... There's no endgame in DDO, grinding is the endgame in DDO like good old korean games