Read more about our plans for the year in a new Producer's Letter!

[systemshaker1941]

We know players are asking us to talk about our VIP program, and we'll have more to share when we can. We've been reading and discussing your feedback in recent weeks, and we look forward to providing more information in the future.

You've had an entire year. And you still can't even answer yes or no to "Are you improving VIP?".

[ahpook]

We know players are asking us to talk about our VIP program, and we'll have more to share when we can. We've been reading and discussing your feedback in recent weeks, and we look forward to providing more information in the future.

And yet, Tolero couldn't add that message to the producers letter? Its not like it was so jam packed with details that something had to be cut for space...

But thank you Cordovan for sharing that.

[Dandonk]

We know players are asking us to talk about our VIP program, and we'll have more to share when we can. We've been reading and discussing your feedback in recent weeks, and we look forward to providing more information in the future.

You had a year. Not even a single line about VIPs in the Producer's Letter, and nothing more concrete than "we're discussing it". You had a year. Seriously.

Also.... "providing more information in the future". +1 for the least concrete reply possible. "more information": Well, no info at all so far, so I guess 0 >= 0, so this statement is true no matter what if anything is happening. And it doesn't actually promise that anything will change. Good one.

Second, "in the future". Also nice cop out. Some time between now and the heat death of the universe? OK? A year passed since last time, so are we talking years, decades, centuries or millennia?

Color me not impressed at all.

[ahpook]

I’m not as doom and gloom about this, but it is a weirdly vague letter.

It like it was sent in by telegraph where you have to pay by the word and have to use them sparingly.

[Dandonk]

And yet, Tolero couldn't add that message to the producers letter? Its not like it was so jam packed with details that something had to be cut for space...

To be fair, that message would not really have impressed me. It's the one we had last year, and so far nothing has happened. So based on past experience, I am ready to be disappointed again.

[systemshaker1941]

You had a year. Not even a single line about VIPs in the Producer's Letter, and nothing more concrete than "we're discussing it". You had a year. Seriously.

Also.... "providing more information in the future". +1 for the least concrete reply possible. "more information": Well, no info at all so far, so I guess 0 >= 0, so this statement is true no matter what if anything is happening. And it doesn't actually promise that anything will change. Good one.

Second, "in the future". Also nice cop out. Some time between now and the heat death of the universe? OK? A year passed since last time, so are we talking years, decades, centuries or millennia?

Color me not impressed at all.

The only really impressive part is that no-answer answer.

[Monkey_Archer]

I don't want to add to the doom and gloom... so I wont.

I do have a question though, since this letter is somewhat vague.

Is SSG aware that the endgame has become trivially easy and many endgame players are getting bored due to lack of challenge? Are there any plans to increase difficulty either through higher difficulty settings or system wide nerfs?

[systemshaker1941]

Is SSG aware that the endgame has become trivially easy and many endgame players are getting bored due to lack of challenge? Are there any plans to increase difficulty either through higher difficulty settings or system wide nerfs?

...are you legitimately complaining that R10 pug raids are too easy?

[amessi1]

perhaps a depressing thought, but if we are comparing LoTR to DDO and and if LoTR is winning hands down on marketing/development/communication, then I'm led to believe that LoTR is the better profit center for SSG and therefore the executives believe their return on investment is better spent there. i have no idea how far off I am here, pure guessing. but, if i'm correct, then this is a product on decline, and mgmt is only giving us enough to keep us floating. I'm becoming more and more interested in Sev's live call in a bit.

[Monkey_Archer]

...are you legitimately complaining that R10 pug raids are too easy?

If the plan was to increase DDO's population by 10x and merge all the servers, then one of those might be possible to fill

No, I'm talking about questing. Sure you can create artificial challenges by soloing or attempting to find enough people to raid push, but most players would prefer to play in ~6 person groups. R10, which is supposed to be the hardest difficulty, does not provide a real challenge for 6 person groups at all.

[systemshaker1941]

If the plan was to increase DDO's population by 10x and merge all the servers, then one of those might be possible to fill

No, I'm talking about questing. Sure you can create artificial challenges by soloing or attempting to find enough people to raid push, but most players would prefer to play in ~6 person groups. R10, which is supposed to be the hardest difficulty, does not provide a real challenge for 6 person groups at all.

Its too bad SSG can't make alts viable. Otherwise you could just work on an alt.

[Monkey_Archer]

Its too bad SSG can't make alts viable. Otherwise you could just work on an alt.

Oh I already have 6...

I'm not really speaking for myself here, I am the person that will create my own challenge if SSG cant offer one.

Most people don't though, they just slowly stop logging in.

[xaxaeb]

If the plan was to increase DDO's population by 10x and merge all the servers, then one of those might be possible to fill

No, I'm talking about questing. Sure you can create artificial challenges by soloing or attempting to find enough people to raid push, but most players would prefer to play in ~6 person groups. R10, which is supposed to be the hardest difficulty, does not provide a real challenge for 6 person groups at all.

Fact.... we're in the middle of running an R10 life right now (lvl 4 borderlands to lvl 32 end game questing). It's fairly smooth, even with 2 of us being on low-PL (3-10) and mid reaper point (pre-wings) alts.
There need to be new challenging mechanics. A raw increase of monster damage won't change the difficulty. I don't care if at lvl 5 a famine reaper hits me with a Niac's Cold Ray for 1k dmg or 5k dmg. The only difference between them is how negative my HP goes.

[ahpook]

To be fair, that message would not really have impressed me. It's the one we had last year, and so far nothing has happened. So based on past experience, I am ready to be disappointed again.

Agree that it wouldn't impress. Though I would have expected that Tolero would have the authority to add a couple more sentences to color or justify the statement. And as unimpressive as it would be what's even less impressive is not mentioning it all and having an employee drop a vague (and deniable) mention as damage control.

[ShifterThePirate]

Maybe ask some questions here


Join Executive Producer Severlin for some Q&A shortly on http://Twitch.tv/DDOstream! Starts at 4:00pm Eastern. #DDO

[Dandonk]

Agree that it wouldn't impress. Though I would have expected that Tolero would have the authority to add a couple more sentences to color or justify the statement. And as unimpressive as it would be what's even less impressive is not mentioning it all and having an employee drop a vague (and deniable) mention as damage control.

True enough.

Now to see if we get anything more out of the twitch thing...

[TitusOvid]

I might be poster #57 and I have yet to read a positive response to this letter.
It lacks in style and content itself and in innovation for game changes. It would have been wiser to just post the graphic or to not post at all.

Totally wasted 5 min coffee break.

Titus.

[Impaqt]

We know players are asking us to talk about our VIP program, and we'll have more to share when we can. We've been reading and discussing your feedback in recent weeks, and we look forward to providing more information in the future.

It's been almost a year since you gave us the free daily gold rolls. It's been almost a month since you took them away with the promise that new perks would come.

We're not asking for a lot.

Would it be so difficult to just turn the gold rolls back on until you do come up with a more permanent perk?

[QuantumFX]

This letter really feels like you're saving a lot of the excitement sizzle for later in the year, but not telling us that there's more details to come.

17th Anniversary and U58 - OK, our yearly cosmetic looks good. I'm assuming the Party challenge is returning with Cordovan reincarnating into a Formorian or something. We've known about the Archetypes for a couple weeks. Will there be any big subscription announcements? (ex. New VIP benefit?, Updated content coupon?)

Will any of the systems work be player facing? (ex. 4K UI? Updated textures for the hairstyles? PDK character models finally being something better than a tall dwarf? A solid date for the Argo/Cannith/Sarlona transfer fixes?)

Will the Mini Expansion feature any new, non-archetype toys for the players? (ex. New Race, New Class, New Universal Enhancement tree)

What do you mean by "Raid Update"? Is it another "You're going to pay for a raid in Q2, but not get it until Q3" situation? New raids that don't tie into anything? Or revamps of dead raids to make the content worth playing?

[GramercyRiff]

This is about what was expected. The bar is so low for this game. What is surprising is that people still put up with this. Seriously folks, move on. You can retain all relationships you've developed through this game quite easily in the 21st century. There is no other reason to play this game anymore.