Time to say goodbye :(

[Yvonnel-1]

Hey out there,
its been many years now, since i came from the old "EU"-servers and found a nice warm place to call home here on Ghallanda!

I played since beta, started on Dorn, later Devourer and when servers shut down, i moved here and finally settled down

So G-land was already my third home; this will change the next days, when ill move to Orien in the end.

Most of my guild (Ravensguard) decided to head for Orien finally.
Since im not overly engaged in my guild anymore (due to playtimes...), i mostly know folks by toons and not by guild - and i was glad to find out, that many friends out there are leaving for Orien, too

Im hopefully looking forward, meeting you guys "over there" for a nice XP or raid train!

If you want, leave a note, telling where you head and whats ur toons names -
else Id be glad to see many of us to team up on the "new" server!


Greetings from Bavaria,

YVO

[Dandonk]

I'm really sorry to hear that you're going. Well, maybe. My own guild is waiting a bit to see how things turn out, so we may still see you there if things go too bad on G-land.

In any case, happy trails, fellow devourer-player

[Eme]

sad to see RG leaving, but totally understandable. Have fun on new shores !
Chunki

[Fallout47]

Helter Skelter will be making the transfer with you, as well as a growing number of other individuals and guilds.

It makes me sad to loose anyone that we quest/raid with and I know some will not be informed in time to make their own decision.

Unlike you Yvonnel, Ghallanda has been my only server and HS my only home in this game. I am comforted to know that my online family has made the collective decision to move together to Orien. We look forward to making new friends on Orien and hopefully providing and being provided with, more puggable players.

That said, I think this is a more difficult decision for players whose guilds are divided on the move or those that are in small or solo guilds. For us, it came down to our people being more important than our stuff. I know this has been handled in the usual SSG fashion, but at the end of the day, I still want to play this game with the people I care about, so that means packing our bags, leaving our ship and our guild level behind and looking forward. For anyone who has run with us in the past, and would benefit from the company of a larger group of players to make the move, let us know either in game or in Discord.

Hegemone - Co-leader Helter Skelter

[Sirea]

For better or worse, Ghallanda has been my home base since 2008. I don’t take moving lightly, it’s like leaving a childhood home. Made many memories here and made many friends. Hope to see many of you on the flip side.

-Sohryu AKA Sam, Ravensguard

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qQzdAsjWGPg

[grudgebear]

Hey out there,
its been many years now, since i came from the old "EU"-servers and found a nice warm place to call home here on Ghallanda!

I played since beta, started on Dorn, later Devourer and when servers shut down, i moved here and finally settled down

So G-land was already my third home; this will change the next days, when ill move to Orien in the end.

Most of my guild (Ravensguard) decided to head for Orien finally.
Since im not overly engaged in my guild anymore (due to playtimes...), i mostly know folks by toons and not by guild - and i was glad to find out, that many friends out there are leaving for Orien, too

Im hopefully looking forward, meeting you guys "over there" for a nice XP or raid train!

If you want, leave a note, telling where you head and whats ur toons names -
else Id be glad to see many of us to team up on the "new" server!


Greetings from Bavaria,

YVO

Cerb, kinda misses you already

[Dandonk]

[kpak01]

It makes me sad to loose anyone that we quest/raid with...

Just to be clear, you're not losing them; you're leaving them. They are losing you.

[kpak01]

I'm sad that so many people decided that a slightly higher population of strangers was more important than our people.

[Mamalian]

I'm sad that so many people decided that a slightly higher population of strangers was more important than our people.

Everyone I care about has moved, those of you left behind are the strangers.

Don't be the last on a sinking ship.

[kpak01]

Don't be the last on a sinking ship.

If DDO is sinking, I'm perfectly capable of quitting, don't you worry about me. In the meantime, I'm not going to jump through stupid hoops because SSG can't get their **** together.

[Brandwynn]

I don't mean to hi jack the thread. But why are people leaving GLand and going to Orien? Thank you...

[LavidDynch]

I don't mean to hi jack the thread. But why are people leaving GLand and going to Orien? Thank you...

I´m baffled that more people haven´t left the other middle-of-the-road servers.. what are they waiting for, some resurgence?

at least once this is all settled, we can point fingers and say 'oh, no no don´t whine -- you had the cake right there and you choose to not eat it'

[LT218]

If DDO is sinking, I'm perfectly capable of quitting, don't you worry about me. In the meantime, I'm not going to jump through stupid hoops because SSG can't get their **** together.

That's an interesting hill to choose to die on.

Emptying TR caches and shared banks, then starting the client up, clicking Transfer and checking a few boxes doesn't really seem like much in the way of "stupid hoops", but to each their own.

From where I sit, this free xfer thing has multiple upsides.

If you have toons and/or bank mules on other servers, you can consolidate them on a single server for free now.

You can move to a server that has a healthier player population, which is usually pretty high on the list of importance for an MMO where the social aspect is a valuable part of the game.

You gain the opportunity to meet a whole new group of friends in addition to still being able to group with the current/old friends who moved, too.

There's also a decent chance that Orien and Sarlona won't have the same weird, persistent lag and queue performance issues that Ghallanda does. Obviously, all DDO servers lag some, but Ghallanda seems to be a special kind of stupid with lag. I've played several seasons on the Hardcore server with more than triple the active number of players as Ghallanda and it doesn't lag like Ghallanda. It does lag sometimes, but it's a very different type of lag from G'land.

[kpak01]

That's an interesting hill to choose to die on.

Why are the people trying to stampede everyone off GLand so over-dramatic? There's no hill, there's no dying, there's no iceberg, there's no sinking ship.

[kpak01]

I don't mean to hi jack the thread. But why are people leaving GLand and going to Orien? Thank you...

Someone, no idea who started it, thought it would be a good idea, no idea why, but then it kind of snowballed within a certain subpopulation, "Well, if that person is going then I'm going too!" If you like band-wagon-hopping instead of making up your own mind for real reasons, then off you go to Orien!

[Daerius of the Blessed Blades]

Someone, no idea who started it, thought it would be a good idea, no idea why, but then it kind of snowballed within a certain subpopulation, "Well, if that person is going then I'm going too!" If you like band-wagon-hopping instead of making up your own mind for real reasons, then off you go to Orien!

I don't care who stays or goes, but that statement is just asinine. I actually had *NO* intention of changing servers when the rumors and discussions started. In fact, I only had one or two guildees in favor of moving. But when you look at the metrics of ddoaudit.com, you can see those "real reasons" that you say don't exist (spoiler alert: they do!)

5.2% of the active population of Ghallanda has already moved. As I type this, Orien has 509 active players - Ghallanda has 225 (second worse only to Wayfinder). 7 LFMs on Ghallanda vs 14 on Orien. At one point today there were SIX different raid groups to choose from.

Before the move, Ghallanda had a lower population, but the highest percentage of level 32 players of all the servers. Since my goal is endgame and high reapers after I finish my last TR (for a while) on my main, I made a metrics-based decision based on my playstyle. I didn't load up the truck and head for the hills because I heard all the cool kids are doing it.

And to all staying, or moving, good luck to you! I enjoyed my 16 years on Ghallanda, but things change. I wish you well.

[Oliphant]

I transferred my main Yosefi and some mules to Orien last night. I changed my toon name on Orien to Yosey 'Yosefi' Plainspoken to ditch the -1. Been pretty slow lately, was already on a break going on two months due to it. Been scoping out Orien and Ghallanda since the free transfers were available and just finding more activity on Orien and at least as many familiar Ghallanda names. A new adventure might be the ticket to actually stick around and keep playing DDO. Keeping two weaker toons active on Gland, Cthulolth and Purplenotes. Hope to see old friends still on both servers! The Gland endgame community has been the best community I've found online. Appreciate all the fun times and help over the years!

[Sirea]

Someone, no idea who started it, thought it would be a good idea, no idea why, but then it kind of snowballed within a certain subpopulation, "Well, if that person is going then I'm going too!" If you like band-wagon-hopping instead of making up your own mind for real reasons, then off you go to Orien!

Who are you again?

[LT218]

Why are the people trying to stampede everyone off GLand so over-dramatic? There's no hill, there's no dying, there's no iceberg, there's no sinking ship.

Over-dramatic? I'm thinking you don't understand that phrase. In the context it was used, it's the textual equivalent of a an eye-roll and a shrug.

To go with your sinking ship analogy however, if healthy grouping and social populations are the ship that MMOs sail the seas upon, it's pretty obvious which of these servers is going to sink first. Low/unhealthy grouping and social populations are a self-reinforcing negative feedback loop in an MMO.

As a guild, we were a bit nervous about transferring, but even just a week in, everyone is very happy that we did.

We've already got our airship amenities back to par with what we had on Ghallanda. The guild level is climbing quickly and I suspect we'll be 150+ in a couple months. While Orien lags, it doesn't seem to lag nearly as badly and consistently as Ghallanda even though it has approximately double the number of players on it.

The real bonus however is that the grouping scene is so much healthier. I've been checking the level 8+ LFMs and player population on each server during US prime time hours each night since the transfers opened. Orien has consistently had around double the number of online players and noticeably more LFMs at any point I looked. Filtering on level 8+ minimizes the skewing of the results by any large amount of low level bank mules.

Here's an example. Orien's LFMs and Who panel on the left, Ghallanda's on the right. 378 level 8+ toons on Orien, 166 on Ghallanda: