The Weekly Development Activities

[DoctorWhofan]

So, we have insulted the Devs to the point that now they will only want to talk to reporters and will only talk to us through a third party.

Sounds like the beginning of a very messy divorce.

...and somebody forgot to read the pre-nup!

Guess what? It wasn't us.

[Cordelia]

I'm also curious as to how long the steaming piece of drivel put forward as an OP was scrutinized over b4 being approved to be posted. Shame on you people. Shame on your laziness, your complete lack of business & common sense, and shame on your lack of respect for forum browsers, ilustrated quite blatantly by your attempt to keep a straight virtual face while posting that hyper-spun hogwash justification as to why on earth this could possibly be a good thing for the game.

Do you really take us to be that gullible? ..or just stupid? Do you think we're stupid Meghan? Meh, I digress. I doubt it was your personal decision anyway. Oh, and the only 'Irony' present here is not what is suggested by the OP, but rather the fact that to the majority of longtime WDA readers, this latest blunder will not even come as much as a surprise... Just another tired gaff in an ongoing comedy of errors which they've stopped trying to decipher long ago.

Regardless, I will be making a point NOT to visit any of the 3rd party sites you've decided to prostitute out to with 'info', and will be recommending to my friends and guildmates to do the same.

[Hvymetal]

I must admit this decision makes me aprehensive as well. One of the great things about this game was the feeling that the player base actually had some ability to affect upcoming changes if we thought they were really bad or needed to be modified. I have a bad feeling that this will no longer be the case and we will be getting suprised much more in the future (and not always pleasantly).

Personally I really see this as a step backwards and leading to even more bugs, fixes and balancing issues as the future goes on.

[EspyLacopa]

What are they going to listen to the in the future if the information we receive is much less forthcoming and not timely enough for our feedback to be as useful? We players will not have much to comment on, under this new shroud of secrecy.

Instead of listening to people commenting on changes to come and how they could be improved, they'll listen to players raising bloody hell over changes in the latest mod. Big difference is that the ones raising bloody hell when otherwise were just commenting could easily just pack up and leave if it's not changed swiftly enough.

[Hvymetal]

Instead of listening to people commenting on changes to come and how they could be improved, they'll listen to players raising bloody hell over changes in the latest mod. Big difference is that the ones raising bloody hell when otherwise were just commenting could easily just pack up and leave if it's not changed swiftly enough.

Exactly....

[Gordo]

What a hoax! You actually assume the WDA qualified as a means of marketing? That its impact of not being there will effect marketing of the game? Are you serious? This was a nice thing for the players you already have. It has and will have no impact on new prospective cusomers who don't even bother coming to the boards. All they want to see is a big **** dragon cardboard cut out in EB games and GameStop that screams "Hey look at me! My company puts money ino real advertising!"

You assume we are all stupid and that is even more insulting than taking down the WDA. Who runs your marketing department? Tell them to send me a PM so I can tell them how to not only market the game to new customers in a positive way and not **** off the customers you already have.

All you needed to do was see how many views the WDA had to know how important it was to the existing base.

You guys are simply wrong on this. End of story.

[Riorik]

4th edition revamp is coming then, huh?

L-A-M-E!

The first thing that came to mind for me was the paid expansion we've been expecting for over a year and/or DDO2.

[Ustice]

In the absence of WDA posts, can we at least have the devs start a stickied thread about each upcoming Mod?

I think that Borro and myself (and others) will be keeping an article on the DDO Wiki/Compendium like this. If Turbine isn't going to be doing it, it's up the us players.

[Kadagan]

We know that this will be an unpopular change for some of you, and bringing information to you is very important to us. This is not the end of communication between our players and the team; this is the beginning of new ways of information dissemination that promotes the game and helps to grow it even further. This is a new and exciting time in DDO’s life, with lots more to come!

Unpopular for "some" of us? More like "almost all" of us.

[Borror0]

Unpopular for "some" of us? More like "almost all" of us.

How about everyone but those who wait to see the results?

[Kadagan]

How about everyone but those who wait to see the results?

That's a faith move on their part... they are being kept in teh dark and told it's for their own good. People realize they have no choice on it and will make the best of it they can (both internally and externally).

Prior to the rhetoric ask them to vote on this issue and I suspect the results would be so severly lopsided that a poll would be pointless.

[Shadow_Flayer]

Amazingly bad idea.

The WDA is the one thing that kept me coming to the forums on a regular basis.

It sure seems to me there is more interest in getting new customers than trying to keep the existing ones, the ones who are dedicated to the game.

[Kadagan]

I must admit this decision makes me aprehensive as well. One of the great things about this game was the feeling that the player base actually had some ability to affect upcoming changes if we thought they were really bad or needed to be modified. I have a bad feeling that this will no longer be the case and we will be getting suprised much more in the future (and not always pleasantly).

I think you've hit the nail on the head. Instead of addressing issues hurting the player base the powers that be will be addressing issues that will sparkle with and through the media.

While this may be a good business decision, it sux for those of us in the current player base. However if they are sucessful our short term (guessing 4 to 6 month) loss will become a long term gain as more players means more groups and more revenue for turbine which leads to more developers/GMs/CSRs/ect which leads to a better game.

Odds of sucess.... Basing this off the mmo trend and vaporware developments and potential foreign server issues and the potential socital retaliation against anything called Dungeons and Dragons... I'm giving it a 40% sucess rate.

Rabble! Rabble! Rabble!!!

[Dailus]

Well I can't say that I am not disapointed as I really did looked forward to reading the WDA. Also being a former SWG player it gives me a slight pang of fear remembering the sudden drastic changes the NGE brought with no warning whatsoever.

That being said Turbine thus far appears to be very mindful of there player base and I'll just have to trust that I won't be blindsided by logging in one day to find DDO has upgraded to 4.0 and the bard class has been removed .

-Dailus

[Ron]

Thanks for the feedback, guys. As I said in the OP, we knew this would be unpopular with some of you. We appreciate the feedback both from those who have expressed their disappointment as well as those who remain (albeit cautiously) optimistic. We'll do our best to ensure that you'll know what you can look forward to in each module; and in many ways, you'll get a more complete picture of it than trying to piece it together from the WDAs!

Sorry Mehgan, but in all honesty, I find this very difficult to believe.

No third party site is going to post things like:

Halfling Guile I:
Cost: 1 Action Point
Prereqs: Level 3 Halfling, Halfling Cunning I, 7 action points spent.
Benefit: You gain +2 to your sneak attack damage and +1 to bluff.

or

Paladin Courage of Good now grants +2, +4, or +6 to Fear saves.

or

Tomb of the Blighted
Vials of Blessed Water now remove the slow portion of blight rot in addition to the ability damage portion.
Gelatinous Cubes in this tomb will no longer be so... stubborn.

These are all quotes right out of the last WDA. This is the kind of information the playerbase needs in order to give informed opinions on upcoming changes to the game *before* they happen and are set in stone. And, as has been pointed out several times, having that information available from the WDAs has directly lead to improvements in the game.

A third party site is going to say things like:
"Halflings will get a new line of enhancements - Halfling Guile, adding to their sneak attack damage and bluff skills."

they won't even mention the other two at all. It may be a useful quote (arguably) for someone not familiar with the game, but it helps not at all for your playerbase. I fail to see how there is ANY WAY third party sites are going to give us more information than what we can "piece together" from the WDAs. ISTM we are going to be doing a LOT more piecing together from the press releases than we ever were before, and what we are piecing together, 9 times out of 10, is giong to be a lot of guessing and conjecture. Which is only going to lead to panic, whining, and flaming on the forums.

I predict a lot less forum participation in the future. The WDAs are a major draw for the playerbase (I know they were a highlight of my Monday mornings). Less players coming to the forums eventually translates into less players going into the game. There is simply no way you are ever going to convince me this is good for the game in any way, shape, or form.

I hate to be so negative about a game that I've probably been one of the biggest cheerleaders for. But I find this a VERY dissapointing decision. In my personal opinion, this may be one of the biggest blunders y'all have ever made.

[Ustice]

How about everyone but those who wait to see the results?

My guess is that we have 4 main camps on this,

1. Those that are unaware of the change
2. Those that are upset about the change
3. Those that are upset but giving it a "wait and see"
4. Those that are taking it on faith that it will be good in the long run (but still have that niggling doubt)

I don't see anyone that think that this is a wonderful idea. At best we have people crossing their fingers.

*crosses fingers while mumbling under his breath about churn*

[Borror0]

You forgot one camp, mine.

5. Those that tell themselves they'll have to do Turbine's job once more and inform people about stuff that Turbine should be informing them about.

I don't mind stuff like items and crafting, but their feats description should be clearer and more detailed.

[VonBek]

No third party site is going to post things like: [... snipped for brevity ]

I wonder if they'd consider posting First Look Release Notes reasonably in advance of a mod going live. Perhaps with bug fixes, character race/class changes, if not quest-content spoilers. Something like a game mechanics change-log preview.

[Calmwaters]

I feel that while press releases are good for increased PR, the small hint of what we had to look forward to in the WDA's at least gave something for the player base to hang on to while grinding for the next 3-4 months. The development cycle is a long hot trek through the dry desert of false promises and broken dreams, and the WDA's the only oasis in which to wash away the dust of time. Now we have to just hope that the next release will quench the thirst of our hopes for the future.

[Selenay]

I think this is a good move. If the Devs are too busy to post weekly, then that should be an excellent sign of great things to come. Esp. if they can't talk about it because it's top secret. I mean...when it's time for presents, it's more fun to not know what it is before hand than it is to know and then have to act surprised. Not posting here also gives the Devs more time to test the updates and mods. That certainly is a plus. Before they were stuck to the strict schedule they enforced on themselves by giving updates. Things can glitch when making these updates and mods. Better to have a fully functional mod than one that was squeezed out early due to the pressure of the players.

To the Devs, great choice. Take your time and continue to create content, bug fixes and overall fun for those of us that love this game.