What the excuse for no players today?

[Teh_Troll]

Can't speak to any other servers, but Orien has been just as busy as it's always been. At least it appears that way.
Several times the harbor and market have been laggy due to so many people. Had to switch instances a few times.

Ghallanda's end-game is dead but the TR-trains keep on rolling and there's hundreds of new players on at any time who don't use the LFM system. The "who" list confirms this.

Can't say total numbers are down . . . but the numbers of people I know are definitely down.

[Rubbinns]

Can't speak to any other servers, but Orien has been just as busy as it's always been. At least it appears that way.
Several times the harbor and market have been laggy due to so many people. Had to switch instances a few times.

End game lfms are down from our usual wide range, but our tr trains are on and rocking. Even though a lot of the movement is in user channels and guilds, levels 18 and under are always abundant on lfm panel. Want to tr again asapToo bad i'm stuck this week getting cleanser and grinding eds before level cap increases.

[Chauncey1]

Ghallanda's end-game is dead but the TR-trains keep on rolling and there's hundreds of new players on at any time who don't use the LFM system. The "who" list confirms this.

Can't say total numbers are down . . . but the numbers of people I know are definitely down.

I haven't noticed any people in our circle of friends/allied guilds leaving. But I tend not to focus on such things.
I suppose it's been fairly static.

[EllisDee37]

As I was logging out this morning I took a quick peak at the LFM panel, as I've been trying to keep a closer eye on it and the "Who" population since this thread.

Similar time of day / day of week as when I checked & posted earlier in the thread. This time, only 4 LFMs (after a few seconds it jumped to 6, but same difference) and Who panel showed a paltry 242 players. Ouch.

The other times I've checked between then and now it's been pretty consistent, with 400 logged on during off hours and 800 during primetime.

[Pandir]

As I was logging out this morning I took a quick peak at the LFM panel, as I've been trying to keep a closer eye on it and the "Who" population since this thread.

Similar time of day / day of week as when I checked & posted earlier in the thread. This time, only 4 LFMs (after a few seconds it jumped to 6, but same difference) and Who panel showed a paltry 242 players. Ouch.

The other times I've checked between then and now it's been pretty consistent, with 400 logged on during off hours and 800 during primetime.

Hmm since nothing major happened there seems to be little reason for a player number drop. Except maybe the login problems from yesterday.

[RightToRemainStupid]

Khyber EE LFM's are down since the U18 caster Spell Power nerf. There were only a few casters and healers willing and able to efficiently PUG after U17 anyway. With DC's through the roof and Wail nerfed, Shiradi was the next viable option for Arcanes. With that now nerfed, there are hardly any casters or healers willing to PUG. I was one of the few who would jump in the many forlorn single melee EE LFM's up before U18, but now it's just an uphill battle again. I don't see the game surviving this much longer, where players like me are concerned at least.

For me endgame is the only game worth playing and DDO has only ever had a lukewarm scene at best. The whole TR'ing thing seems to have dominated DDO for a few years now. I just can't get my head around grinding through the same content over and over for almost no gain. It can't be fun, it's just repeating the same thing with zero challenge. There's nothing exciting or creative about it, there's never a danger of failure, it's just a race. Well if I wanted to play a racing game I'd go and buy Gran Turismo 5.

[Rubbinns]

For me endgame is the only game worth playing and DDO has only ever had a lukewarm scene at best. The whole TR'ing thing seems to have dominated DDO for a few years now. I just can't get my head around grinding through the same content over and over for almost no gain. It can't be fun, it's just repeating the same thing with zero challenge. There's nothing exciting or creative about it, there's never a danger of failure, it's just a race. Well if I wanted to play a racing game I'd go and buy Gran Turismo 5.

Agree with a lot of that, but TR'ing to me, at least Is about completionist and trying each class on the way up there. I have only 4 different lives, 7 in total on my TR since I first started DDO in October. I find it to be more fun to TR and work on my character's passive abilities and stats than to farm weapons, comms, pdk favor, dragonscales, and EDs.

It is very fun to repeat and farm certain quests. In love with Tear of Dhakan, Running Devils, Sleeping Dust Lie, Prison of Planes, TOR, Delera's, Shadow/Blood Crypt, Temple of Vol, Ghosts of Perdition, Fear Factory. I could play them forever. Only thing on Epic I like is Caught in the Web and ED farming.

[RightToRemainStupid]

It is very fun to repeat and farm certain quests. In love with Tear of Dhakan, Running Devils, Sleeping Dust Lie, Prison of Planes, TOR, Delera's, Shadow/Blood Crypt, Temple of Vol, Ghosts of Perdition, Fear Factory. I could play them forever. Only thing on Epic I like is Caught in the Web and ED farming.

Not when you've done them all to death already, like I did on my first life through. I can't stand ED farming, it's too much of a grind like TR'ing and I think it's killed a significant amount of interest in endgame.

I want to actually play the game and have fun now, by actually doing what those people are 'planning for' with their hamster wheel grind. So few of them ever get out of that mentality and actually 'graduate' to endgame or ever end up benefitting from their grind in any significant way outside of some OCD sense of 'completeness'.

I'd rather play and be good at the game at any moment in time, that be 'planning to', 'one day'. But that's the whole MO of the MMO industy right there, to tap into and turn a dollar from our predictable psychological habits. Whenever I see people settling into that grindyness, when the game becomes a programme of chores, I see utter stagnation and it's time to move on. If you're not always learning and challenging yourself, you're not really having fun.

[Pandir]

Not when you've done them all to death already, like I did on my first life through. I can't stand ED farming, it's too much of a grind like TR'ing and I think it's killed a significant amount of interest in endgame.

I want to actually play the game and have fun now, by actually doing what those people are 'planning for' with their hamster wheel grind. So few of them ever get out of that mentality and actually 'graduate' to endgame or ever end up benefitting from their grind in any significant way outside of some OCD sense of 'completeness'.

I'd rather play and be good at the game at any moment in time, that be 'planning to', 'one day'. But that's the whole MO of the MMO industy right there, to tap into and turn a dollar from our predictable psychological habits. Whenever I see people settling into that grindyness, when the game becomes a programme of chores, I see utter stagnation and it's time to move on. If you're not always learning and challenging yourself, you're not really having fun.

Sorry that's an opinion you're passing of as fact there. Fun has different definitions for different people.

[RightToRemainStupid]

Sorry that's an opinion you're passing of as fact there. Fun has different definitions for different people.

Well of course it's an opinion, that's all anyone can ever really present on a forum. It also happens to be my opinion that certain empirical truths can also make people feel insecure and defensive. Would you mind sharing which part of my opinion I am supposedly presenting as a fact? As I see it, I have only presented my opinion based on personal experience. It's not as if I've set up a gulag and am trying to forcefully indoctrinate people with it.

[Rubbinns]

Not when you've done them all to death already, like I did on my first life through. I can't stand ED farming, it's too much of a grind like TR'ing and I think it's killed a significant amount of interest in endgame.

I want to actually play the game and have fun now, by actually doing what those people are 'planning for' with their hamster wheel grind. So few of them ever get out of that mentality and actually 'graduate' to endgame or ever end up benefitting from their grind in any significant way outside of some OCD sense of 'completeness'.

I'd rather play and be good at the game at any moment in time, that be 'planning to', 'one day'. But that's the whole MO of the MMO industy right there, to tap into and turn a dollar from our predictable psychological habits. Whenever I see people settling into that grindyness, when the game becomes a programme of chores, I see utter stagnation and it's time to move on. If you're not always learning and challenging yourself, you're not really having fun.

I haven't got to the point where I can solo all HE content, and playing every class on way there is what keeps me wanting, the stats are just bonus. ED farming is more rewarding than fun to me, but rewards are fun, kinda. Greater Tome makes it seem like less than a legend life. The PUG scene is immensely active at heroic levels on Orien and I've met so many interesting people, crazy builds, and great players there.

[Pandir]

Well of course it's an opinion, that's all anyone can ever really present on a forum. It also happens to be my opinion that certain empirical truths can also make people feel insecure and defensive. Would you mind sharing which part of my opinion I am supposedly presenting as a fact? As I see it, I have only presented my opinion based on personal experience. It's not as if I've set up a gulag and am trying to forcefully indoctrinate people with it.

In your first post you assert that TRing can not in any perceivable way be fun, in your second you again state that this way of gameplay can not be fun but only habitual behaviour. Both implies it can only be the truth. As does your very last sentence.
You don't need a gulag to pass things of as fact.

And before we go to the defensive stuff, i haven't played enough to even TR once, just another pet peeve of mine.
I'll stop derailing the thread now.

[RightToRemainStupid]

ED farming is more rewarding than fun to me, but rewards are fun, kinda. Greater Tome makes it seem like less than a legend life.

These are the key points on which we differ as players. I play to engage my mind, not to navigate monetized artificial barriers. I am a gamer in the sense of a problem solver seeking a challenging learning curve. I don't approach gaming from the perspective of a 'consumer' looking to add the 'gamer experience' to my resume of life.

[Charononus]

Khyber EE LFM's are down since the U18 caster Spell Power nerf. There were only a few casters and healers willing and able to efficiently PUG after U17 anyway. With DC's through the roof and Wail nerfed, Shiradi was the next viable option for Arcanes. With that now nerfed, there are hardly any casters or healers willing to PUG. I was one of the few who would jump in the many forlorn single melee EE LFM's up before U18, but now it's just an uphill battle again. I don't see the game surviving this much longer, where players like me are concerned at least.

For me endgame is the only game worth playing and DDO has only ever had a lukewarm scene at best. The whole TR'ing thing seems to have dominated DDO for a few years now. I just can't get my head around grinding through the same content over and over for almost no gain. It can't be fun, it's just repeating the same thing with zero challenge. There's nothing exciting or creative about it, there's never a danger of failure, it's just a race. Well if I wanted to play a racing game I'd go and buy Gran Turismo 5.

How was shiradi nerfed, it doesn't rely on crits for damage, and the removal of the perma dots was in a way a tactical buff as before you had to turn off double rainbow on things like fot so that you wouldn't end up with on something and kill it early by accident in slow dps groups.

[RightToRemainStupid]

In your first post you assert that TRing can not in any perceivable way be fun, in your second you again state that this way of gameplay can not be fun but only habitual behaviour. Both implies it can only be the truth. As does your very last sentence.
You don't need a gulag to pass things of as fact.

I am sorry if you can't help but interpret my opinions as facts and that causes you psychological distress.

How was shiradi nerfed, it doesn't rely on crits for damage, and the removal of the perma dots was in a way a tactical buff as before you had to turn off double rainbow on things like fot so that you wouldn't end up with on something and kill it early by accident in slow dps groups.

The effects got watered down and we now get less useful procs and less overall DPS. That's a nerf.

[Pandir]

I am sorry if you can't help but interpret my opinions as facts and that causes you psychological distress.

Ahh well thanks for proving my point.

[RightToRemainStupid]

Ahh well thanks for proving my point.

That's not my opinion, it's a fact. Otherwise you wouldn't have posted in the first place.

[Charononus]

The effects got watered down and we now get less useful procs and less overall DPS. That's a nerf.

How so, the only shiradi change I've noticed is that perma dots aren't there now. Like I said I consider that a buff to tactics in some quests as I now don't need to turn off double rainbow.

[EllisDee37]

For me endgame is the only game worth playing and DDO has only ever had a lukewarm scene at best. The whole TR'ing thing seems to have dominated DDO for a few years now. I just can't get my head around grinding through the same content over and over for almost no gain.

Endgame is, by definition, much less content than repeating the whole game via TR. Your logic is contradictory; you only want to play endgame (less content) because you don't like endlessly repeating content? The solution to avoid endlessly repeating content is to TR.

[EllisDee37]

Loggin on tonight, ~250 players on Argo's Who tab. Ouch.