Info from insider.

DDO has now "4 digit" number of subs and "recent TP purchases". Dropped recently from "5 digits".
Means there are less than 10k subscriptions, means less than 100k $ monthly of income for DDO.

Jerry tries to hide the obvious server starvation from public but looks like DDO gonna switch to maintenance-only mode before end of the year.

Oh and server merge is a topic of discussion from economical reason to reduce server costs.

Someone remember EU servers from codemasters ? Same story

kierg10 wrote on Jun 22^nd, 2014 at 8:56am:


It is very believable though...

I trust the Oracler, even though he remembers Maj more favorably than I do.

Inconceivable!

Our customers wouldn't abandon us like that, we gave them more levels! A new crafting system! A prestige class for Bard for crying out loud! And they are dropping their subscriptions?! Those ungrateful, fickle, almost-people.

Why didn't they give us any warning? We have a forum so they can talk about what bothers them, if they were unhappy with the direction we were taking the game, they should have guessed our intentions and complained about the parts they didn't like.

I mean, sure, we heard a few grumbles a while ago from malcontents complaining that it didn't seem like we listened to the players, but we formed the players council so it would seem like we listen to players.

And boy, did it seem like we listened! Now we have pirate airships! Epic 3BC! A whole new system of guild airship amenities! Did I mention pirate airships?

Still not enough? Fine, we'll add MORE levels! And Another system – how about Sentient Weapons? No, don't bother to answer, we know what you want, you don't have to waste our time telling us, you don't really know anyway.

So is that enough to get you back from the other games you've moved on to? What? Quality of Life? Lag? Targeting? Well, those things don't sound like much fun for us to work on, we'll have to go ask Kate, we'll get back to you.

I don't know whether or not the number of VIP subscriptions has gone down, but I'd be shocked if DDO went into "maintenance only mode".

Whether or not people currently have any interest in actually subscribing to the game is irrelevant when you look at how the TP spending has undoubtedly gone through the roof.

For example - +1 Hearts of Wood are more popular than ever, due to people wanting to drop the iconic base level. If roughly nine people buy +1 hearts, it's the equivalent of one year long VIP subscription. Epic/iconic hearts, which lazy people actually buy, are even more expensive. Two supreme +6 tomes, regardless of whether or not they're being reused, cost almost as much. Every 20 people that bought Thunderholme and every 16 people that bought HH are another one year subscription. Oh, and every TWO boxes bought are almost another subscription.

There was a rumor going around that 2013 was DDO's most profitable year ever. I have no idea if that's actually true, but what I DO know is that this game won't actually go broke and shut down any time soon. 

What I love best is that now Turdbin has nobody to answer them, so they sit and chafe.

Karma, baby 

OldCoaly wrote on Jun 22^nd, 2014 at 10:58am:

It's asymptotic, it'll never hit zero.  If they left it running there'd be one guy out there still working on his completionist 40 years from now.

And .. Oracler?  Now with even more Oracley Oracleness?

Munkenmo wrote on Jun 22^nd, 2014 at 9:08am:


That's the only reason everyone isn't telling this random guy to fuck off with his crack pot theory (because it isn't crackpot that is).

The Oracle wrote on Jun 22^nd, 2014 at 3:57pm:


Was a typo.  Very sorry.

I am halfway to 100 posts whoohoo! - wait by the time I get there this game will..... be awesome again!

wait whut does I get for 100 posts again...

Games with 10% of players that ddo has are not in maintenance mode, so I see no reason why ddo should go.

kierg10 wrote on Jun 22^nd, 2014 at 8:56am:


go fuck yourself retard

Mr wrote on Jun 22^nd, 2014 at 5:56pm:


Yeah this. And targeting, and lag. Fix those few really terribad crap problems, and I'd happily pay more money in maintenence mode than I have in the last year of "development" mode.

I don't think there has been a release in the last year, maybe two, where the enjoyment I got from the good things outweighed the pain of the bad things. Your game would have been more fun if you'd done nothing!