Zehnpai wrote on Nov 22
nd, 2018 at 2:28pm:
Imagine the following:
DDO implements a decent group finder. They consolidate all the different item bonus types into like...4 so it's not such a clusterfuck for new players. They fix the character creator so that you can use player created templates for your characters. They make a few nice UI updates (unifying all the various character panels into one interface for example for a fucking start.)
They have a modest Korthos revamp that includes an NPC that walks you through how to do a TR since that's like 90% of the game.
Then they sell a new "DDO Battlechest" for 10 dollars that has all non-expansion content and classes, and the "DDO Ultimate Battlechest" for 20 dollars that also has all the expansion content as well.
Then they advertise the fuck out of it as Eberron Reborn. Post on every gaming forum they can find. Get a bunch of mid/low tier Twitch variety streamers (Witwix, Theoddone, Cirno, etc...) and do a charity stream with them for a week. Do a "We are the developers behind Dungeons and Dragons Online!" AMA on Reddit gaming and DND. Sell a DDO bundle on Roll20 that has a bunch of maps and stuff for some of the more popular DDO content. Advertise themselves as basically PoE the MMO.
They switch their income model away from selling content and instead start selling cosmetics and QoL stuff.
Sell me new spell graphics. Imagine if you could bling up your dimension door so yours looked like a portal from D2 (kinda), some kind of hell gate, a field of broccoli.
Sell me things like a perma airship portal, perma bigby's hand, perma heal scroll that consumes some platinum every time I use it just so I don't have to keep making that run to Jorasco every TR.
They could do so much more. If Runescape can fucking make a come back like it did, so can DDO.
But they won't and I have to tell myself it's because WoTC would smack them down in a minute if they tried. If DDO even showed a glimmer of hope of pulling people away from NWN WoTC would be all over that.
Because the alternative is that Sev is a chicken shit with no spine and wants to keep collecting an easy, albeit shitty, paycheck over making DDO something great.
SSG is certainly fucking up hard on the ddo store items.
Cosmetics being a big one. Theres a fairly large portion of the community that loves cosmetics. Make items like white/black dragonscale helms that have the same model as the epic red helm. Make some really good cosmetic outfits/weapons and sell them for a high price (not like the current shit cosmetics they have now). Do what other f2p mmos do and sell cosmetic loot boxes. Put a super rare, incredibly good looking cosmetic for a chaser item. Maybe even put a wing cosmetic in there similar to reaper wings (different model/looks obv). Your unlimited ship portal is a very good idea too.
The battlechest is a very good idea. It will never happen but still a good idea. Ive said it many times that DDO's current f2p model is god awful and outdated. VIP is a necessity. The battleschest would lessen the terrible new player barrier of entry the current game has. SSG is too greedy tho, they still sell shit low level packs like catacombs and steam tunnels which should be f2p! I think the battlechest idea would be great for a classic server.
The vast majority of us still playing ddo are long term vets. I think ssg knows this. Revamping UI and korthos is a waste of time sadly. The current game is terrible for new players. Year after year of game systems piled on top of each other (epic levels, racial/epic/iconic past lives, epic destinies, sentient gems, reaper xp, universal enhancement trees). This also doesnt take into account the amount of game knowledge one has to have in order to compete with the vets. Most people would rather play something like Classic WoW where the only difference between players is gear. At this point ssg is just pumping out content for us vets to consume until it becomes unprofitable. At the very least they should spend some time on cosmetics and QoL stuff in the store. Seems like easy money to me.