WonderfulFoppyBint wrote on Dec 20^th, 2018 at 12:50am:

The first link shows that, of the people who responded to the poll, 11 use steam and 62 use other.
Roughly 6x, so active use can be extrapolated as:
Logged on = Steam x 7

The second link shows that currently, averages over the last 6 months, a peak population of 400 on steam.

That gives us roughly 2800 players, on what, 7 servers (Wayfinder doesn't matter)

So you can expect, at peak, about 400 players logged in.

Interestingly, I noticed that the steam data is in a steady decline from June of 2012, when peak was 1368, to Dec 2018, when peak was 319.

A graph with data like that would suggest it's time to cut the cord, sooner than later.

It also tells me that you could merge half the servers and still be under the server populations of 2012.

Gunga wrote on Dec 20^th, 2018 at 9:04pm:

no, you

Rubbinns wrote on Dec 20^th, 2018 at 3:59am:


I get the video game contrivances of levers in Argynvostholt and cards in the crypts. It's dumb and it makes no sense story-wise, but I get it. But has anyone ever called them out on that spiral staircase of death being five times bigger in the raid instance than in the quest instance? It's always bugged me, and there's really no excuse for that.

Soul wrote on Dec 22^nd, 2018 at 12:05pm:


What if the owner of the D&D IP favored one game (Neverwinter) over another (DDO)?

Would they approve of advertising/marketing for DDO if it would draw players away from Neverwinter?

Would they approve the creation of DDO2 if it would draw players away from Neverwinter?

Answer those questions and then look at what SSG has to work with and what the situation with DDO is today.

Frankly, SSG is doing an amazing job considering they have both hands and one foot tied behind their back.

Rubbinns wrote on Dec 22^nd, 2018 at 1:42pm:


Marketing strategy? You're high. You recommend taking a full page ad out in AARP?

Technomage wrote on Dec 22^nd, 2018 at 2:21pm:


That is when i started playing this game. Not like I saw an ad then either. I stumbled upon ddo from using youtube to searh for d&d games.

Technomage wrote on Dec 22^nd, 2018 at 2:21pm:

Why would they advertise to players already playing the game, and knowing that they cannot retain new players well enough to profit from advertising to them.

WonderfulFoppyBint wrote on Dec 22^nd, 2018 at 6:21pm:


Me too. I even saw a banner ad...back in 2009, before everyone blocked those.

I have seen zero ads for NWO's version of Raveloft, though.

It would have made sense for WotC to screw DDO in favor of NWO when 4th edition tabletop D&D was current, since NWO was based on 4th edition rules. 5th edition has been out for some time now though.

Zehnpai wrote on Dec 24^th, 2018 at 4:13pm:

Just ran a couple Tethymar quests heroic R1 it's absurd.  Why anyone with a brain would want to run that shit is beyond me, shit xp and mobs with insane hit points and saves... there are some good items there but fuck me if I am gonna run that shit at level for them.  I just jumped into a PUG group and got lucky they were excellent players, but that shit is NEVER on my "to do" list leveling heroic or epic.  Ravenloft is a really bizarre exception, although things like the first fight in "invitation to dinner" is stupidly difficult compared to the rest of the quest.  But fucking the Rage series..., the name is right, if you thought everything after RL was gonna be good, you'd be in a rage.... and WPM is equally piss poor value for time and effort...  That is, except when I run my quarterstaff build, then I crush everything all day long, OP AF.

Zehnpai wrote on Dec 24^th, 2018 at 4:13pm:

Maybe try hosting a Wiki & holding a contest that you yourself can win. SSG might donate prizes to that....

The fact that there's no Roll20 tie-in, they don't ever ask to be guests on Critical Roll, etc...etc...

I mean this shit doesn't cost tons of cash to do.  Some random dude gave out 1000 jars of his pasta sauce on Reddit, got front page, he now clears 7 figures a year selling goddamn pasta sauce.

Some random shitty company from Slovakia got Cohh to play their game on Steam and it doubled their sales pretty much overnight.

Meanwhile the most we see of DDO is what...facebook ads to people who already play DDO and uh...yeah.

I want to believe that WoTC told them they're not allowed to grow the game.  That if they get above X subs or Y number of players, they'll get shut down.

I mean if that were the case, it would explain quite a bit.  And it would sort of make sense.  Things like P99 and whatnot were allowed to exist because they flew below the radar and weren't really a threat to EverQuest.

SSG has a really unique and interesting game on their hands and with some decent leadership and marketing they could absolutely have the game blow up.  Runescape is ugly as shit with worse controls and even less intuitive gameplay but it's huge because they turned it into this amazing meme game.

DDO is basically path of exile the MMO and if they had like, one real programmer on staff, got someone who understood combat balance and one person with some decent basic skill at grass roots marketing it could be a phenomenon.

Rubbinns wrote on Dec 25^th, 2018 at 8:08pm:

Wait for Columbus Day?