I think a side-effect/benefit of the Hardcore server is allowing SSG to be able to TEST in a production environment how many people can be logged in at one time to a single server and have it keep working.

I would think this would be a stepping stone to finally merging servers down to 2 or 3.

Jesus Christ, this topic will never die.  There will be no server mergers.  Look back at the debacle with the Codemasters server mergers -- it was a clusterfuck.  It's only gotten harder for SSG to do this since then because of staff turnover.  For example, Steelstar mentioned a few weeks ago that the last person who knew about UI APIs left about 5 years ago.  They've since lost a master list of APIs, so they would have to redo all that engineering work to allow custom UI skins.  Look at something as benign as UI skins, and then apply that same resource issue to something gamebreaking like server mergers. 

Let's not forget, there needs to be a business reason to merge -- ie, does this increase revenue or save on long term costs to justify the engineering work, compared to the opportunity cost of delivering new content or other QOL improvements?  Short answer: Not even close. And then there's the PR aspect of this to manage, which is not a strong suit of SSG.

Carpone wrote on Aug 19^th, 2019 at 9:59am:


The pro mergerers say there's no reason not to and refer back to the LoTRO merger as proof it can be done.  Even if the LoTRO merger went smoothly (it didn't), there's really only one question to ask on the subject:

Will DDO get the same budget, care and as qualified of a staff as what LoTRO got years ago?  The answer to that question is the final answer on the subject.

At SSG:

Hey guys, we should ditch the Lammania server. It costs maintenance money and since we doing all beta tests live, no one needs it.

Yes. ... but wait. I have a better idea:
Let's rename it and run a hardcore league on it.

WTF, and how will we earn money?

Hehe, all players start fresh and have to buy all goodies from the store since the word is empty.
Then erase all, rename it back, no one will notice and repeat this scam.

YEAH, LET'S DO IT!

Skoodge wrote on Aug 19^th, 2019 at 10:13am:


But what if the ultimate goal is to migrate away from the FtP model back to subscription based? Return DDO to a whales only game. Shutdown all the servers except Hardcore. The current experiment is research to see if the model is viable.

Dr_tank2vich wrote on Aug 19^th, 2019 at 2:06pm:

I recommend reading Chris Anderson's book "Free: The Future of a Radical Price".  Take a look at the freemium model used by LinkedIn, where 95% of people use the service for free.  The remaining 5% are the ones who pay for everyone else.  That's DDO's model these days: 1000 true fans + whales = enough revenue to keep developing the game.

It seems pretty obvious that DDO needs server merges and it also seems pretty obvious that SSG isn't able to make proper server merges happen. 

Sounds like it's time to see if SSG can get creative and make improper server merges happen.  Like "We're going to give everyone free transfers to your choice of Cannith or Khyber so there are two servers.  We're not going to transfer shared bank or server unlocked goodies, so just shut up about that. Guild leaders can get a single one-time token that will create a guild on the new home server that is the same level that you have now. Feel free to buy a new airship.  Good luck, suckers."

I'm pretty sure they could handle that.

Beer wrote on Aug 19^th, 2019 at 3:18pm:


Closing servers and consolidating servers is entirely two separate things.

I'd imagine with the login data and playtime metrics they are generating from the Hardcore server, they've got a good chance that they could swing any shareholder meeting to see that for the good of profit it'd be best they do some sort of server consolidation.

Carpone wrote on Aug 19^th, 2019 at 9:59am:


But maaaaybe...


If they used a tool  or "forced" players to swap servers as they offer but free of charge. the issue would be the ship leaders but that could be adressed manually.

I dont know dude, just thinking of options and beating a dead horse, that never gets old.

Shinyshoes wrote on Aug 19^th, 2019 at 6:59pm:


Just saying that if you couldn't lift a fridge over your head when you were 20, it would be insanely stupid to try it when you're 60

gibbon wrote on Aug 19^th, 2019 at 9:05pm:


I don't think they're capable of clearly defining goals or realizing the best path to achieving their goals.

The forum paladins can jerk the devs up all they want, but this recent update has the potential to create some really negative blow back.

Was the goal to get people to run the dailies less and group more?  Because if it was, they couldn't have done anything dumber than simultaneously introducing two events at once to divide the player base. 

Between cove and the hardcore server, LFMs are down, grouping is down, getting a decent group together is down.  Items on the auction house are down, people buying things from the auction house are down.  Satisfaction of non-ViPs or people who just have no interest in working on a new temp toon instead of their main is down.

As I'm writing this there are maybe 10 level 30s logged in on the most populated server and I doubt there are even 50 people total in the 20-30 range.  If I wanted to group it would pretty much have to be dailies because nothing else is going to happen.

Best case scenario is interest in the hardcore server dwindles before new player interest in all the other servers does.  A temp boost in spending on the hardcore server isn't going to be enough to offset losses on ghost town servers.

Shinyshoes wrote on Aug 20^th, 2019 at 4:54am:


It's not about the need, it's about having options    I like having a list of 10 or 12 groups I actively decide not to join because it's easier and quicker for me to solo it

Seriously though, I do like having the option of "oh, I was going to solo that chain on r1 but there's a group running it on r5 - I'll do that instead."

And the mid to upper level reaper grouping has been...not up to par since the opening of the hardcore server.

Carpone wrote on Aug 19^th, 2019 at 3:03pm:

A great example, and worth pointing out in case a SSG employee accidentally wanders in here - those 5% wouldn't spend their money if the 95% weren't there. They may not pay, but they absolutely add value, and F2P and Premium players can similarly add value to DDO.