Great post Skoodge, as usual.
Rose-tinted Goggles wrote on Aug 20
th, 2019 at 10:40am:
At this point they already shot off all of their toes and are currently seeking more
Season Passes to help with the pain.
We can all see their true colors with the Optional XP ransack. Heroic leveling is untouched. I have yet to see anyone farm Shadow crypt, Von 3, or Litany more then three times. This just hurts casuals/new players farming Epic XP Dailies then logging off. They just want to sell more Epic Ottos boxes and XP Elixirs. Best of luck with those Destinies and pastlives. New players don't stand a chance. Casuals will eventually just leave.
Heres a graph showing the population numbers in graph form:
https://i.imgur.com/F9K3z7v.pngAt this point the best thing they can do is
reduce the servers down to two. The game is old, its a niche mmo, and quite complex. The f2p model is garbage, its a sub only game at this point with an extended trial period. Cant rely on new players nor would revamping new player experiences do much. Reducing the servers will make DDO feel alive again for the current dedicated player base . Then focus everything into making good store cosmetics and content. Preferably raids that are actually fun to play instead of puzzle bullshit or cheese mechanics.
Not listed on the graph is the exploit golden age directly corresponds with higher game population. This should tell them 1 of 2 things:
1) A LOT of people like finding (I'd argue most were shown, not found themselves) a "game within a game."
2) Their crafting mechanics are SERIOUSLY out of line with what most players find tolerable grind, so much so that people are willing to risk EXTREME PREJUDICE to bypass their shitty systems.
But let's not forget, it wasn't JUST duping (which had at least 3 iterations that I'm aware of). We had anniversary cards that could be both duped AND could give you a reward without consuming the card.
We had free renown in Orchard.
We had ED abilities in Heroics.
There was tome re-use.
You could trade BtC ingredients.
You could mail BtC items.
You could re-use XP stones.
And these are just off the top of my head.
I'm not saying they should necessarily fully embrace exploiting, but perhaps removing half of the stick from their asses might be prudent.
They should ALWAYS be looking at the new player experience. Having so much money grab is objectively not a good experience. They should give new accounts 1 month free VIP. They'd still need to differentiate between F2P classes/races and ones only temporarily accessible while ViP is active, but it would go a long way to masking the P2P aspect, give new players a chance to try content before they commit to purchasing it, and give them a bit of an XP boost (plus DD) to help keep pace with vets. The only "Buy Now" icons they should see are the expansions.