Rose-tinted Goggles wrote on Feb 27
th, 2020 at 11:14am:
I've been doing a lot of thinking about this recently. I think the only feasible way to save DDO is for a group of players reverse engineering DDO and creating a 'DDO Classic+' server. Set to Update 13, obvious bug and lag fixes, QoL improvements, balance changes, slightly reducing grind, and porting in content like Epic 3bc and Epic Gianthold. Essentially creating the best version of Pre-MotU DDO. Also no DDO Store since its player made. This is obviously a huge undertaking and will probably never happen but a private server is certainly more realistic than DDO 2.0.
DDO 2.0 would never happen. The MMORPG genre is dying. Modern digital attention spans are getting shorter. Investors would never approve the project. Especially since Neverwinter is a thing. Kickstarter wouldnt produce much either. Anyone remember that Pathfinder Online kickstarter? Yeah..
Edit: Also if DDO 2.0 does happen it will have to be monetized. Which will lead to what happened in DDO.
To be fair, Pathfinder crippled itself with non-consensual PvP early on. Nobody (except elitist pricks) wants to play a game where elitist pricks can gank noobs who can't escape, and GW's answer was "well, stay in town". They crashed and burned because they were insufferable ass holes, not because a small indie MMORPG is a bad idea.
The stellar performance of the second OwlCat game on Kickstarter (
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/owlcatgames/pathfinder-wrath-of-the-righteo... ) proves there is still demand for games requiring longer attention span than Candy Crush, and that they can be crowd funded. They're sitting on $1.3m with nearly 2 weeks still to go.
A player made game could be great, but SSG would be crazy to release anything to players, and fans would be crazy to invest significant work in a project that would be a prime target for a copyright take down.
I'm not saying a player made game is a bad idea, just that basing it on reverse engineering DDO is too risky. A new game based on OGL rules using an off the shelf engine like Godot or Unreal would stand a much better chance of success. Those threads used to pop up on the mother boards periodically and get flamed out by fanbois afraid of losing their captive playmates to a game where they can't give Cordo a rimjob to secure preferential treatment.
I think it would be a popular thread if you started a thought experiment about a player made game. It might even help some future organizer trying to put such a project together.