Ok so I'm not exactly trying to get Lynnabel in trouble here, but if it happens whatever.

The TL:DR part is Daybreak Games runs almost everything except the development and monetization methods Sevs crack addled brain comes up with.

So around about the time that they promoted those nifty $300 supporters packs? That was Daybreak telling them to shit or get off the pot basically or they'd fire a shit ton of their DDO staff and DDO would go into maintenance mode. Lucky for SSG only like, 3 folk got shitcanned out of the deal because they successfully milked the whales.

Now they have to keep meeting sales figures to keep alive, and so Sev is basically under pressure of Daybreak to perform or DDO is dead, they don't get to shuffle LOTRO money to cover DDO's losses anymore because all their money goes directly to Daybreak and Daybreak cuts everybody their checks as well as doing any of their promotional work (which ofc Daybreak being a shitty ass company isn't going to do) and support (which is why support has gotten dramatically shittier because a bunch of people unfamiliar with the game are trying to understand what in the absolute fuck the retards whining at them to fix things are trying to say). So you've got Daybreak pushing their thumb up Sevs ass, and because he's not bright at marketing and they don't have anyone worth a damn to give good ideas, they keep pushing stupid as fuck monetization methods out the door hoping like fuck they can milk the whales as hard as possible.

The whales are stuck in their cycle of having more disposable income than sense to realize they are pushing broken shit out the door faster than they can fix it to keep Daybreak happy because of good ol sunk cost fallacy.

You can tell the stupidity behind Sevs decisions when it comes to things like Hard Core League where they incentivize spending money like a retarded Chris-chan at any opportunity, be it airship amenities or xp pots.

Everyone on the staff knows about this shit, so when they try to deflect they are defending their paychecks because most of these fucks (especially Cordovan) haven't got much of a resume to put together because the hiring policy is almost exclusively pulling people fresh from college if they haven't been around on the team since launch.

I wouldn't have bothered saying anything but it looks like the quality of the game and the direction it's taking is absolute fuckery and Daybreak and Sev are primarily to blame because Daybreak is pushing Sev to monetize and Sev is too stupid to understand how to monetize outside of microtransactions and the outlook for DDO is bleak because nobody can make a smart decision about the shit to save their lives. Also because it'd be kinda funny to watch everybody freak out that the game's balls are on the bandsaw every quarter but I didn't feel like posting it myself so I give it to you to decide what you want to do with the info. Or if it's even really that dramatic a reveal that Daybreak is running Sev to run the game into the ground, most people seem to be pretty pissed as is.

I forgot to mention something that is hilarious about where DDO/LOTRO was at the time they switched to Daybreak. Warner Brothers let Sev take both IPs with him for free, because they were worth so little to Warner Brothers that it didn't matter to them one bit. So any idea anyone had about DDO/LOTRO being worth anything is marginal, and Daybreak was the only company willing to risk taking SSG in at all because they don't have an attractive product.

These claims seem quite odd considering SSG claims Daybreak is just their Publisher and not their owner.

Something doesn't smell right here - either on SSG's part or Daybreak's part.


Also, not sure why Lynnabel would be in any sort of trouble, unless...

Tough to decipher if any of it is real or just some whiny vaulter complaining about "whales" and disliking the way the game is.

These claims seem quite odd considering SSG claims Daybreak is just their Publisher and not their owner.

These quotes from the massively article should tell you all you need to know about who pulls the puppet's strings...

Who is Standing Stone Games' CEO right now?
Jerry Snook: We don't have a CEO, but Rob, the Executive Producer, is our studio head.

You can’t provide an answer as to whether or not you have the ability to change publishers if your studio wanted or needed to?
Jerry Snook: We’re talking high-level legal stuff, so it’s probably better to leave these kind of questions to them.


If you dont have a CEO and arent free to do what you want, you are not in control. And the only reason that situation would exist in a business context is if DB called the shots

On the personal side they have jobs they enjoy and get to make games they love - lots of people wish they had that setup!

The source is questionable, anyone that doesn't understand the $300 vip deal was a money saving discount for players over normal vip monthly usually cannot do math or have an intellect to "report" anything reliable. That was the give away to me in the quoted info.

The rest of the story is just saying sev has to keep making money, big secret surprise really?

$300 for 2 years is more than VIP pay for 3 years of subscription. They paid extra to keep the content that came out during that time and to get the daily gold rolls. Plus the cosmetic that I’ve never seen someone wear in game ever. That was not anything close to a “money saving discount.”

14.95 monthly sub times 24 months is about $360. Enough incentive saving 60 bucks and getting daily gold roll.

Might be able to have used the 60 bucks to get gand laid, but I dont think his mom gives discounts anymore.

You can also get 1 year for $99