WARNING!!! This is a rant! Do not read any further if you don’t like rants. (I mean it)

What’s with all the hate?

Are we suddenly in Xoriat??? I have a pretty good feel for the climate on most servers and I see loads of people rage-quitting lately, using profanity towards others in general chat, and generally being rude to one another.  Tonight I finally had to log because I was tired of the same guy asking everyone in general chat how many times a day they… nevermind. 

Hound Raid not go right the first time? Had a new Bard or Caster or Tank who were not clear about what their jobs were? Oh you guys must SUCK! /quit

Shroud Lag? I have had it! /quit

Shroud Part 1: You guys can’t get these portals down fast enough! /quit
BTW, I have never seen a shroud Part 1 fail because the portals took 30-45 seconds each to come down. I have never seen a Shroud part 1 fail for that matter, even when the caster had no idea what to do and cleric never tossed out a heal.
Shroud Part 2: Party Member A: “Hey… What are you doing bra’? The Orthon is mine… go F-ing find something else to do.” (Oh never ever have I wanted to use my mic more in a raid than at that moment to tell him he was being disrespectful to a female old enough to be his mother.)

Party Member X: “Hey guys! It’s my first time running this quest! Can you tell me where the entrance is?”
Party Member X has been booted from your party.
Party Leader: “Noob”

I am sick to death of hate.  We are developing a very BAD reputation. We are thought of as Rude… Arrogant… Jerks… by outsiders looking in. In some cases this is true. I have seen it. 
What cheeses me off is that we used to have this fantastically tight-nit community. Sure we had back-biting on the forums, sometimes guild exploded… who doesn’t have that? No matter what, it seemed at the end of the day, we all loved and played the same game. We weren’t “care bears” by any means, but the environment was nowhere near as terse. No wonder the vets are so exclusive with whom they choose to play with. DDO is becoming a jungle with a strong dividing line between the haves and have-nots.

I am wondering if this isn’t a sign of our “growing pains”. I heard or read somewhere that our numbers rival LOTRO. Do larger numbers = larger problems? Do people treat each other this badly in WOW?  If that isn’t bad enough, now people are backing-biting one another in xxxxxxx?  Yeah…I am not happy about that.  There is just nothing like bringing yourself up by putting others down… very very LOW CLASS.  I am completely disgusted with that. 

My last thought is NOT good. Maybe it’s me. Maybe I have played DDO for too long. I don’t like thinking that. I love this game dearly. I happily live inside the DDO Skinner Box…. But. I hate … well… hate. (Oxymoron?)

Then again… maybe I just had a bad day in DDO. /sigh

Author’s Note: This is the continuing journal of my DDO European experiences. Scroll down and start with Part 1 if you have not seen it.

So here I am, 30 days into my 14-day trial.  Sound strange?  It is… and it isn’t. 

Now that I am getting to a half-way respectable level (nearly 15), I am begining to really visualize the pros and cons of the European Server.   One of the coolest things to me by far is the fact that I have duo’ed my way into being raid ready for Titain/ ADQ/ and Reaver! 

PRO - The population is 100% expereinced.  What they lack in QUANTITY they more than make up for in QUALITY.  Joining pugs is not a scary issue for me here.  Also, I have learned that when I use voice chat, my party is very likely to use it also.  This makes me re-visit my earlier assumptions, which were first impression-based.   I am starting to think that being quiet is more an extension of common courtesy.  I had noticed a bit of awkward silence when I first started playing, but now it seems like the players I encounter are more relaxed, and will generally use the mic after I start talking to them. 

CON - The economy is very stagnant.  Getting what you want is often a function of having it on a higher level character or borrowing it from someone else.

PRO - Positive Player Attitudes.  There is a very easy-going feel in the playstyle.  Poor attitudes, lack of patience, frustration…. I have yet to encounter these things.  I have not met even ONE person that I would not group with again and again.  What’s left of the European servers is made up of genuine, honest, quality people.  I cannot say enough how much I am enjoying myself over there. 

CON- The flip side to the tight-nit social network is the fact that players are NOT on at all times of the day and night.  In the wee hours for THEM for example.  You will be looking at less than ten people.  This is ok after you get used to it, but the world (at times) can be…well… a little lonely.  DDO is a social game after all.  Word to the wise… you must be like water and flow around THEM if you are looking to do something besides solo. 

Middle of the road- The bulk of the players are into raiding (as one would expect from a mature population) and also grinding epic content.  This means I do not ALWAYS get to group with my guildies.  This is not a bad thing as I seem to be making fast friends across the server in my level range and they are very happy to glide through content at my alarming rate. 

Want to hear something funny?  European players are just like U.S. players in that we often hit a wall around levels 8 and 14.  What does this say I wonder?  I am level 14 now and I have hit this same wall.  I am too big to play with the 10’s and too small to roll with the big boys.  I am too low level for the Inspired Quarter and too high level to grind big XP quests like The PIT for XP.  Since I HATE the Necropolis, I have been jumping back and forth between the desert and the Gianthold and occasionally Atraxia’s Haven.  I fear at 15… that my wall will get higher.  (I hope not)

My assessment:

Here is what I think, and it isn’t worth much… but this is MY BLOG after all.  The European Servers need the F2P model to breathe new life into the young player base and the economy.  The F2P model works. Peroid.  It saved our game from the chopping block.  It can save theirs.  (hmmm… I wil have to think about the mine vs theirs statement.)  Otherwise it is not an MMO… it’s just a cool place where mates can log on and play in a very nearly private world. 

I am starting to think that keeping the staus quo would not be such a terrible thing… however, the fact remains that if something does not make money, it generally goes away.  Once more I ask the reader to put yourself in the shoes of your European neighbors.   How would YOU feel if the situation were reversed? 

Think about it.

Author’s Note: This is the continuing journal of my DDO European experiences. Scroll down and start with Part 1 if you have not seen it.

 Stranger in a Strange Land, Part 3

Red Rover Red Rover, Let Lessah Come Over!     (Until August of 2010!)

I am having a great time in DDO-Europe. The people here make it what it is to be sure. (More on that in a moment)

This community is incredibly tight-nit. They take care of each other in a way that we either don’t or wont on the US Servers. I guess the size of the pond effects the behavior of the fish in it. Ok… so it doesn’t hurt that I am a VERY minor figure in the greater DDO Community, but I think I would still be accepted even if I wasn’t a podcaster. In fact, the whole podcast/ videos/ yada yada yada rarely comes up. Moreover, I don’t mention it and the information is not in my in game bio. (Today I finally put a link to my blog and my cast in the signature so when I post it will show up.)

I digress. I am level 11. Yes, that’s right. My 14-day trial has not even run over half its course yet and I Am level 11! You can’t say I am NOT playing! I figured out how to prolong my play time. I ASKED other players in the Codemasters Forums. They were very helpful.

Did you know you can get a game box for the price of a pint of beer at the pub? Yeah. One player sent me a link and said. “You will have to buy the box. It’s a quid or something.” Another player sent me a key from an extra box set he picked up cheap. It was that easy. I plugged in the key. Opted to pay a sub for three months. There you go. My goal? Easy. Get to 20. I can do it. I think.

Last night I logged on to the servers very late MY time. That makes it the wee hours of the morning over in Europe. There were 6 people online. There was one guy in my level range.

I send him a tell:

Me: Hey. I see you are on Sorrowdusk. Are you doing Slayer/ Rare? Need help?

Him: AM on last part of Temple Outpost, need stremth.

Me: My… str is 20.

Him: Ok.

Off we go! I help him finish Cult of The Six, we kill everything on the island, and then we kill everything in Searing heights… twice. We didn’t talk he and I. Almost no words in chat passed between us either, but he was more or less attached to me after questing. I’d say: “I am going here now…” He’d say: “Ok” and come with me.

I logged back in later that day after a much-needed break and immediately my intense and close band of Night Horde brothers (one sister I think) toss me an invite to the party. No questions need to be asked. Why? I posted in their forums that I wanted to do Threnal East/ West/ South a couple of days before. That is exactly what we set out to do. It is REALLY nice having such amiable people to group with. Though I am curious about what they think of the pushy American Girl in the guild who has such ruthless leveling goals.

My Assessment so far:

I had a nice long talk with one of the guildies. I wish I could mimic his accent, but he summed it up perfectly when he said to me: “All of the wankers have gone off to the US servers. It’s just the laid back people here, and were no’ going anywhere.”

That made me smile. Loads of European players left Keeper and Devourer like rats leaving a sinking ship. The ones who are left just don’t see a need to play in an environment that is seen by some as harshly competitive. I smiled again, thinking that we are not so different after all. The Populations of the US servers and the Euro Servers are merely foreign to one another. It’s a mild perception based on first and far off impressions. I assure you outside of the DDO Store, we are playing the same game, speaking to the same NPC’s, and earning the same XP.

The fact that the European Servers are so scant is a nod to the Free To Play Business Model. What I need to think about more, however, is the thing that bothers me the most. Time, Money, Investment…. All these things are tangible. Therefore… the same characters that these guys have invested in over the years are tangible. (South Korea’s highest court recently ruled that virtual goods were as viable as the real thing. Perception is everything… remember that.)

It makes me try and put myself in this position. I have a 20th Level Paladin that I have played since just after launch. I have invested time, money, and effort into her. I have cultivated her into a fun and playable character that I enjoy coming back to even though she is capped. I also have a 20th Level Permadeath Cleric. If I lost him to some sort of game infrastructure collapse I’d be as devastated as if he had died fighting Vellah and I had to delete him. These characters are important to me. I try to imagine them being on the European servers and I begin to “GET” it. Why I would want to stay that is.

To be continued…

Stranger in a Strange Land, Part 2

‘You have 9 days remaining on your free trial account.’

I looked at the words and shook my head. “It’s not enough time,” I said out loud.
Here I was, only five days in and dreading the end of the 14 day trial. I’m level ten and still wearing my Helm from Korthos Island, I wore the Ogre Panties from Kobolds New Ring Leader until I found a moderate fort belt in VON 4! *shakes head More on that later…

I have been noticing things… small things…differences between the European and US servers. Some things I miss, some I don’t.

It is really nice not to have to worry about who is and isn’t Free to Play in your group. Normally I would ask everyone what adventure packs they have and if they are VIP or not before picking a quest which may or may not be the one I am wanting to do. This, however, is the price you have to pay for the F2P model. I used to go through these socially awkward moments when I would open my big mouth and suggest “The Restless Isles” or “The Desert” only to discover that one or two people in the group could not get in. *sigh I would immediately feel obligated to buy them a guest pass. I can tell you that the little guest passes add up over time. In DDO Europe this does not exist. I do not have to be so careful about the quests I choose.

I realized something today. These guys are farming epic quests and collecting tokens and TR-ing like the rest of the world, but there is no DDO Store to help them. Not to say that they are better than US players. Playstyles seem to be streamlined among good players no matter where they are from. But the lack of resources within easy reach forces a player to be economical and by virtue more strategic.
The DDO Store has spoiled me I think. Still… I miss my fast travel.

I began researching how to prolong my time with the European players today. I like everyone I have met so far. I am genuinely interested in them and they don’t seem put off by me. These are all good things.

To be continued.

Stranger in a Strange Land, Part 1

“Be careful what you wish for…”

It’s what I said to a Codemasters forums poster after he suggested I come play with them for a while on the European version of DDO. Frankly… I was tired of asking other people what they thought of it and what it was like, so I downloaded the game and a 14-day trial and set off to familiar, yet unfamiliar territory.

First Impressions –

The place is quiet. Korthos, both on the snowy and sunny side were empty. Out of curiosity I counted 52 online my first day. Granted it was not a peak play time, so that number is likely low. So why are these guys still here? I thought. Learned helplessness. I say it to myself and think… yeah that’s it, they must be here because this is a comfortable place to be, even if a less painful state of being is waiting within eye-shot. I learned later that this assumption was all wrong.

With a laugh everyone welcomes me to the “poor mans version of DDO.” It’s like DDO as it was before the DDO Store came along. I am missing the DDO Store and I did not think I would. I want my teleport rod and my bracelet of friends and my skates… as it is snowing in the harbor . Everyone on the European Servers got Perma skates and 100 Ski Lift Cocoas. (I can tell you from experience that 100 is not enough for a serious Ice Jumper!) My European guild was very generous and with an all purpose loan and some starter gear. Several of them even rolled new characters to play with me. Another very nice gesture on their part.

Power Leveling with the Pro’s-

So Here I was… three days in and level 6, with plans to skip level 7. Not bad. I have met people from Iceland, Switzerland, the UK, Germany… all have been exceptionally nice, mature, and unusually quiet… why is that? I told another player as we strolled very quickly through a quest that if I were to leave the European server, it would be because no one was using a microphone. That changed the same day. I had an unprecedented four people talking in a group at once!

I tried to shop the Auction House.  To no Avail.  There was little to no loot for a character in my level range.  What was there was very cheap!  In the end, the guildies set me up with everything I needed.  I have my little goals that I am working towards, but the extra help with the Pure Good Weapons and the armor has made the difference in my leveing! 

My Assessment thus far-

DDO Europe has some fantastic players in it. They are intelligent and mature and not in any denial about where their game is.  But there is an incredible air of patience among them.   They will still be there.  They strike me as players who are heavily invested in their characters and each other and are comfortable where they are.  I understand this completely. If you play with the same dozen or so people all the time and you enjoy it, why change anything? There is no real reason to leave in this case.

Having said that, it’s hard to imagine that the population exists to maintain the status quo. There is just no way this thing is making money. When things don’t make money, what happens to them? That leads me to the question: Why don’t the Europeans go to the F2P model? It certainly seems like it would help. My other question is… is it too late, even for that? It is my very humble and limited opinion that if the current course does not change… the last 2 remaining servers will continue to quietly die until they are so empty that there is no one left. What a shame that would be.

To be Continued…

So there we were… a party of 5, two-level 14’s, two-level 15’s, and one 16. All Permadeath.

We spent months trying to get everything we needed to get into the Giant Hold Tor. We finaly got it all done, gathered all the relics we needed, and we felt we had enough to enter the TOR and win.

We were right.

We smashed the TOR, it was brilliant. So we went on… we explored and we found the lair of a White Dragon. We went in with single-minded purpose. It was do or die time.

We Won.

We looted the chests and piles of gold like happy children. One if us got a White Dragon Scale.
“Just 24 more to go!” I said to the fighter cheerily.
He laughed.

We went on.

Next we came to the lair of a blue dragon. We thought… whynot try? So we did.
“Stay off the gold,” we reminded each other.
Things were tough, but going ok. We were taking a lot of damamge it was hard for the clerics to keep up. And then it happened… they both died at the very same time. A shock of fear went through my heart.

No Clerics!
I had four Lay on Hands… I used a redemption to raise a cleric. He died immediately. The other cleric had death pact up.. she died immediately as soon as she was up.

At this point we were under heavy fire and there was no real healing for the party. I had to use one of the three LOH I had left on myself. I wanted to try and raise a cleric again, but I had just used an ability and there was a cool-down period. Caster down. I turtled to try and stay alive as long as possible. More damage, too much… another LOH used to keep myself alive.
Only ONE LOH left now.
The other tank died where he stood. Leaving me. My fear instintcs told me to get the heck out of there… that wasn’t happening. No way out. Everyone else dead, I had a sliver of health, raise a cleric? No.. I’d be dead beofre I could get the animation off. I used on the only person I could… me. It prolonged my life for a few seconds… not much… I looked down… in my haste to defend myself I had stepped too far and onto the gold. Electricity was the last thing I saw.

I do not regret this death. I consider a death in the throws of combat honorable. Though it is a far way to fall (from level 15) I am a patient player.

Remember… this is WHY we choose to play Permadeath in the first place.
The Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat.  Better to try and fail than not to have tried at all… 

It happens. We will get there.

Rest In Peace Mama Dink, I knew her well…

My Little PWNY

Everyone needs goals! I have been curious as to what I have been missing lately.. you know.. how the other half lives. What better way to find out than to hang out with the same people I started playing the game with four years ago!
They are still there and still great people.. but.. they speak a language now that I am unfamiliar with and look at the game in ways that I had not even fathomed for a LONG LONG time!
Still… I want to see some epic content.. I want to see Mama Lessah shine like I know she can.. so off into the wilderness I go! I have even been pugging! Pwny-style! Free-form! These guys are like artists who paints so abstractly that you could not possibly understand the content but would still pay big dollars for the work! Plus… they are fun… and I like to go where the fun is! Who doesn’t!
This is a game after all and is meant to be fun! When things are not fun… you stop. I digress…
They say you should write your goals down in order to help bring them to fruition….

1.) Make a green-steel kopesh blank

2.) Get some sweet raid loot ala Hound Raid Levik’s Shield/ Bracers

3.) See some epic content.

4.) Level my Permadeath Pally on Thelanis to 16.

*looks up*
That works right? Good!

Any peron who plays an MMO knows that… you can only do SO much.  You can only work on so many things at a time.  So for the next few weeks, I am going to be on Argonnessen playing Mama Lessah, My first ever character in DDO.  I JUST rebuilt her into a 32 point build via Greater Re-incarnation.  Now I am ready to “SEE HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVES.”   My Little Pwny  (who are LOADS of fun) have agreed to drag me around and expose me to a brach of the DDO lifestyle that I have previously ignored! 

Riding the Pwny

LINK I am really happy with her. 

Though… I have a question:  WHEN did it become unfashionable to carry a shield?   I love sword and board…. and you can have MY board when you pry it from my cold, dead, hands!  WTH!?!  My new AC is 50 without even trying.  After CE and buffs (recitation) and Action Boosts, I can get it to 60.  I am very happy with that.  My intimidate COULD be better (31-35 depending) but I can still grab aggro of trash mobs off of a caster. 

Oh… and I made the Snow Elemental from the Winter suprise recipie!  

Updates to come!

My hands are still shaking as I type this entry! I had see the pictures when Sublime entered the Subterrain and pulled some phat loot (vorpal, smiter, and plus 2 tome from the SAME chest!), but this time I was going WITH them to the Island of Really Hawt Drow {read: The Island of Forgotten Dreams}. It was really really COOL!

The funniest part for me was when we got to the arena where some dream wraith-thingies are talking smack to us in the Livewood Theatre. They didn’t have that much to say….

Perhaps NEXT Time we will explain to them that we were all level 18-20 Permadeathers that have never ever touched a resurection shrine!  Maybe THEN those Dream Stealers will show some respect!

(See the Accomplishments Thread to get that remark!)

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=235619

I have been having more fun than should be legally allowed on Khyber lately with the Friday Night Noob Club. I am not a noob you say? I beg to differ! I can be as clueless as the next person! (Read: I try my best not to spoil!)

I think the funnest thing for me has got to be teaching my guildmates about DDO! I have created at least one Auction House Monster as well as helped people craft their armor and upgrade weapons! My favorite is to watch them figure things out. I love it when people approach things from a fresh perspective.

Van Hemlock’s Noobs Defeat Tempest Spine!
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