A Message to Our Players From SSG

[Epicsoul]

This is not true. They get a box called "Pick-a-mount"[*], which lets you choose one from a selection of 13 old horses that are almost all available via festivals and/or are not nearly as expensive as you said. I just redeemed the code myself.

* https://lotro-wiki.com/wiki/Itemick_a_Mount

Thank you, I didn't know this. I was asking last night to discover how much mounts are in the store there. I wasn't aware it was a box like that. I'll revise my post.

 

[Drakos]

We'd like to apologize for the unplanned downtime that occurred this weekend due to an outage at our data center. Our engineering and IT teams worked diligently throughout the weekend to resolve the issues, and we're pleased to report that the problems have been fixed.

We recognize the significance of this outage, especially over a holiday weekend, and we're truly sorry for any inconvenience it caused. To show our appreciation for your patience and support, we're announcing the following to our players:

• VIP Daily Gold Rolls are extended to April 26th.
• All VIPs will receive 2 additional days of VIP status to compensate for the downtime. (Changes will take effect on Wednesday, April 3rd. We will confirm when they are implemented.)
• To further show our gratitude, we are offering the following from April 5th through April 7th:
  • +25% Heroic and Epic XP Boost.
  • +25% Guild Renown.
  • +10 Treasure Hunter Boost.

We deeply appreciate your understanding and continued support. Thank you for being a part of our community and we’ll see you in game!

Website Link: https://www.ddo.com/news/ddo-makegood2024-040224

I truly appreciate this. As a VIP member since the start, you met my only 2 requirements with the 2 bullet points. The server outage was unfortunate, but also not completely under your control.

The extra you offer with your third bullet is welcome and will be of use.

 

[Drakos]

I don't feel quite as assuaged as many other posters about the bonuses, but I'm nevertheless happy to see the game back online.

It's hard to figure out what I would have thought appropriate as compensation, given that a lot if not most of my playtime is on week-ends, being unable to play for a whole week-end doesn't feel like it should give me 25% bonus the next one.

You realize it was a Holiday weekend for them as well. Instead of spending it with their families they were working diligently to get the servers back on line. SSG also had to compensate the for the Holiday work time as well. It's not like the wanted this to happen, and at least those who missed stuff they were paying for got compensated.

 

[IronEnemaz]

Thanks for the extensions/bonuses.

Guys - things go wrong, stuff breaks, someone somewhere worked their weekend because of it. Pushing an 'I was inconvenienced and deserve compensation' line isn't needed.

 

[Guntango]

Extra mounts in LOTRO are one of the rewards that are absolutely worthless to some players, while being awesome to some others. And when the game probably has literally hundreds of mounts, I guess there's also a section of playerbase that are like "Oh, another mount, ... yay I suppose". This is especially true now that it seems like the reward is one of those boxes that lets you to choose from ~dozen old, mostly dull-looking mounts which have been in game for ages, just like those selection boxes themselves. It doesn't let you choose any one you'd want from the ridiculously large pool of different mounts, which would have been way better.

I personally don't need any more than one mount to get around faster than running, and any more than that won't affect my gameplay in any way. I'm happy for those that are happy, though, in both games.

If mounts are so worthless, then why give them to either game community? If they're such a throwaway item, why not throw them away on DDO players as well? It's just another kick in the nads.

 

[Wini]

Thank you for getting the servers back! It was scaring for us players because it's a very unusual situation and our minds were picturing the worst case scenario. I'm happy everything is fine now and I hope you guys didn't have so much trouble/stress in such a bad moment. Thanks for you profesionality.

That said, I don't like the weekend bonuses.

Accident happens, so you fix it and life goes on. But if you want to say "thanks" to the players for hanging on, a 2 days bonus to random loot and XP sounds very bad to me, because some people was on national holyday, not a regular weekend. Not everyone can play at regular weekends, you know.

Whatever, I'm very thankful for your work and the servers coming back, but I just wanted to express my opinion on these time windowed bonuses.

 

[Guntango]

But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek(server down), turn to them the other cheek also(apology gift).

I'm out of cheeks to turn.

 

[Kritikal]

As mentioned before, it should have been a code for Sovereign XP potions.

Last weekend was the weekend I had time to play, as my family and I are going away on vacation. For them to do an XP weekend for this upcoming weekend means nothing.

In retrospect, I was expecting NOTHING, so that's what is being received.

So...

Thank you...
I guess...

 

[DBZ]

We are getting dragon mounts next month idk if lotro gets any stuff for year of the dragon

 

[thejaerleclan]

So to break this down, the first two thank you items make up for what was lost. The third, is for the same amount of time as the outage, on a non holiday weekend.

Pretty week response to a major systems failure.

Wish I could say I was surprised.

 

[Aelonwy]

Its essentially what I expected so I appreciate it. YMMV.

 

[Mickeymouse]

They didn´t have to do this, except to VIPs. so thanks SSG!

 

[Justfungus]

What ever ....

 

[Lacci]

I´ll gain more on next weekend than I lost on the last one, so it´s also more than I expected.

 

[Drakos]

That's what I said the other day too. This bonus is weak, because of 2 things: #1, you have to now log in on the days they tell you to, to compensate your lost holiday time. #2, it doesn't help people doing reaper xp (legendary) at all.

To all those people saying "Be grateful you get anything, they don't owe you anything", have fun when the population drops again, and DDO is shut down for good, and your characters vanish into nothing. I have a strong feeling its going to start dropping hard in the next few weeks. I regret buying points last month.

Thanks' I will have fun.

 

[Drakos]

Probably they don't give those bonus as a pot because it can stack with a pot?

Also, a Potion/Elixirs would be character specific, while these bonuses will benefit any/all characters that are played during the time.

 

[beerweed]

why does lotro get 5 days and we get 2 days?

 

[Mickeymouse]

why does lotro get 5 days and we get 2 days?

we are 2.5 times better players than those lotro jerks.

 

[Hawk]

Why does asking to maintain the game's population automatically mean people don't appreciate the technician's work? Obviously we do. Yes, some people had to work OT on a holiday weekend, they are troopers, and I hope they got compensated TOO. And why does every argument against better compensation (or enticing players to log in) have to steer off-course? The 2 things are not linked.

I personally didn't even plan to log in that weekend. I personally don't care about my own compensation.

I do, however, want to see DDO alive when I do log in. And I want to see the population INCREASE for once, and not decrease again, because even a handful of people feel compelled (or steered) to go play other games because they're annoyed that the business they're dealing with doesn't care enough to keep them around (especially when some people had limited play time... they can't play 8 hours a day for 7 days a week, or on a specific weekend.)

Part of this isn't even just the downtime, but trying to increase the population in general and get people to log back in. Most weekend bonuses, and the events (which don't happen nearly often enough, or feel rewarding enough) need to be dealt with better as well. Whatever it takes to entice players back to the login screen continually. There's lots of bonuses/compensation/events that can happen more frequently that would grab players.

It's like talking to a wall though sometimes on these forums. All some people can think about is sniping comments without even reading the context, and telling people to "grow up" when they're the ones being immature and naive. Hitting the reply button and saying "lolz players shouldn't need to be compensated or enticed to play" is quite possibly the most ignorant thing someone can say about any MMO. You're living in a shell.

It's ignorant to think every MMO will automatically live forever, without adapting and enticing players. And sometimes it feels like the nickle and dime incentives SSG gives isn't enough to keep the population from falling. Especially when something that costs them nothing can be done to get people to log back in. Maybe it's just not as obvious to some players (and inexperienced developers), so I'm at a loss.

 

[Drakos]

If mounts are so worthless, then why give them to either game community? If they're such a throwaway item, why not throw them away on DDO players as well? It's just another kick in the nads.

See, to me the gift of a Horse in game would be way less valuable since I already have plenty of mounts, and only need one after all. That would be more of a kick in the Nads as you put it.

Here in lies the rub. What one player considers "appropriate" another will see useless, so they can't please everyone all the time. At least they are compensating the players for actual paid benefits that were lost, and then a nice bonus on top.