There's too many good games coming out to blow money on VIP for any significant amount of time. DDO simply isn't good enough. Any VIP upgrades would need to be staggeringly fantastic. I suppose they only want to retain the really diehard players of this game. That's why whatever they do will be the bare minimum. That's a big problem with this game. It's perpetual bare minimum.
Different strokes.
I'm a one game kind of guy. Many of us are. Don't care about the numbers break down, just pointing out that if I quit playing DDO, I'd be going to hang with friends, backpacking, and singing karaoke..... regardless of whatever other games are out there - new or old.
I'm not ignorant of alternate views. My younger cousins are barely in DDO at all because they're bouncing between this new game and the next. But when they beat it in under a week or two with the highest accolades anyone in the game can get (I'm not really being facetious here, they're basically some of the most skilled gamers under the age of 30 I've ever seen), they're back in DDO.
Once again, I'm sure that isn't everybody either, but the fact remains that for me personally, $100 a year for DDO (or thereabouts) is far less than I'd spend out drinking for one night especially if food is involved....or barring that - in case I ever decide to quit drinking - a large one-topping pizza at my local preferred pizza chain costs $12. And I like upwards of 3 toppings and I prefer XL for the $/square inch, so DDO costs me less than 1 pizza a month. Not to mention the existing VIP perks (just talking monthly Store points here, and some kind of $$$/xp gain equivalency on the VIP and +party member bonuses) defray that a decent bit. I'm paying far less for "rented access" via VIP the more I play with that equivalency......
And my life isn't yours or everyone's but.......there's enough of the player base out there that live similar enough lives to make these points valid and I'd hardly call us diehard players of the game.....or maybe that's what we are. I don't really care. Labels.
And back to point, DDO is constantly adding new things. New classes, new versions of classes, new levels......all without really (when compared to other games I'm vaguely aware of) making old content completely obsolete. I'd say DDO is winning and superior in ways that all the other games are not. And I've watched a few of them being played over people's shoulders......meh. Double meh. I mean, enjoy what you enjoy, but quit talking in such broad strokes. The world isn't you.
And if you want to talk bare minimum......I'm not allowed to tell you the stories I know about people/work outfits really delivering the bare minimum to their customers. DDO isn't that.