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[Jack Jarvis Esquire]

NPS?

Hope you get that bonus!

I gave you a 10. I recommend DDO to friends and family repeatedly, particularly when freequests offers come out.

Interesting to see so many forumites crying about poor server/game pop, yet on the strength of this, apparently unwilling to do anything about it themselves... because, reasons... none of which stops them from playing and enjoying the game... but reasons anyway...

 

[GrayJedi AntiProPaladin]

yah also that 4 Expansion Packs Quests/Content only for 99 DDOpts is good opportunity that necessitates for my friends to actually play thru some adventures on various servers to earn the Favour and DDOpts to buy the discounted packs. I help them to create the basic simple characters from DDOwiki or from the forums and then party with them but they fight the monsters and they take the lead while I hang back and heal/buff them, send in my pets to support, and yell "check for Traps!" before they get close to Treasure chests, that's just how we do.... back in university PnP days... tell them which active guilds to join up,etc.... (they're like even more super casual than me tho, can only play a few hours on the weekends, so it's a lot of adventures quests for them to Play thru...)

 

[ChaoticDrivel]

As someone who has spent a significant amount of my time in DDO helping newcomers to the best of my ability, this is a topic I feel particularly passionate about. In the end, I gave it a score of '4', but it could easily be a score of '7' or '8'. I can't do so in good conscience, however, because:

-DDO has moved further away from D&D over the years, to the point where it doesn't represent it well. Nor does DDO development respect immersion/roleplay as much as it should.

-The game performance and UI issues are plentiful.

-The barrier to entry, in terms of price to own all the content, is far too high. For the same amount of money– one could buy several outstanding games. The free quest packs and old expansion discounts are a good start, but don't go far enough frankly. And this is before you factor in other purchases, like VIP and extra storage...

-And that is another bugbear(heh, see what I did there?)...The storage problem. In a game that has had storage/inventory issues for several years– trying to monetize this aspect of the game is a particularly nasty decision. The amount of time people spend juggling all their items around, as opposed to actually playing the game, is abominable. I know I have had days where I thought to log in and play some DDO. Then, upon being met with the arduous task of having to free up my inventory in order to play– I decided I'd rather spend my time elsewhere. Like booting up a different game and being able to get to the 'game' part immediately.

-The design philosophy in DDO has tended toward encouraging and facilitating an "xp/per min" play pattern. This has led to:

1. Shorter, less intricate dungeons; with linear layouts, simpler puzzles, and easier encounters. Even once iconic dungeons and battles(ToEE & Zuggtmoy were watered down to be forgettable). An altogether less interesting dungeon experience in a game that is supposed to be all about that.

2. Providing players the tools that enable them to fulfill this expeditious play style (easy access to invisibility scrolls, or being able to heal oneself with ease etc.); all the while, making redundant what are supposed perks of various classes(such as a Wizard preparing a spell like invisibility, or a Clerics ability to heal with aplomb). This has been further exacerbated with the change that allows for greater healing in Reaper mode when out-of-combat– albeit inelegant in execution.

3. Players being able to faceroll dungeons, with little need for strategy, tactics, and importantly: cooperation with teammates, as mentioned above.

4. Zerging becoming the default mode for most– meaning new players looking for others to play with, get left behind. And left with a wholly unsatisfying experience.

5. DPS, DPS, and more DPS being the only thing that matters, for the most part.

6. Elitism in the DDO community as it pertains to people's completion times, kill counts, builds, play style etc.

7. An erosion of the playerbase, and thus– an unhealthy cycle of catering to those who remain who still enjoy/tolerate the state of the game– at the expense of more wide-reaching design goals.

Ultimately– this overindulgence in chasing XP above all else, has meant that dungeon delving has become fairly hollow, with little interaction between players and the environment. Most are just going through the motions at this point. The actual meal should be where most of the satisfaction is derived. And not from the end result of having had a meal(accrued XP).

And now...back to more reasons why I wouldn't recommend DDO:

-The shrinking playerbase is divided amongst several servers. This makes finding like-minded people, or heck– any group at all for your level range a challenge unto itself. This is also partly why Hardcore is a pleasantly refreshing contrast to the barren live servers. So let's do away with that too!

-Not being able to disable other player's cosmetics and pets. I'm all for folks being able to express themselves and customize their characters. The moment that interferes with other player's gameplay though, is where I draw the line. Examples of this are Fae Hunter's Wings
on Warforged/H-orc toons entirely obscuring narrow passageways, of which there are plenty. Not being able to see a Champion or Reaper on the other side of them can often be a death sentence for everyone involved. An entirely avoidable one.
Similarly, bloody/golden footprints and cosmetic pets can't be helping game performance. Rather, they seem to hinder it.

- Multiboxing allowing for those using buff Bards to invalidate much of a dungeon's challenge, or the need for any other player's assistance. This is particularly sad for me, as Bards are one of my favourite D&D classes, and were the reason I tried out DDO in the first place. Bards need a total rework to incentivize more active gameplay.

-In a similar vein– multiboxing allowing those using macros to have second, third, and more characters following them. I've seen them able to auto-attack, and cast spells. And of course, putting passive aura type effects on them means benefiting from them near constantly.

There are even more issues that arise from multiboxing, but these two are most prominent.
It's hard for me to fathom how the devs have allowed this to continue as long as it has. So I don't have much hope that it will be rectified.

For this reason, as well as the diminishing role of healers, trappers, tanks, and cooperative gameplay as a whole– those who enjoy support roles would find more purpose and fulfillment in other games regrettably. This wasn't always the state of affairs in DDO.

I want to mention that there are more new players than most people realize. Though less so these days. They just don't stick around for too long. Part of the problem is the defeatist mentality the devs, and playerbase have towards them. I think we can all do much more. Ultimately, we are constrained by the design philosophy. It's not one that lends itself well to attracting and keeping new players.

Yet...most( or all) of these issues can be solved. DDO can still be a fun time, and has the potential to become a much better game for many years to come. It would take a significant shake up though. And a lot of bravery, creativity, hard work, and commitment from those in charge... But that's not where we are now. Could it be where we are going? Unlikely, but I'll keep hoping a fool's hope

The experience(not XP– rather, the one that truly matters ) of playing DDO in 2024 is fraught with despair, darkness, discord, and doom. Swim at your own risk

 

[Jhml]

I would and have, even wrote a blog entry (in finnish) about it two years ago. It has by far the best solo play experience out of the mmorpgs I've played, it's pleasingly complicated, supports multiple playstyles, the value for money and the ability to pick and choose which things you buy is exceptional. Wiki and the forums are great resources, the staff reachable and communicative with the Fridays at Four and such.

My main gripe is that D&D and DDO start breaking down at higher levels. In a perfect world the max level would be about nine or so, before spellcasters become gods.

On a tangent, I loved the now sadly defunct Warriors of Waterdeep and would enjoy a similar easygoing and quick to play turn based tablet game on the side: how about it, SSG?

 

[Lacci]

Last time I recommended the game to friends was during covid, none of them stayed after the first evening.
Since then, the game just got worse and worse in my opinion, so I won´t bother trying to get someone to play DDO again.
If one of my friends would express any interest in playing D&D, I would point them to Baldurs Gate.

 

[Imaria]

- Multiboxing allowing for those using buff Bards to invalidate much of a dungeon's challenge, or the need for any other player's assistance. This is particularly sad for me, as Bards are one of my favourite D&D classes, and were the reason I tried out DDO in the first place. Bards need a total rework to incentivize more active gameplay.

-In a similar vein– multiboxing allowing those using macros to have second, third, and more characters following them. I've seen them able to auto-attack, and cast spells. And of course, putting passive aura type effects on them means benefiting from them near constantly.

There are even more issues that arise from multiboxing, but these two are most prominent.
It's hard for me to fathom how the devs have allowed this to continue as long as it has. So I don't have much hope that it will be rectified.

I am sensitive to this complaint in games where it matters, but I genuinely cannot possibly fathom how this affects someone in DDO, possibly the least competitive MMO in existence. The market is perpetually gasping out its last breath like a fish out of water, while the hardcore rankings have 9 seasons of rankings that don't really suggest to me that 6 man autopilot gangs have taken over the wasteland, so... I don't think I get it.

No amount of aurabots will ever be half as useful as having another live player in that slot. If you have real builds fully macro'd out to the nines, you might approach parity with a group of people piloting mediocre-to-bad builds? Maybe if you have something like the Hyper7 you could go a little further beyond... but this feels a bit like people complaining about the existence of speedruns in single player games to me.

 

[John3000]

We're interested in getting a quick read from you on whether you'd recommend Dungeons & Dragons Online to a friend. Please consider filling out this one-question survey on Google Forms here: https://forms.gle/fCAjCA85mFkSLejbA

Thanks!

This a great initiative. Thanks !

First NPS survey in the history of DDO ! This will give you guys a baseline and KPI for improving customer satisfaction and the future of the game. Never too late

Cheers

 

[l_remmie]

Is this a joke or a trick?

SSG has gone out of their way to NOT attract new players. It is no secret that the SSG business model is too milk whales as much as you can get away with while the game is basically deprecated.

The players aren't non-thinking NPC's (wallets). We are for the big majority adults, we know what is going on in with the game we love. We can figure out policy and priority with what you do and more often what you do NOT do.

If you truly want to invest in DDO i'm all for it. I love this game and i'd love to play with more people. But i'll believe it when i see real action being taken.

Streamline the process to make a new account. Make it possible to use 1 email address for both Lotr and DDO for starters.

Delete all the Character Paths that are soo bad they actually push away new players.

Create good value new player bundles with some decent permanent hirelings.

Implement ways/guides/tutorials to make help navigate game mechanics so new players can understand it.

Have an actual properly functioning store at any lvl.

 

[CEastwood]

The form requires a sign-in/account on a non-DDO site. I'll pass.

I can answer the question here easily however.

No, wouldn't recommend this to a friend.

The main reasons for my answer:
1) The price - It costs far to much to acquire all of the content. There plenty of great games I can play with friends that don't cost $300+.
2) The constant lag - It frequently makes what would otherwise be an enjoyable experience irritating.
3) The bugs - Veteran players know how to avoid or work around most of the bugs but new players have no idea.
4) The customer service - The last thing I'd wish on anyone I considered a friend would be having to deal with SSG's support (or lack thereof).

This - dont use google so cant take part in survey

 

[Putti]

Unfortunately I think the new player experience is so rough that I cannot recommend it to anyone. The few that I've tried only stuck around for a day or two. This game requires a heavy research to get started and there is simply too much frustration involved in questing due to the difficulty difference between old content vs. new content and trash mobs vs. champions/reapers. Not to mention the amount of time spent on gear tetris and build creation means the action can be far in-between.

 

[noinfoavailable]

- Multiboxing allowing for those using buff Bards to invalidate much of a dungeon's challenge, or the need for any other player's assistance. This is particularly sad for me, as Bards are one of my favourite D&D classes, and were the reason I tried out DDO in the first place. Bards need a total rework to incentivize more active gameplay.

-In a similar vein– multiboxing allowing those using macros to have second, third, and more characters following them. I've seen them able to auto-attack, and cast spells. And of course, putting passive aura type effects on them means benefiting from them near constantly.

There are even more issues that arise from multiboxing, but these two are most prominent.
It's hard for me to fathom how the devs have allowed this to continue as long as it has. So I don't have much hope that it will be rectified.

For this reason, as well as the diminishing role of healers, trappers, tanks, and cooperative gameplay as a whole– those who enjoy support roles would find more purpose and fulfillment in other games regrettably. This wasn't always the state of affairs in DDO.

I want to mention that there are more new players than most people realize. Though less so these days. They just don't stick around for too long. Part of the problem is the defeatist mentality the devs, and playerbase have towards them. I think we can all do much more. Ultimately, we are constrained by the design philosophy. It's not one that lends itself well to attracting and keeping new players.

Yet...most( or all) of these issues can be solved. DDO can still be a fun time, and has the potential to become a much better game for many years to come. It would take a significant shake up though. And a lot of bravery, creativity, hard work, and commitment from those in charge... But that's not where we are now. Could it be where we are going? Unlikely, but I'll keep hoping a fool's hope

The experience(not XP– rather, the one that truly matters ) of playing DDO in 2024 is fraught with despair, darkness, discord, and doom. Swim at your own risk

The co-operative component of ddo died out years ago only to return in part for reaper.
No idea how long you have been around but I remember a time when the only role in ddo was dps and there was no need for anything else. Avoid traps, no tank and then they let everyone heal too.

The multiboxing has 0 to do with anything and only adds to completion time but is great for extra pulls.
Discussing bard buffs or caster buffs from a box is pretty irrelevant when you look at what those buffs can do. Most people will just steam roll non reaper or even low/mid reaper content solo faster than they will with boxes let alone high where any box generating agro would be destroyed. If your bard can be replaced in a challenging run by a box that is more a player issue. Most people prefer to run with real people but I will take a box over a hireling and park it at the entrance anyday.

If you put a new player with the multi life twink player leveling it won't be a box that kills the experience for them let alone a high reaper end game dungeon or raid without someone looking out for them.

As has been stated the lack of catch up strategy is what kills the spirit of new players. At the moment, some experience good gear and reaper points can help offset past lives but once they truly mess up reaper the game is done.

I have helped numerous new players find their feet at end game and raiding/reapering. What kills many of them is that they think they need to have everything to be able to start.

 

[jotmon]

We're interested in getting a quick read from you on whether you'd recommend Dungeons & Dragons Online to a friend. Please consider filling out this one-question survey on Google Forms here: https://forms.gle/fCAjCA85mFkSLejbA

Thanks!

Resolve the lag.

How can anyone recommend a game to anyone else that has unmanaged lag, regardless of the types or reasons for the lag.

DDO is a great game with excellent game mechanics with the D&D theme.. but the Lag....

 

[droid327]

I scored high and disagree with everyone here, whose comments about the game being "outdated" seem mostly to revolve around assuming new players expect the game to be something it isnt, rather than showing them what the game actually is.

My main complaint is the lack of communication from the devs. New players dont want to join a game where it seems like the devs are often overwhelmed at their job and arent in touch with how the players actually play the game. The biggest threat to DDO is the specter of "the game is so old, its going to go into maintenance mode son" and you have to fight that by actually showing a robust and sustainable development process.

 

[ChaoticDrivel]

I am sensitive to this complaint in games where it matters, but I genuinely cannot possibly fathom how this affects someone in DDO, possibly the least competitive MMO in existence. The market is perpetually gasping out its last breath like a fish out of water, while the hardcore rankings have 9 seasons of rankings that don't really suggest to me that 6 man autopilot gangs have taken over the wasteland, so... I don't think I get it.

No amount of aurabots will ever be half as useful as having another live player in that slot. If you have real builds fully macro'd out to the nines, you might approach parity with a group of people piloting mediocre-to-bad builds? Maybe if you have something like the Hyper7 you could go a little further beyond... but this feels a bit like people complaining about the existence of speedruns in single player games to me.

Consider this for a start:

The devs gather and assess data on a whole host of things. Dungeon success/fail rate, completion times, loot acquisition, and much more I'm sure.

Multiboxers are making it easier on themselves using buff Bards, macros, or extra loot pullers. This affects those statistics the devs look at, and use to make adjustments to the game that then affect everyone–even non-multiboxers. So this idea that people multiboxing has no bearing on anyone else is a flawed one, to my mind.

I certainly agree with you and the other poster that having a real person piloting a toon is more of a boon than a boxed toon(Well mostly. Sometimes you get some really interesting people joining ).

Another aspect to think about it is: If a player can cover all their bases(healing, trapping etc.) using extra toons– why would they need to team up with anyone else? This directly affects things like the #ofLFM's available, or the lack thereof. A recurring lament.


Then consider the immersion factor. I don't think it should be discounted. Not least in a game paying homage to D&D of all things. I would much prefer that each character in the game world is an actual person. It's also one of the reasons why I dislike seeing bank toons like "ZzzStorsStff1to4". I have them too and I hate it, but I acknowledge how necessary they are. Not if we all had enough space though! At least bank toons are usually relegated to the Lordsmarch bank, and not directly trivializing the game.


There are lots more issues with multiboxing that go beyond the scope of this thread. So bringing it back to the topic at hand...This is how a hypothetical conversation of me suggesting DDO might go:


Me: There is this game that you can play that has all sorts of cool dungeons and monsters. It's based off of 3.5 D&D.

Them: Oh neat! I saw that movie. Can I play as those characters?

M: Well not quite, but this game has lots of classes–including some depicted in that film.

T: Like what?

M: Well...You can play as a Rogue or Artificer and disable traps for people! Except it's not really necessary as most people zip by them like they don't exist...

T: Oh :/ What else?

M: Hm. You can be a Cleric and make sure your party is in tip-top shape! Although– everyone can heal themselves without much of a fuss, now that I think about it...

T: Lame. I like playing the healer in games. How about being a tank then? The embodiment of a shield to keep your buddies safe!

M: You can but.. you can actually get by in most content just fine without one. In fact– you're just gimping your DPS.

T: Doh >.< Ooh what about a Bard then? Doesn't this game let you play music to buff people? I love the thought of helping others through song!

M: Hold up. Don't feel too excited yet... Lots of players already use second accounts to be their buff bots. There is little place for you to shine in this regard.

T: :( So I'm not even needed?

M: Yeah...

T: I see that I can be a Ninja monk. That sounds fun. Can I be all sneaky-like and infiltrate a dunge--

M: I gotta stop you right there. We don't talk about that round these parts.

T: :X Why should I play this game at all? I could just play X, Y, or Z instead.

M:...You're not wrong.



I say it's hypothetical... But I have indeed had such conversations. I'm sure there are plenty of people who would read that and find nothing amiss. They like their DDO just the way it is thank-you-very-much. And that is fine and valid.

Plenty others would see it and quickly find the nearest exit upon being met with the reality of DDO, as opposed to its promise and premise. This is a thread about recommending DDO to others, after all.

 

[Tilomere]

I count two questions?

 

[Imaria]

Statistical analysis will always encounter outliers. Proper data slicing should account for that - many analytics in MMOs are useless precisely because of poor data slicing. But even if we indulge the thought, a skilled group of completionists is going to skew that data far more compared to any multibox team - should we fret over the existence of past lives or reaper cores, too?

I think noinfoavailable addressed the rest neatly enough. Nobody's going to turn down a live buff bard in favor of an autopilot singer except the most dedicated multiboxers out there with full setups - and they're the kind of DIY-obsessed people who won't be grouping anyway.

 

[popejubal]

I want to say yes. I really want to. I’d love to play DDO with my friends. It’s definitely a no for me. If I didn’t already have a ton of quest knowledge and mechanics knowledge and knowledge about bugs and “quirks” of DDO, I would have quit in frustration so many times. This is a game that’s very unfriendly to new players.

 

[RangerOne]

Sorry, the moment I hit Google's sign in verification loop I backed out. But yes, I have recommended the game to friends.

 

[Suggestion]

Requiring us to tell Google who we are and that we play DDO is not a good idea since that information will be used by them for years to come.

 

[Arkat]

Survey filled out.