Why do beginners give up the game? Why so few players?

[Ryiah]

Sorry for your plight..but if ya only make 100 a month..maybe you shud spend your money on groceries instead of a game.

You're assuming that because they only make $100/mo they must not be able to afford anything but that's not typically the case. For example in the US an inexpensive meal at a restaurant might be $20 but in Egypt it's $4. A loaf of bread in the US is easily $3 but in Egypt it's $0.60. Go look at the entries in these two lists. Some prices are similar (eg milk) but some prices are over a dozen times lower (eg tomatoes).

https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_result.jsp?country=Egypt&displayCurrency=USD

https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_result.jsp?country=United+States

 

[Weazlelips]

Ok so prices are cheaper there..he didnt say WHERE he was..but point remains. They choose to pay. If ya cant pay the fiddler..dont dance.

 

[satohachisan]

No, it's because you've ignored the warning saying that this quest is hard. ? And it is. Despite it's age. For the new players at least.

Anyway, you've had hard time going through lvl 4 quest with the lvl 7 character... Didn't something clicked telling you it's not the game but some of your actions might be wrong ?
Like that weird build of yours. DDO is not "Baldur's ? 3" you can't multiclass unless you know what are you doing for 100%
At Wizard 7 you can have at least a couple of SLAs saving your mana and both Mana Toughness feats if you need them.

I wish we could actually see your gameplay... So many questions there. ?

Exactly right DDO is for people who know how to play 3.5 D&D with a little bit of extra neat stuff, but feats are feats are feats and they matter for each build

 

[satohachisan]

Ok so prices are cheaper there..he didnt say WHERE he was..but point remains. They choose to pay. If ya cant pay the fiddler..dont dance.

Well you could farm the turbine points but it would take forever to get all the content.

 

[iheardthat2]

I've been playing for 5 weeks and, honestly, like most of those who come to know this game, I've given up playing.

An RPG where the Wizard is always out of mana and has no way to buy mana potions, nor is there any way to even drain mana, is not an RPG.

Every RPG I've ever played has never had problems with mana. And in every RPG I've ever played, I only play Wizard.

If this game requires a Wizard to act like a Gandalf, swinging swords to save mana for the final boss of each stage, then make the Wizard as strong as a Gandalf. And even if they did this, it still wouldn't be an RPG Wizard, but at least this would be helpful.

This game has no wizards. Real wizards use mana, but if this game doesn't have easily accessible mana potions, then this is not an RPG, but rather a slot game, where we have to pay real money to at least have the basics to do the basics, which is that the Wizard has mana!

Can someone please tell the developers that Wizard needs mana?

I'm not even going to list the other thousand defects of this game so as not to run out of mana.

This explains why games like Tibia have had 32 thousand players online for two decades, while this one, if it has 1,600, is a lot. And look, Tibia didn't even have sound until two years ago...

Mana potions, developers...mana potions...

I think they've solved this by making it so no classes can use any abilities.

 

[Jasparius]

OP asks why new players dont stay.

Old timers spend 8 pages telling new players off, including telling someone off for being poor.

 

[Azasmokey]

Because the basic game should be free aka 'free code' permanent. no more open elite only ( open hard until 1st TR at max ).
no more % movement speed. goodness me has anyone played a free trial character?
Then god forbid a $ fee to be to be 5 years without doing a thing. I'm hoping the 64 bit.server breathes some life into this game in 1 year. For now stop complaining and let SSG test it

 

[Quintic]

I've been playing for 5 weeks and, honestly, like most of those who come to know this game, I've given up playing.

An RPG where the Wizard is always out of mana and has no way to buy mana potions, nor is there any way to even drain mana, is not an RPG.

Every RPG I've ever played has never had problems with mana. And in every RPG I've ever played, I only play Wizard.

If this game requires a Wizard to act like a Gandalf, swinging swords to save mana for the final boss of each stage, then make the Wizard as strong as a Gandalf. And even if they did this, it still wouldn't be an RPG Wizard, but at least this would be helpful.

This game has no wizards. Real wizards use mana, but if this game doesn't have easily accessible mana potions, then this is not an RPG, but rather a slot game, where we have to pay real money to at least have the basics to do the basics, which is that the Wizard has mana!

Can someone please tell the developers that Wizard needs mana?

I'm not even going to list the other thousand defects of this game so as not to run out of mana.

This explains why games like Tibia have had 32 thousand players online for two decades, while this one, if it has 1,600, is a lot. And look, Tibia didn't even have sound until two years ago...

Mana potions, developers...mana potions...

I think DDO suffers from trying to live in AD&D and Action MMO world at the same time. The original release focused on the concept of AD&Ds spells limited to memorization and rest shrines were used to balance the progression through a dungeon (higher difficulties had less shrines, which meant more strategic play to win).

This also limited non-magic classes as healing was linked to that of the spell using classes which were also constrained to the system. Potions in AD&D were situational, sparingly applied and limited in ability.

With classes having infinite healing, melee no longer is constrained to this and as dungeon designs have followed more modern approach of "AOE group rush", game play is more about killing group by group (modern MMO design), and spell use and focus becomes narrowed to more of a Melee AOE approach to play. Basically, classes become similar in design function, which then creates a problem with the original core spell system.

Personally, I would rather see the game go back to its original design of slow combat, dungeon and encounter design focused on these limitations, but modern MMO tastes find that... too limiting and harsh.

 

[Bjond]

basic game should be free aka 'free code' permanent. no more open elite only

IMHO, free should be pretty basic. Free is only useful to the game when it brings in money. This does include just being a fun player that helps paying customers enjoy the game (and spend more money), but it doesn't include folks that solo or barely interact with other players.

The general idea behind your comment has big merit: stop nickel and diming the new player to death with all the ala-cart expansion and pack buys. Literally remove all older packs and instead include them when buying the one and only expansion for sale: the very latest one.

I'd go further and only put up the basic expansion. No ultra, super, and mega packs. Instead, here is where you step up from nickel & dime to quarters & dollars: sell each line of the ulti-pack separately for a fair bit, like $50 for a teleport key, another $50 for the latest expansion hires, etc.. And put up lines for every ulti-pack bonus item ever sold and keep them for sale. Forced bundle is really annoying. Free choice to spend even more feels so much more friendly (but actually isn't .

Two reasons to do it this way: entice people to all be on the same page when it comes to in-game access to zones. People need other people to all have access or there's no one to group with on the latest raids and zones. Second, need to make money. So, make it not on access, but on convenience and fluff.

My bet is you'll end up making more money. More will by the expansion. More will be enticed to get just the extra feature they truly want. And some will still buy it all (but now it costs more).