Taking a break from DDO

General talk, rumors, builds and so on concerning DDO.

Taking a break from DDO

Postby Sayvara » Tue Mar 20, 2007 6:52 pm

Might as well come out and say it: after the RP campaign "Year of Steel" is done, I am taking a long break from DDO.

I have been looking around at other systems, and what lacks the most in DDO for me is the roleplaying. The people are terriffic and there is so much talent there... but the tools are few, the world is static and there are richer venues to explore. The deriders say DDO is not enough D&D. I say it's the other way around: DDO is too much D&D. It's too much XP, and enhancments, and getting +5 equipment for everything. It's all rules, no heart. That is my opinion.

As I mentioned in another thread I have been on the Arelith RP server in NWN. I have taken slight peeks at other RP servers and in all, there the focus is on RP and very little on grinding or leveling or XP'ing. NWN may be an old game, but in terms of RP it is also one of the most mature.

NWN2 is not mature yet... but when the worst glitches are taken out, I expect it to be just as good as NWN.

I have been looking slightly at WoW. While the world is impressive, I'm not quite as impressed with the roleplaying. The roleplayers are there... but I have still to see to what extent.

I downloaded Lord of the Rings Online yesterday. The world absolutely blew me away. And having read on the forums where people create extremely elaborate characters and backstories, not to mention the fact that unlike DDO LotRO will have dedicated RP servers, I expect LotRO to have much more potential for RP than its older brother DDO.

And then there is Age of Conan. Too early to say... but if half the hype is to be believed, then the game has huge potential for gritty, gory and adult roleplaying.


So... the main question: will I leave the Company of the Black Thorn?

Absolutely not... CotBT is an extremely creative and mature gathering of roleplayers and I enjoy playing with you all very much. I intend to keep this website running with the help of Lirandel, Adjanah and all that wish to participate, even across games. Also, I fully expect to be coming back to DDO to see what has happened to it later in 2007. I also will keep Sayvara as I have come to really enjoy the character and the RP I can generate with her.

But for now, when "Year of Steel" is over, I will be suspending my DDO subscription.

/S
Last edited by Sayvara on Tue Mar 20, 2007 6:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby Adjanah » Tue Mar 20, 2007 6:57 pm

Well, pretty much everything Sayv's said here goes for me as well. I love the Thorn and the characters, but DDO leaves me utterly cold. When the campaign is done, DDO-Adjanah will be gone for good, or at least until such time as new patches and expansions have buffed the game to such an extent that I want to come back. I intend to poke NWN, LotRO and especially AoC once it comes out. Feel very free to look me up there, and plans for future incarnations of the Thorn in other games are as vaild now as ever. So: I will not say goodbye, but rather adieu. Till we meet again. :)
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Postby Willau » Fri Mar 23, 2007 10:41 am

I can honestly say that just ripped the heart out of what I was working towards in my own game. I love to RP my characters and as everyone knows my charaters are designed to be just that. Not uber muppets or dungeon blitzers. I cannot say running off to other games is also an answer for me. I love the RP aspect but like D&D itself, the RP is exactly what you yourself bring to it. I play and have for many years a PnP version of Willau. Willow the druidess. Our game is un Gygaxed where this game failed to be I feel.

I will stay with DDO and I will RP my characters and build more into them. I am not looking for a game where I play a super hero but one where I can make mistakes and role play them. I will be very sorry to see Adj and Say vanish from the game as Willau was developing a raport with the slightly crazy and certainly wild sisters. This said then Year of Steel will end for me this week with Willau wandering off to do more research into the Drow and their ways. Sorry Capt. but I like to build on stone not sand.
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Postby Sayvara » Fri Mar 23, 2007 11:54 am

Aw Willau... I am so sorry about that. :cry:

I agree with everything you say. I too have come to like characters that are not godlike, larger-than-life- kings-pretending-to-be-the-village-idiot. And I like Willau and playing with her very much.

The problem is that you alone is not enough to keep me in DDO. Had we had a dozen Willaus... or Lirandels, or Adjanahs or anyone else of the wonderfully creative people that I have played with in DDO, then maybe. But as it is right now, the game is too cold for me for you to be able to warm it up in its current state. I feel - and do feel free to correct me if I have understood this wrong - there are too few roleplayers in DDO as of now.

I know you have put a great deal of RP work in Willau and it really stings having to tell you it has been for naught in Q2/Q3 of 2007 but that's the way things are right now. The RP tools are lacking so much in DDO and I feel the roleplayers I used to play with just aren't there any more. I know I have said that all you need for RP is a chatroom. And while DDO certainly fulfills that, it is still a €15/month chatroom... and it is not populated enough.

Maybe, just maybe, I have misunderstood things and I'm seeing things darker than they are. Maybe I'm missing out on great RP opportunities with people I don't know yet. If so, please let me know. Let me know Willau: are there more roleplayers than the tuesday night gathering?

/S
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Postby Willau » Fri Mar 23, 2007 12:48 pm

I have to say with all honesty that most the players I am now recruiting to Legends guild are role players or have massive potential to be such. Some of the longer term Legends members that left DDO for exactly the reasons you describe have wandered back in this week to find the Guild they assumed dying in the game is alive and well and really buzzing. So much so that Willau struggles to keep them in order at a meeting trying to deal with drunken dwarves and the odd 'medical' mishap whilst presenting guild news and guilding new upcoming people.

Hard to really describe it but youknow Evey. Add Balor, Foen, Myfanwe, Porcine, Argurios, Puro, Smelt, Tashi and Kedan to the mix and give them a chance to role play with you and you will soon see. Oh and be careful. Balor needs to change his underwear at least three times a quest.... :lol:

The role players are there. The trick is to catch them and keep their attention before the deadly pugs drive them out. I find if I hang round the harbour as Darksun the Role players soon appear. :wink:
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Postby Adjanah » Fri Mar 23, 2007 1:39 pm

I am very sorry to hear that, Will. But on this I have to stand firm, I think. I've enjoyed playing with you immensely, and would have loved to have gotten to know you a lot earlier so we could have had some proper character play. But that doesn't change the fact that DDO makes me gag. The world is simply too constrictive and small. What I want most of all is a big world to wander in and places to hide. Places to get lost. LotRO has that in abbundance. Good RP can happen in any game, hell, it can happen on MSN. We've had some lovely lovely rp in DDO over time. But gods, it's so STALE now.
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Postby Willau » Fri Mar 23, 2007 2:36 pm

All I can do is wish you the best and stay in touch through this board. Maybe a break will help who knows? I have placed my comments regarding the lack of tools for guilds and RP on the CM forum but I think they have lost much interest in DDO and the investments in actually improving anything are lacking.

To me Stormreach is a much missed opportunity. The Ebberon world is rich with opportunity and has been nerfed in favour of a bash em up approach. Frankly I alikened it to the Judge Dredd film of taking something of a cult icon and completely thrashing it to the lowest level.

Now I have a big question. To make RP better in Stormreach what tools would be required in your opinions?
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Postby Sayvara » Fri Mar 23, 2007 2:51 pm

Seriously, I think DDO:Stormreach is a lost cause by now. DDO II is what we should look forward to... when they bring in the technology from LotRO - especially the wide open spaces and the huge seamless world.

/J
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Postby Willau » Fri Mar 23, 2007 2:59 pm

We did get that craving from many of the longer serving memebers of Legends and when Vanguard openned they raced off for the big new world...So big that guild players were spread out everywhere and soon the guild feeling of family evaporated. Not sure I want that. But I am sure I would love more to explore.
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