DDO has 8 servers now, right?

How many man hours to set it up? 

One of the devs stated something a year or two ago indicating that at least some of the databases DDO runs on aren't SQL.  It's apparently some custom, in-house bs.  If true it explains a lot of the current problems, even if it doesn't excuse them.

They probably do use SQL for some of it though.

In 1997/98 Turbine (than known as Second Nature) signed an agreement with Microsoft which required they use MsSQL and some other Microsoft Products for their game engines.   All version of the game engine developed by Turbine used and still use MsSQL.

In 2009 Turbine bought out Microsoft's investment into their games rumored to be approximately $18 Million.    A few years later, around 2013, Turbine investigated moving from MsSQL to other options, I would guess Oracle Database, but it was determined it was too difficult to retrofit into the existing games.  I was told that Infinite Crisis used a different SQL backend than the other games, added to the complexity and complication of developing and supporting that game.

To complicate matters, I am fairly certain that SSG runs multinode MsSQL on RHEL for each shard rather than on Windows Server.

The challenge with any Database isn't installation or basic configuration, it's tuning (advanced configuration) and maintaining.   A good DBA is worth their wait (pun intended) in plat.

Turbine's relationship with Microsoft at founding and with AC is well documented. 

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/turbine-buys-asherons-call-license-back-from-m...

Yes, but that makes no mention of deals or stipulations regarding what databases they use for the core game code.

For all that article gives us, they could be using MongoDB.

Development
AC was developed by Turbine Entertainment Software and published by Microsoft. It had a multimillion-dollar development budget.[14] It was designed by Toby Ragaini (lead designer), Chris Foster, Eri Izawa, and Chris Pierson.[15] The development team consisted of 30+ full-time developers, including 6 artists, 4 game designers, 15 software engineers and 5 QA testers.[14] Asheron's Call was technically innovative for its time. It did not use zoning, a technique of partitioning the game world into zones that ran on different computers on a cluster. This caused delay when moving between zones. Instead Asheron's Call had a single seamless world. It used dynamic load balancing to determine which computer in the cluster controlled which location area. If one area became overpopulated and sluggish control of part of that location would pass to another computer with a lighter load.[16] Critical development software included Microsoft Visual C++ 5.0, Visual SourceSafe 5.0, Lightwave 5.5, and Photoshop 4.0[14] Asheron's Call uses Microsoft SQL Server for persistent game data.[citation needed] The original Asheron's Call client allowed computers to use either 3D or software graphics acceleration.[6] The modern client requires a DirectX 9.0 compatible video adapter w/ hardware T&L.
[19]

The challenge with any Database isn't installation or basic configuration, it's tuning (advanced configuration) and maintaining.   A good DBA is worth their wait (pun intended) in plat.

I unfortunately cannot link to the AC site directly anymore, it is no longer available, and google cache doesn't seem to be working for that web-site.   

When Asheron's Call was put into maintenance mode in 2014 Severlin (than the EP of AC and AC2) announced that both games would have their source code and tools necessary to run a private server available 'free'.    One of the requirements was a MsSQL server (32 bit) and the MsSQL tool kit.    You can find that information on many posts on other unofficial forums that are still available.

The group that has created the largest AC emulator server has painstaking worked for year(s) to convert to a transactional version of MySQL.

The Wikipedia Entry for Asheron's Call also has some information.

As AC, AC2, DDO, and LotRO all use the same game engine (updated for each game) and the same system team supported all four games at Turbine, it is unlikely that they strayed too far.    It also helps that I know the individual that was the Technical Lead (DBA) for Turbine until a few years ago.

Try using wikipedia sometime...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asheron%27s_Call

That is not exactly what Lynabell said.
"Our recipes aren't kept in a traditional database."

It doesn't say DDO uses a non-traditional database rather that the recipes are not kept in a traditional database.
Specifically the recipes for crafting, and I believe Ran Gen loot as well, are not in a DB, rather a flat file on the server or your computer.  A specific flat file associated with what you are attempting to accomplish is loaded into memory in its entirety every time someone opens that specific UI, from the Stone of Change to the Green Steel Craft to the Cannith Crafting.       I'll look for the quote from noworries later. 

"Engine level" indeed!

Sev is this guy: "Raise the soul stone"
After which, he got pretty butthurt for being called on not understanding how a pretty significant game mechanism works.

The game has been fucked for a long time, mostly because Experts have convinced themselves that they are "DAMN GOOD AT THEIR JOB".