The constant bleeding away of paying customers is starting to show. Unfortunately it seems SSG would rather focus on milking the whales harder.

Snu Snu wrote on Jul 3^rd, 2023 at 1:10pm:


Got to pad those numbers for big daddy EG7.

somenewnoob wrote on Jul 4^th, 2023 at 10:24am:


Or, ya know, they could have just invented some new, highly-requested QOL items and started selling those for reasonable prices.

I get the feeling supporter packs are proof that SSG flat out cannot create anything new for the game.

noamineo wrote on Jul 4^th, 2023 at 11:59am:


Ya, they've been leaning heavily on the "long tail" of previous work. The current devs even putting out an xpac every year is pretty crazy. They have the advantage though of being able to copy other modules from the history of Dungeons and Dragons.

Unfortunately so much of the game's QOL has been monetized that the game is in a bad place. That and there is no catch up mechanic for new characters, or some kind of "one world" like Guild Wars 2's scaling and descaling.

As a company they've leaned to heavily into stat progression and any time they try to reign back player power/speed now they're going to get a backlash similar to how WoW has gotten one since Legion.

Looking at Guild Wars 2, it's amazing how that game has avoided power creep for 10+ years. Sure there are some forms of creep---the biggest part being mounts---but that is QOL creep which everyone loves.

Players love new features. DDO hasn't had a new features since... ...sentient items? Unfortunately sentient items are just like another 12 crappy gear slots. They are not interesting. We didn't get some new dimension to combat, e.x., significantly more interesting enemies, with well telegraphed attacks. Our raids are boring. Our gear hasn't had a new effect since Legendary Shroud.

Edrein wrote on Jul 5^th, 2023 at 1:22pm:


Highly doubtful the game will still be profitable by then. The repeated rounds of whale milking coupled with failing to provide anything at all for the rank and file paying customers is going to lead to some serious player drain.

Edrein wrote on Jul 5^th, 2023 at 7:37pm:


I suspect the marketing department(which consists entirely of a single retarded dachshund at this point) really is too stupid.

The conversations on the motherboards don't help. Seriously. The casuals/chubby dolphins/porpoises have no voice. The conversation is entirely dominated by the whales("The prices are fine!") and the F2Pers("I don't spend money on games."). When that's all the feedback you're getting, its pretty easy to price things like a moron.

Everling wrote on Jul 7^th, 2023 at 3:57pm:


That would be on-brand.