The Lack of Suprise…

Ha!:

Yes, well done you. It seems that pre-order players of Dungeons & Dragons Online have ‘won’ already, despite the fact that game is only just going in to the shops for the rest of us to buy as I type. Clearly the beta test previewer estimates of two to three months of content were generous. I’m not sure what I’m expected to feel…admiration? Pity seems to be nearer the mark.

The chap there seems to have raced out of the pre-order starting gate, dug in and ground like a man possessed, having min-maxed all the quests and yet most likely having not actually read a single word beyond ‘Twenty Spider Intestines’ and ‘Ruined Temple [name]’. Presumably he grouped with a similarly soulless and ‘hardcore’ posse with the sole intention of getting the job done in the minimum time possible.

And now he asks ‘What now?’ and I’m surprised he doesn’t know…after all, he was the one in such a hurry to get there in the first place – he must have had a better reason than ‘because it’s there’, surely?

DDO does have another ten levels, by all counts reaching to twenty in the full game, which presumably has been limited for the pre-order ‘headstarters’, (and just as well, it seems) so really he just needs to wait until Turbine are ready to move on, but most likely he’ll take about three days to fill that in. What now, indeed?

Well, the usual of course; wearing leet gear and loitering at the main bank/inn/other hub showing off how firey your sword is, taking the piss out of new people with lives on whatever general chat exists, camping official forums, and ultimately, starting a new character and doing it all again, only this time, massively twinked.

I have another suggestion, of course. The problem here is not that DDO is too easy, it’s that our ‘winner’ is too skilled at the art of catass, too hardcore. Some of us are naturals, and some of us, no matter how diligently we abdicate our real lives, never quite make the grade. The trick comes in being able to identify just how Chuck Norris one is in matters MMO, and picking out the correct MMO to match out dedication. Here’s a list to help, in order of ascending Catass:

GuildWars
Planetside
World of Warcraft (pre-60)
Star Wars: Galaxies
Everquest II
Saga of Ryzom
Anarchy Online
Neocron 2
Ultima Online
EVE Online
World of Warcraft (post-60 Raidgame)
Asheron’s Call 1
Everquest I

Very subjective, of course - your experiences may differ - but in terms of time commitment required to get anywhere, this matches my impressions of the titles I’ve played. City of Heroes is also probably quite near the top, and now it seems, so is DDO.

(It’s no accident that with a few exceptions, the list also reflects dates of release too – on the whole, MMOs are getting easier.)

I would suggest that if our Ultimate Dungeon Crawl Champion is bored and out of stuff to do, he go buy whatever EQ1 + Expansions deal is currently on the go, and put those energies to an even more pointless use, and settle in for the long haul. Alternatetively, he could hang on until Vanguard is ready...by all counts that's going to be an absolute nightmare!

Or, he could just start again, and this time, savour it. ‘Experience’ is not just a numerical score counter…

Feedback

# re: The Lack of Suprise…

Honestly, your posting reads like a more elaborate, more intelligently phrased version of the crap the retard fanboys have written in response to this guy exposing DDO's lack of content.
 
 Even if he had played 16 hours per day, that would mean that DDO offers a mere 80 hours worth of gameplay. I've played offline CRPGs that offered more entertainment value and did NOT ask for a monthly suscription fee. Most players will reach max level in DDO two months from now, at the latest, and will then be faced with the same question. There is no end-game content.
 
 I assume you get your standard "free" month of gameplay with the box purchase. That means Turbine gets to glean one monthly subscription fee from their customers before most of them will quit. Obviously, this game is not built with player retention in mind, which really makes me wonder why Turbine went with a subscription model to begin with. It doesn't make any sense.
 12/9/2006 2:07 PM | Kranky Kraut

# re: The Lack of Suprise…

No fanboys here - I'm far too busy already to take on another title, so don't particularly care one way or the other, beyond being a curious bystander.
 
 I just wonder if DDO is really aimed at the average 5-times L60 bored WoW refugee, or whether Turbine have some misty vision of small groups of close RL friends sitting around their PCs and chipping away at it in one or two hourly sessions per week, much like the real Pen and Paper game.
 
 What will be interesting to see, is if the above victorius player is an exceptional case, or just slightly ahead of the typical grinder.
 
 Still, if it does amount to 80 hours tops, as you suggest, I think even *I'd* manage to get through that in a month, maybe a month and a half, which does seem to put an awful amount of pressure on any Live Content teams that may exist.
 
 Regradless, I still do think we ALL race through these games too quickly. What was the last Quest Description *you* picked up? I know I can't remember mine. 12/9/2006 2:07 PM | Van Hemlock

# re: The Lack of Suprise…

Update:
 
 Looks like he's answered his own question:
 
 http://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4016
 
 Q: What to do when you hit 10?
 
 A: Sell your account on eBay for $750 and then have the GMs ban it, and you.
 
 All sorts of drama in that thread - go crazy...
 
 12/9/2006 2:07 PM | Van Hemlock

# re: The Lack of Suprise…

It depends on the type of gamer you are. Racing through content is not worse than going through it slowly. Different people enjoy different types of gameplay. I think your article is a bit too judgemental on the catassers.
 
 A seasoned MMORPG player has probably little interest in reading "a single word beyond ‘Twenty Spider Intestines’ and ‘Ruined Temple [name]’". I mean, it's not like he hasn't read virtually identical stuff in the 5 MMOs he has catassed before.
 
 I'm at this point right now. I find myself not giving a shit about why Captain Bumfuck wants me to collect twelve Hemlocks - because I've probably read virtually identical stuff dozens of times before. I only pay attention when content looks fresh or story driven.
 
 So yes, not everyone will race through the game in 5 days, but that's doesn't excuse Turbine from not having an end game. The thought that Turbine is catering to the P&P RPG crowd who play together maybe twice a months or something like that has occured to me, too. I've quickly discarded that notion as not feasible, though. This target demographic seems rather tiny, plus, people who play P&P RPGs are looking for an experience that CRPGs can't really provide. 12/9/2006 2:07 PM | Kranky Kraut

Van Hemlock