088*NOR/News Dungeons and Dragons Online
Hail *NOR/!
It is always difficult for me to be critical of the game that I absolutely love; in this article, I will be doing precisely that. With a week’s notice, the folks at Dungeons & Dragons Online announced that there will be a NEW Hardcore Season Seven starting on Wednesday, December 7th after the update goes live at 11am PST, and ending on Tuesday, February 7th at 11am PST. With high hopes and anticipation for the game that I’ve called my “main” for fifteen years, I prepared myself for the release-day afternoon and attempted to log in. Let the problems begin.
First, DDO botched the release time when they updated their ancient game for the new Hardcore season and, in the process, needed to implement a hotfix to address something that broke, thus delaying the release for an undetermined number of hours. Whatever initial rush of eager players Season Seven had was immediately met with a black loading screen and the three yellow words “Installing Pre-Requisites” staring back long enough to be burnt into the monitor screen. We call this “rolling a 1.”
Second, DDO chose to make Hardcore Season Seven a two-month season during the holidays rather than its standard three-month season, which for many if not most, is a period in which time is already spread thin due to family and work commitments. On this permadeath server, if a player dies more than once, there’s no reason to continue playing, as the two-month timeline makes it nearly impossible for anyone with a life outside the game to achieve the goals within the shortened time frame without incurring significant partner aggro, family aggro, and/or boss aggro.
Third, as with each Hardcore season, this season is themed. However, DDO chose to basically regurgitate their Season Two theme, calling Season Seven “ReTrial by Fire,” which has the same reward offerings as Season Two (the “Bone Devil” helmet and mount, and the dretchling pet). As of the writing of this article, the makers of DDO have added no additional incentives for those who already received these repackaged rewards. If the developers’ goal is to de-incentivize their game from being played, they are going about it perfectly.
It occurs to me that the developers of DDO have fallen into a pit trap of unoriginality, absence of creativity, and minimum effort to put out a mediocre product. The devs are *not* listening to their player base. The community is brimming with fresh ideas that could infuse richness into a game that absolutely needs a “DDO2” remake. The seasons must be three months long in order to allow competitive and casual players alike to have sufficient time to achieve the goals laid forth while also experiencing the setbacks inherent to a permadeath server. Given the apparent absence of a pulse when it comes to offering a fresh concept for Hardcore season 7, I imagine that Standing Stone Games does not have the technical skill nor the financial capital to obtain a second license to make a Dungeons & Dragons Online 2. Instead, we, the devout players, will be resigned to either accept the recycled, outdated, duct-taped code and game that is DDO or to finally realize that there may be better ways to spend our time than staring at a loading screen that says, “The game is currently down” for hours on end.
See you in-game…eventually.
Yavool Ramnoth
Lord and Branch Leader, *NOR/DDO – Ghallanda Server
