Review: Not sure why I leave

Dissolution

TO START:

As in the title, everytime I return to DDO I wonder why I stopped playing it in the first place. As I am military I often get pulled away from games for an extended period of time, and normally end up coming back (often up to a year later) with a plethora of new games out that I give a try. I often go back to a couple of games, this being one. With this one I always ask myself why I left.

PROS:

* Extensive character creation. Just do a search on "DDO Builds" and you will begin to see
* True Resurrection. Even more in depth character progression. A character can restart at lvl one carrying over skill/stat boosts from a previous class. Example: additional 10 hitpoints stackable 3 times for Barbarian. +1 to attack rolls for Fighter.
* A relatively decent F2P system in comparison to most. F2P isnt necessarily game breaking, however, I do not see myself enjoying the game nearly as much with the limitations of F2P. I do not object to subs though. It did not tale long for me to re-subscribe to VIP. Everything just about is unlockable for free, so you can work for the same options as a P2P, it will just take a considerable amount of time to get there.
* Good graphics, in my opinion. Although not cutting edge by todays standard I do not feel like I am playing an archaic game by any means. Especially with the High Res textures. I have a high end machine that will eat almost anything I throw at it and play with settings maxed. With max settings I find the graphics to be pleasing to the eye.
* An entirely different approach to gaining experience. (This could be mentioned under Cons for some, but its my post and I like it.) Level is gained at the end of a successfully completed mission or quest and not on a by mob basis. If you can only complete a quest 80% you will forfeit your time spent. Optional objectives will update experience as you go but the primary experience earned for a quest is dependant on successful completion.
* Traps, mazes and puzzles. I never understood why this has not been implemented in other games more than it has.
* Terrain and geography useable to gain advantage in PVE. Shoot an arrow at a wall to draw a mob to the lication you want. Position yourself so as to use enemy bodies for cover and minimize a bad pull. There are alot of mechanics in DDO tat allow for players to involve skill to overcome odds.

CONS:

* F2P has alot of content limitations, character creation (skill points for str, dex, wis etc. are limited to 28 pts as opposed to 32) and content. Nearly anything can be upgraded or unlocked. Expect to grind a select amount of quests repeatedly to gain favor to earn Turbine points so new content, 32 builds, classes and races can be unlocked.
* Smaller community these days. While it is not an empty world, it is not necessarily bustling either. I play on an American Server during EU hours though, so that may not be the case during US primetime hours.
* Heavily instanced world. This is not a persistent world where you can just run around and explore in a traditional sense like Everquest or Wow. Cities have instance entrances (doorways etc) that will lead you to instanced quests. Wildernesses are not like the traditional zone. They average about 400 mobs with a random spawn of named mobs. When zone is empty, you will begin again with the zone 100% repopulated.
* Learning curve. Understanding the mechanics of DDO without an extensive D&D background new can be a little daunting. One can easily gimp their character with poor understanding of how these mechanics work. Researching character progression options are necessary until one does understand these better. Templates for different character builds are everyone on the DDO frums and compendium so this is not a serious issue if you understand how to use a search engine.
* Twitchy FPS type targetting system. This could be a pro or a con. I find it refreshing when so use to tabbing a targetting cycle through mobs.
* PVP. Little to non restricted to taverns in a brawl type room. No PVP exclusive progression and a small community that is focused on it. I am a big PVP enthusiast so this is a little dissapointing to me.

SUMMARY:

Good game witha refreshing take on the MMORPG genre. To me everything makes sense, including the heavy instance use as it is akin to the D&D type advanture module type format. Each quest has challenges that are unique. One may involve alot of precision jumping and puzzles, while another may involve more of a zerg type gameplay that is common today. Character creation and progression is phenomenal. Everytime I find myself back in Eberron I ask myself why I left in the first place. Definitely a contender for the top slots in my go to games list.

Dissolution

ADDITIONAL:

Customer support. I will not list this as a pro or a con, just my experience. Responses to customer support issues sent to their team via email have always taken a bit of time for me. Weekend issues tend not to get a response until Monday. Not sure how they operate but honestly put, it takes them awhile to get back to you.

However, I have always been taken care of very well once they do. As US military stationed in Europe one issue I get alot is that the DDO Store defaults to euro. The prices now seem to convert evenly but in the past I had noticed it wasnt so. As I am technically on US soil but get pinged with a European Ip it defaults to Euro. They have always done well at converting me to the listed US prices and even given me the prices of deals on their DDO Store that have passed if my issue was sent while the deal was ongoing.

So, even if I do not get an immediate response they have always done well by me. I just had to be a little patient.

AtmaDarkwolf

I have to second most of your thoughts, for the game. There are some things which I would like to 'counter' if u will.

 

I've dropped, I think, in the 3+ years (give or take?) about 50 bucks total, and I own all but 3barrel, thernal and tangleroot. I've also made plenty of 'stupid' purchases. And if you think I'm an alt whore, I'm not. I got 2 toons, one which I pretty much all but 'retired' about a year ago. All the turbine points(aside from the orginal i got with the 50ish) was earned by these 2 toons though 3 lives each(Plus 2 more for my main)

 

Point is, to try to be PURE f2p your gonna HATE the game... no shared bank(Can't transfer BtA items without shared bank), very limited bank size, lower cash/plat limit, 2 chars(Again comes down to 'inventory' - with 2 'mules' I can store LOTS of stuff )

- But if your able (And being they accept pretty much any payment method, even paypal, hell they even have time cards) to spend EVEN 5 bucks, your 'experience' will be enriched SO much more than the 'vanilla' f2p game.

 

Of all the mmo's I've played, and currently play, DDO is the one I would always mention toward the top of my 'list' for games to suggest to others.

 

Thats the game itself.

 

 

 

As for the customer service? I've NEVER delt with worse. I'm not exaggerating, expanding, or trying to make it seem worse, its the worse CS I have ever experienced in any game. Hell for ANY buisness. And no its not becuase the people you deal with are asshats, not at all, its because they are SO HORRIBLY limited in what they can do, pretty much 95% of all tickets will be as follows:

 

Hi, how can I help you today? (List problem) This is an unknown problem, sorry can't help, have a nice day *Closed ticket* - or - That is a known problem, please bug report it *Closed ticket* - or Did you do X, or Y (You awnser yes) Sorry I can't help you, Please file a bug report *Closed ticket*

 

Anyone who has had to deal with CS would prob back me up on this. Yes there are exceptions, when that one GM who DOES have the authority to do stuff shows up, and he MIGHT pull a boss out of a wall, unlock a bugged door, etc, but that will not happen often.(Its never once happened for me, I've NEVER really recived any assistance from GM's except once when a name bug, and in that case the GM just deleted my name lol)

 

And the above is only if you actually are able to sit around and wait 4-5 hours for a response.(And when quests take 15-30 min on aveage, a wait like that is plain stupid, better to just re-do the quest)

 

With the new box coming out, and turbines desperate grasp for money, They had better improve thier SC and give the poor guys u contact some 'power'

Dissolution

In my post I mentioned that my opinion would not be catagorized as a pro or a con. From my experience and the issues I have had that needed their assistance I have always had a long wait, but taken care of very well.

I hear and understand the issues that you have had. I have not needed in game support that required an immediate response. I could definitely see them not handling this well with their response time. Thanks for your response and an experience with their customer support that balances the opinion I posted.

Anyone else with experiences with their CS and encouraged to post theirs as well for the propsepctive DDO player.

I will say that SWTOR had a CS that was about equivelant in my opinion to Turbines. However, SWTOR does not have a free to play option. This in my eyes is a bit unacceptable. Also, in the end my issues were resolved with Turbine, they had the ability to manually adjust billing issues as the SWTOR CS service was unable to. They simply did not have authorization to modify in case of special circumstances.

Dissolution

I will have to concur. The customer service seems to have digressed since I last played.

I had an issue with a purchase I made with turbine points last weekend. I made an in game inquiry and received a response to the issue the next day. They redirected me to the customer service on their website as they are "more equipped to handle the issue". I sent the request via email to Turbine Customer support with the information outlined by the in-game representative and still have not received a reply.

I am a VIP customer but regardless, according to their website all players are entitled to support. Particularly for DDO Store purchase issues.

Last time I played, roughly a year and a half to two years ago the customer service seemed to be better. Not being able to help and not replying to an issue at all are two different things. I am usually pretty understanding when it comes to issues a customer service representive cannot remedy, but I am a little perturbed with no reply at all.

With that being said, I will have to concur that their CS has a bit to be desred at this point.

Dissolution

Additionally, the same day I posted this comment I was taken care of very quickly. It was a misundrstanding on my part regarding how the item I purchased functioned (32 point builds and Lesser reincarnation vs. Greater reincarnation).

Although it was my mistake and misunderstanding they reimbursed me 895 Tiurbine Points along with an explanation as to the mechanics of reincarnating and links.

I am not necessarily happy with the response time, however, in the ends as previously stated they took care of me well in my opinion. As far as an opinion on the customer service, you can take what was posted and form your own opinion on that. I DID state that in the past I was always taken care of with patience. This time just took a little more patience.

In the end I would not tell anyone to avoid playing this game due to customer service. It is a solid game. If you need assistance from the CS staff, be prepared to wait, but in the end you can most likely expect to be taken care of well.

This is from my experience. (New experience documented in real time).