It's too Short... 
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By Shayalyn

Yeah, I bet you get that from all
the girls, right?



Well, if not, congratulations; consider yourself blessed. But Dungeons
& Dragons Online is not similarly blessed--players are saying it's
too short. Those who get past the heavy petting stage find that their
MMO suddenly and disappointingly lacks the depth to hit the sweet spots.



Maybe that's the wrong analogy for you guys, but you see where I'm
headed. Bear with me.



Thing is, due to lack of planning or foresight or both, Turbine failed
to realize that their game would be quickly consumed by the power
gamers, who got to the end and went, “Is that it?” Enter the dragon; or
rather the Dragon's Vault, DDO's first free content module. These new
high-end quests were supposed to keep the power-gamers occupied for a
while, but by now even some of the moderate gamers were beginning to
grow restless repeating the same old quests on their steady grind
toward the level cap.



You see, 10 levels, even with ranks, wasn't enough. And, perhaps more
alarming, the high end game consisted of enough lather-rinse-repeat
tedium to bore those who made it there fairly quickly. Give a gamer
enough of the same ol' same ol', and he's going to leave eventually.



DDO isn't the only game afflicted with too-short; too-shallow syndrome.
When I played City of Heroes back in the day I remember feeling much
the same at higher levels--it was all same Bat time; same Bat channel;
or...another day, another warehouse. But at least CoH had bad guys out
on the streets that I could stalk, protecting innocent citizens from
their evils (I never did figure out what those old ladies were doing
out on the streets so late, swinging their purses around).



It costs money to produce an MMO. And the game doesn't begin to earn
back that money until it launches, or at least goes to pre-order. This
results in a push to get the product to market as soon as possible. But
the recent premature launch-ulation of DDO resulted in a rather flaccid
end-game performance. This could have been remedied in part if the
first content module, the Dragon's Vault, had been part of the game
from day one, while newer content was developed and implemented within
months after launch.



DDO is going to have to keep the free content modules flowing to keep
its power gaming club satisfied. If these gamers can't get no
satisfaction, there are plenty of other new and intriguing MMOs
entering the market soon, and one of them is sure to cause even the
most faithful to stray.