A Stitch in Time

How DDO Patches Aim to Save
Customers

By Ralsu



The common expression goes, "A stitch in time saves nine." For those
who are clueless about that reference, the aphorism means that sewing
an extra seam now can save having to sew nine later when the garment
tears. The concept is simple: a little extra work up front saves a lot
of work and hassle later. Tonight, as I sat musing about the patches
Turbine has released for Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach
(DDO), that same aphorism popped into my head. It is my opinion that
Turbine didn't get the stitching right on DDO prior to launch. Since
its release, the company has been scurrying to patch holes. Before I go
too far with this concept, let me get an administrative chores out of
the way.

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style="color: rgb(51, 51, 255); font-weight: bold;">Let it be known
that the opinions expressed here are not the opinions of the fanboy who
is busy typing his hate mail right now without capitalization,
punctuation, or even paragraphs based merely off of the next-to-last
sentence from my first paragraph. Ten Ton Hammer does not expect me to
brown-nose
Turbine, so I'm going to tell the truth--even when it's unpleasant. At
the same time, the opinions expressed here are not those of the DDO
hater. I--LIKE--DDO. Read that again before you hit send on that hate
mail. In fact, please read all I have to say...then blast me to
smithereens!

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The Initial Stitching

I want to return to the garment analogy. Ever buy a customized T-shirt
from one of those booths in the mall? People can customize them to say
"My other DDO character is me" or "My
cat ate my tires" (whatever the hell that means). In short, the shirts
are cool. But they wear out pretty fast because they have the bare
minimum stitching. So it goes with DDO. To illustrate my point, I need
to present the obstacles Turbine faced from launch with DDO's potential
audience.

1. Dungeons & Dragons (D&D)
   fans who have played other massively-multiplayer online games (MMOGs): The
   first consideration must go to D&D fans. These are the ones who
   will be most drawn to the game and most comfortable with its setting
   and rules.
   
2. D&D fans who have never
   played another MMOG: DDO could be the whole reason to dive into
   MMOGs for the hardcore D&D fan who has been reluctant to try more
   mainstream games.
3. MMOG fans familiar with the
   genre but unfamiliar with D&D: MMOG veterans get excited
   about new games even when they're happy with their current game. It's
   just fun to see the genre explode the way it has. Add to that the fact
   that pre-release screens of DDO were very impressive, displaying a dark
   style that wasn't all fairies and pixies. Plus, DDO deviates from the
   status quo in so many ways (active combat, no health regeneration,
   fully instanced dungeons) that it has an impressive list of features.
4. People new to both MMOGs and
   D&D: This last group is a challenge beyond my reckoning.
   Maybe people like the looks of the box art. Maybe a friend got them to
   try it. Maybe that TV spot that accompanied the release of DDO was
   impressive enough to win a customer. I mean, who doesn't think the
   rogue dodging traps in that commercial isn't awesome? Regardless of how
   they found DDO, people who fit this description are logging into
   Stormreach right now.

The folks at Turbine are smarter at making games than I, so I'm willing
to wager they foresaw the above categories of players landing on DDO,
too. To build the perfect game for all four groups would drive a
development team insane, so I believe that Turbine set its sights on
the folks in groups 1 and 3--people with MMOG experience, some of them
D&D fans. I know this much from prowling every gaming news site
forum I could find prior to DDO's beta: Turbine developers said DDO was
never designed to be a World of Warcraft killer. DDO was aimed at the
audience who wanted something outside of the mainstream. Turbine was
promising us an experience as close to D&D as electronically
possible.

The First Tear

I remember the beta forum thread well: "Warning: warforged CAN drown!"
Group 1 folks, those D&D aficionados, couldn't believe it. Why? Why
do warforg href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?set_albumName=Custom-Wallpapers&id=wallpaper2lg&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php"> alt="wallpaper"
src="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/Custom-Wallpapers/wallpaper2lg.sized.jpg"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 200px; height: 150px;" align="right">ed
not have the same properties in DDO as they do in the Eberron books at
the local hobby shop? Where are the immunities? Turbine never minced
words about the fact that some D&D rules would be bent or broken to
make everything work in the MMOG setting, but this just seemed
capricious.



Rather than drone on about the inconsistencies between DDO and the
D&D Eberron, I'll just say that more than a handful exist. Some
seem to make sense. Others don't. I'm not a video game developer, so I
won't pretend to understand all of the variables that went into making
DDO. I stand by my point all the same; hardcore D&D fans do not
like any deviation from the standard rules. Ones that escape our
understanding are the worst offenders.

The Second Tear

MMOG veterans who didn't know D&D did just fine without owning any
20-sided dice. In fact, they did too well. While I was busy role
playing my way through Harbor quests and trying to get stuck in
geometry, some beta testers were putting their MMOG expertise to use to
test the end game. I'm not an end game player, so it is less important
to me than other aspects. Fortunately for those who love to raid, some
beta testers were diligently trying to get to the level cap and see
what happened.



In other games I have beta tested, the developers would encourage
testers to level to a certain point. Those who provided quality
feedback would receive a bump in levels to the next target level range
for beta testing. For example, one game I tested had a level cap of 60.
Testers were encouraged to reach level 20. They could then continue
testing content in that range or receive a bump to level 40. At 45,
they could get a bump to 55.



None of that mattered for DDO. Beta testers didn't need a bump in
levels. All they had to do was play. Levels came quickly for
experienced players who could work well in a party and dedicate 2 or 3
hours each night. Believe it or now, one style="font-style: italic;">beta forum post told the fastest
way to Level 10. DDO's XP system, based on completing quests rather
than killing random monsters, broke from tradition in a way I
considered great prior to release. But remember I was plodding through
quests and level hit Level 3 in beta. Other testers knew what I was
going to find out after launch.

The Ripped Seam

Clearly, I believe DDO needed a couple more "stitches" prior to
release. After DDO's launch on February 28, 2006, things only got more
troublesome for the Turbine team. Players chewed through content. Some
had Level 10 characters by the second week after launch. Granted some
of them were the same power gamers I was hoping all of DDO's innovative
features would keep away, but some of them were simply dedicated, smart
gamers who played with friends. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=371">Lag
was a big problem, too. Just ask Ten Ton Hammer's Kat "Lady Sirse"
Spink. Warforged oils were less effective than there humanoid
counterparts, and the posts about deviations from the D&D rules
continued.

href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?set_albumName=album01&id=red_dragon&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php"> alt="red dragon"
src="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album01/red_dragon.sized.jpg"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 267px; height: 200px;" align="left">

The First Big Patch

Within a month, the official DDO forums were flooded with posts begging
and/or demanding new content. Turbine was already hard at work on it.
I've never seen a team work as hard as Turbine to keep content flowing.
By April 5, 2006, Turbine gave DDO players href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=163">Module1,
the Dragon's Vault. Module 1 contained a multitude of upper level
quests to reduce the number of times a player would have to repeat
quests to hit the level cap. The free patch, which other companies
would have shamelessly sold as an expansion, also introduced the famous
raid of the red dragon and addressed some ongoing issues with lag.



The problems did not go away with the additional quests, however. Many
quests were imbalanced in their ratios of risk to reward. People
continued to carve a groove through the popular quests, repeating some
in favor of doing others at all. D&D purists continued to denounce
any proposal to change the D&D rules (take spell-swapping as an
example).



To add to the problems, the Turbine team began to see that people new
to MMOGs or to D&D were having a hard time with the game's
mechanics. Players were thrust into parties from the time they docked
at the Harbor, and it became apparent that they could use a little more
time to acclimate to DDO. Players needed some time to practice DDO
mechanics without some impatient jerk shouting "Go! Go!" into his
headset. Thus, Turbine had to rethink its staunch stance that DDO is
not a game to solo.

The Second Big Patch

Turbine released href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=247">Module
2, the Twilight Forge, on July 12, 2006, but the contents of the
update came out at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). The E3
announcement promised expanded solo play, and this led to heated debate
on the DDO forums.

href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?set_albumName=album08&id=SS_26_6&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php"> alt="Module 2"
src="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album08/SS_26_6.sized.jpg"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 200px; height: 150px;" align="right">

Purists saw solo content as another senseless deviation from the rules
and believed it was designed to appeal to the demands of a vocal
minority. Turbine set the record straight, noting that it was more a
measure to keep new players than to appease current ones. An easier
early game would keep people around longer.



The majority of the remaining Twilight Forge content was once again
focused on the end game. Just as many people had reached Level 10
within a week or two of release, those same players had slain the red
dragon just as quickly after Module 1's release. They were bored and
restless again.



Module 2, another free patch that other companies would have made
subscribers purchase, was marred by server crashes and insufferable lag
immediately after its release. And I haven't even mentioned the
addition of the drow yet. The href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=246">implementation
of the drow is still an ugly issue on the forums.

Future Patching?

I know that Turbine is not done yet. Theirs is a dedicated team that
will continue to pour out content. They are certainly doing it often
and for free--something gamers have long hoped for but seldom
experienced. What might future patches address?



That E3 announcement that revealed the contents of Module 2 also
mentioned a future addition of player-vs-player (PvP) combat, another
game
feature that most D&D purists despise but most MMOG veterans have
come to expect of a game. Turbine is trying very hard to make a wide
variety of gamers happy. So, they keep patching.



Beyond PvP, I have seen developer posts indicating that Turbine is
investigating the means to make dungeons more randomized so that
repeating a quest still requires players to remain awake. After that, I
can only offer conjecture about future DDO patches. Turbine has done an
admirable job of trying to adjust the game to fit the gamers. Nothing
will ever please hardcore
D&D enthusiasts. And though that may have been the target audience
in the beginning, I believe Turbine sees that as a tough sell these
days. All of their changes since launch have done more to make DDO a
mainstream MMOG than to make it more like D&D.



As the fanboys are finishing up that hate mail, let me say again that I
like DDO. Turbine took a big step for the MMOG genre by eschewing
several traditions. The decision to use active combat instead of the
cyclical, go-get-a-sandwich, standard fare is awesome. The attempt to
reward the party for completing a quest has done a lot to reduce the
artificial feeling that comes with the grindfest than many MMOGs
employ. The hand-crafted dungeons, excellent quest writing, and cameo
dungeon Master voice overs are all unique. Players can find a lot to
like about DDO straight out of the box. Download the patches, and the
game only gets better.



That's really my prediction: Turbine will only make DDO better. They'll
have to cater to one of the 4 audience groups I mentioned more than
others. Whether that means making the game more like current market
successes (World of Warcraft or EverQuest 2) or keeping it unique I
cannot say. I just know that I continue to enjoy the game and look
forward to what else Turbine has to offer. They didn't make the perfect
game, but DDO is my home because of all of the things they did right.
I'll keep wearing my customized mall T-shirt that says "My other DDO
character is me" until it fallas apart at the seams.

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