Through the Looking Glass

A First-Day Look at Pick Up Groups in DDO

By Orogurath

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The head start event began with quite a bang on Friday, February 24, and poor Euphonia was overwhelmed with potential heroes arriving in Stormreach. As the port town was bowing under the onslaught of wannabe heroes and treasure-seekers, I took the opportunity to explore some of my familiar haunts from the beta event. It was my intent to discover just how much Stormreach had evolved since the last days of beta, and what, if anything, had changed.

Foremost on my mind was the group dynamic. During beta, pickup groups, also known as PUGs, were plentiful and quite enjoyable. I had gotten a real sense of the mercenary life as perfect strangers teamed up to form lethal squads of treasure hunters. Integrated voice chat allowed players to force communication and develop on the spot strategies, which resulted in a pretty impressive level of cooperation and enjoyment overall.  I was able, during the last days of beta, to put my “looking for group” (LFG) flag on and wait only a minute or two before some industrious group leader sought my assistance.  This experience had been one of my greatest joys during the modest preview, and I looked forward to the same type of interaction when DDO went live.

After registering with my own lovely guild--Ten Ton Hammer, of course--I created a character to test the waters of Head Start group dynamics.  I dispatched Euphonia's challenge and Goodblade's trivial tasks, made my way into the harbor proper, and sauntered over to my old haunt, the Wayward Lobster.

To the group menu!

I gathered my quests and flicked on the LFG flag, confident in an expedient invite…one that never came. I made a quick whiff of the old armpit and looked in the mirror; was it me? Something had drastically changed since the beta, and my mind raced to uncover a reason that was not due to circumstance or poor character hygiene. I logged out, created a more appealing elven female, and tried again. When the results were the same, I began to do a player search. Only six groups were LFM.  During the beta, you could confidently view 15 or more intrepid alliances looking for like minded tomb robbers or at least some ‘morally unburdened' laborers. Something was amiss, and I was determined to root out its cause and smite it…verily!

Why couldn't I find a pick-up group (PUG)? I knew it was not the content. DDO as a product looked sharp, moved well, had fantastic sound and environmental lighting, and a good number of people logged on.  It was obvious from my standpoint that gameplay could also not be faulted for the shift in ‘PUG-enomics'.  Deeper exploration into the chat window revealed a wealth of behind the scenes drama playing itself out: guilds were forming, organizing, and planning; characters were being created en masse to reserve favorite names; and overall it appeared that playing the game was taking a backseat to preparing for the days to come. I did eventually find a group, and was immediately solicited to join a fledgling guild.

“Join the Dwarven Elite!”

“Um…what?” I said.

“The Dwarven Elite need four more members to get our helmets.”

“I'm an elf.”

“Hehe…of course you are…” wink!

Gulp!

This group, like many others, was trolling for members to gain them the benefit of Head Start guild standings. I did not begrudge them the invite, it was still nice to be welcomed, but I didn't think the dwarves were being very up front about their motives.  After noticing the lascivious glaze in their eyes and the low cut nature of my masterwork breastplate, I decided to move on and never again play a female avatar. Shudder!

After another hour spent searching around, meeting various people in the Wayward Lobster and Leaky Dinghy, I concluded that the PUG downshift was definitely due to organizational priorities. And I certainly can't fault the folks at Turbine, whose hard work and creativity was abundantly evident. 

I accepted my findings with a grain of salt.  As disappointed as I was in the Head Start's seemingly isolationist spirit, I realized that it would take time to establish the camaraderie amongst the player base that was enjoyed during the beta phase, and found solace in the fact that Turbine's opus was still sparkling with newborn potential. Finding a server, tracking down friends and teammates from the beta, and deciding on character builds were the order of the day, and my content hungry elf was returning to the trash bin unfulfilled.

All in all, this really was only a minor disappointment compared to the wealth of positives that I found lurking about the digital pathways of DDO. The attitude of most players was mirthful and open, the early content was well developed, and the sense of fun and adventure was palpable.  Loading times seem to have been reduced; there was a greatly reduced instance of lag upon entering an inn or crowded area; and the problem of unresponsive NPCs seemed to have been alleviated during the week of downtime before the head start event. All in all, I was pleasantly surprised to see such a smooth launch for DDO and its founding members, who swarmed the docks of Stormreach Harbor with an intoxicating lust for adventure and sultry barmaids. 

I sincerely hope that the game's release will bring back some of that all-inclusive spirit that pervaded the final days of beta.  Perhaps it really is too early to tell how active and accessible the player base is to new or unguilded individuals.  Whatever the case may be, I challenge everyone to remember that we are all new to the game, or were at one point, and we should welcome each new adventurer with the same sense of possibility that makes the fantasy genre so rich.  Potential heroes are all around and that newbie today might become a good friend tomorrow…and therein lies a key draw to the MMO genre.  So, once your guild is established and your characters are set, I encourage everyone to continue in the same spirit of cooperation and fun that made the beta so incredibly successful. Let's make DDO the game we all know it is by passing our enjoyment on to new or inexperienced players.  Don't be a PUG hater, and remember to thank the Devs and Turbine for an awesome launch, and a great game. And while you're at it, remind them of the free beer they owe me for writing this article.

Oh wait...did I say that out loud?

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