Interview: Four People Who Quit DDO After Trial

By Ralsu

Well, here we are with our monthly interview again. I first contacted Sporkfire (Community Relations Manager) and Samera (Community Relations Specialist) for an interview about Turbine's impressions regarding the launch of Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach (DDO) in early March. Once they had agreed to the interview in late March, I sent questions in a Microsoft Word document. Sporkfire and Samera would answer them, ship them to Turbine's Public Relations department for editing, get them back to edit, and then send them to me. It can be a long process for an employee in the gaming industry to do an interview because of every company's desire to ensure that it is represented well. I was just pleased that they agreed to do it. I didn't get my responses in April, so--at the last minute--I "interviewed" Three-Fingered Thad from DDO.

May brought about the hustle and bustle of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). It also saw Turbine announce the second module for DDO, Twilight Forge. It was a very busy month for everyone in the gaming industry. You guessed it: I didn't get my responses from Sporkfire and Samera this month either. I had held out until the last minute again, too. But this time, I won't throw a lore interview at you as a replacement. I visited a message board, sent an email, used instant messenger (IM), and talked to my wife. The result: I give you the stories of four veterans of massively-multiplayer online games (MMOGs) who tried DDO but didn't stick around after the trial. Their tales serve as examples of how DDO could be more popular and provide a basis for evaluating the changes announced along side Twilight Forge.

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Tork

A resident of Fort Lauderdale, FL, Tork is the most hardcore among the people I interviewed. A computer technician and divorceè living alone, Tork comes straight home from work and hops onto his computer. Because of all of the time he has to play games, Tork is experienced in many MMOGs: EverQuest (EQ), Dark Age of Camelot (DAoC),  EverQuest Online Adventures (EQOA), and World of Warcraft (WoW). Currently, Tork's "home" is with WoW, where he commands a 60 hunter, mage, priest and rogue. I caught up to Tork on IM and asked him to tell me about why DDO didn't capture his attention.

Tork: "I didn't like the way your health does not regenerate in DDO. There's no overworld, so there is no sense of exploration. I want to be able to craft or to get a mount--anything that helps me feel like I have accomplished something."

Analysis: Let's look at Tork's complaints one at a time.

1. His dislike of the health system of  DDO can easily be dismissed as a fundamental dislike or lack of understanding of the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) system on which DDO is based. But I'll just make the point that the health system in DDO defies convention; some people like games that stray from the norm and others don't.
2. Turbine touted the omission of an overworld in favor of instanced dungeons as a way to keep action flowing and prevent wasting valuable game time traveling to a quest location. I bought that concept prior to and during beta. Since DDO has launched, I find myself  feeling that an entirely instanced game has an episodic feeling that detracts from a sense that your character is in a living world. As a roleplaying (RP) gamer, it bothers me immensely. In Tork's case, he likely wouldn't care for RP, but he just wants the thrill of getting lost in the forest in the overworld only to emerge and find a massive, jaw-dropping structure.
3. Tork's third complaint is primarily that DDO lacks bells and whistles. His call for crafting and mounts is about adding variety. People often play their MMOG of choice for several months at a time. A little variety goes a long way to maintaining the subscription base.
   

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Ryverwynd

Another tech guy, Ryverwynd is a father and husband who regularly games with a couple of buddies. His MMOG forays include WoW, EQOA, Guild Wars, and EverQuest II (EQII). Ryverwynd currently bounces between WoW and EQII, playing each for three months at a time before switching again. He plays a 49 hunter in WoW and a 44 Warden in EQII. I sent a private message asking Ryverwynd why he didn't buy DDO on the message board for our old EQOA guild, which we both still frequent.

Ryverwynd: "For me, I have friends playing several MMOGs now. I try to keep up with them as best I can, but they have more playing time than I do. I have a new baby to look after. WoW helps a lot with rested XP [editor's note: this is a system that allows players to gain higher XP when they have not played in a while]. I belong to a really great guild in EQII. When it comes down to it, my friends and I blew through 6 or 7 character levels in DDO during our trial and knew it wouldn't hold our attention very long. Plus, I didn't like the combat."

Analysis: Let's look at Ryverwynd's complaints one at a time.

1. Ryverwynd's first comments discuss his limited playing time. With his consistent playing group, limited playing time wouldn't be a hindrance to DDO. His game hopping would, though. Two or three months spent playing WoW or EQII would give his friends with more playing opportunities ample time to hit the level 10 character cap. Ryverwynd would return to find his character left behind.
2. His second complaint mentions how quickly Ryverwynd and his friends chewed up the content in DDO. I happen to know that the time they spent playing was merely a 3-day pass during beta. While some quest rewards have changed, the premise remains the same: even non-power gamers can blast through DDO with a regularly scheduled group. Repeating the most rewarding quests--a tenancy I consider a natural inclination of all gamers--can get DDO players levels in no time.
3. Ryverwynd's final complaint is about the active combat system used in DDO. Like Tork's disdain of the health system, we could dismiss this grievance as personal preference. Still, combat described as "twitchy" is uncomfortable for many MMOG veterans I know.
   

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Myrelle

Myrelle lives in the greater Seattle area with her husband and their daughter. Myrelle primarily plays EQOA, where she has a 60 bard and my 60 rogue at her disposal, but she is a fan of the pen-and-paper version of D&D. Myrelle used my 7-day key to try out DDO. I sent her an email to ask why she didn't continue playing after the 7-day trial.

Myrelle: "Being quest-based, gameplay feels...well, I don't know how to describe it, chunky? You do a quest from start to finish, and if you can't finish in the time you can play, you start over. While there are multi-part quests, in general, it's not like quests in EQOA where you can get so far and say 'well, it's 10PM, I'm done for the night, I'll meet you [here] tomorrow and we'll finish this up.' You really have to decide before you start if you're going to make that commitment for the next hour."

Analysis: Myrelle's problem with the quest-based gameplay of DDO reflects what I said earlier. Just trotting from one sewer to the next gives DDO a feeling of being an action game similar to Diablo II or Baldur's Gate. Both of those are games you're not likely to finish in one sitting, they incorporate character leveling, and players get to choose skills. Baldur's Gate even uses D&D lore and skills. The outcome is that players can end up feeling like DDO only warrants a fee for the updates to content (as Shayalyn mentioned in our last FriEd), forcing players to decide if the updates are worth the cost. In Myrelle's case, the answer was not favorable for DDO.

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Cirel

My wife (screen name Cirel) has tried WoW, EQ, and EQOA, in addition to DDO. She left her 58 cleric in EQOA behind in August of 2005, and she has not settled on any MMOG since. She played some DDO during my beta experience, and she has access to my account any time she wants it. I asked her yesterday to articulate why she hasn't played DDO since it's sitting right there and we're paying for it each month already.

Cirel: "I don't like having to group all the time."

Analysis: It may be one short sentence, but I know what Cirel means when she says it. DDO requires 4-6 people to get anything done once you play beyond the first two character levels. The lack of bells and whistles mentioned by Tork means that players cannot occupy themselves in any way when they have only 30 minutes to play or just don't feel like grouping. Turbine made it no secret that DDO is a party-based game, but the lack of an overworld and other MMOG staples gives the game the feeling of something other than an MMOG--like maybe Diablo II, as I mentioned above.

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Final Thoughts

I've shown you the details of four people who played DDO on a trial basis but didn't become a regular subscriber. While four people do not constitute statistical significance, I feel as though these four people do a good job of representing others in the same situation. Tork points out that DDO lacks an overworld and other MMOG traditions. He and Ryverwynd each found one of DDO's unconventional mechanics (health and combat, respectively) uncomfortable. Myrelle feels the game is too episodic. Finally, Cirel doesn't enjoy a game that consists entirely of grouping. She wants some solo content.

The folks at Turbine want to know the complaints of those who don't subscribe--maybe even more than they want to know about the beefs we paying customers have with DDO. They want as many subscriptions as they can get. So, how will Turbine address such concerns? Just look at the announcements made during E3.

Twilight Forge will introduce solo content. This decision caters to the demands of many MMOGs players and should make Cirel a little more interested in DDO. The announcement that a future module will initiate player-vs.-player (PvP) combat adds a conventional MMOG feature. PvP will also give players something to do besides quest. Finally, Turbine's CEO says the company is "committed to delivering future DDO modules that include features that continue to expand the game." It sounds like DDO is headed in a more mainstream direction to draw in more gamers. Turbine boasts of "over 300,000 units sold worldwide," but they want--and need--more to compete in the glutted MMOG market.

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