DDO Mailbag: Looking to the Future

By Ralsu

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As the month of August comes to a close, I am looking ahead to
September, thinking about how I can best bring readers the Dungeons
& Dragons Online (DDO) content they want. href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=259">Last
month, I answered a few emails from you, the readers of DDO @ Ten
Ton Hammer, about the kinds of content you want to see. I try to take
your comments and suggestions very seriously. If you recall, Catie had
written in to find out why we didn't have more quest guides on the
site. I explained that we'd been waiting to be able to release a load
of DDO quest guides at the same time. You see, we're not using any kind
of data miner to get the quest information. The quest guides you'll
read at DDO @ Ten Ton Hammer come from me and the other writers sitting
in front of our computers with a pad of paper and a pen. Anyway, I
wanted to share another email from Catie:

Ralsu,



Thanks for answering my last email. I see that you are adding quest
guides now and I appreciate that. I just hope you're not trying to do
them all in order from level 1 to level 10.



Thanks again,

Catie

Catie, please keep those emails coming. It would be unwise of me to try
to publish the quest guides in order from level 1 to level 10. I will
be mixing it up all throughout the month of September. You'll see at
least two new DDO Quest Guides each week, and they will span all levels.



In fact, that brings me to the theme for the entire month of September:
Back to Basics. I got the idea from the Ten Ton Hammer network-wide
assignment to write about how our game handles the newbie experience
(you can read my article, href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=285">Back
to School, to see what I say). More than a few of you readers have
written to remind me that--at its core--a good gaming news site helps
new players find all of the information they need to decide to purchase
the game and get into the experience with as few growing pains as
possible. To that end, we'll be updating our race and class
introductions all this month. Expect to see some new looks for some of
our pages as we try to streamline our multitude of articles in a way
that is easily accessible for you. At the same time, we'll continue to
add to our href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=153">Quest
Guide Portal so that people can see that Ten Ton Hammer is the #1
stop for DDO information. And that transitions nicely into this very
perceptive email I received from a person who wants to be known as
Gener4T:

Community Manager Ralsu:



Where's the interview from Turbine you've been promising us for months?
Back in May, you told us you had secured an interview with Samera and
Sporkfire [editor's note: you can view that article | href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&ceid=207">HERE|],
but I still haven't seen it. Were you lying? I don't see why you'd have
trouble getting an interview if you're a legit gaming site. Besides,
T[en] T[on] H[ammer] does more DDO stories than any other DDO site I've
seen out there. What's the real deal?



Gener4T

Oh boy! How do I begin to address that? First, you're right, Gener4T, I
have been promising you guys
an interview with Turbine since April. As I explained in the article
you reference, the interview process is href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?set_albumName=Exclusive_Screenshots&id=Stormreach_under_Siege&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php"> alt="Module 3"
src="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/Exclusive_Screenshots/Stormreach_under_Siege.sized.jpg"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 267px; height: 200px;" align="left">
a difficult one. Most companies--Turbine included--use a media
relations company as a go between to make sure they are represented
well. Thus, the interview involves three parties instead of just two.
On top of that, the month of May brought the hustle and bustle of the
Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), making Turbine extremely busy.
Since then, Turbine has been working hard on updates and Modules. My
original set of questions covered Turbine's assessment of DDO's
release. I asked about target subscriptions, the general feeling about
the audience and forums users, and expectations for the future. Well,
those questions lost a lot of their impact the longer I waited on a
response, so I drafted new questions on June 12, 2006. These questions
addressed the challenges of working under the Dungeons & Dragons
rules and future plans for DDO. Even now I am working on a set of
questions about the upcoming Module 3 release in September. We're going
to keep hitting them with questions, and we'll let the whole world know
as soon as we get answers.



So, Gener4T, I can only promise you that we style="font-style: italic;">are a legitimate gaming news site
and that we are trying to get
that interview for you. I appreciate that you've noticed the amount of
content we put our. Since I became Community Manager of DDO @ Ten Ton
Hammer in June 2006, we've produced at least 4 new articles each week
for you. Most weeks, we put out 5 or 6 pieces of content--far more than
any site I've seen either. Most sites seem to have built a quest
database early on and left their DDO sites on maintenance mode. Oh
sure, they report the same news we do, but they seldom produce any new
content. That saddens me, too. The more content DDO news sites produce,
the more excitement we can help generate for the game--and that can
help make the community stronger. Anyway, thanks for noticing the
amount of work we put into DDO, Gener4T. We'll do our level best to get
you that interview.



Well, that just about does it for this edition of the DDO Mailbag.
Please feel free to drop me
a line and let me know what's on your mind. Better yet, take 2
minutes to register and href="http://ddo.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=PNphpBB2&file=index&meid=89">post
on our forums. You want receive as much as one spam mail, and you
be able to comment on any of our articles any time you want!