I made it to about level 30 and then when my backlog of worthless loot ran out, i ran face-first into a wall. Then someone pointed out I could buy essences in the ddo store.

HUGE MISTAKE. my thirty dollar investment got me about four levels- and that was at crafting level 30 of 150 total.

I shudder to think of the top tier shards- they can require 40 greater essences, around 250 lesser essences, and one or two further specialized items. Thirty dollars will get you about 500 greater essences, which is enough for just a dozen or so shards.

In the end, whether you grind out essences from questing or just buy them from the store, you are NOT getting an adequate return on your investment.

I love the IDEA of DDO’s current crafting system, but the current implementation is just piss-poor!!!

I’ve already contacted customer service with my concerns and invite anyone who shares my views to do the same.

If it wasn’t about the LOTR universe it would just be another shitty MMO.

Fail game is now a money grubbing fail game…

The point I wanted to make, specifically relevant to the grinding aspect of the game that has evolved and the cumbersomeness of the crafting processes, is this: It sounds that like me you have been playing this game since close to it’s launch, certainly long enough to remember the lean years where new content was a pipe dream. I remember thread after thread on the forums berating the devs for not giving us enough to do: “You have stuck us in a box, at least give us something to do in the box!” It was true, at the time you would level to 16,(or 14 or 12 depending on the year) then roll a new toon to level to XX because that’s all there was to do.

To the devs credit they did (albeit with the funding generated by the FTP model, but that’s a whole ‘nother rant.) Epics and otherwise upgradeable named items, reincarnation and now Cannith crafting- not to mention new quests, raids and wilderness areas. So now the general gripe seems to be “Gee there’s a lot to do here, and not all of it is that interesting…” With all due respect, on behalf of the developers and in light of the days when it seemed the game would be cancelled due to insuficient interest at any moment, I can’t help but cringe everytime I run accross this. It’s not true, you don’t have to TR, or grind epics, or raid to enjoy this game. Run a series of halfling barbarian/necromancers around in Searing Hieghts if that’s what makes you happy. As imperfect as the additions to the game are (and I agree with you that most of them leave a bit to be desired) at the end of the day I think we do well to remember that the game is more interesting with them than it would have been without.

Respectfully,

Z

The constant internet connection is deffinatly a bad idea. It didn’t stop SCII from getting hacked or pirated. It just meant that the hackers and crackers had to work extra hard at making it work for the rest of the pirate comunity. Instead of being able to play a cracked copy the week it’s released, the game pirates out there will have to wait a few months to play single player. Then a month or two more for a LAN patch.

The “Real Money Auctionhouse” is totally a bad idea. Kinda funny, when a friend of mine heard about this he skyped me and said “Hey dude, wanna start up a rare item farming company using the Diable 3 Auctionhouse?”. Scary thing is, that’s a totally viable thing with the way it’s being setup…and as a college student without a job it would be a totally easy way to make money. If I’m not mistaken though, the owner of the auction has the option of using either or both ingame gold or real money for each auction(still doesn’t make it much better).

Rant on my Pink Sister, Rant on!

Because of the way they handled the PR for this I will wait and when you add it to lingering disappointment Ive had for the company I can see why some are using this as a last straw. I know to some it looks like many are just rage quitting and maybe they are. To me I have been weighing my gaming choices for a year now and with recent tragic events wondering if I still have it in me to continue to game the way I used to. The feeling of disrespect I felt when I found out via twitter and on an un official thread about this was big enough for me to put another tally in the Con’s of staying with DDO. But thats my own personal reasons and I understand that it is not the same for every one else. I just would like to see better communication and announcements when it revolves around updates. An official thread could have corralled many of the fifty some odd posts as it is on the update as well cleaning up the boards a bit. So to me there is no real excuse not to have official word before a release and no I do not mean a day before which I fear would have happened if Memnir did not tell us this info. Either way great read as always Rowan

Looks like Kos gave ya a good point on an alarm, let me follow that up with asking if you’ve checked into the SD classes yet.

Whether you opt for just a short basics class where they teach folks to ‘get away’, to full-on Martial Arts training – the biggest thing you get out of it is the calm confidence I think you’re looking for out of it. Your local Y, or Abuse Support program should have info on where free classes are held. That’d be a good place to start, and the price is usually right.

Now for the obligatory CDism…. Just a T-shirt, hmmm? :p

(j/k, Zeff, j/k.)

*reserves comment on the sore bum*