Archive for November, 2012
The DDO Chronicle: Issue 23 for November 2012!
Click here for the latest community news, events, and more from the world of Dungeons & Dragons Online!
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Turbine Account Maintenance Scheduled Downtime Monday, December 3rd from 10:00-11:00 AM Eastern …
The Turbine Account Maintenance site at http://myaccount.turbine.com will be brought down for maintenance on Monday, December 3rd from 10:00 to 11:00 AM Eastern (-5 GMT). During this time, players will be unable to log into the game or make changes to …
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DDO Store Sales!
Enjoy DDO Store Winter Weekend Specials All Month Long! Current Offers Available November 30 – December 2
Adopt a Pet! 20% off Select Creature Companions, Treats, & Gear! DDO Store November 30 – December 6
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Public Grouping Option Temporarily Disabled
The “public grouping” feature in the quest panel is temporarily unavailable. It is still possible to create standard groups. We apologize for the inconvenience.
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Ghallanda Server Restart 12:00 PM Eastern (-5 GMT) Thursday, November 29th
The Ghallanda server will be brought down at 12:00 PM Eastern (-5 GMT) for a restart. We expect the downtime to last around 20 minutes. Please note that it may take up to an hour for guild airship amenities to repopulate after the world is reopened. Th…
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Last day of the Mabar Festival!
The Mabar Festival of Endless Night runs through November 27th! You still have time to get your loot and enjoy the fun! Click here for our guide to the event!
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Issue 22 of the DDO Chronicle is now available!
Click here for the latest community news, events, and more from the world of Dungeons & Dragons Online!
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Salesmanship flooz and Black Friday
I’ve been worried about DDO for a while. Not for all the reasons listed in Dooom threads (lag monster, too easy, too hard, not revolving around me). I worry about DDO because the promotions are too good.
You see, back before the internet accepted credit cards, there was a company called “flooz.” Dumb name but catchy. And it had Whoopie Goldberg as a spokeswoman. flooz was always spelled in lowercase though it was a proper noun and even when it started a sentences like the one you are reading right now. But most importantly, flooz had a uniquely futuristic vision:
“Wouldn’t it be great if you could buy things on the internet? Now you can, with flooz!”
They didn’t claim to reach perfection. But they did have a system — and it worked! You could buy flooz over the telephone (using your credit card) and then you could buy things DIRECTLY from the internet, or using e-mail. Very cool.
I was acutely aware of flooz because at the turn of the millenium I had a desk job at Starbucks Coffee Company. I occasionaly did business in flooz but the people in the cubicles on the other side of the isle did flooz orders all day long.
Then one weekend three things happened pretty much simultaniously.
1. New customers started contacting me out of nowhere. Their first questions were always “Do you take flooz?” and “What Starbucks Gift baskets can I get for exactly $X.XX?”
2. I used a pencil, paper and linear algebra to streamline the process of getting an order to cost exactly $X.XX.
3. The guy on the other side of the row bought an $800 Palm pilot for less than $200 so he could read e-books and e-newspapers.
I wanted to get in on that deal. So I asked where did you get 80% off on a state of the art Palm pilot with 16 color backlit monochrome display? He told me an interesting story: flooz was selling several dollars worth of flooz for one dollar.
flooz was offering a discount on money.
And that’s how he got the discount. He bought a bunch of discounted flooz and IMMEDIATELY spent the flooz on goods. He bought the Palm pilot, his friend bought a computer and a friend of a friend bought a motorcycle.
But he warned me not to buy flooz. He said “I don’t care who you are, NO ONE can stay in business giving a discount on money.” And he was right, soon flooz stopped paying money, then it stopped taking money. It’s website used to be a catalogue of all the places that accepted flooz but it became a single page that said “Closed” and then the logo.
I went around the entire floor of Starbucks HQ and told them the same joke about how on the website it says “flooz is closed, just what you wished for” because honestly I didn’t like the hastle of dealing with flooz. A few days later they took of the tagline, ruining the joke. I guess my joke was original, but not unique.
Anyway, because of that I always have a twinge of fear whenever Turbine offers a sale and also a sale on their money. Turbine is on safer ground because you can’t spend TP outside of Turbine, you can’t buy a motorcycle with TP for example. But even so, whenever I saw Turbine’s crazy black friday sales, I was always felt sorry for them. It’s kinda pathetic to offer such a steep discount on money.
But this year, Turbine’s sales have struck me as sane and responsible.
Take Menace of the Underdark for example. The only way to buy MotU is with money. Granted, there is a third option to pay with turbine points, but the great options, to buy it ASAP, or to buy it this weekend with a 75% discount are only available for real money. That fills me with confidence because honestly, selling cool things for TP sold at rock bottom prices reminds me too much of flooz.
I think that the era of shamefuly low prices on cool things is over too. Personaly I like that because I feel like I can wait for a sale and save 30%, or buy it now, but in no case do I have to feel like an idiot for paying full price instead of waiting for the 80% sale.
Over all, I feel very happy with Turbine’s new non-pathetic pricing structure. I’m also impressed with the Free01 promo code — it’s a great way to introduce people to the DDO store. I bought some red sparkles for my gelatinous cube pet. And I keep telling everyone in game to use their Free01 discount code, just so they learn to shop there. Click the red button on the lower left and select store.
I also see the sense in picking MotU as the doorbuster. MotU is a great price, but it’s also something you want at the END of a character’s life, like when you hit level 20. Getting there without spending cash is possible (I know, cuz I did it) but once you buy into that end-goal of going to the Forgotten Realms you may as well spend some real money to get some TP so you can enjoy more of Ebberon’s quests.
TLDR; I’m glad that Turbine’s new promotion style seems sustainable. I enjoy shopping more now that there’s a bit more price protection.
Edit: flooz not Flooz. Oh how that brings back the memories.
This post is syndicated from OurDDO Clean.
Black Friday Special!
75% off Menace of the Underdark!
Now through November 26 Only
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Rise Up Bigger & Stronger!
20% off Hearts of Wood, Quest XP, & More!
November 22-29
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DDO Community Update: Special Guest Developer!
In today’s Community Video Update, DDO developer “Feather of Sun” helps us answer more questions from the Mimic!
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The Mabar Festival of Endless Night has returned!
Click here for our guide to the event! Mabar will be available in Delera’s Graveyard through November 27th.
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My First time Twist of fate
Whee! I got a twist of fate point. I’ve been so busy getting my money’s worth out of the Stone of XP I haven’t had time to pay much attention to the Twist of fate. …until now!
Currently my Paladin has a bunch of Unyielding Sentinal Epic destiny — it’s solid stuff. More AC, more PRR, more hitpoints and aggro. But, somehow it doesn’t seem to live up to the “EPIC” promise, and especialy not compared to the outstanding DPS everyone else seems to be putting out with their more graphically in-yo-face destinies.
Well anyway I unlocked a twist of fate point so now I can twist a level power… as soon as I level up another Epic destiny a bit.
From where I’m at, the easiest path is to take Radient Servant. Theres lots of good stuff but the only thing I can twist easily is a boost to healing spellpower. I wouldn’t mind even more powerful self heals, so that’s good enough to justify the detour. There’s a button a the top of the Radient servant button that appeared now that I can make it my active destiny. Fittingly it’s called “activate destiny.” Overall I think this is a good system, but it seems really simple compared to all the thought that goes into making a good character.
I think it would have been better to put this easy character planning stuff at the begining of DDO, and then put some byzentine monstrosity of char op at the end game. But then perhaps there’s some reason why it’s good to reward Epic players with simple and elegant design?
There’s only one person who would be insane enough to inject transparency and playability into Dungeons and Dragons. It could only be my nemesis — Dr. Moriarty! Oh wait no, lemme do that over again. It can only be My nemisi — The guys who made D&D 4th edition and their intended hipster audience!
Don’t mess with me bro! I’ve got a $0 in my pocket and I’m not afraid to use it! Remember how 4e failed? That’s all because of my $0! Yeah, so don’t mess with the opaque convoltion and complexity of DDO!
And that goes for the Pit and the Coal chamber too! I like that they’re hard! (exept the elevators in Coal, those are very nice.)
/Brandishes $0
This post is syndicated from OurDDO Clean.
An auspicious harbringer
Thanks alot Turbine! My myDDO was all screwy (see two posts prior), but now it”s fixed. I totaly underestimated you guys. I did not expect so quick a turn around. Not only do I have complete myDDO functionality, you saved me the effort of submitting a…
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Admire my bag
The Auction House is trouble for me. I place a bid, I wait for a few hours and then at the last possible second some ninja ninjas my item! But last night the stars aligned and I had a nice shopping experience. I bid on an auction with 4 hours to go. An…
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The DDO Chronicle: Issue 21 for November 16th, 2012!
Click here for the latest community news, events, and more from the world of Dungeons & Dragons Online!
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Test Hello world?
I can’t see any of my previous posts. Hello?
Edit/Update: I can’t see my posts or my Avatar when I’m logged in. I can see my posts and my Avatar when I’m logged out. This is true across several platform Win7 (IE, Chrome, Firefox) IOS6.1(Safari) and the DDO in-game browser (with the caviat that I don’t know how to log out and see the in-game browser).
Oh, and thanks to you guys for responding. They showed up in my e-mail but I can’t see them here on myDDO. @Bluesilence I’ve got 17 characters according to myDDO (although I think it is counting a bunch of long deleted Korthos favor farmers.) And anyway, I think the ten character minimum is the number of “alphanumeric characters” you have to have in a post, and not the number of “player characters.”
This post is syndicated from OurDDO Clean.
Scheduled Server Downtime: 8:00 AM – 11:00 AM Eastern (-5 GMT) Friday, November 16th
The DDO Game Servers will be brought down on Friday, November 16th from 8:00 – 11:00 AM Eastern (-5 GMT) for a hotfix. Lamannia will remain up and available during the downtime. Thanks for your patience, and we’ll see you back in the game soon!
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Limited Release!
Water Elemental Creature Companions Available Through November 22! Click here for more information!
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DDOcast 261
Join Sig and Anne with Geoff (www.ddogamer.com) as we talk about some of the latest DDO news, game bugs, community news, Update 16, Mabar Fest and then wonder why DDO doesn’t have a Fernia Fire Fest. We even have some interesting news on WB-Turbine’s latest new hires and layoffs.
In segments department, we have Luidwig’s Dragon Frags, who by the way is holding a contest if you listen to his segment and figure out what songhe’s referencing in his latest performance poetry, you could winone of 4 vanity pets! Just email your answer to ddocast@gmail.com.
This episode’s featured D&D music is by M IS FOR MAGICMISSILE by Mary Crowell; a singer/songwriter and piano teacher who loves playingDungeons & Dragons on both sides of the GM’s screen.Acolytes of the Machine is her second solo album and is a love letter to the hobbyof Dungeons & Dragons! You can buy her latest album Acolytes of the Machine& Other Gaming Stories and other albums at http://www.MagnusRetail.com
Related Links
- Update 16 Adventure Pack Goes on Sale on November 12th!
- Mabar Fest is Live but not without Bugs
- Welcome New Master of Lamannia: SqueekOfDoom
- Server Maint Scheduled Downtime: Monday, Nov 12
- Guild Renown Changes
- Druid’s Deep Quest Bugs
- Missing Pets Return!
- Hey did you know WB-Turbine has a Toll Free SupportNumber? 855-WBGAMES (855-924-2637)
- DDO StoreNews
- PJestechie’s Episode 23 of Epic Education
- DDOPuzzle Solver for iPhone & Android updated
- GreatDDO Fan Art
- DDO now has aPinterest page
- MMORPG.com look at Update 16 with Tolero and ProducerGlin
- Thelanis Thursdays LIVES!
- Game Politics: WB-Turbine Hires & Layoffs
- LOTRO Mac Client now goes to LIVE Beta
