At the Austin Game Developers' Conference, Garrett Fuller spoke with Turbine's Craig Alexander about both Dungeons and Dragons Online and Lord of the Rings Online.

At AGDC last week we got the chance to sit down with Turbine's Craig Alexander. Craig oversees all the projects at Turbine and talked to us about the new Free-To-Play Dungeons & Dragons Online, a bit about Lord of the Rings Online, and moving MMOs to the console space. Turbine has some big plans for DDO and LOTRO, we'll go through Craig's thoughts and outline the company's approach to the future.

Dungeons & Dragons Online Unlimited was the news of September. Despite the launch of Champions Online and Aion, DDO going Free-To-Play was a big initiative in the MMO space. The game has depth and a very strong interactive combat system. Craig explained that the new model is going very well. It is still early and only two weeks into the process, but the game has seen a rise in subscriptions and the return of old subscribers as players again. Craig said that the game store is working well and players are using the micro-transaction model.

Read the Craig Alexander AGDC Interview

Good news to see they intend to invest in DDO, I've been playing it quite a bit recently & find it very enjoyable, though it's almost fully instanced world meant I never saw it as a game I'd be willing to subscribe to.

As a F2P/item shop game it works well & with the western perspective the devs have they are unlikely to be creating the game in such a way as to effectively force you to make purchases, or have item shop items become far too necessary, I like the choice & it actually makes me more inclined to spend in their shop knowing it really is a choice of whether I want to or not, eastern F2P are far too greedy in this aspect & the greed damages the gameplay & design quite badly.

I'm very much looking forward to them adding the full compliment of races & classes, though I hope they eventually add some neutral &  evil race/class choices & areas/cities to go along with them, I'm not sure if that is allowed by D&D rules as I'm no D&D boff, but I always gravitate to the dark side in games if I can.

Yeah, I am glad Turbine decided to use the F2P model but they went too far by restricting character leveling and unless that player wanted to advance in level every 4 levels, they had to either find special sigils in dungeons or buy them from the shop. ANYTIME, another player is given an advantage over another player in advancing levels only because that player has more money to burn, is WRONG. Not to mention, my character used to be lvl 10 before the F2P change and now they reduced him to lvl 1. I won't be playing DDO anymore unfortunately just so they can get greedy.

Which is too bad because I have played pnp D&D for 20 yrs this november and was looking forward to a modern approach to playing it again.

Originally posted by Czanrei

Yeah, I am glad Turbine decided to use the F2P model but they went too far by restricting character leveling and unless that player wanted to advance in level every 4 levels, they had to either find special sigils in dungeons or buy them from the shop. ANYTIME, another player is given an advantage over another player in advancing levels only because that player has more money to burn, is WRONG. Not to mention, my character used to be lvl 10 before the F2P change and now they reduced him to lvl 1. I won't be playing DDO anymore unfortunately just so they can get greedy.

Which is too bad because I have played pnp D&D for 20 yrs this november and was looking forward to a modern approach to playing it again.

F2P players tell me the sigils are not too hard to find. I don't think this is much of an issue; Robi and other players have done the math to show you can buy the sigils and contents you need to get to the endgame solely on the favor you generate in the game.. IF you choose to grind. Obviously Turbine wants spending money to be relatively tempting, and as they aren't running a charity..

You also say "my character used to be lvl 10 before the F2P change and now they reduced him to lvl 1" and this statement is simply false.

Originally posted by moorewr

Originally posted by Czanrei

Yeah, I am glad Turbine decided to use the F2P model but they went too far by restricting character leveling and unless that player wanted to advance in level every 4 levels, they had to either find special sigils in dungeons or buy them from the shop. ANYTIME, another player is given an advantage over another player in advancing levels only because that player has more money to burn, is WRONG. Not to mention, my character used to be lvl 10 before the F2P change and now they reduced him to lvl 1. I won't be playing DDO anymore unfortunately just so they can get greedy.

Which is too bad because I have played pnp D&D for 20 yrs this november and was looking forward to a modern approach to playing it again.

 

F2P players tell me the sigils are not too hard to find. I don't think this is much of an issue; Robi and other players have done the math to show you can buy the sigils and contents you need to get to the endgame solely on the favor you generate in the game.. IF you choose to grind. Obviously Turbine wants spending money to be relatively tempting, and as they aren't running a charity..

You also say "my character used to be lvl 10 before the F2P change and now they reduced him to lvl 1" and this statement is simply false.

I was all for listening to your input on the game changes until you called my statement about my character being turned to lvl 1 a lie. You have no means of remotely being able to make such a flame and I suggest you rethink further posts. I know what level my character was and is now, regardless of your opinion.

Originally posted by Czanrei

 

I was all for listening to your input on the game changes until you called my statement about my character being turned to lvl 1 a lie. You have no means of remotely being able to make such a flame and I suggest you rethink further posts. I know what level my character was and is now, regardless of your opinion.

 One: I never called you a liar. I said you were wrong. Two: if your character really was de-levelled, it would be the ONLY ONE on all the servers. But that is irrelevant; nobody changed the level of your character. I haven't flamed you yet, and wont if you behave yourself, so mind your manners.

Now, on to why you might have made this mistake: Each server is a separate world, so perhaps you were confused about the characters you had in beta on Lamannia, or if these are old characters, perhaps you've failed to look at the correct server that your character was merged unto.

Originally posted by moorewr

Originally posted by Czanrei

 

I was all for listening to your input on the game changes until you called my statement about my character being turned to lvl 1 a lie. You have no means of remotely being able to make such a flame and I suggest you rethink further posts. I know what level my character was and is now, regardless of your opinion.

 One: I never called you a liar. I said you were wrong. Two: if your character really was de-levelled, it would be the ONLY ONE on all the servers. But that is irrelevant; nobody changed the level of your character. I haven't flamed you yet, and wont if you behave yourself, so mind your manners.

Now, on to why you might have made this mistake: Each server is a separate world, so perhaps you were confused about the characters you had in beta on Lamannia, or if these are old characters, perhaps you've failed to look at the correct server that your character was merged unto.

That you're saying that its not possible for such a thing to occur in the world of buggy coding strikes me as a bit inexperienced. :D

Originally posted by Bleakmage

Originally posted by moorewr

Originally posted by Czanrei

 

I was all for listening to your input on the game changes until you called my statement about my character being turned to lvl 1 a lie. You have no means of remotely being able to make such a flame and I suggest you rethink further posts. I know what level my character was and is now, regardless of your opinion.

 One: I never called you a liar. I said you were wrong. Two: if your character really was de-levelled, it would be the ONLY ONE on all the servers. But that is irrelevant; nobody changed the level of your character. I haven't flamed you yet, and wont if you behave yourself, so mind your manners.

Now, on to why you might have made this mistake: Each server is a separate world, so perhaps you were confused about the characters you had in beta on Lamannia, or if these are old characters, perhaps you've failed to look at the correct server that your character was merged unto.

 

That you're saying that its not possible for such a thing to occur in the world of buggy coding strikes me as a bit inexperienced. :D

Nope, you're the one inexperienced here, I'm afraid : ). No one on the DDO forums has such problem, and Moorewr is a frequent reader and poster there, if I reckon well. I am frequent reader too, and there's no such issue.

This is obviously a mistake of the obove poster, not Moorewr's. There's 1/100000000000 chance for a 1 instance of such bug, or rather no chance at all. Accounts aren't that different to produce such bug for only 1 account with such problem documented. Simply impossible.

Originally posted by Sarr

Originally posted by Bleakmage

Originally posted by moorewr

Originally posted by Czanrei

 

I was all for listening to your input on the game changes until you called my statement about my character being turned to lvl 1 a lie. You have no means of remotely being able to make such a flame and I suggest you rethink further posts. I know what level my character was and is now, regardless of your opinion.

 One: I never called you a liar. I said you were wrong. Two: if your character really was de-levelled, it would be the ONLY ONE on all the servers. But that is irrelevant; nobody changed the level of your character. I haven't flamed you yet, and wont if you behave yourself, so mind your manners.

Now, on to why you might have made this mistake: Each server is a separate world, so perhaps you were confused about the characters you had in beta on Lamannia, or if these are old characters, perhaps you've failed to look at the correct server that your character was merged unto.

 

That you're saying that its not possible for such a thing to occur in the world of buggy coding strikes me as a bit inexperienced. :D

 

Nope, you're the one inexperienced here, I'm afraid : ). No one on the DDO forums has such problem, and Moorewr is a frequent reader and poster there, if I reckon well. I am frequent reader too, and there's no such issue.

This is obviously a mistake of the obove poster, not Moorewr's. There's 1/100000000000 chance for a 1 instance of such bug, or rather no chance at all. Accounts aren't that different to produce such bug for only 1 account with such problem documented. Simply impossible.

If you say so, lol.

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Originally posted by Bleakmage

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Originally posted by Sarr

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Originally posted by Bleakmage

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Originally posted by moorewr

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Originally posted by Czanrei

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I was all for listening to your input on the game changes until you called my statement about my character being turned to lvl 1 a lie. You have no means of remotely being able to make such a flame and I suggest you rethink further posts. I know what level my character was and is now, regardless of your opinion.

---

 One: I never called you a liar. I said you were wrong. Two: if your character really was de-levelled, it would be the ONLY ONE on all the servers. But that is irrelevant; nobody changed the level of your character. I haven't flamed you yet, and wont if you behave yourself, so mind your manners.
Now, on to why you might have made this mistake: Each server is a separate world, so perhaps you were confused about the characters you had in beta on Lamannia, or if these are old characters, perhaps you've failed to look at the correct server that your character was merged unto.

---

 
That you're saying that its not possible for such a thing to occur in the world of buggy coding strikes me as a bit inexperienced. :D

---

 
Nope, you're the one inexperienced here, I'm afraid : ). No one on the DDO forums has such problem, and Moorewr is a frequent reader and poster there, if I reckon well. I am frequent reader too, and there's no such issue.
This is obviously a mistake of the obove poster, not Moorewr's. There's 1/100000000000 chance for a 1 instance of such bug, or rather no chance at all. Accounts aren't that different to produce such bug for only 1 account with such problem documented. Simply impossible.

---

 
If you say so, lol.

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I say so too.

Well I can only go from my experience.  I have not played the game in years, yet all my characters were there and at the same levels I remembered them.  So I have to assume you are just mistaken.

I will say this the item shop is so much better designed than what you see in most of the eastern f2p games.  

I don't understand Turbine idiot move toward's consoles.  Yeah I know this opens up a lot of potential players, but to play a MMO on a console means major dumbing down of the UI.  That hurts the PC player.  If you include pvp, you better believe I will own any console player using a controller unless they are absolute wizard with the device.  Of course even being a wizard with a controller won't help when going up against someone running a quad core, dual graphics card rig.

The problem with consoles they are only good for the first year or so after they are released and they are such a big investment for their makers that producing a new one is a long an arduous process.

Consoles are lucky to have even a 3 year shelf life, though with the current crop there's not such a huge push for replacements as they've been retty instrumental in each company getting an online presence.

And PS3 was so goddamn expensive to make I can't see anyone rushing to make the next huge jump in console tech.

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Originally posted by Skuz
Good news to see they intend to invest in DDO, I've been playing it quite a bit recently & find it very enjoyable, though it's almost fully instanced world meant I never saw it as a game I'd be willing to subscribe to.
As a F2P/item shop game it works well & with the western perspective the devs have they are unlikely to be creating the game in such a way as to effectively force you to make purchases, or have item shop items become far too necessary, I like the choice & it actually makes me more inclined to spend in their shop knowing it really is a choice of whether I want to or not, eastern F2P are far too greedy in this aspect & the greed damages the gameplay & design quite badly.
I'm very much looking forward to them adding the full compliment of races & classes, though I hope they eventually add some neutral &  evil race/class choices & areas/cities to go along with them, I'm not sure if that is allowed by D&D rules as I'm no D&D boff, but I always gravitate to the dark side in games if I can.

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So many cash shops have this problem. I think people need to look at the GW cash shop. Giving people things like levels and such because they have money is bad bad bad. Giving them name changes and makeovers will make money too.

Originally posted by Vagrant_Zero

 

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Originally posted by Bleakmage

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Originally posted by Sarr

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Originally posted by Bleakmage

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Originally posted by moorewr

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Originally posted by Czanrei

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I was all for listening to your input on the game changes until you called my statement about my character being turned to lvl 1 a lie. You have no means of remotely being able to make such a flame and I suggest you rethink further posts. I know what level my character was and is now, regardless of your opinion.

---

 One: I never called you a liar. I said you were wrong. Two: if your character really was de-levelled, it would be the ONLY ONE on all the servers. But that is irrelevant; nobody changed the level of your character. I haven't flamed you yet, and wont if you behave yourself, so mind your manners.
Now, on to why you might have made this mistake: Each server is a separate world, so perhaps you were confused about the characters you had in beta on Lamannia, or if these are old characters, perhaps you've failed to look at the correct server that your character was merged unto.

---

 
That you're saying that its not possible for such a thing to occur in the world of buggy coding strikes me as a bit inexperienced. :D

---

 
Nope, you're the one inexperienced here, I'm afraid : ). No one on the DDO forums has such problem, and Moorewr is a frequent reader and poster there, if I reckon well. I am frequent reader too, and there's no such issue.
This is obviously a mistake of the obove poster, not Moorewr's. There's 1/100000000000 chance for a 1 instance of such bug, or rather no chance at all. Accounts aren't that different to produce such bug for only 1 account with such problem documented. Simply impossible.

---

 
If you say so, lol.

---

 

I say so too.

So you're saying, then, that random freak things cannot occur, and that there is no possibility of human error. Again, if you say so, lol!

Originally posted by Ozmodan

Well I can only go from my experience.  I have not played the game in years, yet all my characters were there and at the same levels I remembered them.  So I have to assume you are just mistaken.

I will say this the item shop is so much better designed than what you see in most of the eastern f2p games.  

I don't understand Turbine idiot move toward's consoles.  Yeah I know this opens up a lot of potential players, but to play a MMO on a console means major dumbing down of the UI.  That hurts the PC player.  If you include pvp, you better believe I will own any console player using a controller unless they are absolute wizard with the device.  Of course even being a wizard with a controller won't help when going up against someone running a quad core, dual graphics card rig.

The problem with consoles they are only good for the first year or so after they are released and they are such a big investment for their makers that producing a new one is a long an arduous process.

Are you implying that the power of your computer makes you a better player? ;D

Originally posted by Bleakmage

Originally posted by Vagrant_Zero

 

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Originally posted by Bleakmage

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Originally posted by Sarr

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Originally posted by Bleakmage

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Originally posted by moorewr

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Originally posted by Czanrei

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I was all for listening to your input on the game changes until you called my statement about my character being turned to lvl 1 a lie. You have no means of remotely being able to make such a flame and I suggest you rethink further posts. I know what level my character was and is now, regardless of your opinion.

---

 One: I never called you a liar. I said you were wrong. Two: if your character really was de-levelled, it would be the ONLY ONE on all the servers. But that is irrelevant; nobody changed the level of your character. I haven't flamed you yet, and wont if you behave yourself, so mind your manners.
Now, on to why you might have made this mistake: Each server is a separate world, so perhaps you were confused about the characters you had in beta on Lamannia, or if these are old characters, perhaps you've failed to look at the correct server that your character was merged unto.

---

 
That you're saying that its not possible for such a thing to occur in the world of buggy coding strikes me as a bit inexperienced. :D

---

 
Nope, you're the one inexperienced here, I'm afraid : ). No one on the DDO forums has such problem, and Moorewr is a frequent reader and poster there, if I reckon well. I am frequent reader too, and there's no such issue.
This is obviously a mistake of the obove poster, not Moorewr's. There's 1/100000000000 chance for a 1 instance of such bug, or rather no chance at all. Accounts aren't that different to produce such bug for only 1 account with such problem documented. Simply impossible.

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If you say so, lol.

---

 

I say so too.

 

So you're saying, then, that random freak things cannot occur, and that there is no possibility of human error. Again, if you say so, lol!

I'm not going to engage in the battle here. However, if for some reason his toon really got bugged(and was not a beta toon or a mistake in memory as some have suggested), then I would have contacted customer service, or a GM and had it restored. I remembered when I deleted my free level 50 in AOC. I ended up deciding I wanted him back and when I notified a GM I got it back in a few minutes.

On the other note, I have only played a few weeks since it went F2P. So far it has been real fun. I even quit playing Aion and canceled my sub(even though I had bought the CE). I only have two toons so far, but the first got their leveling sigil at level 2, the other is level 3, and should have no issue either. I did a lot of reruns on the starter island so I suspect that is why I don't have it yet on my #2 toon.

Furthermore, just by doing dungeons you gain favor by which you get points for as others said. It takes one to two days of play to get 50-75 points which buys you your copper sigil. So even if one doesn't find one as a quest reward, then it's still easy to get w/o spending money. Also, as others have noted in other areas, make sure everyone is scrolling to the bottom of the quest reward window as the sigils tend to be tacked on to the very bottem. If youyr reward options are many and you don't scroll down, you may well miss out on it!

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Originally posted by Bleakmage

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Originally posted by Vagrant_Zero

 

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Originally posted by Bleakmage

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Originally posted by Sarr

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Originally posted by Bleakmage

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Originally posted by moorewr

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Originally posted by Czanrei

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I was all for listening to your input on the game changes until you called my statement about my character being turned to lvl 1 a lie. You have no means of remotely being able to make such a flame and I suggest you rethink further posts. I know what level my character was and is now, regardless of your opinion.

---

 One: I never called you a liar. I said you were wrong. Two: if your character really was de-levelled, it would be the ONLY ONE on all the servers. But that is irrelevant; nobody changed the level of your character. I haven't flamed you yet, and wont if you behave yourself, so mind your manners.
Now, on to why you might have made this mistake: Each server is a separate world, so perhaps you were confused about the characters you had in beta on Lamannia, or if these are old characters, perhaps you've failed to look at the correct server that your character was merged unto.

---

 
That you're saying that its not possible for such a thing to occur in the world of buggy coding strikes me as a bit inexperienced. :D

---

 
Nope, you're the one inexperienced here, I'm afraid : ). No one on the DDO forums has such problem, and Moorewr is a frequent reader and poster there, if I reckon well. I am frequent reader too, and there's no such issue.
This is obviously a mistake of the obove poster, not Moorewr's. There's 1/100000000000 chance for a 1 instance of such bug, or rather no chance at all. Accounts aren't that different to produce such bug for only 1 account with such problem documented. Simply impossible.

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If you say so, lol.

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I say so too.

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So you're saying, then, that random freak things cannot occur, and that there is no possibility of human error. Again, if you say so, lol!

---

No. What I'm saying is it had gone down that way the OP would have contacted a GM and had his character restored.

He wouldn't be posting a nerdrage rant on a random forum.

That's what I'm saying.

Clear?

Really nice news! And im new in DDO and really enjoying it!

I had played a free trial of DDO once not to long after it launched and didn't care for it even though I am a fan of the PnP game. Since it went F2P I decided to give it another shot, and am glad I did. It's pretty fun. The game has improved a lot since I tried it last. The new payment plan also works well for me. I do not have many hours during the week to play MMO's and often feel that the $15 month sub is wasted money. I am paying for content that I won't experience for months or even years while other players chew through content at break neck speed. With this model I can pay for new content when I'm ready and the players that prefer a subscription still have that option. This dual strategy works well for both the hardcore and casual gamer.

Originally posted by Ozmodan

...I don't understand Turbine idiot move toward's consoles.  Yeah I know this opens up a lot of potential players, but to play a MMO on a console means major dumbing down of the UI..

Actually DDO was designed so that players could play with X-Box controllers from the beginning, no dumbing down required. I've run with many people using controllers in DDO and they do just fine. I've even played with a Husband/Wife duo that play the same character, one on mouse one on keyboard :D. They managed to get a permadeath character up to level 10 that way.

Originally posted by Ozmodan

...If you include pvp, you better believe I will own any console player using a controller unless they are absolute wizard with the device. Of course even being a wizard with a controller won't help when going up against someone running a quad core, dual graphics card rig...
 

It doesn't matter how nice your computer is, your Internet connection is what determines weather or not you are really swinging your axe at your opponent or where he was standing a second ago.  And with the low graphics settings DDO can run on systems that an X-Box or PS3 would laugh at :)

Originally posted by Czanrei

Originally posted by moorewr

Originally posted by Czanrei

 

You also say "my character used to be lvl 10 before the F2P change and now they reduced him to lvl 1" and this statement is simply false.

 

I was all for listening to your input on the game changes until you called my statement about my character being turned to lvl 1 a lie. You have no means of remotely being able to make such a flame and I suggest you rethink further posts. I know what level my character was and is now, regardless of your opinion.

I can vouch that this is happening. My ranger was lvl 7, and now he is lvl 3. My cleric was level 4, and now lvl 3, as well.

Originally posted by Tolroc

I had played a free trial of DDO once not to long after it launched and didn't care for it even though I am a fan of the PnP game. Since it went F2P I decided to give it another shot, and am glad I did. It's pretty fun. The game has improved a lot since I tried it last. The new payment plan also works well for me. I do not have many hours during the week to play MMO's and often feel that the $15 month sub is wasted money. I am paying for content that I won't experience for months or even years while other players chew through content at break neck speed. With this model I can pay for new content when I'm ready and the players that prefer a subscription still have that option. This dual strategy works well for both the hardcore and casual gamer.

 

Exactly. :D

Originally posted by Vagrant_Zero

 

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Originally posted by Bleakmage

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Originally posted by Vagrant_Zero

 

 

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Originally posted by Bleakmage

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Originally posted by Sarr

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Originally posted by Bleakmage

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Originally posted by moorewr

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Originally posted by Czanrei

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I was all for listening to your input on the game changes until you called my statement about my character being turned to lvl 1 a lie. You have no means of remotely being able to make such a flame and I suggest you rethink further posts. I know what level my character was and is now, regardless of your opinion.

 

 

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 One: I never called you a liar. I said you were wrong. Two: if your character really was de-levelled, it would be the ONLY ONE on all the servers. But that is irrelevant; nobody changed the level of your character. I haven't flamed you yet, and wont if you behave yourself, so mind your manners.
Now, on to why you might have made this mistake: Each server is a separate world, so perhaps you were confused about the characters you had in beta on Lamannia, or if these are old characters, perhaps you've failed to look at the correct server that your character was merged unto.

 

 

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That you're saying that its not possible for such a thing to occur in the world of buggy coding strikes me as a bit inexperienced. :D

 

 

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Nope, you're the one inexperienced here, I'm afraid : ). No one on the DDO forums has such problem, and Moorewr is a frequent reader and poster there, if I reckon well. I am frequent reader too, and there's no such issue.
This is obviously a mistake of the obove poster, not Moorewr's. There's 1/100000000000 chance for a 1 instance of such bug, or rather no chance at all. Accounts aren't that different to produce such bug for only 1 account with such problem documented. Simply impossible.

 

 

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If you say so, lol.

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I say so too.

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So you're saying, then, that random freak things cannot occur, and that there is no possibility of human error. Again, if you say so, lol!

---

 

No. What I'm saying is it had gone down that way the OP would have contacted a GM and had his character restored.

He wouldn't be posting a nerdrage rant on a random forum.

That's what I'm saying.

Clear?

My choices of reply are 'maybe so' and 'whatever'. I'm going with whatever.

Whatever. :D

Woah, those are a lot of quotes.

I'm fairly happy with the choices they've made with DDO. It's notan MMOG I play much personally since my interests have moved on, but it was one hell of an upgrade for my kid brothers, whom had been settling for Dofus.