DDO: Eberron Unlimited Interview

There have been some concerns from the community over the announcement of Eberron Unlimited, so Ten Ton Hammer tracked down Turbine’s Kate Paiz, Fernando Paiz, and Adam Mersky to get them addressed.

Ten Ton Hammer : Some players did seem to feel a bit betrayed that it did take so long. Some were talking about 9 months since the last content update, and you’ve obviously used that time to switch the business model around. Is there anything else you can say to clear the air for those players?

Fernando Paiz: We understand how they feel, we’re sorry that they’re upset, and we would have loved to release DDO Unlimited sooner. But ultimately we designed all of this content and the release to go together. It’s a stronger release all together, and we’re going to make the transition to Eberron Unlimited faster by releasing it all together. So, at any point in time, could we have made a different decision? Maybe, knowing what we know today. But given where we are today, this is the best we can do to give them the best product in the fastest timeline and ultimately the best future for the service that they love.

Adam Mersky: Nine months, even by our standards, is unacceptable, and I don’t think you’ll see that at any point in the future, especially with this title.

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Ten Ton Hammer: Do you think allowing players to buy 32-point builds is in some way negating the effort players put into accomplishing that feat?

Fernando Paiz: I have a few things to that. One is, we’re not allowing players to buy 32-point builds at the moment. I found it fascinating to see the reactions to this on the beta forums. Someone said ‘What do you guys think about selling 32-point builds? If they’re going to sell the drow class which is also something that you unlock with favor, why not sell the 32-point builds?’ I fully expected the community wouldn’t like it based solely on how the question was phrased, but the big surprise was 80-90% of the posts were ‘Sell them, please! I love this game, I’ve gotten two character to 16, but I don’t want to get 1750 favor. Just let me buy it, who cares? So I don’t rule it out as we never will, but we’re trying to go cautiously.