Letter from Dimensional Ink CEO Jack Emmert

Discussion in 'Announcements' started by Mepps, Jan 21, 2020.

  1. Solarbound Committed Player



    Oh, okay, great sarcasm, that's adorable.

    If you're really going to keep up this act of trying to insult my intelligence, I don't know if I can cooperate to acknowledge your request. Especially, when it's not my job to write out a 10-page proposal on how to fully restructure the business model. You continuing to push this argument that ultimately suggests the players should handle such DEV responsibilities is laughable... ha.

    And, didn't you say earlier you understand our gripes? How is that so when you supposedly don't know the answers to questions you asked which tie into that? I'm surprised such can go over the head of someone like you. You seem so knowledgeable on the matter.

    Also, no one is "miffed" here. I'm not the one who's bent out of shape over the struggle to act on intuition through the simplest of answers. So, I'm taking this nowhere near as serious as you think. I hope this response was in-depth enough for you:)
  2. Batrederik Dedicated Player



    My reaction when it take effect. "Now" :) xD

    [Megzilla looks as Batrederik prepares to post]
    :Megzilla Says:
    They expect one of us to witness the Dimensional, member.

    :Batrederik says: Have you started the Dimensional?

    :Megzilla says: Yes.. the dimensional rises.

    : ):rolleyes:
  3. Magnificent Loyal Player

    There is a lot of merit in what you've said. I don't think the game can survive on subs alone just as I don't think it can survive on microtransactions alone. I think there's room for both but they have gone a bit far on the microtransactions. Considering they are working on another game, there's no reason to believe those excess funds are going to this other game instead of going to more content for DCUO.

    My hope is that this move frees up enough of Ink's funds (that may have been going elsewhere) so we can indeed get more content as I think that lack of things to do (other than grind the same handful of things for months) is a large part of what is hurting the game.

    I also hope they start having more outward involvement in the game. Something like FNL or when Jens would stream his gaming were great advertising for the game and it was FREE! The best I can tell, the main thing they do now is a couple of big conventions and the annual Extra Life stream. That's just not enough when you consider all the competition out there.

    A game can indeed have a resurgence, but it can mean rearranging a LOT of things about the game that are time-consuming and/or expensive. I believe this is where DCUO is at.

    For my example I'll use Elder Scrolls Online. When it came out it had a lot of interest but after some gameplay many felt it was just "meh" with a lot of limitations. The Tamriel One change was more than just moving to a FTP system. They re-worked their systems in a major way by removing Alliance restrictions to zones, adding battle-levelling and putting in an auction house just to name a few (to expand on how big the auction house thing was, the devs themselves stated at the beginning of the game that they did not want an auction house because they felt it would ruin the economy). These changes (along with others) brought a flood of old players back and brought many new players as well. Around a year after this change their player base had more than doubled (based on some reports). To date they have sold over 15 million copies of the game.

    I went into that bit of detail because I think a complete re-thinking of DCUO is what's needed in order to have that kind of population. What we have are essentially three different games with only one being the focus.

    1. PVP - I don't think this needs any elaboration.
    2. The original 1-30 levels.
    3. Endgame (ie: everything after you hit level 30).

    Take PVP and put it to the side for the moment and let's look at the PVE aspect. The original 1-30 game is primarily a solo game with the ability to play with others. It contains not only the discovery of new enemies, new allies, new locations and new lore, it contains the discovery of new powers and interactions with Iconics. You actually feel like you're building your character as you pick powers, level up, get new gear, get tougher missions, etc. and you're doing it in these large sandbox worlds with lots of other players.

    That pretty much comes to a screeching halt once you finish out your Iconic storylines at level 30. You then go from new mission to new mission to new mission along a large storyline which makes you feel like you are actually accomplishing something to grinding the same handful of level-appropriate missions, alerts, duos and raids until you can get enough Marks to buy enough gear to get to the next tier to get a small handful of new content to grind until you can get enough Marks to buy enough gear to get to the next tier to get a small handful of new content to grind... rinse and repeat until you reach max CR where you then wait until a handful of new content comes out to continue on with the same grind. Along the way you can work on Augments, Artifacts and Skill Points by... that's right, grinding the content you've been grinding.

    In just the base ESO game there are thousands of open world quests. Thousands. And anyone of any level can do all of them alone or with a group and get pretty much the same experience of fulfillment (along with level-appropriate gear, money, experience, etc). This does not include the PVP areas of Cyrodiil, the world bosses nor instanced content, this is just the open PVE world.

    Every year ESO puts out a new expansion and often at least one smaller DLC drops during the year. Each expansion has a main storyline with its own quests in its own open world zone(s) but also that quest also has side quests as well as there are dozens and dozens of other non-related quests in the new zone(s). This is a massive amount of content, it far surpasses the content in all the DLC's DCUO puts out in a year and anyone of almost any level who buys the DLC can participate in all but the absolute toughest content.

    To put this into better perspective, in 2019 we had 3 DLC's in DCUO (JLD and Metal 1 & 2). That gave us a total of 28 new missions (not counting Elite raids as new as they are just a tougher version of the normal raid), 14 of them group (meaning Duos up to raids and the zerg-fest boss mobs in the sandbox zones) and 14 solo missions (most repeatable in the sandbox, one in its own instance). Meanwhile ESO had the Elsweyr expansion with 10 main quests, 33 side quests and 11 dailies. They also released the Wrathstone (2 new dungeons along with 2 new quest lines) and Dragonhold DLCs (Dragonhold is more like a small expansion than a DLC with 6 main quest lines, 13 side quests and 10 dailies). DCUO's 28 new missions versus ESO's ~85 new missions. While Elsweyr costs more at $59.99 and all 3 DCUO DLCs together cost only $29.97, a player is still getting far more content per Dollar with ESO's setup than we get with DCUO (when looking at subscription prices DCUO is actually more in every price tier).

    And this doesn't even begin to touch on their deep crafting system (systems for each type of armor, for weapons, for potions, for creating furniture for your home(s), etc), the vampire/werewolf lines, Champion Points, etc.

    When I say we need a re-imagining of how the game works and plays, I truly mean every aspect needs to be revisited.

    Why does levelling have to end at 30? Why can't exp feed things like Artifacts instead of timed Nth Metal drops? Why not have randomly generated missions in the original open world? Why not have those randomly generated missions include Iconics? Why can't we improve individual powers (including the speed of movement modes)? Why not add more Iconics to raids? Why not be able to add effects to powers? Why not migrate to Unreal 4? Why not expand member benefits to encourage more subscribers? Why not cut prices on TCs to encourage more purchases? Why not fix RNG on TCs so rare items aren't dropping 1 every 500 opened (or whatever it is)? Why not put rare items on Booster or the Quark vendor after they've been ingame for 3 years? Why can't we have some mission line to swap factions?

    Everything should be on the table. Everything.
    • Like x 3
  4. Magnificent Loyal Player


    I asked for your ideas. I don't know your ideas because I'm not a mind reader. It's interesting that instead of engage in that you've decided to instead engage in reasons why you won't discuss it. I would ask if it's because you really have no ideas deeper than your broad and vague stance, but I no longer care. I've given you a couple of opportunities to move on from whatever offense you've taken and engage in a productive discussion but instead of doing so you've decided to spend your time dodging the topic by making your posts about my perceived faults.

    Good day.
  5. Solarbound Committed Player



    Says the guy who took it upon himself to condescend... right. I'll tell you what, bring yourself back to zero, and maybe, just maybe, we can sit here with more civil discussion. Until then, good day to you as well.
  6. GalaxySniper Loyal Player



    And You see that there, U got me interested in ESO due them adapting and being open minded. With DCUO I don't feel like that. I feel restricted, and the only way I can play unrestricted is to pay more money beyond my subscription when I've played. That's not going to get me to comeback.

    One thing I like about warframe is if majority of the players don't like something we will stick together. So we have whales and FTP players that co-exist.
    When railjack 1st came it it felt like paid to win. in railjack you have 1 gun on front and set of guns on the side, each 15k titanium, a reactor is 15k, engine is 15k titanium as well, missiles is like 6k

    But each of this item is teir 1-3. Earth is Teir 1, Saturn is Tier 2 and the Veil is teir 3, so to do well at per planet you need to get tier guns and items at these certain planets.

    So just to do well in Teir one you need to farm over 50k titanium and other resource to build your T1 ship and each item will take 12hrs in real time to finish building. Or you can buy a repair drone which will skip the farming and time to rebuild.

    So the whales got together and bought the repair drone to finish there ship because if not they would have to farm over 150k in Titanium and other resources.
    So when the Whales finished their ship within a week. They allowed all the FTP player to jump on their ship to play railjack all the way up to T3 so that they didn't feel pressure to buy repair drones. This allowed FTP players to salvage T1-T2 items until they where able to get and afford T3 items
    When DE saw this, they remove repair drones and are updating that ppl will get more recourses per run.

    Me having a T3 ship I let T1 players drive my ship so they understand how to play and give them tips on my build.

    I say that to say this. DCUO players would have so much power if it wasn't legendary vs premium vs ftp players. If they was all for each other This player base would make a difference.
    But over the years legendary player had this entitlement of if you don't like it then leave, and so the complainers left and now here they are, hoping that DCUO can survive another year.

    I am a whale on warframe. But the the beauty of it is that I don't have to be to enjoy the game. I can buy plat to buy or trade things in the market place.
    The beauty of buying plat is that I can give it to FTP players, If they have something I want, I will trade them plat for it so once they get enuff plat they can buy stuff in the market that cost money.

    End of the day I don't mind spending money on a video game, but if I feel forced to by something then I'm not playing
  7. Magnificent Loyal Player


    The fight between Legendary, Premiums and FTP has been going on since the game went FTP and stems mainly from the holdover of those first Free players complaining how everything should be free. This was back well before TC's and when the Store was far more underutilized. It escalated once the game progressed to a point where Freemium players had to purchase an Escrow just to craft or repair gear (after there being comments about how this would never be the case) because those who were supporting the game with their subscription saw it as more attempts to get something for nothing (and thus making the game suffer due to lack of funds).

    With TC's and more options in the Store there's now more of an argument to be made for doing things like raising escrow caps or free all-access time periods (and we're seeing that, slowly) and as a result we see more of those old arguments against doing these things begin to fade. While this separation of Daybreak into divisions is usually a hallmark of the parent company trying to position a low-performing division for selling off it does give a benefit to the higher-performing divisions (like DCUO) as they no longer have to spend some of their profits on keeping other games afloat.

    After all the waves of layoffs at Daybreak/SOE over the previous couple of years it's good to see them with new positions needing to be filled. Hopefully this will bring about needed changes to some of the very fundamentals of the game structure as well as return other aspects that have fallen by the wayside (ex: how long has it been since we've been given an annual, estimated road map for the game over the course of the coming year?).

    Unfortunately changes in community attitude take time to happen (although it can be given a bit of a speed boost with more regular communication from someone like Jackster.

    One thing about ESO, because the crafting system is so large there are a TON of ingredients to gather (even if you are working on just one aspect of crafting, like cloth armor for example), so many that it will quickly fill your inventory (even once you've expanded it to its maximum). If you sub then you get a special inventory section for crafting supplies that's unlimited. If you're going to craft subbing is almost a must-have. Also, you gain exp faster if you sub. That exp not only goes towards leveling (max: 50) but also towards your Champion Points (like Skill Points here, the max CP is currently 810).
  8. Lumpy New Player



    Can you start by explaining what the hell is going on with send cash via e-mail to another one of my character's.
    It keeps telling me my account level isn't high enough. I Legendary. WTF. I've been a member of this damn game for over five years. Can you guys stop screwing with us loyal members already!?
  9. Zneeak Devoted Player

    Thanks to exploiters, you can no longer hold cash in mail. That's why it's not working.
  10. Lycan Nightshade Dedicated Player

    and yet I could have sworn they said we would get the ability to mail cash again....


    but I figure at this point its much like expanding the base item cap above 500..... they are "looking into it"

    in other words don't hold yer breath unless you are a Smurf.... what? blue just isn't a good skin color for people
  11. Lugo Well-Known Player

    I only hope this means an end to loot boxes and CR skips and other ways to pay your way through the game instead of playing it, and going back to expanding the game and making it more fun and exciting.

    BUT, cash rules, so I can't be optimistic.
    • Like x 1
  12. Zneeak Devoted Player

    No idea about the "if's" or "when's", i'm just telling him why it's currently not there.. As far as I'm concerned, it's not that big of a deal if it stays this way, if it keeps exploiters from hoarding billions upon billions safely in mails just one click away.
    • Like x 1
  13. bigbadron alt Dedicated Player

    They also said that they would continue to work on how the in-game cash and the economy function over the course of this year, to try and ensure the situation from last year doesn't get repeated. I suspect the continued restriction on transfer of cash between characters is part of that process. While it is annoying, the slight plus side is that I haven't seen any gold spammers (not one of them) on the EU server since they locked down the cash transfers.
  14. Lycan Nightshade Dedicated Player

    oh its ok I was more or less adding to what you posted with that anyway....
  15. Lycan Nightshade Dedicated Player

    oh im not debating any of that save for its a little more then annoying since I have no way to get cash to villain alts I have for one and two the ability to mail cash is a perk of membership that we are still paying for..... which I equate to a channel in my cable package being out, not bad enough to make me quit the cable company but enough to question why not downgrade....

    you are lucky tho on the EU server for not getting stuck with spammers, I still see em on US but far less often then before so yeah silver lining but for me that's not a huge deal since I usually stay outta chats and in my base when im on the main
    • Like x 2
  16. Draconiano Committed Player

    Sorry but that doesn't mean they aren't there, I see them everyday.
    • Like x 3
  17. KidSuperBoy Well-Known Player

  18. DCspawn87 Well-Known Player

    I never understood why mailing cash between toons was in the game in the first place. We have a shared bank. If one toon can't afford an item, buy it on your main and put it in your shared bank. Seems simple to me.
  19. KidSuperBoy Well-Known Player

    At the time I was Xbox US server and initially there were no good spammers, and then a offer of cash and items with "kik' the old currency exchange for membership and shortly thereafter came the gold spammers.
  20. CypherXone Committed Player

    My biggest issue with DCUO is that they don't stick to they're plans. For one thing, you can't make DC characters! They've had more than enough time to create power sets that reflect ever character in DC. I and others even told them how they could do it. Why can't we make plastic man or atom. That's a real miss opportunity.

    Second, what happened to movement variations. How they stop at Skimming when we requested a new Acrobatics and Superspeed? That just shows how careless they are to player customization.

    Third, what's up with the iconic powers. They should've add more abilities by now. They had a chance to add abilities that make you feel like you can create a character an iconic DC hero or villain, but more and more, the game feels like you can create a character by looks only, but not power accurate nor competitively. You would think they would give more options to for this to happen especially when they have the pvp Legend abilities that could have been available to created characters. It just seems that the Devs don't know what they doing.