Jerry

Whoah! Awesome! How cool.

Wow! I wouldn't have expected to get a mention in Massively, I'm honored! Thanks everyone, this is really a dream come true. I hope to be able to say more about what'll be up soon. In regards to the future of the podcast, the reason I'm not able to say much is things are still very much undecided. It's possible that someone will be taking over the show, but since said person/people are still in the consideration phase it's a little early to say anything. If it doesn't happen for whatever reason, I'm sure someone will step up to do their own thing independently of DDOcast. Who knows? Could be both will happen. Either way I'm confident that DDO will remain strong in the podcast world. There are already several DDO-focused podcasts out there, and in fact Massively Speaking has always done a great job on mentioning DDO as well. Thanks Massively!

Jerry

This is exactly why I'll never play EVE online.

I'm not sure that DDO's negative community aspects are all that different from the negativity seen in most MMOs that have been around a while. Besides, D&D tends to bring out the passions of its most ardent players, same in DDO as in PnP. Threnal East! That used to be such a difficult quest. It's still a nice challenge, but improved AI for Coyle in particular has really improved the quest.

Honestly, it's not entirely accurate to say this is DDO-Europe going Free to Play, although the announcements from Turbine and Codemasters would lead to that terminology.

What's actually happening is DDO-Europe's service offered by Codemasters is being shut down and European server players are being offered the chance to transfer to the DDO:U service that has been offered by Turbine since September of 2009. Which is pretty much what much of the DDO:Europe crowd has been hoping for.

The only "new" stuff that could be termed a "Global DDO" rollout, besides the transfer option, is the plan by Turbine to have a beta version of DDO:U in French and German language clients (or something) sometime later this year. Although I would not be surprised to see Turbine announce a new server or two at some point here, it would be an easy way to deal with duplicate names and guilds.

Hey Rubi! Mockduck just so happens to be level 15 in Lotro right now, if you are really bored someday and want to talk about DDO (oh, and LOTRO I suppose) with me look me up.

Shawn - please figure out how to own AOL and then please hire the entire DDOcast crew to work for you. :) (FYI - I was flattered to hear the shout-out, thanks for that.)

Man, Felicia Day is so amazing, what a talented and funny writer and actress. She seems very "real" during interviews as well. What a great show!

Jerry, DDOcast

I'd like to mention how to best maximize xp in a party as well, consider it the "Rule of Four." If someone is either five levels above or below the lowest/highest level member of the party, then the group faces a "powerleveling" penalty that affects the person outside of the range of four. So, if there's a level 7 in the group and a level 11 joins, the level 7 person will not get ANY xp for running the quest. So, the best advice for putting up LFM's is to remember the rule of four, set the level range to 6-9, 7-10, 8-11, 9-12, etc.

I really enjoyed my brief time in Spellborne, I've still got it installed and plan to check up on it someday...I loved the graphics and setting!

I saw this backlash coming the instant I heard about the upcoming plan to allow people to fill out "surveys" for Turbine Points. It's a bad idea for anyone to sign up for an online contest, take a Facebook quiz, etc. The outcry really grew when people realized that their account names were being sent over an unencrypted data stream to these third parties in addition to their email addresses.

Turbine's now taken it down. I bet we don't see it ever again...

Thought I'd add just a few suggestions here...

While the idea of "Must Have" adventure packs in DDO is somewhat invalid, there are a few particular packs that I think most DDO veterans would highly recommend. These aren't the only packs to get, get whatever you'd like, but here are a couple and a few reasons why they might be the go-to packs for someone starting out:

Deleras: The Deleras Tomb quest chain has always been a biggie in DDO. It gives you a ton of xp in the 4-8ish level range in addition to some of the best loot at that level. If possible, run this entire chain at least once to get the "Voice of the Master" - a trinket that gives you +5% xp when worn (it also honors Gary Gygax.) This is one of those quests that just has everything. Also good for plenty of favor.

Vale of Twilight: For levels 12+. Besides being the place where you can craft Greensteel items (some of the most powerful weapons and items in the game), there's a ton of quests, a large outdoor area and a multi-part excellent raid. A great way to easily expand out your game once you've hit level 12ish and are looking for quests to buy-run.