Dungeons & Dragons Online Players Call For In-Game Protest Of New XP Changes

Almost ten years ago, Dungeons & Dragons Online players held an in-game protest to get the developers to take their feelings about a development choice seriously. Now, it seems that time has come again, as a call has gone out on the DDO forums for “Occupy Stormeach Part Deux”.

Like the previous MMORPG protest, this protest asks players to refrain from buying shop items while logging into the game and standing together in Stormreach. The protest would take place on July 4, during which time players would avoid doing actual content.

The protest is in response to an upcoming change announced earlier this month (and updated on Thursday). The change is intended to encourage players to kill mobs and make the XP system “a little less confusing”. What players seem to have the most issues with are in regard to the removal of the “First Time” bonus per difficulty and its absorption into Conquest and Delving bonuses. The reactions in response to the thread note concern about how this will impact XP as content exists where Conquest bonuses can’t be obtained and they’re uncertain about what counts toward Delving.

As noted, another post addressing these changes was made on Thursday, which did clarify a few things. The Delving Bonus in question is what was once known as the Bravery Bonus and it will receive a new tier for reaper offering a 150% bonus for reaper compared to the 100% for Elite and 50% for Hard. Players took issue with this as well.

On the First Time bonus, the new post states that it is still being removed, but that they will apply boosts elsewhere to make up for it. Conquest, Aggressor, and Onslaught bonuses will be “greatly boosted”. The post doesn’t explicitly state that these are the areas being boosted to make up for the First Time bonuses.

If the developers’ goal was to make things less confusing for players, it doesn’t seem to have worked. In fact, comments in these threads state that the opposite was achieved. Worse, however, is that players feel like they’re not being listened to, so they’re calling for a protest on July 4.