A lil' bit of downtime :)

Hiya people,

I'm sorry you haven't seen much of me the last few days. I am about, not a lot though and often at obscure times (like midnight to 3AM last night :p).

There are two reasons, one of them being the fact I've reached the point where I need to slow down for a bit before I get fed up with the game.. It happens every now and then. :) The other reason is a somewhat uncertain future here at DDO Europe. Not sure you have noticed, but a considerable number of players have stopped playing (either temporarily or completely) and few new ones are coming. Module 10 delayed, no Free to Play, no DDO Store, no events, no competitions, no communication from Codemasters - new players have little reason to start in Europe. In comparison with the US servers it's a dead place. At the moment, Devourer feels more like a guild than a server to me - I somehow keep playing with the same people regardless of what group I join or start.

The community has asked Codemasters for a state of the game address. Until CM responds to this request, I don't feel very motivated to spend a lot of time on my characters or level new ones, I'm afraid. Even "playing just for fun" isn't very appealing when you're on a seemingly dying server.

If there are some good news from CM and it looks like DDO Europe will last for a while, I have every intention to stay on Devourer. Unfortunately for this to happen, something would have to change. A mere "we're not going to shut down" won't suffice at this point.

If there are no good news or CM doesn't respond at all, I'm off to play with Susy on Thelanis, one of the US servers.

I am still going to be about to play and socialize while waiting to see what's going to happen, however, you can't rely on me being on pretty much every day as usual. I will keep you updated on any news or decisions. If you'd like to speak with me but can't get hold of me in game, post a comment here, on the guild forum, PM me on the Codemasters forum or send an email to micron @ thenewblood-forum.com, I check all of those daily.

Take care. :)

Mic

Slow Shroud on Friday Nov 27, 8pm (UK time)

We've teamed up with Brotherhood of the Wolf to do a first-timer friendly Shroud run.
Check their forum and our forum for more information or ask me in game. :)

EDIT: Looks like, after all, this is happening next Friday (November 27) at 8pm UK time (9 CET). Please let me know as soon as possible if you're interested in coming and if you have any characters you need to flag for the run. I'll help.

Mic

Transnational silliness

One of the things I like about playing DDO on a European server is that I get to meet all these funny people who come from various countries. Thanks to the fact the playerbase is more mature compared to other games, you have a chance to get people to talk about their countries and learn from them. This thread on the Codemasters forum made me think about all the countries our current and former members have come from. I posted a list of these countries and later I decided to elaborate on that in this blog, to see if I can remember who these people actually were:

Current members.. more or less

Czech Republic - me

England - Nouda, Hanne, Khyr, Gil?, Jeng? and whole bunch of people who were in the guild at some point in the past.. I think statistically Englishmen (or -women) have dominated the guild

Scotland - Gazz

Wales - Wayof/Marwnad

Ireland - Arkayne (recruited only recently and currently on a break.. not sure he'll stick with us but I hope he will :))

Belgium - Myyster (currently on a break)

Sweden - Susy, we've had other Swedish members in the past (Diflure, Skyly, ...)

Denmark - Tiani, Falke, Devall, Aeiry

Germany - Tas (there have been more in the past.. Hellsound springs to mind)

Switzerland - Siwani

Austria - Meleana/Nelea, co-founder of the guild, her mains are in the Rusties, currently on maternity leave and only playing occassionaly on US servers), others in the past: Sentira and friends

Italy - Ari, co-founder of the guild, his main is in the Rusties, currently travelling

Turkey - Giatso/Raklynn, haven't seen him in a while but I suspect he might pop up again later

France - Xyathe (mostly plays on Keeper, only pops up on Devourer occassionaly), there's also another bloke whose name I'll have to look up in the members list, he logs in like once a year these days :p

Croatia - Namadeva, Xyathe's girlfriend

Other countries

Poland - Ziggri, a rather enthusiastic young man who disappeared into thin air one day.. think we might see him again

Romania - can't remember the name but she was a girl who didn't like the fact you couldn't change hair styles and hair colour like she had been used to in EQ2.. I think she went back to that game eventually

Russia - a bunch of blokes who popped up after Mod 9 and didn't stick around for long.. think they didn't make it past trial period; at one point there was also a person called Deceivery in the guild

Portugal - hmm.. can't remember anyone actually, I might have made that one up..

Norway - Khamee from the Rusties had one of his character in the guild at one point

Estonia - can't remember their name but they were in the guild.. didn't stay for long :)

Greece - Guitar was from Greece, he had his own guild called The Silent Guard that was a lone beacon of role-playing on Devourer in it's day ;) .. last I spoke with him he was off to Pirates of the Burning Sea

Israel - there was an Israeli person in the guild at one point, can't remember his name, sadly

New Zealand - there was a couple whose characters were called Lunch and Dinner... they lived in New Zealand, they might actually have originally been English but they're gone now, so can't confirm :)

If I can think of more, I'll edit the post. Feel free to post a comment if you can think of other people :p