While they have gotten some things into shape and recent free trial accounts have caused a fun serge of activity in Tier One, many players left behind on the pretty much dead Open RvR and RP servers often try to encourage new players complaining of a dead world with no players to grind to 40 since that’s where the action is.

That peculiar compartmentalized feeling is also what kept me away from DDO initially, though I haven’t played it in close to two years(?) at this point.

That magic was there–or perhaps I was too dumb to know any better–when I first started playing WoW. My gnome rogue’s first trek into Westfall and how forboding I found those harvester scarecrow thingies, witnessing my first massive PvP battle in Southshore, my first time exploring the Eastern Plaguelands, etc. Within a year or so, it all seemed reduced to formulas, strat guides, and required raiding builds. Boring mathematical, grown-up stuff.

That’s not why we, as adults, imagine. Give me the greasy kids’ stuff–the fear, the splendor, and the joy of discovering a new world. That’s what these darn games need a nice shot of.