Why the game has trouble keeping players:
1) There is no real tutorial. There are some good elements in Korthos, but it is a badly outdated series of quests as far as explaining what the game is today. The original challenge dungeon where you were methodically taught all of the mechanics of movement and interaction was contrived but super effective.
2) There are a billion different systems and essentially none of them are explained. If you go to the stone of change outside the bank in the marketplace, you are presented with a UI window that tells you ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about what it is, what it is for, what you can do with it, and why you should care about it. And that's a system which has been in the game since release. No explanation of any kind from any source except the Wiki. This kind of thing exists everywhere in the game.
3) When SSG is not running an all-free-quests coupon, the monetization of the game is incredibly predatory. The store is filled with extremely expensive items of dubious value (see: Every single weapon, wand, and almost every potion). The free to play quest system is almost nonfunctional so far as getting a player to level 20 (to say nothing of the level cap), the costs for adventure packs is seemingly assigned at random, and there is what appears to be a compulsory spend-premium-currency quest that the player is pointed to almost immediately after starting in Korthos.
4) Korthos does not have a bank. This compels reincarnated veteran players to immediately ditch Snowy side to get their starting equipment, and there is no way back to Snowy side so new players are not exposed to any veterans until much later in the game.
5) Reaper. Since it has become the default difficulty, it makes it almost impossible for a new player to join a group and feel like they are anything but a lodestone who is left behind by zerging 50+ lifers who destroy the whole dungeon before the new player even knows what is going on, and if they can keep up and try to help then their insufficient past lives, gearset, and game knowledge means that the reaper difficulty monsters turn them into finger paint which just makes them get frustrated and quit.
How do you fix it?
1) A complete revamp of the new player experience to better explain the game period and also to reflect the game as it is today and not how it was in 2015.
2) Streamline systems so they operate in a more cohesive manner such that if you understand the first system then you will be better able to understand the ones you find later on. Also to put in more tooltips which explicitly explain how things work instead of vague allusions.
3) One-in-one-out for quest packs. When a new adventure pack is released, one of the oldest adventure packs becomes free to play. They added in the challenge dungeons and the deck of many things, then in that same patch, Shan-To-Kor becomes free to play (just as an example). All of the dungeon adventures up through and including the Vault of Night should already be free to play, and then they progress upwards from there. New players will have an easier time leveling, see fewer frustrating red chalices, have access to more favor for more store points, and not feel like the game wants them to sell their own children just to see what the game has to offer. Also, remove the pointless garbage in the DDO store. It is bordering on fraud to have a bound to character +1 acid longsword (min level 4!) in there which is being sold for 150 store points. Removing all of the pointless newbie trap fluff might also improve the speed at which the store operates which is a not inconsiderable benefit all on its own.
4) Put a bank in Korthos. There is no reason for there not to be a bank in Korthos. You can even add in a tutorial pointing people at the bank and explaining how it works! The bank is a critical part of gameplay, and it absolutely should be included in the new player experience.
5) The regular XP awarded for all levels of Reaper should be no higher than Elite. Reaper gives Reaper XP, and THAT'S IT. This way, people who hate reaper or do not care about it can continue to do Elite without feeling like they are missing out on a giant chunk of XP. I am firmly of the opinion that the majority of the playerbase does not like reaper. They endure/tolerate reaper. They only do it because they feel forced into doing it by the greater XP rewards. New players can join the now much more common Elite groups and be effective contributors straight away. It won't solve the zerg issue (I doubt anything can), but it will greatly reduce new players quitting out of pure frustration when they are thrown straight into the deep end....filled with acid and acid-immune ravenous piranha.
