Dodian.com is Back! What now!?
 

Hello, Dodianers! :)

I'm sure a lot of you are now curious to see where things are heading now that there is both a Dodian here and over at https://dodian.com/. So are we if I'm being honest.

First of all, we (the Dodian.net staff team) will not try to compete with .com and their project. We'll do what we can to continue our mission of keeping things up and running, and try to arrange for things to be a partnership between the two - this to whatever extent is appropriate and makes sense.

I know that's a bit vague - but we wish to see successful Dodian servers as much as the next guy is probably the short of it.

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Sharing Discord?

Referring to this post from Plasma, as well as talk about it in the community - on various platform.

We've discussed it about internally. I've also talked to Plasma about it a little. The conclusion we reached, is that we don't see a way to set that up in a way that makes sense and is beneficial for either of the projects.

With .net and .com having different administrations (obviously!), it would most likely lead to more confusion and effort than it would reward.

With that said - we won't have or enforce any rules about discussing .com or events at .com anywhere on .net - be it in game or in the Discord server.

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Partnership & Future

It's quite early to say much about it at the moment, and Plasma and I have not decided or talked about a lot of things - yet anyway.

My hope however, is that we try to avoid as much overhead as possible, to the benefit of both .net and .com. Meaning if we could find a way to share codebases, it'd mean more developers share the amount of work required. For me that would mean a lot less on my plate, and potentially helps with more things actually getting done.

Right now, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, it's an overwhelming amount of work to be done. This results in me most of the time being a bit all over the place, or no place at all - and rather work on other things than Dodian.

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Community Input

Community input on the matter is greatly appreciated. Let us (both teams) know what you think.

I'm personally, at this time at least, especially interested in what the community thinks in regard to partnership/resource sharing (such as Discord server), and how to best execute that.

But any input leading to both teams being able to cooperate as much as possible, is greatly appreciated! :)

Merging could be nice, if all the years of work weren't done in vein (no resets). Whichever option would be cheapest to run while maintaining community option to update the code to be put into live would be nice

For merging to be a possibility, there are quite a few things that needs to happen. But this also depends on what extent you see a merger happen.

It's gonna be a bit more complicated, considering we're two different administrations. I'm not sure if our visions align (yet).

It would also mean that a fair amount of effort needs to be put in from each member of the team. Which puts more weight on our shoulders, which ultimately might cause disagreements, and stir up drama, and then lead to a stand-still.

But feel free to elaborate on it, and propose something more concrete, in a little more detail! :)

You can discuss selling this altogether to .com so we only have one community. No point in two separate administrations considering the playerbase is low to begin with and .com will have better outreach.

I agree, sell it to .com

Why sell? This one has been running for years. Staff in place has proven not to be corrupt or money hungry. Just a place to log in and play Dodian. If anything I'd say make .net the main. Am curious how much and frequent work will be done on it

Weird take. It's not mine to sell either fwiw.

.com won't have better outreach, at best it will be equal. At least for a while, because of SEO and Google-ranking.

Besides, it's not about the amount of players. It's about ensuring the community has a place to come if something were to happen with the alternatives.

With that said, I genuinely hope .com succeeds. I have no reason to doubt Plasma's intentions with it at this point. But at the same time, if we've learned anything over the years - expect the unexpected and try to be prepared.

https://i.pinimg.com/1200x/b1/af/21/...6849fc0958.jpg
:O dun dun dunn!!

Plasma has proven to run successful launches in the past, and I agree he has the right intentions (restore the community and run a successful product). By keeping .net online this is essentially competing with .com (inadvertently). I know that Fabrice is the one that owns the domain, but I think it's a worth conversation to have about truly what is best for the entire community. I give you and Fab credit for keeping this alive as long as you have when you didn't have to.

I give credit too. They did a good job. I don't view this site as competition as much as I do a distraction. It's good to have multiple avenues of play types and servers. However, Plasma is providing that with a variety of worlds. .net can cause some confusion

I don't see .com going down hill. I see it prospering in ways soon that .net was unable to. Im not saying .net is inadequate, just saying real life can get in the ways of the attention a community needs to grow.

I don't want, nor see, competition between the 2. I do think it's best that the communities find a way to merge, with Plasma at the helm controlling everything the way he currently is
I only see that happening in a meaningful way via a sell

You're fully entitled to think that way, yet we don't see any reason for this to happen.

1. Dodian.net is the longest running domain (2014-...), we have seen many others come and go, so for now this still looks like yet another attempt to me.

2. We're not planning to compete in any way, we're just here. Like we've been for many years and we're going nowhere.

3. You call us a distraction, while the only distraction happening is you distracting our staff with these nuisances.

4. I know Plasma had succesful runs, and I truly hope he can keep it running and it doesn't end up like Arponas did when he lost interest.

5. The entire goal of dodian.net is keeping everything accessible for no additional costs, server/client source and a live server. Everything you see here comes out of both Nozemi and my personal pockets.


End conclusion: Dodian.net is staying up and running as is. We are and will in no way try to compete with Plasma, he does his thing, we do our thing as he has mentioned already himself.

Understood. I just think it’s a loss opportunity for all sides involved to have a duplicate at .net when we have the original coming back with a motivated and capable developer. If you ever do consider selling it, you know where to find me. My intent would be to buy it and simply have it redirect to Dodian.com permanently. In front of the community I’ll place my verbal offer of $5,000 USD.

You can offer all you want, money is the last of my worries to be honest. If I need 5k, I just go to work for a little longer.

We are not a duplicate, we are our own server. We're not even close to what dodian was back in the day. Even for me it would be a big jump back in time to play dodian as it was. But as usual, dodian as it was is gonna be just that, as it was. Some of us oldies will play and grind levels (even me probably), but it will slow down as per usual.

Just like us, dodian.com will have go its own direction, most likely with a new source (which I know Plasma is working on) and all new content to suit what people want to see in a private server nowadays.

It has always been the original no matter how you see it, it is just this capable developer have taken it in a direction players want it to (hence the polls).
If you feel that ruin the "dodian feel", I am sorry but that is reality and people want more content.

As for dodian.com, I am sure they have capable developer or developers and I wish the best to them. I am sure if we were to compete it is for the better of both servers as it could make things happend.

Distraction? Lol. There has been absolutely nothing at all to indicate anything at all what .com will become. It's good that you have faith in Plasma, but that's all there is, nothing has really happened yet.

Besides, I've made multiple mentions about letting someone take my place here. Yet here I am... Nobody was willing. I've also done everything in my power to enable anyone in the community to do whatever they feel like they can do better than me, without having to worry about whatever they think Fabrice or I might or might not do on .net.

We'll, as stated, remain online and available for those who have been playing here. If anything there has to be a better way to go about this than to shut this down.

That being said. We are, and have always, worked on things behind the scenes, so in the future there are eventually things to come. Though, not likely to see anything at all anything soon.

There just isn't any reason at all to do anything drastic for .net right now. Plasma and I have talked quite a bit, and we seem to be on the same page about most things, so I think we'll end up with a solution that'll work out for everyone. :)

It would be silly to hand over the keys. Why would this administration do that? Simply because they bought the original domain name? Keep in mind, the new .com owner is not Pablo and this is just another attempt at a Dodian remake project. How many remake projects have been retired over the past 14 years?

Why throw away .net?s reputation of being a stable dodian community?

Why throw away a community driven, open source project in favor of a closed source, premium membership model.

Don?t get me wrong, I?m just as excited as anyone that the original Uber 3.0 data will be available soon, but I like what we have here too :)

Well said! :)

It's great to hear that Dodian.com is back! If you're excited about this return and wondering what to do next, here are some steps you can consider:

1. Explore the Game: Dive back into Dodian and explore the game. Familiarize yourself with the content, quests, skills, and gameplay.

2. Reconnect with the Community: Reconnect with old friends and fellow players. Join forums, Discord servers, or social media groups dedicated to Dodian to stay updated and interact with the community.

3. Set Goals: Decide what you want to achieve in the game. Whether it's leveling up your character, completing quests, or engaging in PvP activities, setting goals can enhance your gaming experience.

4. Stay Informed: Keep an eye on official announcements and updates from Dodian.com. This will help you stay informed about events, changes, and new features.

5. Contribute: If you're enthusiastic about the community and game, consider contributing by creating guides, organizing events, or helping new players.

6. Have Fun: Most importantly, have fun! Enjoy the game, create memories, and relish the experience of being part of the Dodian community once again.

Welcome back to Dodian.com, and have a fantastic time rediscovering this exciting gaming world!

I couldn't agree more plus .com is falling faster than an old lady in an earthquake. It hasn't even been 2 months and it's pretty embarrassing. Most Dodian remakes last a little longer. The only hope they have is the small spike in players they will get when rares are released then a week will go by and settle back to the numbers they are doing now...then with the OSRS Dodian coming out that Plasma is spending his time making...bleh

Don't think that's fair tbh. I'm not convinced most Dodian remakes last longer. It's to be expected that there is a drop in activity by the time most of the 99s are achieved.

It's a lot of work to pump out enough well planned content that actually retains players. Also most players are only hooked on the idea of the nostalgic feeling, and that won't last long.

Haven't been impressed with it either. The beta -> release was way too short. There's too much drama. The staff is a bit annoying at times. Glad .net didn't merge with that hot mess.

Drama is basically a feature of Dodian, it's famous for its drama :P

But yeah, .com might be a bit too ambitious for how much time has gone into it, how quickly it was put out, and how few people are actually working on it.

I also offered to put in some help to get things progressing a bit faster, but Plasma never took me up on the offer for whatever reason. So I guess that's that.

Now, I don't know what happens at all on .com, was nothing for me there so I left it and stopped paying attention to it. :P

.com lasted all of 2 months and that's being nice. The owner abandoned it 3 weeks in. Arch has been picking up the pieces since then and it held atleast 15 players until around 2 months.

The players didn't gradually stop playing because the hype of the nostalgic feeling faded away... it was because of the management style of Plasma...or lack thereof.

I understand your concerns, and it's clear that you value the existing .net community and the open-source model. Decisions about domain ownership, project direction, and community involvement can be complex and depend on various factors, including the goals and preferences of those leading the projects.

Can you further elaborate on that?

It's encouraging to see efforts being made to strengthen the Dodian community.

Thanks for the post...*refrain from posting links*