I’m still a doubting Thomas even after Asp’s “preview”

Polarization

 

These are my concerns about the latest preview by Asp, I was wondering if anyone else was not satisfied with this enough to remove there doubt’s about this game.

The fundamental issue I have with this “preview” is that it’s a preview of a 1 year old tech demonstration running on their office network and not a beta version with all the games features implemented running with dedicated server infrastructure capable of handling thousands of players concurrently.

If you watch the various videos released by the developers showing this tech demo whilst keeping in mind the preview you can clearly see that nearly all the things he described have already been shown.

Roughly 50% of the preview is fluff that contains no information directly relating to the project and is only his subjective opinions and observations, no actual facts or figures on the development progress or process.

Most of the QA session with the developers only covers general information anyone can read on the website FAQ or is common knowledge by anyone who has even casually been following the game, and a lot of the issues, concepts or features they discuss are not demonstrated in the tech demo.

The majority of the QA after the Preview I presume by the members of his guild again are just general questions answered already by developers or the FAQ, fluff or his opinion or what we have been told but not his actual experience because it was not present in the tech demo.

For anyone that’s been following this project for years and seen beta dates come and go I found this quote particularly poignant and also almost amusing in a depressing way after highlighting.

 

Right now they are almost done with a new build that might be a candidate for beta. They seemed to indicate that they hoped for this build to reach stability by the end of October. While I didn’t get confirmation (not that I can reveal) that this could in fact be the beta version, I really got the feeling that this could be the case. Why do I believe this? The guys were talking with confidence that the game could be released in 2008 and, from what I’ve seen, I believe them. Additionally, they talked about different publishers and difficulties in the whole process of getting a game published as if this was part of the hold up.

 

"Frankly, based on the demo I played, I felt I could put up with a heck of a lot of issues just to begin playing this thing as soon as possible. IT LOOKED AND PLAYED THAT GOOD!"

I cannot understand the difficulties they are experiencing finding a publisher if Asp’s experience of the tech demo was this favorable, this discrepancy encourages me to believe that its not that good or there are other issues involved that have not been disclosed.

The over all impression I got is that this was purely a PR attempt to get some positive coverage primarily directed at people who have no prior knowledge of the game or of people who have dismissed the game for various reasons.

I would be pleasantly surprised if my suspicions are unfounded, but I will not be satisfied until independent members of the press start writing previews after playing a beta version of dark fall and not a tech demo and we start to get concrete information demonstrated by game play experience.

Questionable

Originally posted by Polarization

 

These are my concerns about the latest preview by Asp, I was wondering if anyone else was not satisfied with this enough to remove there doubt’s about this game.

The fundamental issue I have with this “preview” is that it’s a preview of a 1 year old tech demonstration running on their office network and not a beta version with all the games features implemented running with dedicated server infrastructure capable of handling thousands of players concurrently.

Even if they had that what would be the point? Its only a couple of people playing so why would you need that power to play? Even if it isnt the whole version its still DF with only a few less features.

If you watch the various videos released by the developers showing this tech demo whilst keeping in mind the preview you can clearly see that nearly all the things he described have already been shown.

This review isnt about new info but about the fact that a 3rd party has actually played the game and THAT is what makes this review so good.

Roughly 50% of the preview is fluff that contains no information directly relating to the project and is only his subjective opinions and observations, no actual facts or figures on the development progress or process.

As he said he wasn't prepared in the least because he actually thought they werent going to let him play. So this whole thing kinda caught him off guard which would explain it.

Most of the QA session with the developers only covers general information anyone can read on the website FAQ or is common knowledge by anyone who has even casually been following the game, and a lot of the issues, concepts or features they discuss are not demonstrated in the tech demo.

He didn't get to play all to long because remember he was on a BUSINESS trip. This wasn't his vacation to greeece. Also the reason why its so good is because it was played by a 3rd party.

The majority of the QA after the Preview I presume by the members of his guild again are just general questions answered already by developers or the FAQ, fluff or his opinion or what we have been told but not his actual experience because it was not present in the tech demo.

For anyone that’s been following this project for years and seen beta dates come and go I found this quote particularly poignant and also almost amusing in a depressing way after highlighting.

 

Right now they are almost done with a new build that might be a candidate for beta. They seemed to indicate that they hoped for this build to reach stability by the end of October. While I didn’t get confirmation (not that I can reveal) that this could in fact be the beta version, I really got the feeling that this could be the case. Why do I believe this? The guys were talking with confidence that the game could be released in 2008 and, from what I’ve seen, I believe them. Additionally, they talked about different publishers and difficulties in the whole process of getting a game published as if this was part of the hold up.

 

"Frankly, based on the demo I played, I felt I could put up with a heck of a lot of issues just to begin playing this thing as soon as possible. IT LOOKED AND PLAYED THAT GOOD!"

I would be pleasantly surprised if my suspicions are unfounded, but I will not be satisfied until independent members of the press start writing previews after playing a beta version of dark fall and not a tech demo and we start to get concrete information demonstrated by game play experience.

What makes this guy unreliable? What makes the press better? They are both still people. This was a gameplay experience not the full featured one but more than likely majority.

 

 

I cannot understand the difficulties they are experiencing finding a publisher if Asp’s experience of the tech demo was this favorable, this discrepancy encourages me to believe that its not that good or there are other issues involved that have not been disclosed.

Like most you fail to see it from a business perspective. No matter how good or great DF is its still a business risk which turns most publishers off and I believe they are leaning towards self-publishing.

The over all impression I got is that this was purely a PR attempt to get some positive coverage primarily directed at people who have no prior knowledge of the game or of people who have dismissed the game for various reasons.

 Edit: Btw who's thomas? Do you mean Tasos?

Polarization

Thanks for not flaming me and I appreciate you have a more positive opinion which I wish I could share but I cannot, I still don’t think you have addressed my concerns.

I don’t understand why you do not think there is any point in making the distinction between a preview of a one year old technology demonstration run on the office network with limited features and of a beta version with the majority of the features implemented and with the capacity to serve thousands of players.That’s what we will need before any of us can even start testing this game let alone start paying to play it.

I personally don’t feel that because a 3^rd party has produced this preview it has any effect on the fact that the majority of it is fluff or contains information already available from the FAQ and the videos already released showing the tech demo.

I do not think that this preview of the tech demo covered any of the main features of dark fall like city building, siegeing, dynamic spawns, racial warfare, prestige classes , crafting etc. but only showed his general impressions.

You saying that he did not get to play for very long and he was on a business trip etc. I feel does not explain satisfactorily for me why this preview contains so little information not already available.

I personally would mention a lot more specifics about game mechanics, the UI, controls etc. all the things that the average gamer will notice even after 5 minutes of playing.

I think that independent professional previews by members of the gamming press are far more significant and impartial then previews by an anonymous members of a guild that has limited knowledge of a the game and that has been given preferential treatment.

Based on common sense and basic psychology I would say that he would have been more likely to have a positive impression from the experience then a negative considering the circumstances involved.

I think this detrimentally affects the credibility of his preview, especially considering the amount of subjective and emotional content of the preview and very little specific factual information or any negative comments at all.

The quote with highlighted words about Asp’s impression of when beta will be ready full of hopes, feeling and belief and absolutely no concrete information just like we have heard for years you ignore and highlight the single dubious remark in brackets that he might not be disclosing all the information he is aware of is a sign of irrational optimism in my opinion.

They may now be considering self publishing but for me personally it rings alarm bells that even though they have had a tech demo for a year to show to prospective publishers that has received such a positive impressions from Asp they have still failed to get a publisher.

I agree with you that is a possibility that even though dark fall is an amazing game they cannot find a publisher because it is considered to much of a financial risk because of its concepts and target market but I find this hard to believe considering the present and past history of MMO‘s.

And of course I am happy that at least someone got to play something and finally tell the community about it after all this time but I am still not going to blindly start believing and stop being rational considering the past history of this games development and the examples of all the disasters from other games a lot of us have experienced.

“doubting Thomas” is a biblical reference to the disciple who did not believe that Christ had risen until he plunged his fingers into Christ’s wounds, which I felt was appropriate as currently the darkfall community is based on faith, hope and belief in my opinion, I will not be totally satisfied until we are playing beta before I become Thomas the Believer.

 

 

Questionable

Originally posted by Polarization



 

Thanks for not flaming me and I appreciate you have a more positive opinion which I wish I could share but I cannot, I still don’t think you have addressed my concerns.
I don’t understand why you do not think there is any point in making the distinction between a preview of a one year old technology demonstration run on the office network with limited features and of a beta version with the majority of the features implemented and with the capacity to serve thousands of players.That’s what we will need before any of us can even start testing this game let alone start paying to play it.
Well even if they did play it on a beta server there would be little difference seeing as there were only a couple of people playing it(from what we know) and since the beta really isnt all to old it would have majority of the features that are in they're other build.
I personally don’t feel that because a 3^rd party has produced this preview it has any effect on the fact that the majority of it is fluff or contains information already available from the FAQ and the videos already released showing the tech demo.
Even though it is already shown in videos and FAQ the reason is that its been tested by someone else other than aventurine which makes all the difference. This guy has been able to back up some claims which aventurine makes.
I do not think that this preview of the tech demo covered any of the main features of dark fall like city building, siegeing, dynamic spawns, racial warfare, prestige classes , crafting etc. but only showed his general impressions.
Yes but he didnt get to play all to long because he was on a business trip and had work to do so he only got to general things.
You saying that he did not get to play for very long and he was on a business trip etc. I feel does not explain satisfactorily for me why this preview contains so little information not already available.
You can only do so much in a small time frame.Perhaps if he just played the game instead of talking to them we could have gotten more but too late now.
I personally would mention a lot more specifics about game mechanics, the UI, controls etc. all the things that the average gamer will notice even after 5 minutes of playing.
I belive you could ask him about those and he would answer them but I'm not sure. I don't know why he said what he did and I honestly have no idea why he didn't add what.
I think that independent professional previews by members of the gamming press are far more significant and impartial then previews by an anonymous members of a guild that has limited knowledge of a the game and that has been given preferential treatment.
Yes they could probably give a better review but I see this review as a great one because someone else has been able to recently play the game to prove that it is not vaporware which is good to get more fans.
Based on common sense and basic psychology I would say that he would have been more likely to have a positive impression from the experience then a negative considering the circumstances involved.
I think this detrimentally affects the credibility of his preview, especially considering the amount of subjective and emotional content of the preview and very little specific factual information or any negative comments at all.
Your right he probably would have had a more positive impression but it was still fun to him and apparently that no matter how many or what bugs they have it wouldn't stop him from playing it. Fun is fun and he had a lot of it.
The quote with highlighted words about Asp’s impression of when beta will be ready full of hopes, feeling and belief and absolutely no concrete information just like we have heard for years you ignore and highlight the single dubious remark in brackets that he might not be disclosing all the information he is aware of is a sign of irrational optimism in my opinion.
As he said he "didn’t get confirmation (not that I can reveal)" Now if he didnt actually get any confimation than why would that last part be in there? This is not irrational optimism its reading between the lines. The reason he uses those words is because nothing in the MMO industry is black or white. They could be done earlier, they could be done later, or right on time it all depends.
They may now be considering self publishing but for me personally it rings alarm bells that even though they have had a tech demo for a year to show to prospective publishers that has received such a positive impressions from Asp they have still failed to get a publisher.
I agree with you that is a possibility that even though dark fall is an amazing game they cannot find a publisher because it is considered to much of a financial risk because of its concepts and target market but I find this hard to believe considering the present and past history of MMO‘s.
You really can't look at it from a gamers perspective. Just because he thinks its awesome doesnt mean its going to rake in tons of cash and that what publishers want. Games that they KNOW will give them money which is why there are so many clones of WoW. Presently and in the past games those kinds of games did well financially and thats exactly why they follow same patterns as WoW.
And of course I am happy that at least someone got to play something and finally tell the community about it after all this time but I am still not going to blindly start believing and stop being rational considering the past history of this games development and the examples of all the disasters from other games a lot of us have experienced.
No one even asked you to do that.
“doubting Thomas” is a biblical reference to the disciple who did not believe that Christ had risen until he plunged his fingers into Christ’s wounds, which I felt was appropriate as currently the darkfall community is based on faith, hope and belief in my opinion, I will not be totally satisfied until we are playing beta before I become Thomas the Believer.
Ah well thank you for clearing that up for me. I don't see the DF community based soley off faith because for some the evidence that has been provided is sufficent for them to believe that DF is real while the other side doesnt.
 
 
 

 

daarco

Ok

First: How do i make red letters?

Second: Its good some people have a suspicion towards everything DF related that is released.

Me, im just happy something is released. And its the same thing when we get a DF video. Some begin to ask if its a real DF video and so on. 7 years of development have really made some fans in to "hardcore" waiters (instead of haters).

Xion187

im looking at beta this year and release in 2008

only time will tell im concerned about lag but like i said only time will tell it should be fine with the 7 years dev that have put into it : )

 

Also they have stated its almost feature complete they want a complete game and no there not goign to show every feature on how its done what mmo company has every shown you every thing just like tabual rasa has crafting in but do they shoiw any screenshots or vids of it NO

DF isnt going to do it either

UbberGoober

I played with and against Lords of Death in Shadowbane they are a very good guild, their people that run the guild are top notch and Asp is one of them. This is not a made up guild and or a pr stunt, they have been on the scene for over 10 years and they are respected and trusted by some and feared by others.

There is no reason to doubt Asp and or question his motives, he has nothing to gain from this and Lords of Death would not allow themselves to be used as a pr tool. Asp went there and met with the developers, he seen the offices and mentioned that there were close to 30 people working there, it looked legit. He seen developers work on the various aspects of the game, coding, graphical and model etc and finally he got to play Darkfall for over an hour and a half with a few other developers that logged in and played with him on the older beta build that they had.

His opinion was that the game rocked, it looked stunning (eye candy was that good). He was impressed by it, he experianced vast majority of the features that were avaliable at that point. He did not get to play the current beta build because there were almost 30 people working on it and patching it in, I don't think they would have stopped working for him just to play DF...... this is the reason studio productions use an older beta build and or a smaller version or a demo to show it off.

I don't see anyhting in the review that would give me the impression that the game is vaporwere, in fact I am thankfull that we had a 3rd party from a well know pvp guild go to their studios and check up on their progress. The game seems legit, it's being made and from the opinion of the person who had a chance to play and older version of it had a blast and said that DF rocked.

howitzer1

 

Of course your still doubting. Anyone with any commen sense would be.  This is nothing new. It's just more "words" describing absolutely nothing new. Not even videos of anything.

Give a public beta or go home. It's about that time.

 

 

Xion187

there getting it ready im surprised you didnt get that out of it i wasnt looking at it for new info but i got  there planend release date and im pretty positve about the beta

Krogan

Tell me if you were running a scam and you had an outsider over to test play you're scam why would you tell him that he is playing a 1 year old version? Seriously they would be the stupidest con artists I have ever heard of.

But perhaps that was their plan all along, to make us think that by admiting something like that that we would believe them...

Btw I have seen confirmation that WMD, which is a clan known to anyone who has played Shadowbane, that they are saying that Asp and LoD can be trusted.

Leodious

---

Originally posted by Questionable

Edit: Btw who's thomas? Do you mean Tasos?

---

Questionable, you really are one of the most ignorant people I have ever come across.

IIRL

Originally posted by Leodious


 

Originally posted by Questionable
 
Edit: Btw who's thomas? Do you mean Tasos?

 

Questionable, you really are one of the most ignorant people I have ever come across.

I haven't heard of that expression before either, so know I'm also ignorant. YAY!

 

Mastaccolli

it is a religious expression-without going into detail, let's just say its a VERY common expression

Ackbar

Originally posted by Mastaccolli


it is a religious expression-without going into detail, let's just say its a VERY common expression

50 years ago.

Polarization

Originally posted by UbberGoober


I played with and against Lords of Death in Shadowbane they are a very good guild, their people that run the guild are top notch and Asp is one of them. This is not a made up guild and or a pr stunt, they have been on the scene for over 10 years and they are respected and trusted by some and feared by others.
I am not questioning the legitimacy of the existence of Asp or his guild if I gave that impression it was not my intention, if what you say is an accurate description it still does not effect directly my opinion of the actual facts of the preview.
But this still is some form of public relations event even if its not classed as a “stunt” its still an attempt to get some positive coverage by the developers.
There is no reason to doubt Asp and or question his motives, he has nothing to gain from this and Lords of Death would not allow themselves to be used as a pr tool. Asp went there and met with the developers, he seen the offices and mentioned that there were close to 30 people working there, it looked legit. He seen developers work on the various aspects of the game, coding, graphical and model etc and finally he got to play Darkfall for over an hour and a half with a few other developers that logged in and played with him on the older beta build that they had.
I have to disagree I do think that he and his guild have the possibility or the perception that they might gain from this event, he personally and his guild get preferential treatment, exclusive access, excellent exposure etc. for there guild and a degree of public celebrity, and I’m afraid he and his guild have been used as a PR tool to some degree as this is obviously a public relations event.
I agree with you that it is superficially reassuring to get a 3^rd party to confirm that there is a team of developers working on this game in an actual office but it was still only his immediate impressions and was not a detailed description of the developers and there names and roles etc.
And I’m sorry but he did not play on “the older beta build” it was a one year old tech demonstration their is a fundamental difference in my opinion.
His opinion was that the game rocked, it looked stunning (eye candy was that good). He was impressed by it, he experianced vast majority of the features that were avaliable at that point. He did not get to play the current beta build because there were almost 30 people working on it and patching it in, I don't think they would have stopped working for him just to play DF...... this is the reason studio productions use an older beta build and or a smaller version or a demo to show it off.
The problem I have is like most of the preview it was fluff and information already released he really did not mention any specific details or any information on the major features of the game but only his emotional response.
The actual reasons as mentioned in the preview why the developers said they could not show him the latest beta version was “stability problems”, but why did they not show him the previous beta version instead of the one year old tech demo?
The problem I have is I don’t think his preview of the tech demo did show the “vast majority”of the features like city building, siegeing, dynamic spawns, racial warfare, prestige classes , crafting etc.
But only described in general what we have already seen in the videos released previously of the tech demo.
I don't see anyhting in the review that would give me the impression that the game is vaporwere, in fact I am thankfull that we had a 3rd party from a well know pvp guild go to their studios and check up on their progress. The game seems legit, it's being made and from the opinion of the person who had a chance to play and older version of it had a blast and said that DF rocked.
I don’t think I was suggesting that dark fall was vapor ware that was not my intention, what I was saying is that I did not find this preview satisfactory and I do not think it is an objective or professional preview, the fact that he does not mention even one negative remark is extraordinary and highly suspicious in my opinion.
Also consider that the majority of the preview is highly emotive and full of his impressions or interpretations but not any solid facts or figures, and the fact that it was not a preview of an “older version” of dark fall but a technology demonstration that is one year old not a beta version.

 

Xion187

tell you the truth it was the beta version from last year that they said was ready for beta but since its a year old its called a demo : )

Leodious

I am still looking for any evidence that any of this actually happened. I still don't think that there is a game.

Xion187

that was he evidence are you blind? plus i found out about other devs getting to play it from other companys that exact same beta build : ) from here in the us but thats all i can say >< over the internet

or its was the new build that was being stablized : ) i didnt ask : (

Questionable

Originally posted by Leodious


 

Originally posted by Questionable
 
Edit: Btw who's thomas? Do you mean Tasos?

 

Questionable, you really are one of the most ignorant people I have ever come across.

I don't know every saying and every phrase made so please excuse me if i happen to get one wrong.

Questionable

Originally posted by Leodious


I am still looking for any evidence that any of this actually happened. I still don't think that there is a game.

Well fine if you wish to be so narrow-minded than so be it.

Questionable

Originally posted by Polarization

Originally posted by UbberGoober

I played with and against Lords of Death in Shadowbane they are a very good guild, their people that run the guild are top notch and Asp is one of them. This is not a made up guild and or a pr stunt, they have been on the scene for over 10 years and they are respected and trusted by some and feared by others.

I am not questioning the legitimacy of the existence of Asp or his guild if I gave that impression it was not my intention, if what you say is an accurate description it still does not effect directly my opinion of the actual facts of the preview.

But this still is some form of public relations event even if its not classed as a “stunt” its still an attempt to get some positive coverage by the developers.

Sure it is positive coverage but its more than that. This game has been dogged by vaporware trolls and this review was a chance to help disprove.

There is no reason to doubt Asp and or question his motives, he has nothing to gain from this and Lords of Death would not allow themselves to be used as a pr tool. Asp went there and met with the developers, he seen the offices and mentioned that there were close to 30 people working there, it looked legit. He seen developers work on the various aspects of the game, coding, graphical and model etc and finally he got to play Darkfall for over an hour and a half with a few other developers that logged in and played with him on the older beta build that they had.

I have to disagree I do think that he and his guild have the possibility or the perception that they might gain from this event, he personally and his guild get preferential treatment, exclusive access, excellent exposure etc. for there guild and a degree of public celebrity, and I’m afraid he and his guild have been used as a PR tool to some degree as this is obviously a public relations event.

I agree with you that it is superficially reassuring to get a 3^rd party to confirm that there is a team of developers working on this game in an actual office but it was still only his immediate impressions and was not a detailed description of the developers and there names and roles etc.

Your right this wasn't very detailed but you also got to take into account he didnt even think he was going to be able to get there and had other business to do that day. This wasn't the best review and there isnt anything new in it but its not about what is in it but about what this review means. They have a game and a 3rd party got to play it.

And I’m sorry but he did not play on “the older beta build” it was a one year old tech demonstration their is a fundamental difference in my opinion.

Well we don't really know specifics about it so its hard to say if there really is a difference.

His opinion was that the game rocked, it looked stunning (eye candy was that good). He was impressed by it, he experianced vast majority of the features that were avaliable at that point. He did not get to play the current beta build because there were almost 30 people working on it and patching it in, I don't think they would have stopped working for him just to play DF...... this is the reason studio productions use an older beta build and or a smaller version or a demo to show it off.

The problem I have is like most of the preview it was fluff and information already released he really did not mention any specific details or any information on the major features of the game but only his emotional response.

He didn't prepare for it and he didn't do something people wanted to know about but still its the fact that someone else actually got to play the game.

The actual reasons as mentioned in the preview why the developers said they could not show him the latest beta version was “stability problems”, but why did they not show him the previous beta version instead of the one year old tech demo?

Perhaps the same thing but we really dont know that do we?

The problem I have is I don’t think his preview of the tech demo did show the “vast majority”of the features like city building, siegeing, dynamic spawns, racial warfare, prestige classes , crafting etc.

It could have but does that mean he would be able to test it in the SHORT amount of time he had? Probably not. From what they say seiging takes hours and he really didnt have all that much time.

But only described in general what we have already seen in the videos released previously of the tech demo.

I don't see anyhting in the review that would give me the impression that the game is vaporwere, in fact I am thankfull that we had a 3rd party from a well know pvp guild go to their studios and check up on their progress. The game seems legit, it's being made and from the opinion of the person who had a chance to play and older version of it had a blast and said that DF rocked.

I don’t think I was suggesting that dark fall was vapor ware that was not my intention, what I was saying is that I did not find this preview satisfactory and I do not think it is an objective or professional preview, the fact that he does not mention even one negative remark is extraordinary and highly suspicious in my opinion.

This isnt the best review content-wise nobody's going to argue that but what it stands for is the best part of the review. This guy knows nothing to little about the game so what negative remark could he have said? Unless there is something that is just plain bad you can't really make a negative remark knowing little about a game.

Also consider that the majority of the preview is highly emotive and full of his impressions or interpretations but not any solid facts or figures, and the fact that it was not a preview of an “older version” of dark fall but a technology demonstration that is one year old not a beta version.

He is not a proffesional writer or journalist so try not to hold him up to their standards. That would be like me holding your athletic abilites up to an olympic athelete. Also seeing as how don't really know that it would be hard to say if it is or isn't

 

 

howitzer1

"why did they not show him the previous beta version instead of the one year old tech demo?"

good question... where is the older beta version if they had a beta already for 1 full year?

Could it be that is all they had to show and they simply called it a 1 y/o tech demo instead of their current build?

"Sure it is positive coverage but its more than that. This game has been dogged by vaporware trolls and this review was a chance to help disprove."

Well guess what - it's still going to be dogged by vaporware trolls.

Let me remind people that this is NOT the first time that they've been visited by a fan before. Getting visited by someone and being shown a 1 year old tech demo is not going to remove any vaporware critics. In fact , this little visit probably just made the critics even stronger.

The only thing that will save this project is an advanced playable beta with 80% of its features in place and running.

And pretty damn soon. 

Do you know what this guy would have seen if he visited Funcom or Mythic Studios?  He would of been playing the current Beta's of both those games.

Not been shown a 1 year old tech demo.

Polarization

 

I think the excuse’s being made for the lack of substance in Asp’s preview of the game play and features he experienced in the demo like a lack of developers time or that he was on a business trip or that he did not have enough time or did not prepare etc just don’t add up if you read the information presented in the preview.

This was a pre-arranged visit and he arrived in Athens the night before the day of the scheduled visit, he says that If they failed to confirm the meeting he would spend the day sight seeing not doing anything business related so he had a full day available for this, any time restraints on the visit where entirely on the part of the developers.

The fact that Tasos gave him travel directions for the underground when he rang him in the morning and then personally met him to drive him to there office shows that he arrived in the morning and that he was not late or only had a short period of time available.

After reading threw the preview a few times I cant help myself becoming increasingly disappointed, a quick read without much scrutinizing does reflect very positively on the game and the developers but if you really look objectively and not emotionally I don’t think this is saying anything we have not heard many times before over the years.

I still think the majority of this preview is talk with no substance, look at each paragraph at least 50% probably more is not about the demo he played or even directly dark fall related, its just talking but nothing demonstrated

We have spent years listening to talk but not received anything much of substance this was a great opportunity to finally show all the doubters wrong how amazing this game is.

What we got was just a brief subjective and emotional description about a limited tech demo that we have already seen shown on the videos released but with no specific information.

I don’t see why the developers did not show him all the cool things we all want to see like building city’s and sieging them , a demonstration of the racial war features, the different prestige classes , how the dynamic spawns work, traveling around the world to different racial areas, doing some quests, showing the hundreds of skills in the game or crafting etc.

He even says “that was the end of the demo, it went so fast”, I find that very disappointing and frustrating that they only showed him the basics that we have seen before if they have all these other major features implemented.

And this poses the further question if they could of shown this but did not, why?.

If they did not have enough time why did they spend so long with the Q and A and the tour and the talking about things not dark fall related and then finally taking him to lunch after the end of the demo?

Xion187

OMG IT WAS THE OLD BETA BuILD since its old its a demo thats why they said the new beta build is much better

Petro

I'm not going to go back and read that whole encounter but I believe that it was stated that current instantiation of the game and its associated servers were to be down for several days while they did maintenance, add drives etc.  It was either show him the old demo that didn't use the servers or show him nothing at all.  Did reading comprehension drop suddenly?

spankybus

If I understand correctly, they are showing a 1+ year old build as a preview, though telling us that the most recent built, which may move them into Beta, is a lot better and different. If I am missing something, then this post can be disregarded. lol

 

Here are the kinds of questions this conjures:

 

----->why would you show off a very outdated version of the game.

 

----->If the game was good enough one year about to be shown off now, why didn't you show it off then?

 

----->Have you really made so little progress between then and now that you cannot show a more recent build?

 

...I cannot understand this kind of PR move...as it generates more questions and infers a few things, and none of them are too good.

 

I loved UO, so I am really looking forward to this game. But, If it seucks...I will call it crap, shake my head at yet another bogus MMORPG and move on with me life.  If it rocks, they get my money. Until a game is actually out and playable, I seldom believe anything a dev house says about it. Proof is always in teh pudding.