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Nov 18th Beta Update by Tasos
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Now I don't follow DF all that closely, but this seems a bit BSish. Why not invite just one person from mmorpg.com or any media outlet and let the whole thing be settled? I dunno, I know the greek govt subsidizes mmo development which would be a motive, the torque engine reasonably approximates the graphics, could DF be the greatest video game hoax of all time? Or maybe some sort of mass psychology experiment like Jane Elliot's "A Class Divided" or Zimbardo's prison guard/prisoner simulation? I dunno, but DF could never make right what its done to this board, so I hope they're happy, whatever they are.
"The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion." -Edmund Burke
Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?"
(Psalm 94:16)
Nothing will happen if they dont launch in 2008, just like it did the other times it happened.
You can see from the reaction of the current supporters that there are literally thousands and thousand of people that will wait indefinitely for something as long as Tasos simply continuously assures them that progress is being made, how good the game will eventually be, and that it is definitely coming “soon“.
I never ceases to amaze me how low peoples standards of corroboration are, and how willing they are to forget all past transgressions, and once again become obsequious apologists and fantasists.
I can only think desperation makes them vulnerable to Tasos's charms.
Tasos has them all like putty in his hand, I hope he delivers, for their sakes.
Given the current state of Beta (From MY interpretation of what was shown in those Beta-tester quotes)... I think that would be the best thing DarkFall could do.
It would be a lot less problematic for them to delay and make sure it is fully tested than it would be to fool-hardedly stick to some arbitrary date they "guaranteed".
Why does it matter if gets delayed or they have told us a fair amount of bs?
Surely the only thing that matters is that when it eventually releases it is a good game, this we can decided for ourselves when it releases. In the meantime nobody has lost anything.
First, I was talking about individuals. Companies - be it newspapers or TV networks or big websites - are "finished" really hard because they tend to just fire an individual in the name of accountability to wash their hands off scandals
It takes quite some blows to get a big company down.
On top of that, I'd say I'm seeing nothing but bad vibes on Gamespot since the "scandal", so it seems they *are* paying with their reputation.
And ultimately, the thing here is... When it comes to reliable info, it still makes much more sense to go with those taking money for the ads than *those actually paying for the ads*!
I agree.
That's why I can't see the reasoning behind Tasos saying again and again that they will stick to releasing it in 2008. I have a hard time believing that even the biggest supporter thinks that it will be ready given what we were shown in those Beta quotes.
It's been shown again and again that DarkFall followers are a patient lot... so why the sudden panic to release it in 2008? It really has me scratching my head that's for sure.
OK, I will take this update at face value. Some form of beta is in progress with some number (still small, IMO) of testers actually in game. Good!
However, they are still testing only the very basics. It is clear that features are disabled, and that they are wiping characters before anyone can get to more advanced stages. Very little is said about PvP, as it would seem that very little PvP is happening. 5-15 second delays for cluster loads is more than even I expected. Nothing about balance...but I guess you cant talk about that until you get past the noob levels. Serious play-testing has not started, apparently.
The problem with delaying is that it would also invalidate a lot of the claims they have been making about the status of this games development.
So not only would it be a knock to there credibility because of their official company commitments for the 2008 launch and their assurance that they would not announce a release date until it was definite, and that they have encounteredno serious setbacks so far.
It would also show their claims of a feature complete game, that is fun to play, that has already been beta tested by “professionally testers” for months , and is almost ready for launch as lies or extremely misleading.
From what I read, if they offered the beta at 15$ a month I would shell out for this one. I would even pay for 3 months up front.. There is no way in hell this game could be as bad as AoC and I am still paying into december on that pile of crap.
If you look at the video from the Athen presentation, you will see the thing you ask for. The horse comes out instant standing next to the player. Mounting seems instant too. You can however kill the horse with the player on it. It seemed a bit buggy in the video, but take a look and see if you find something to share.
The reason the figurine was mention in the quotes was that you could miss good stuff under armor if you don`t have enough looting time. So I guess a figurine is worth more than a piece of armor.
Three possibility spring to mind.
Dakrfall really is launching this year, some how, in some way, in what ever state it will be in.
Tasos and the developers are orchestrating another (highly risky) elaborate misleading ruse to generate interest in the game with the foreknowledge that it was never a realistic prospect from the start.
Tasos and the developers really do believe even with only 6 weeks left to go that there is a realistic possibility of Darkfall going into Open beta and launching, they are just to arrogant/ incompetent / ignorant to understand or accept that its not.
This was true when revenue came from part advertising and part newspaper / magazine sell price. Now 100% of the revenue comes from advertising.
I am not talking about bribes, I am talking about the ability of large publishers to decide which websites to give exclusives to, which sites to run ad campaigns on and which journalists to invite to all inclusive long weekend drinking binges in disused Moscow nucleur bunkers. Obviously they aren't going to choose those website which give their games crappy reviews.
Exclusives generate larger numbers of page hits ect ect vicious circle.
Gamespot was caught red handed, are they finished?
I would trust a review in the New York Times but not one a website.
Holy batmobile, someone made a good post on MMORPG.com! I agree fully (hard not to, it's all facts and not an opinion) and want to add that real journalists in game mags and especially in game sites are as rare as honest politicians. Most of those people don't know the word 'journalist' and are about as unbiased as.. well, politicians.
As for the OP, I'm not all that impressed. It was a nice read, but lacked details. And if everything is going smoothly, why the strict NDA policy?
Yes but this doesn't impact on our ability to judge the game for ourselves when it is released using whatever source we see fit and the meantime we still have not lost anything.
Is it really worth discussing this ad infinitum as some seem to think?
Anything is possible, but it's probably real. It'd be going too far to fabricate tester comments. It'd be... a story to remember
Apart from that, nothing changes for the MMO scene if it turns out to be so. We don't have a Darkfall game (at least one at open stage) now, and we will continue not having it. But if it does get to open beta stage and a release, a lot of people will have to see for themselves whether it's "the one" they'd been waiting for or not.
You've got to admit it's very odd. I don't know of any other examples where a developer has released anonymous statements from a closed beta.
The usual route is to let some people from IGN, or PC gamer, or something like that play the beta and give a beta review. And it's not a big risk because they always give a very sympathetic beta review. I've never seen one that really ripped a beta. They always say, from the limited amount of content we were able to access the game looks very good so far, blah, blah blah.
PC gamer lol they cant write good reviews and play games pls not PC gamer:P
And again this is policy aventurine already handle for about last 6 years so dont be surprise with this appraoch:)
Games played:AC1-Darktide'99-2000-AC2-Darktide/dawnsong2003-2005,Lineage2-2005-2006 and now Darkfall-2009.....
In between WoW few months AoC few months and some f2p also all very short few weeks.
Umm ok so do you have anything credable to add to this thread? Since anyone with a doubt to you is a idiot may i also place you in the fan catagory that believes Darkfall will be out this year? I mean after all if you don't believe that then you'd be a doubter as well and by your own standard that would make you.. oh well I won't go there really as i don't want a ban for lowerring myself to your level.
It seems its always easier for the Fans to just lump everyone with any doubts in the troll/idiot catagory rather then support their own opinions with facts/logic.
how about just some good ole common sense? a lot of people here are losing sight of the real goal: a good game.
there are journals dating back to 2007 of an emphasis on testing, and the general tone of the beta reports are fairly positive. since there are no pre-orders, nor collector's editions to sell, there is no good motive for them to grossly misrepresent the feelings of their beta testers. of course there will be people who don't like the game or have serious issues with certain things as well, but this doesn't diminish the fact that all of the issues identified are relatively minor and that clearly there aren't any major issues.
You can be pretty much guranteed that this will be about 10x worse than AoC.
AoC even in it's current state is still levels above anything that is going to come out of Aventurine with their 30 or so amateur devs...
I'll give you a simple example of how totally idiotic and incompetent the people building Darkfall are. Just a simple example. And I'll blame this totally on the "producer" Tasos..
They could have hired for a measly few thousand dollars a motion capture studio to develop a few sets of animations for them... Instead what do we get? Some horrid hand animations that look like they were made by a highschooler.
simple thing to do and not even costly.. yet completely neglected and overlooked.
Fuck me if that's quality assurance that Tasos old boy likes to tout all the time.
If you look at the video from the Athen presentation, you will see the thing you ask for. The horse comes out instant standing next to the player. Mounting seems instant too. You can however kill the horse with the player on it. It seemed a bit buggy in the video, but take a look and see if you find something to share.
The reason the figurine was mention in the quotes was that you could miss good stuff under armor if you don`t have enough looting time. So I guess a figurine is worth more than a piece of armor.
Exactly why I said I found it weird that it wasn't mentioned in a single example of the Beta Testers.
I did not say that it wasn't in the game... nope didn't say that. I did say I found it very weird that the only mention of mounts in the entire Beta update was a single reference to a PvP'er missing the mount figurine when he was looting someone.
The mounts and mounted combat has been a featured item in pretty much every video we have seen of DarkFall. THAT is why I found it strange that not a single Beta Tester mentioned it. Obviously I was the only one that found it weird though.
Three possibility spring to mind.
Dakrfall really is launching this year, some how, in some way, in what ever state it will be in.
Tasos and the developers are orchestrating another (highly risky) elaborate misleading ruse to generate interest in the game with the foreknowledge that it was never a realistic prospect from the start.
Tasos and the developers really do believe even with only 6 weeks left to go that there is a realistic possibility of Darkfall going into Open beta and launching, they are just to arrogant/ incompetent / ignorant to understand or accept that its not.
I really hope that Tasos does not let his ego get in the way of doing what is right for the game. In the past he hasn't had much problem with delaying the game yet again... so hopefully that will still hold true this time as well.
I realize that he will have to eat a bit of crow if it doesn't launch in 2008, but that is far better than launching a game that is not ready and/or fully tested. If it takes another 3-6 months of testing to get it done, so be it.
If you look at the video from the Athen presentation, you will see the thing you ask for. The horse comes out instant standing next to the player. Mounting seems instant too. You can however kill the horse with the player on it. It seemed a bit buggy in the video, but take a look and see if you find something to share.
The reason the figurine was mention in the quotes was that you could miss good stuff under armor if you don`t have enough looting time. So I guess a figurine is worth more than a piece of armor.
Exactly why I said I found it weird that it wasn't mentioned in a single example of the Beta Testers.
I did not say that it wasn't in the game... nope didn't say that. I did say I found it very weird that the only mention of mounts in the entire Beta update was a single reference to a PvP'er missing the mount figurine when he was looting someone.
The mounts and mounted combat has been a featured item in pretty much every video we have seen of DarkFall. THAT is why I found it strange that not a single Beta Tester mentioned it. Obviously I was the only one that found it weird though.
None of that is strange.
The strange part is that no one was commenting on any of the major core features of the game..
City Building/destruction... Ships combat.. Guilds.. Large Battles <------
The fact that nothing of large battles was mentioned is pretty good proof that they have maybe 15 people running around.
You would think that 6 weeks before launch they would be doing everything they can to get as many people on the server to stress test it and test out all the City building and battle features since that is what the entire game is based on.
LOTRO did the same thing on their homepage before the open beta (Well, they did mention the player character names). I followed LOTRO at the time. Didn't work out for me however but they did something similar at least.
I already addressed this. With the constant server wipes, no one would be able to reach the level of crafting required to build cities and ships. Also, with most of the testers being there less than a week without their pre-built guilds in with them, how can you expect them to have formed up already?
I am a skeptical supporter of DF. I am not a fanboi nor a troll. I seek the truth in every discussion, and I am truly sorry if I mistakenly state a fallacy.
It might be because a horse is a mundane thing, but my guess is that most don`t have a horse yet due to the constant server whiping. That could also be the reason one of the testers was annoyed he missed the "rare" figurine.
From the beta quotes it seems thay are all still in the newbie area.
I viewed the link the OP posted and all I saw was Tasos talking.
His "player testimonials" reminded me of those lose weight or get rich infomercial testimonials where most of the featured folks are actors reading from a script. I was expecting to see the "Results not typical" disclamer at the bottom. Sadly, there is no way to tell if he wrote them or not, though the writing styles are somewhat consistant throughout.
I know little about Darkfall. I hope it is a good, solid and fun game and I wish its devs and studios the best. If it takes till 2010 to be released, so be it. If it comes out next week, cool. If it is a good game, I will buy it and play it.
But, I refused to be swayed by one guy's posting/bragging about how great the game is and all those "players" who suposedly offered testimonials. Now, if the testimonials were coming from other boards, blogs, etc, and clearly shown to be independent opinion, I would be more inclined to take stock. Likewise, more screens, videos, updated beta stock, beta contests, etc would dispell my skepticism more too. As it is, it seems like self promotion to me, and such is persuading me to take a more negative opinion about a product that is not even released yet.
Maybe because it's hard to gather enough money for a city/boat, make a guild or organise a big battle with the frequent character wipes? They've also said that they haven't enabled all features yet so i guess we'll have to wait for Beta Report 2.
To fight the horde, singing and crying: Valhalla, I am coming!
On we sweep with threshing oar, our only goal will be the western shore."