Good post. This pretty much sums up what I've come to understand from the community. I see videos of the combat and I just don't understand how people can put up with it.
Every new MMO that comes out there is a honeymoon period, I wonder how long it will last for Darkfall. I checked their forums and it was alot of complaining of late. Server crashing causing people to lose mounts, wanting more penalties becuz of "naked zerging"...
It will be very interesting to see how many subscribers Darkfall retains after it's first month of "limited" release.
Well, I'm actually talking about long term gameplay here. Mob AI is totally retarded, and I'm not just talking about bugs, I'm talking about random aggro, stupid fight or flight system and overall pathetic PvE experience. Economy is retarded because there's no real trading system, and you won't get a real dynamic economy without a real trading system, no matter how much you cry. You will just get "clan crafters" everywhere and economy will basically be very boring and barter-based. Crafting is the most simplistic ever seen in a sandbox game aside from UO, but UO is 10 years old and was one of the first MMORPGs EVER, that crafting system is just boring nowadays. Also, the gathering system is probably worse than UO ever was. Exploiting is right there, there's already people with speed hacks and auto loot hacks and more. Macroing is there to stay, because they designed the skill system to be macro friendly. Without tons of patching, this game is just gonna be an half-baked Shadowbane with some FFA Full Loot PvP thrown in.
Couldn't have said it better myself.
QFT.
"I believe in God, only I spell it Nature." - Frank Lloyd Wright
Then this game was designed to fail from the beginning. They CANNOT keep afloat with 20-50K subs. I realize that business and math are foreign to most of you trollbois on here but the economics of running a business show that these numbers are not reasonable. What's the current interest rate on a 10 mil business loan? Whats the terms on said loan? What ROI does the average investor expect to make? What are the overhead costs of a business with 30 some employees? If you don't have a feel for those numbers then you don't have a clue about what it takes to survive in business, and why AV can't last at the 20-50K level.
50k subs * $15 a month = $9m + initial sign up fee. If you feel this is insufficient to keep up with capital costs and an underpaid (meaning greek) staff, please show your work.
Why do people think the income is pure profit.
They have to pay loans, taxes, operating costs, which will take up the vast majority of income. $15 a month goes by everyone paying every 30 days, which won't last forever unless DF ONLY does a 1 month payment unlike every major MMO that is p2p.
Now that the game is open there's more than 20 people working on it, such as customer support. DF averaging 50k players a month for 2009 is an extremely high hope you have, especially when you take into account that not even 50k people can buy the game currently.
EVE doesn't have full loot. You can't take your enemy's ship intact.
So how much money are you willing to lose betting that I can't prove you wrong?
Just because you can't think of a way to take an intact ship, doesn't mean it isn't possible. It only means you lack the knowledge and ability to do so.
50k subs * $15 a month = $9m + initial sign up fee. If you feel this is insufficient to keep up with capital costs and an underpaid (meaning greek) staff, please show your work.
Why do people think the income is pure profit.
I certainly don't think so. I was only suggesting that the $9m should be enough to cover the running costs and still have enough left over for it to be meaningful to continue the operation - as opposed to shutting everything down.
They have to pay loans, taxes, operating costs, which will take up the vast majority of income. $15 a month goes by everyone paying every 30 days, which won't last forever unless DF ONLY does a 1 month payment unlike every major MMO that is p2p.
Yes, there are loans. If the company is shut down, those loans will be all but lost. There is not much to salvage from the company, but when do you pull the plug and settle for what little you will get from selling a bunch of used computers/servers?
Now that the game is open there's more than 20 people working on it, such as customer support. DF averaging 50k players a month for 2009 is an extremely high hope you have, especially when you take into account that not even 50k people can buy the game currently.
I'm not siding with anyone here. I am only curious as to how many recurring subscribers they'd need to make it worthwhile to keep the game running. Can they get 50k subs? I've no idea, and only time will tell. Would 50k subs be enough? THAT is what I'm eager to learn.
There is hundreds of thousands of people interested in a new MMO experience. That has been proven. I don't think fifty thousand is too big of an estimate to make this year. I'm sure they'll sell fifty thousand units eventually unless something catastrophic were to happen. Will they be able to retain customers? that's still to be decided however. I think not offering the general public a chance to play the game thru a trial is a big mistake in the long run and will severely limit their audience.
If they get another server up, and can finally keep stores open and sell product and then possibly even offer a free trial this game could be headed in the right direction. It's really just wait and see at this point. After the first month there is usually a large drop off in subscribers. So it'll be interesting. I passed on the game, and MO will probably open beta signups right around the time it comes time for people to pay their first month of Darkfall.
Comments
Good post. This pretty much sums up what I've come to understand from the community. I see videos of the combat and I just don't understand how people can put up with it.
Every new MMO that comes out there is a honeymoon period, I wonder how long it will last for Darkfall. I checked their forums and it was alot of complaining of late. Server crashing causing people to lose mounts, wanting more penalties becuz of "naked zerging"...
It will be very interesting to see how many subscribers Darkfall retains after it's first month of "limited" release.
Couldn't have said it better myself.
QFT.
"I believe in God, only I spell it Nature." - Frank Lloyd Wright
Don't mistake your limited knowledge and opinion to be fact.
50k subs * $15 a month = $9m + initial sign up fee. If you feel this is insufficient to keep up with capital costs and an underpaid (meaning greek) staff, please show your work.
Why do people think the income is pure profit.
They have to pay loans, taxes, operating costs, which will take up the vast majority of income. $15 a month goes by everyone paying every 30 days, which won't last forever unless DF ONLY does a 1 month payment unlike every major MMO that is p2p.
Now that the game is open there's more than 20 people working on it, such as customer support. DF averaging 50k players a month for 2009 is an extremely high hope you have, especially when you take into account that not even 50k people can buy the game currently.
So how much money are you willing to lose betting that I can't prove you wrong?
Just because you can't think of a way to take an intact ship, doesn't mean it isn't possible. It only means you lack the knowledge and ability to do so.
Why do people think the income is pure profit.
I certainly don't think so. I was only suggesting that the $9m should be enough to cover the running costs and still have enough left over for it to be meaningful to continue the operation - as opposed to shutting everything down.
They have to pay loans, taxes, operating costs, which will take up the vast majority of income. $15 a month goes by everyone paying every 30 days, which won't last forever unless DF ONLY does a 1 month payment unlike every major MMO that is p2p.
Yes, there are loans. If the company is shut down, those loans will be all but lost. There is not much to salvage from the company, but when do you pull the plug and settle for what little you will get from selling a bunch of used computers/servers?
Now that the game is open there's more than 20 people working on it, such as customer support. DF averaging 50k players a month for 2009 is an extremely high hope you have, especially when you take into account that not even 50k people can buy the game currently.
I'm not siding with anyone here. I am only curious as to how many recurring subscribers they'd need to make it worthwhile to keep the game running. Can they get 50k subs? I've no idea, and only time will tell. Would 50k subs be enough? THAT is what I'm eager to learn.
There is hundreds of thousands of people interested in a new MMO experience. That has been proven. I don't think fifty thousand is too big of an estimate to make this year. I'm sure they'll sell fifty thousand units eventually unless something catastrophic were to happen. Will they be able to retain customers? that's still to be decided however. I think not offering the general public a chance to play the game thru a trial is a big mistake in the long run and will severely limit their audience.
If they get another server up, and can finally keep stores open and sell product and then possibly even offer a free trial this game could be headed in the right direction. It's really just wait and see at this point. After the first month there is usually a large drop off in subscribers. So it'll be interesting. I passed on the game, and MO will probably open beta signups right around the time it comes time for people to pay their first month of Darkfall.