The articles are limited in size, and mine was at the maximum. I posted what is my opinion on the largest issues currently holding Darkfall back, plain and simple. So to answer your question yes, I absolutely feel those are (were) the biggest issues in Darkfall. There is no less "content" in this game that in Eve Online, or any other sandbox game in its first months after release. This game is not for everyone, those words come directly from the developers. Many players love mmorpgs and will hate Darkfall simply because of the sandbox playstyle. Some players LOVE to have free reign over what happens in the world, what they do and who they do it to. Other players LOVE to have the next set of goals laid out of them in advance. Places to hunt, what they can kill, etc. And honestly, I've played both styles and both are fun to me. But saying the game has no content is simply not accurate. Neither is your graphics statement. The graphics are very nice in my opnion and while they don't rival games like Lord of the Rings Online, those games do not regularly have 500 people on the screen at the same time attacking each other's cities.
You are spot on with the Lore, there is absolutely none. This is a big deal to some, and not to others. Most games I dont care at all, as it usually is hokey and uninspired. Asheron's Call however, had some of the best lore I have ever seen and often times the quest rewards was a deeper look at the lore. Very cool. But Asherons Call has about 7 years of development on this game so time will tell.
-Andy Cormier
The contents of this post do not necessarily reflect the views of MMORPG.com and its management.
Many players love mmorpgs and will hate Darkfall simply because of the sandbox playstyle.
Hate? No. Not play, yes. This is hive thinking your showing here. You are swamped in the culture of this games fan base.
And again, that's fine.
---------- "Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
As I have previously stated, I am giving an overview on what was delivered, not what was promised. Regardless of what this game could have been, should have been, or someday will be. I am giving an overview of what currently exists, for better or worse. In my opinion, if I had never heard the name Darkfall, and new nothing about it, bought it on day 1 and enjoyed the game... I dont see how realizing there are features not yet implemented somehow ruins that enjoyment. The game lives or dies based on what it currently has, not what is missing, or what is coming in the future.
-Andy Cormier
The contents of this post do not necessarily reflect the views of MMORPG.com and its management.
Great job on the article and I really appreciate your honest view on darkfalls shortcomings. A few things I felt like commenting on, for one they are an "Indie" or "Rookie" game company and it seems that they are making rookie errors. This is common for most new game companies, take Funcom's start with Anarchy Online's painful launch for example. However, after months of hard work and many patches it became one of the longer running games in the MMO genre. I played it for some months and enjoyed it, however I didn't play DF for the same reason that you stated "I just couldn't buy it."
And when I sent an email to them about a problem I had finding the game, I recieved a really rude, short and curt email in return. Well, in that case I will just keep it moving and they do not get my business. With the mmo market expanding by huge strides and the 500 pound behemoth called Blizzard gobbling up so much market share, indie companies like Adventurine have little to no room for error.
For one, having space for only 10,000 players seems very inclusive which makes it a very hot commodity. BUT IT HAS TO BE QUALITY! If they are going to take that stance they need to put out a very good product, from what I am hearing from the community is that it's not. Just the game cheating, macroing imbalances and the alignment exploit you stated alone makes the game unnactractive. But I also hear they are trying to fix things with patches and I do commend them for that as well. I would like to see them succeed, it will take some very hard work and sacrifice on their part; the gaming community is very unforgiving and do not forget being slighted so easily. And I don't blame them, even with my time and money at a premium anything spent on a game has to be worth 110%. Nowadays I look before I leap and use the gaming community as a barometer or "guinea pigs" of a sort and then choose if I will even invest in the software at all. And the growth of the free to play market is making that easier to just "try before I buy." The chronicles of spellborn is a great example of that.
All in all, I hope things work out for Adventurine, that they sort things out and can actually retain a big enough fanbase to establish that coveteted "long tail" of the game business cycle. The positive point that comes from this is that new companies can look at them and learn what NOT to do when releasing their game; they also need to understand that their is a timeclock looming over their head, their are some really big games coming out their on the horizon. Whatever they are going to do, do it quick or become another "Tabula Rasa" tale.
Combat is extremely clunky and lacks polish. for example, you don't hit every time even though you're in range, and it's worse for ranged combat.
There is a lack of content, even fanboys are complaining about this. there is very few pve content, but of course if you're happy grinding goblins, gank and be ganked for days, then more power to you.
What don't you get? you actually agreed with me on the other points (Graphics (character models are especially bad), polish, UI, no lore). Also how is this overview in any way honest? If I didn't know anything about the game and read this, the major cons of DF, I would be on the official site spamming F5 to buy an account lol. I don't think I have ever read something as biased as this.
********
Please explain your point on combat. You in fact do hit every time if your are in range and your crosshairs are over the intended target (FPS style). The same goes for ranged combat. There were sync issues in the first two weeks of the game that could cause what you are describing, but other than that your statement is not accurate at all. In fact their are no hit or miss die rolls. If you are in range and your crosshairs are over the target, you hit 100% of the time, no exceptions. Maybe I am misunderstanding what you were trying to say.
-Andy Cormier
The contents of this post do not necessarily reflect the views of MMORPG.com and its management.
Great job on the article and I really appreciate your honest view on darkfalls shortcomings. A few things I felt like commenting on, for one they are an "Indie" or "Rookie" game company and it seems that they are making rookie errors. This is common for most new game companies, take Funcom's start with Anarchy Online's painful launch for example. However, after months of hard work and many patches it became one of the longer running games in the MMO genre. I played it for some months and enjoyed it, however I didn't play DF for the same reason that you stated "I just couldn't buy it."
And when I sent an email to them about a problem I had finding the game, I recieved a really rude, short and curt email in return. Well, in that case I will just keep it moving and they do not get my business. With the mmo market expanding by huge strides and the 500 pound behemoth called Blizzard gobbling up so much market share, indie companies like Adventurine have little to no room for error.
For one, having space for only 10,000 players seems very inclusive which makes it a very hot commodity. BUT IT HAS TO BE QUALITY! If they are going to take that stance they need to put out a very good product, from what I am hearing from the community is that it's not. Just the game cheating, macroing imbalances and the alignment exploit you stated alone makes the game unnactractive. But I also hear they are trying to fix things with patches and I do commend them for that as well. I would like to see them succeed, it will take some very hard work and sacrifice on their part; the gaming community is very unforgiving and do not forget being slighted so easily. And I don't blame them, even with my time and money at a premium anything spent on a game has to be worth 110%. Nowadays I look before I leap and use the gaming community as a barometer or "guinea pigs" of a sort and then choose if I will even invest in the software at all. And the growth of the free to play market is making that easier to just "try before I buy." The chronicles of spellborn is a great example of that.
All in all, I hope things work out for Adventurine, that they sort things out and can actually retain a big enough fanbase to establish that coveteted "long tail" of the game business cycle. The positive point that comes from this is that new companies can look at them and learn what NOT to do when releasing their game; they also need to understand that their is a timeclock looming over their head, their are some really big games coming out their on the horizon. Whatever they are going to do, do it quick or become another "Tabula Rasa" tale.
Have fun,
Ink
Excellent comments. I cannot fault you one bit for not purchasing based on the reasons you stated. If there were a plethora of free for all PVP with full loots games I wouldn't have considered Darkfall at all to be honest. I had to go out of my way to purcahse the game and it was hell . Thankfully, I took a risk that (for me) seems to have paid off as I have enjoyed myself for the two or so months I have been in game. There really is no excuse though, rookies or not, in making it so strange and difficult to purchase their game. And I fully agree that this single issue needs to be fixed before much of the sidelined players will begin to take Darkfall seriously.
-Andy Cormier
The contents of this post do not necessarily reflect the views of MMORPG.com and its management.
No game is perfect, but I wanted to tackle the primary negatives you see floating around about the game. Interestingly enough all of the mains ones have been fixed already via patches. Are there still issues? Sure. But at the rate they are patching this game there won't be for long.
In the most recent patch they even addresses an annoyance of mine (although not many bitching about it) which was the difficulty of solo players to hunt, and find uncamped hunting spots. So they made some out of the way locations with newb spawns to let the solo players have a better go at things. Most of the spawns were too far off to be of use, but it was there first attempt at the change and I expect more to come this Friday. If you currently play Darkfall its very hard to fault Aventurine for not listening to players and fixing this quickly. -Andy Cormier
I'm glad you are enjoying the game as it stands currently. When it is a more finished product I may yet get to try it out.
Sorry, I won't be reading any of other 8 Articles. I did what I said and read your second Article. It failed to be what I would deem an objective article. Thanks anyway though.
As I have previously stated, I am giving an overview on what was delivered, not what was promised. Regardless of what this game could have been, should have been, or someday will be. I am giving an overview of what currently exists, for better or worse. In my opinion, if I had never heard the name Darkfall, and new nothing about it, bought it on day 1 and enjoyed the game... I dont see how realizing there are features not yet implemented somehow ruins that enjoyment. The game lives or dies based on what it currently has, not what is missing, or what is coming in the future.
-Andy Cormier
I agree with the part in Red.
In my opinion the game as it currently stands is not worth my time or money. Perhaps that will change in the future.
I'm playing the game and am quite aware of several key flaws which seems to have been purposely ignored.
Yes, the interface is "clunky", but it's a very fluid control system once you get the hang of it. After a week I've come to be very fond of the RightClick to toggle between interface and fps modes - I think it's truely ingenious!
Shield blocking - very clunky. This cannot be intentionaly by design. I would bet someone lunch that shield blocking will get improved so that when you hit "V" to "Parry" (parry, block, same difference in Darkfall) it has a form of delay that can lock out an action or 2 and this does not seem to be an intentional design. As it is, it's very easy to play around it and take a few extra seconds when switching between "V" and "gonna kick your ass with my weapon" mode.
Speedhacks - not seen any. I think the two times I "thought" someone was cheating might have actually been due to lag from my ping being between 220-480 as the player seemed to be desyncing. I'm aware how this can also be exploited and actually faciliated by a player if they desire. (a total of 2 occasions and both I think were honest issues related to my ping; for reference Seattle WA U.S.; it's usually 220ms and very playable)
There are some balance issues, but I have yet to experiance any online game that doesn't have them even when they've been out for many years. To me, the balance issues seem to require very minor tweaks even though it might be applied to many different aspects of weapon range, spell damage to archery+movement.
I'm struggling to think of other issues which are more then minor "gloss" or better detailed descriptions...
My understanding is that a lot of the people who tried this game during the first month had it VERY BAD and almost all of those issues, besides what I mentioned above, have been resolved.
What's most important to me is the fun factor and I am currently finding this game to provide a level of detail, immersion and thrill above and beyond anything I've played before. I'm not a big PvP person, but I've totally accepted it in Darkfall.
Fact is, the game is far from perfect regardless how much fun it is. My understanding is that EVE Online was even worse then Darkfall when it launched, kind of crazy where that game is now isn't it.
I'm not even mentioning the 1998 graphics, the fact that there's NO lore, the awful control system etc.
this is complete bullshit and a total lie, unless you're basing the accusation on your 10 year old "gaming" pc.
I'm not saying it's better looking then EVE Online, but I it does look much better then a lot of the "other" mmo's many of the trolls here at MMORPG support.
Yes, there is a learning curve to the controls and it took me a few days to get it down. Now, I've grown very fond of it and think it's truely an ingenous design as far as how you interface with the GUI and toggle in/out of combat mode. This does not mean it wont feel clunky, it's just that when you use it the way it was designed it works incredibly well.
Lore? Right...
I'm not playing a FPS Open PvP game to read fucking stories from every NPC with a "!" above their head. I want history, not lore. I want player history, you know, like the kind that's present in EVE Online.
This game is very niche. If you like silver spoons and game play that only requires 1 hand then avoid Darkfall. If you like rich atmospherical environments and a heavy Risk Vs Reward game play experiance while accept games with a moderate learning curve then you will likely be playing Darkfall sometime in the near future.
p.s. seriously, the people talking about 1999 graphics don't know what the <expletive> they're talking about.
I'm not even mentioning the 1998 graphics, the fact that there's NO lore, the awful control system etc.
this is complete bullshit and a total lie, unless you're basing the accusation on your 10 year old "gaming" pc.
I'm not saying it's better looking then EVE Online, but I it does look much better then a lot of the "other" mmo's many of the trolls here at MMORPG support.
Yes, there is a learning curve to the controls and it took me a few days to get it down. Now, I've grown very fond of it and think it's truely an ingenous design as far as how you interface with the GUI and toggle in/out of combat mode. This does not mean it wont feel clunky, it's just that when you use it the way it was designed it works incredibly well.
Lore? Right...
I'm not playing a FPS Open PvP game to read fucking stories from every NPC with a "!" above their head. I want history, not lore. I want player history, you know, like the kind that's present in EVE Online.
This game is very niche. If you like silver spoons and game play that only requires 1 hand then avoid Darkfall. If you like rich atmospherical environments and a heavy Risk Vs Reward game play experiance while accept games with a moderate learning curve then you will likely be playing Darkfall sometime in the near future.
p.s. seriously, the people talking about 1999 graphics don't know what the <expletive> they're talking about.
Spot on with the graphics and UI. You also touched on a very important aspect that I feel many other fans of sandbox style games will agree with. While I had some interesting stories to tell from games like World of Warcraft, or Lord of the Rings online, so did everyone else. Because we all went through the same progression path to get to the same place. We all experienced the same raid content, sometimes winning and other times getting wiped. I have stories to tell from games like Ultima Online and Asheron's Call that to this day I will never forget. And more importantly, no one else will ever tell them because these stories are unique to me and my adventures. Thats because in these game worlds anything can, and will happen. Players that need a story created for them will find sandbox game worlds (UO, AC, EVE, Darkfall) bland, lacking life, and lacking content. Those that enjoy them can once again play in an all new sandbox world full of new stories to create. Out of all the standard style mmorpgs I have played, very rarely do I take experiences with me that I do from sandbox games. To each his own.
The contents of this post do not necessarily reflect the views of MMORPG.com and its management.
Why do you think lore means story line? More specifically, Guided experience?
UO, AC, EVE, all have lore. In game and out.
---------- "Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
I'm sure we will be seeing touted by Tasos on the Darkfall forums going "SEE! They get it!".
Yes but we know that the reviewers/overviewers or whatever they are called at anyh given time are friendly towards DFO, so those of us looking for an unbiased report on DFO will not find one on MMORPG.com, then again I really haven't seen any unbiased reviews/overviews from any other source, but nor have I seen any other site than this give DFO as much coverage or leniency in that coverage.
If you don't like the Correspondent program, wherein people who play and enjoy their games write about the games, then I would simply suggest that you don't read the Correspondent articles (which are clearly labelled as such) and wait for the site's official review.
As to the frequency of Darkfall coverage... Darkfall articles consistently perform well in terms of traffic. This idicates to me that there are people who want to read about the game. As such, we will provide articles. It just makes sense.
Yet another post by you Stradden telling viewers not to read articles placed on your main page. You mind as well just tell them to not read your site at all, because is that not what you want? Be honest here man, this is an opinionated forum and site, yet you keep interjecting yourself into the threads telling people to just not read them. Yes he doesn't like the article, but he has a right to comment on it. Would you just like the community who helped you reach a million + viewers, just give up and leave your site to yourself? Or can you take an opinion, let your community debate against it, and move on to the next article? If anything, you have a tool right in front of you that you can use for these issues. It's called a PM, or Personal Message. Let's not become Tasos here and flaunt these issues in the public. This is getting to be comical to say the least. Please learn to use your own systems for this type of request so you don't make a fool of yourself, in the public nonetheless.
By the way, this is just a suggestion. Kind of like you suggesting people not read articles on the main page regardless of who posts or made them.
I'm sure we will be seeing touted by Tasos on the Darkfall forums going "SEE! They get it!".
Yes but we know that the reviewers/overviewers or whatever they are called at anyh given time are friendly towards DFO, so those of us looking for an unbiased report on DFO will not find one on MMORPG.com, then again I really haven't seen any unbiased reviews/overviews from any other source, but nor have I seen any other site than this give DFO as much coverage or leniency in that coverage.
If you don't like the Correspondent program, wherein people who play and enjoy their games write about the games, then I would simply suggest that you don't read the Correspondent articles (which are clearly labelled as such) and wait for the site's official review.
As to the frequency of Darkfall coverage... Darkfall articles consistently perform well in terms of traffic. This idicates to me that there are people who want to read about the game. As such, we will provide articles. It just makes sense.
Yet another post by you Stradden telling viewers not to read articles placed on your main page. You mind as well just tell them to not read your site at all, because is that not what you want? Be honest here man, this is an opinionated forum and site, yet you keep interjecting yourself into the threads telling people to just not read them. Yes he doesn't like the article, but he has a right to comment on it. Would you just like the community who helped you reach a million + viewers, just give up and leave your site to yourself? Or can you take an opinion, let your community debate against it, and move on to the next article? If anything, you have a tool right in front of you that you can use for these issues. It's called a PM, or Personal Message. Let's not become Tasos here and flaunt these issues in the public. This is getting to be comical to say the least. Please learn to use your own systems for this type of request so you don't make a fool of yourself, in the public nonetheless.
By the way, this is just a suggestion. Kind of like you suggesting people not read articles on the main page regardless of who posts or made them.
I think you mean "might", rather than "mind." Your suggestion is disingenuous, because you completely miss or ignore Stradden's entire point. If you want to engage in an honest debate, you need to listen to the other side. If you simply want to jump on the bandwagon and mindlessly bash a game and a site that doesn't agree with the view that you think is fashionable and to which therefore you wish to subscribe, just keep doing as you're doing.
The only people making fools of themselves here are the ones jumping on the bandwagon and mindlessly bashing each other rather than attempting to engage in honest discussion.
Why do you think lore means story line? More specifically, Guided experience? UO, AC, EVE, all have lore. In game and out.
I mentioned AC specifically in a previous post in this thread, as being the only sandbox in my opinion with meaningful lore. I often quested knowing full well the reward to said quest often times would be more lore, but it was so neatly woven into the game that I didnt care. The other examples you gave in my opniion the lore second rate, and debatable as to the impact on the games themselves. The games you metioned also have an average age of 7-8 years where darkfall has an age of 60 days.
Background, story, and lore all typically come from in game events which primarily come in the form of quests. I remember in one of the first World of Warcraft patches they added the ability to skip all of the quest text and immediately press the "accept quest" button instead of being forced to read what the quest was about first. This was of course by popular demaind.
The bottom line is that lore is like big tits, it may be nice to have but it certainly doesnt make the girl. And if this is one of your few criteria you follow when evaluating women, you are more than likely going to miss out on something special. Again, just my humbled opinion.
The contents of this post do not necessarily reflect the views of MMORPG.com and its management.
Why do you think lore means story line? More specifically, Guided experience?
UO, AC, EVE, all have lore. In game and out.
I mentioned AC specifically in a previous post in this thread, as being the only sandbox in my opinion with meaningful lore. I often quested knowing full well the reward to said quest often times would be more lore, but it was so neatly woven into the game that I didnt care. The other examples you gave in my opniion the lore second rate, and debatable as to the impact on the games themselves. The games you metioned also have an average age of 7-8 years where darkfall has an age of 60 days.
Background, story, and lore all typically come from in game events which primarily come in the form of quests. I remember in one of the first World of Warcraft patches they added the ability to skip all of the quest text and immediately press the "accept quest" button instead of being forced to read what the quest was about first. This was of course by popular demaind.
The bottom line is that lore is like big tits, it may be nice to have but it certainly doesnt make the girl. And if this is one of your few criteria you follow when evaluating women, you are more than likely going to miss out on something special. Again, just my humbled opinion.
Thoes are the games you mentioned. Not me. Again, why is it you think that having in game lore, means guided experience?
This has nothing to do with your opinion of "Games with the best lore". 7-8 years is irrelevant, they all had lore in the game, and in the world, in different forms from launch.
To follow your analogy, Lore is not the Tits, lore is a brain, you are the one staring at the tits, and not noticing the brain, or lack there of.
This is what you said:
Players that need a story created for them will find sandbox game worlds (UO, AC, EVE, Darkfall) bland, lacking life, and lacking content. Those that enjoy them can once again play in an all new sandbox world full of new stories to create. Out of all the standard style mmorpgs I have played, very rarely do I take experiences with me that I do from sandbox games. To each his own.
You are attempting to put forth that Sandbox games have no lore, or story, or quests and that this somehow excuses Darkfall from having any.
This is simply, not true.
The definition of a sandbox does not mean lacking content, nor does it mean it has no story (as a matter of fact, most have more, as its the basis of all RP, a segment of players sanboxes attract). So saying its OK for a sandbox game to be lacking such things, is a fallacy. As history, and precedence has shown otherwise.
No, people will find Dar fall lacking content, lore, and bland, because its incomplete. Incomplete is also, not part of the definition of a sandbox, something the developers seem to have a hard time understanding.
---------- "Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
I'm sure we will be seeing touted by Tasos on the Darkfall forums going "SEE! They get it!".
Yes but we know that the reviewers/overviewers or whatever they are called at anyh given time are friendly towards DFO, so those of us looking for an unbiased report on DFO will not find one on MMORPG.com, then again I really haven't seen any unbiased reviews/overviews from any other source, but nor have I seen any other site than this give DFO as much coverage or leniency in that coverage.
If you don't like the Correspondent program, wherein people who play and enjoy their games write about the games, then I would simply suggest that you don't read the Correspondent articles (which are clearly labelled as such) and wait for the site's official review.
As to the frequency of Darkfall coverage... Darkfall articles consistently perform well in terms of traffic. This idicates to me that there are people who want to read about the game. As such, we will provide articles. It just makes sense.
Yet another post by you Stradden telling viewers not to read articles placed on your main page. You mind as well just tell them to not read your site at all, because is that not what you want? Be honest here man, this is an opinionated forum and site, yet you keep interjecting yourself into the threads telling people to just not read them. Yes he doesn't like the article, but he has a right to comment on it. Would you just like the community who helped you reach a million + viewers, just give up and leave your site to yourself? Or can you take an opinion, let your community debate against it, and move on to the next article? If anything, you have a tool right in front of you that you can use for these issues. It's called a PM, or Personal Message. Let's not become Tasos here and flaunt these issues in the public. This is getting to be comical to say the least. Please learn to use your own systems for this type of request so you don't make a fool of yourself, in the public nonetheless.
By the way, this is just a suggestion. Kind of like you suggesting people not read articles on the main page regardless of who posts or made them.
I think you mean "might", rather than "mind." Your suggestion is disingenuous, because you completely miss or ignore Stradden's entire point. If you want to engage in an honest debate, you need to listen to the other side. If you simply want to jump on the bandwagon and mindlessly bash a game and a site that doesn't agree with the view that you think is fashionable and to which therefore you wish to subscribe, just keep doing as you're doing.
The only people making fools of themselves here are the ones jumping on the bandwagon and mindlessly bashing each other rather than attempting to engage in honest discussion.
His entire point is continually telling/suggesting to people not to read main page over-views. This has nothing to do with this article in question, but apparently you missed that. I'm not bashing what the over-view states nor did I ever. What I am saying is that he, a Site Editor, should take these to PM's instead of derailing his own threads with this non-sense. The honest discussion can be stated here. But maybe you should read what I typed before glancing at the first line and coming to this conclusion. His point was to suggest someone not read an article because he does not agree with it. Something that clearly could of been placed in a PM. So please point to me the other side of his lack to use his own forum tools, and maybe you might be right. Other than that, these articles can continue. But Site Editors should not be telling people publicly what to read and not to read. If he does not want him to comment, he has the tools to make that happen.
As I have previously stated, I am giving an overview on what was delivered, not what was promised. Regardless of what this game could have been, should have been, or someday will be. I am giving an overview of what currently exists, for better or worse. In my opinion, if I had never heard the name Darkfall, and new nothing about it, bought it on day 1 and enjoyed the game... I dont see how realizing there are features not yet implemented somehow ruins that enjoyment. The game lives or dies based on what it currently has, not what is missing, or what is coming in the future.
-Andy Cormier
May I write one as I beta tested and have played release?
" Cheating has dropped off dramatically after the nice big ban of over 200 cheaters. Yes it still exists, but I see complaints of cheating far far less now"
Only the obvious cheating like speed hacks has dropped off, the vast majority of hacks available are still ongoing. There are plenty of ways to cheat without other players being aware of it, I know alot of players that use them. At present Aventurine seems to have few methods in place to detect them.
So I think you are wrong to discount cheating as minimal, my experience says otherwise. Maybe your guild is not, but I know some guilds still require it.
I'm sure we will be seeing touted by Tasos on the Darkfall forums going "SEE! They get it!".
Yes but we know that the reviewers/overviewers or whatever they are called at anyh given time are friendly towards DFO, so those of us looking for an unbiased report on DFO will not find one on MMORPG.com, then again I really haven't seen any unbiased reviews/overviews from any other source, but nor have I seen any other site than this give DFO as much coverage or leniency in that coverage.
If you don't like the Correspondent program, wherein people who play and enjoy their games write about the games, then I would simply suggest that you don't read the Correspondent articles (which are clearly labelled as such) and wait for the site's official review.
As to the frequency of Darkfall coverage... Darkfall articles consistently perform well in terms of traffic. This idicates to me that there are people who want to read about the game. As such, we will provide articles. It just makes sense.
Shocker, I was expecting a PM and a few stars to suddenly disappear from under my name once I posted such negatives.
And my already low opinion regarding the reviews done by MMORPG.com drops several more notches.
I've played this game for six weeks now, and the author of this "review" is showing blantant favoritism by either glossing over or directly avoiding any disscusion about the serious lapses of this game.
Pretending that problems don't exist won't make them go away ( or make them any less noticeable, for that matter ).
And my already low opinion regarding the reviews done by MMORPG.com drops several more notches.
I've played this game for six weeks now, and the author of this "review" is showing blantant favoritism by either glossing over or directly avoiding any disscusion about the serious lapses of this game. Pretending that problems don't exist won't make them go away ( or make them any less noticeable, for that matter ).
Ok, well then can you give us YOUR perspective of what the you feel about the game after playing it for 6 weeks.
Why do you think lore means story line? More specifically, Guided experience?
UO, AC, EVE, all have lore. In game and out.
I mentioned AC specifically in a previous post in this thread, as being the only sandbox in my opinion with meaningful lore. I often quested knowing full well the reward to said quest often times would be more lore, but it was so neatly woven into the game that I didnt care. The other examples you gave in my opniion the lore second rate, and debatable as to the impact on the games themselves. The games you metioned also have an average age of 7-8 years where darkfall has an age of 60 days.
Background, story, and lore all typically come from in game events which primarily come in the form of quests. I remember in one of the first World of Warcraft patches they added the ability to skip all of the quest text and immediately press the "accept quest" button instead of being forced to read what the quest was about first. This was of course by popular demaind.
The bottom line is that lore is like big tits, it may be nice to have but it certainly doesnt make the girl. And if this is one of your few criteria you follow when evaluating women, you are more than likely going to miss out on something special. Again, just my humbled opinion.
Thoes are the games you mentioned. Not me. Again, why is it you think that having in game lore, means guided experience?
This has nothing to do with your opinion of "Games with the best lore". 7-8 years is irrelevant, they all had lore in the game, and in the world, in different forms from launch.
To follow your analogy, Lore is not the Tits, lore is a brain, you are the one staring at the tits, and not noticing the brain, or lack there of.
This is what you said:
Players that need a story created for them will find sandbox game worlds (UO, AC, EVE, Darkfall) bland, lacking life, and lacking content. Those that enjoy them can once again play in an all new sandbox world full of new stories to create. Out of all the standard style mmorpgs I have played, very rarely do I take experiences with me that I do from sandbox games. To each his own.
You are attempting to put forth that Sandbox games have no lore, or story, or quests and that this somehow excuses Darkfall from having any.
This is simply, not true.
The definition of a sandbox does not mean lacking content, nor does it mean it has no story (as a matter of fact, most have more, as its the basis of all RP, a segment of players sanboxes attract). So saying its OK for a sandbox game to be lacking such things, is a fallacy. As history, and precedence has shown otherwise.
No, people will find Dar fall lacking content, lore, and bland, because its incomplete. Incomplete is also, not part of the definition of a sandbox, something the developers seem to have a hard time understanding.
Well not to go in circles, but when UO, and Eve was released they had little to no stories whatsoever. The same goes for lore. Again, lore is typically told through stories, which typically come in the form of quests. Games with heaving duty PvE and excellent quests, both in quality and number and never FFA PvP. The quests in both UO and Eve were extremely bland because they were not the primary focus of the game.
Also, the term sandbox is often misued. It means a world where you can do anything, but that anything is primarily player created. For instance if you stare at a sandbox it looks boring. Some kids will get, and play for hours and hours building sand castles and the like. Other kids will just get in and throw sand in someone elses face, and get out. To each his own. I think you are attempting to mix two genres together where this is not clearly the case. To sum it up would lore be nice in the game? To some perhaps, even to myself. Do I want lore at the expense of features that didnt make it in at launch... or new features entirely? Not on your life.
The contents of this post do not necessarily reflect the views of MMORPG.com and its management.
" Cheating has dropped off dramatically after the nice big ban of over 200 cheaters. Yes it still exists, but I see complaints of cheating far far less now" Only the obvious cheating like speed hacks has dropped off, the vast majority of hacks available are still ongoing. There are plenty of ways to cheat without other players being aware of it, I know alot of players that use them. At present Aventurine seems to have few methods in place to detect them. So I think you are wrong to discount cheating as minimal, my experience says otherwise. Maybe your guild is not, but I know some guilds still require it.
While this may be partially true, the same can be said for anything. Claiming you know people that cheat but no one else knows how and its not detectable by devs is the same as claiming things like their is an undetectable gold dupe. The cheats most people have been concerned with since day 1 are the teleporting problems and the speedhacking. And I can say with 100% certainty that asking anyone who currently subscribes to the game will tell you that these have been dramatically curbed.
I don't discount what you say necessarily, but I believe nothing without proof. And I witnessed both the speedhacking and teleporting first had. I don't any longer...
The contents of this post do not necessarily reflect the views of MMORPG.com and its management.
Comments
The articles are limited in size, and mine was at the maximum. I posted what is my opinion on the largest issues currently holding Darkfall back, plain and simple. So to answer your question yes, I absolutely feel those are (were) the biggest issues in Darkfall. There is no less "content" in this game that in Eve Online, or any other sandbox game in its first months after release. This game is not for everyone, those words come directly from the developers. Many players love mmorpgs and will hate Darkfall simply because of the sandbox playstyle. Some players LOVE to have free reign over what happens in the world, what they do and who they do it to. Other players LOVE to have the next set of goals laid out of them in advance. Places to hunt, what they can kill, etc. And honestly, I've played both styles and both are fun to me. But saying the game has no content is simply not accurate. Neither is your graphics statement. The graphics are very nice in my opnion and while they don't rival games like Lord of the Rings Online, those games do not regularly have 500 people on the screen at the same time attacking each other's cities.
You are spot on with the Lore, there is absolutely none. This is a big deal to some, and not to others. Most games I dont care at all, as it usually is hokey and uninspired. Asheron's Call however, had some of the best lore I have ever seen and often times the quest rewards was a deeper look at the lore. Very cool. But Asherons Call has about 7 years of development on this game so time will tell.
-Andy Cormier
The contents of this post do not necessarily reflect the views of MMORPG.com and its management.
-Rogan Blackheart
Hate? No. Not play, yes. This is hive thinking your showing here. You are swamped in the culture of this games fan base.
And again, that's fine.
----------
"Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"No, your wrong.." - Random user #123
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
How are you?" -Me
As I have previously stated, I am giving an overview on what was delivered, not what was promised. Regardless of what this game could have been, should have been, or someday will be. I am giving an overview of what currently exists, for better or worse. In my opinion, if I had never heard the name Darkfall, and new nothing about it, bought it on day 1 and enjoyed the game... I dont see how realizing there are features not yet implemented somehow ruins that enjoyment. The game lives or dies based on what it currently has, not what is missing, or what is coming in the future.
-Andy Cormier
The contents of this post do not necessarily reflect the views of MMORPG.com and its management.
-Rogan Blackheart
Andy,
Great job on the article and I really appreciate your honest view on darkfalls shortcomings. A few things I felt like commenting on, for one they are an "Indie" or "Rookie" game company and it seems that they are making rookie errors. This is common for most new game companies, take Funcom's start with Anarchy Online's painful launch for example. However, after months of hard work and many patches it became one of the longer running games in the MMO genre. I played it for some months and enjoyed it, however I didn't play DF for the same reason that you stated "I just couldn't buy it."
And when I sent an email to them about a problem I had finding the game, I recieved a really rude, short and curt email in return. Well, in that case I will just keep it moving and they do not get my business. With the mmo market expanding by huge strides and the 500 pound behemoth called Blizzard gobbling up so much market share, indie companies like Adventurine have little to no room for error.
For one, having space for only 10,000 players seems very inclusive which makes it a very hot commodity. BUT IT HAS TO BE QUALITY! If they are going to take that stance they need to put out a very good product, from what I am hearing from the community is that it's not. Just the game cheating, macroing imbalances and the alignment exploit you stated alone makes the game unnactractive. But I also hear they are trying to fix things with patches and I do commend them for that as well. I would like to see them succeed, it will take some very hard work and sacrifice on their part; the gaming community is very unforgiving and do not forget being slighted so easily. And I don't blame them, even with my time and money at a premium anything spent on a game has to be worth 110%. Nowadays I look before I leap and use the gaming community as a barometer or "guinea pigs" of a sort and then choose if I will even invest in the software at all. And the growth of the free to play market is making that easier to just "try before I buy." The chronicles of spellborn is a great example of that.
All in all, I hope things work out for Adventurine, that they sort things out and can actually retain a big enough fanbase to establish that coveteted "long tail" of the game business cycle. The positive point that comes from this is that new companies can look at them and learn what NOT to do when releasing their game; they also need to understand that their is a timeclock looming over their head, their are some really big games coming out their on the horizon. Whatever they are going to do, do it quick or become another "Tabula Rasa" tale.
Have fun,
Ink
Combat is extremely clunky and lacks polish. for example, you don't hit every time even though you're in range, and it's worse for ranged combat.
There is a lack of content, even fanboys are complaining about this. there is very few pve content, but of course if you're happy grinding goblins, gank and be ganked for days, then more power to you.
What don't you get? you actually agreed with me on the other points (Graphics (character models are especially bad), polish, UI, no lore). Also how is this overview in any way honest? If I didn't know anything about the game and read this, the major cons of DF, I would be on the official site spamming F5 to buy an account lol. I don't think I have ever read something as biased as this.
********
Please explain your point on combat. You in fact do hit every time if your are in range and your crosshairs are over the intended target (FPS style). The same goes for ranged combat. There were sync issues in the first two weeks of the game that could cause what you are describing, but other than that your statement is not accurate at all. In fact their are no hit or miss die rolls. If you are in range and your crosshairs are over the target, you hit 100% of the time, no exceptions. Maybe I am misunderstanding what you were trying to say.
-Andy Cormier
The contents of this post do not necessarily reflect the views of MMORPG.com and its management.
-Rogan Blackheart
Andy,
Great job on the article and I really appreciate your honest view on darkfalls shortcomings. A few things I felt like commenting on, for one they are an "Indie" or "Rookie" game company and it seems that they are making rookie errors. This is common for most new game companies, take Funcom's start with Anarchy Online's painful launch for example. However, after months of hard work and many patches it became one of the longer running games in the MMO genre. I played it for some months and enjoyed it, however I didn't play DF for the same reason that you stated "I just couldn't buy it."
And when I sent an email to them about a problem I had finding the game, I recieved a really rude, short and curt email in return. Well, in that case I will just keep it moving and they do not get my business. With the mmo market expanding by huge strides and the 500 pound behemoth called Blizzard gobbling up so much market share, indie companies like Adventurine have little to no room for error.
For one, having space for only 10,000 players seems very inclusive which makes it a very hot commodity. BUT IT HAS TO BE QUALITY! If they are going to take that stance they need to put out a very good product, from what I am hearing from the community is that it's not. Just the game cheating, macroing imbalances and the alignment exploit you stated alone makes the game unnactractive. But I also hear they are trying to fix things with patches and I do commend them for that as well. I would like to see them succeed, it will take some very hard work and sacrifice on their part; the gaming community is very unforgiving and do not forget being slighted so easily. And I don't blame them, even with my time and money at a premium anything spent on a game has to be worth 110%. Nowadays I look before I leap and use the gaming community as a barometer or "guinea pigs" of a sort and then choose if I will even invest in the software at all. And the growth of the free to play market is making that easier to just "try before I buy." The chronicles of spellborn is a great example of that.
All in all, I hope things work out for Adventurine, that they sort things out and can actually retain a big enough fanbase to establish that coveteted "long tail" of the game business cycle. The positive point that comes from this is that new companies can look at them and learn what NOT to do when releasing their game; they also need to understand that their is a timeclock looming over their head, their are some really big games coming out their on the horizon. Whatever they are going to do, do it quick or become another "Tabula Rasa" tale.
Have fun,
Ink
Excellent comments. I cannot fault you one bit for not purchasing based on the reasons you stated. If there were a plethora of free for all PVP with full loots games I wouldn't have considered Darkfall at all to be honest. I had to go out of my way to purcahse the game and it was hell
. Thankfully, I took a risk that (for me) seems to have paid off as I have enjoyed myself for the two or so months I have been in game. There really is no excuse though, rookies or not, in making it so strange and difficult to purchase their game. And I fully agree that this single issue needs to be fixed before much of the sidelined players will begin to take Darkfall seriously.
-Andy Cormier
The contents of this post do not necessarily reflect the views of MMORPG.com and its management.
-Rogan Blackheart
I'm glad you are enjoying the game as it stands currently. When it is a more finished product I may yet get to try it out.
Sorry, I won't be reading any of other 8 Articles. I did what I said and read your second Article. It failed to be what I would deem an objective article. Thanks anyway though.
I agree with the part in Red.
In my opinion the game as it currently stands is not worth my time or money. Perhaps that will change in the future.
I think this write up is supposed to be sarcasm.
Alignment is (-100 to +10)
I'm playing the game and am quite aware of several key flaws which seems to have been purposely ignored.
Yes, the interface is "clunky", but it's a very fluid control system once you get the hang of it. After a week I've come to be very fond of the RightClick to toggle between interface and fps modes - I think it's truely ingenious!
Shield blocking - very clunky. This cannot be intentionaly by design. I would bet someone lunch that shield blocking will get improved so that when you hit "V" to "Parry" (parry, block, same difference in Darkfall) it has a form of delay that can lock out an action or 2 and this does not seem to be an intentional design. As it is, it's very easy to play around it and take a few extra seconds when switching between "V" and "gonna kick your ass with my weapon" mode.
Speedhacks - not seen any. I think the two times I "thought" someone was cheating might have actually been due to lag from my ping being between 220-480 as the player seemed to be desyncing. I'm aware how this can also be exploited and actually faciliated by a player if they desire. (a total of 2 occasions and both I think were honest issues related to my ping; for reference Seattle WA U.S.; it's usually 220ms and very playable)
There are some balance issues, but I have yet to experiance any online game that doesn't have them even when they've been out for many years. To me, the balance issues seem to require very minor tweaks even though it might be applied to many different aspects of weapon range, spell damage to archery+movement.
I'm struggling to think of other issues which are more then minor "gloss" or better detailed descriptions...
My understanding is that a lot of the people who tried this game during the first month had it VERY BAD and almost all of those issues, besides what I mentioned above, have been resolved.
What's most important to me is the fun factor and I am currently finding this game to provide a level of detail, immersion and thrill above and beyond anything I've played before. I'm not a big PvP person, but I've totally accepted it in Darkfall.
Fact is, the game is far from perfect regardless how much fun it is. My understanding is that EVE Online was even worse then Darkfall when it launched, kind of crazy where that game is now isn't it.
this is complete bullshit and a total lie, unless you're basing the accusation on your 10 year old "gaming" pc.
I'm not saying it's better looking then EVE Online, but I it does look much better then a lot of the "other" mmo's many of the trolls here at MMORPG support.
Yes, there is a learning curve to the controls and it took me a few days to get it down. Now, I've grown very fond of it and think it's truely an ingenous design as far as how you interface with the GUI and toggle in/out of combat mode. This does not mean it wont feel clunky, it's just that when you use it the way it was designed it works incredibly well.
Lore? Right...
I'm not playing a FPS Open PvP game to read fucking stories from every NPC with a "!" above their head. I want history, not lore. I want player history, you know, like the kind that's present in EVE Online.
This game is very niche. If you like silver spoons and game play that only requires 1 hand then avoid Darkfall. If you like rich atmospherical environments and a heavy Risk Vs Reward game play experiance while accept games with a moderate learning curve then you will likely be playing Darkfall sometime in the near future.
p.s. seriously, the people talking about 1999 graphics don't know what the <expletive> they're talking about.
this is complete bullshit and a total lie, unless you're basing the accusation on your 10 year old "gaming" pc.
I'm not saying it's better looking then EVE Online, but I it does look much better then a lot of the "other" mmo's many of the trolls here at MMORPG support.
Yes, there is a learning curve to the controls and it took me a few days to get it down. Now, I've grown very fond of it and think it's truely an ingenous design as far as how you interface with the GUI and toggle in/out of combat mode. This does not mean it wont feel clunky, it's just that when you use it the way it was designed it works incredibly well.
Lore? Right...
I'm not playing a FPS Open PvP game to read fucking stories from every NPC with a "!" above their head. I want history, not lore. I want player history, you know, like the kind that's present in EVE Online.
This game is very niche. If you like silver spoons and game play that only requires 1 hand then avoid Darkfall. If you like rich atmospherical environments and a heavy Risk Vs Reward game play experiance while accept games with a moderate learning curve then you will likely be playing Darkfall sometime in the near future.
p.s. seriously, the people talking about 1999 graphics don't know what the <expletive> they're talking about.
Spot on with the graphics and UI. You also touched on a very important aspect that I feel many other fans of sandbox style games will agree with. While I had some interesting stories to tell from games like World of Warcraft, or Lord of the Rings online, so did everyone else. Because we all went through the same progression path to get to the same place. We all experienced the same raid content, sometimes winning and other times getting wiped. I have stories to tell from games like Ultima Online and Asheron's Call that to this day I will never forget. And more importantly, no one else will ever tell them because these stories are unique to me and my adventures. Thats because in these game worlds anything can, and will happen. Players that need a story created for them will find sandbox game worlds (UO, AC, EVE, Darkfall) bland, lacking life, and lacking content. Those that enjoy them can once again play in an all new sandbox world full of new stories to create. Out of all the standard style mmorpgs I have played, very rarely do I take experiences with me that I do from sandbox games. To each his own.
The contents of this post do not necessarily reflect the views of MMORPG.com and its management.
-Rogan Blackheart
Why do you think lore means story line? More specifically, Guided experience?
UO, AC, EVE, all have lore. In game and out.
----------
"Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"No, your wrong.." - Random user #123
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
How are you?" -Me
Yes but we know that the reviewers/overviewers or whatever they are called at anyh given time are friendly towards DFO, so those of us looking for an unbiased report on DFO will not find one on MMORPG.com, then again I really haven't seen any unbiased reviews/overviews from any other source, but nor have I seen any other site than this give DFO as much coverage or leniency in that coverage.
If you don't like the Correspondent program, wherein people who play and enjoy their games write about the games, then I would simply suggest that you don't read the Correspondent articles (which are clearly labelled as such) and wait for the site's official review.
As to the frequency of Darkfall coverage... Darkfall articles consistently perform well in terms of traffic. This idicates to me that there are people who want to read about the game. As such, we will provide articles. It just makes sense.
Yet another post by you Stradden telling viewers not to read articles placed on your main page. You mind as well just tell them to not read your site at all, because is that not what you want? Be honest here man, this is an opinionated forum and site, yet you keep interjecting yourself into the threads telling people to just not read them. Yes he doesn't like the article, but he has a right to comment on it. Would you just like the community who helped you reach a million + viewers, just give up and leave your site to yourself? Or can you take an opinion, let your community debate against it, and move on to the next article? If anything, you have a tool right in front of you that you can use for these issues. It's called a PM, or Personal Message. Let's not become Tasos here and flaunt these issues in the public. This is getting to be comical to say the least. Please learn to use your own systems for this type of request so you don't make a fool of yourself, in the public nonetheless.
By the way, this is just a suggestion. Kind of like you suggesting people not read articles on the main page regardless of who posts or made them.
Yes but we know that the reviewers/overviewers or whatever they are called at anyh given time are friendly towards DFO, so those of us looking for an unbiased report on DFO will not find one on MMORPG.com, then again I really haven't seen any unbiased reviews/overviews from any other source, but nor have I seen any other site than this give DFO as much coverage or leniency in that coverage.
If you don't like the Correspondent program, wherein people who play and enjoy their games write about the games, then I would simply suggest that you don't read the Correspondent articles (which are clearly labelled as such) and wait for the site's official review.
As to the frequency of Darkfall coverage... Darkfall articles consistently perform well in terms of traffic. This idicates to me that there are people who want to read about the game. As such, we will provide articles. It just makes sense.
Yet another post by you Stradden telling viewers not to read articles placed on your main page. You mind as well just tell them to not read your site at all, because is that not what you want? Be honest here man, this is an opinionated forum and site, yet you keep interjecting yourself into the threads telling people to just not read them. Yes he doesn't like the article, but he has a right to comment on it. Would you just like the community who helped you reach a million + viewers, just give up and leave your site to yourself? Or can you take an opinion, let your community debate against it, and move on to the next article? If anything, you have a tool right in front of you that you can use for these issues. It's called a PM, or Personal Message. Let's not become Tasos here and flaunt these issues in the public. This is getting to be comical to say the least. Please learn to use your own systems for this type of request so you don't make a fool of yourself, in the public nonetheless.
By the way, this is just a suggestion. Kind of like you suggesting people not read articles on the main page regardless of who posts or made them.
I think you mean "might", rather than "mind." Your suggestion is disingenuous, because you completely miss or ignore Stradden's entire point. If you want to engage in an honest debate, you need to listen to the other side. If you simply want to jump on the bandwagon and mindlessly bash a game and a site that doesn't agree with the view that you think is fashionable and to which therefore you wish to subscribe, just keep doing as you're doing.
The only people making fools of themselves here are the ones jumping on the bandwagon and mindlessly bashing each other rather than attempting to engage in honest discussion.
I mentioned AC specifically in a previous post in this thread, as being the only sandbox in my opinion with meaningful lore. I often quested knowing full well the reward to said quest often times would be more lore, but it was so neatly woven into the game that I didnt care. The other examples you gave in my opniion the lore second rate, and debatable as to the impact on the games themselves. The games you metioned also have an average age of 7-8 years where darkfall has an age of 60 days.
Background, story, and lore all typically come from in game events which primarily come in the form of quests. I remember in one of the first World of Warcraft patches they added the ability to skip all of the quest text and immediately press the "accept quest" button instead of being forced to read what the quest was about first. This was of course by popular demaind.
The bottom line is that lore is like big tits, it may be nice to have but it certainly doesnt make the girl. And if this is one of your few criteria you follow when evaluating women, you are more than likely going to miss out on something special. Again, just my humbled opinion.
The contents of this post do not necessarily reflect the views of MMORPG.com and its management.
-Rogan Blackheart
Thoes are the games you mentioned. Not me. Again, why is it you think that having in game lore, means guided experience?
This has nothing to do with your opinion of "Games with the best lore". 7-8 years is irrelevant, they all had lore in the game, and in the world, in different forms from launch.
To follow your analogy, Lore is not the Tits, lore is a brain, you are the one staring at the tits, and not noticing the brain, or lack there of.
This is what you said:
You are attempting to put forth that Sandbox games have no lore, or story, or quests and that this somehow excuses Darkfall from having any.
This is simply, not true.
The definition of a sandbox does not mean lacking content, nor does it mean it has no story (as a matter of fact, most have more, as its the basis of all RP, a segment of players sanboxes attract). So saying its OK for a sandbox game to be lacking such things, is a fallacy. As history, and precedence has shown otherwise.
No, people will find Dar fall lacking content, lore, and bland, because its incomplete. Incomplete is also, not part of the definition of a sandbox, something the developers seem to have a hard time understanding.
----------
"Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"No, your wrong.." - Random user #123
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
How are you?" -Me
Yes but we know that the reviewers/overviewers or whatever they are called at anyh given time are friendly towards DFO, so those of us looking for an unbiased report on DFO will not find one on MMORPG.com, then again I really haven't seen any unbiased reviews/overviews from any other source, but nor have I seen any other site than this give DFO as much coverage or leniency in that coverage.
If you don't like the Correspondent program, wherein people who play and enjoy their games write about the games, then I would simply suggest that you don't read the Correspondent articles (which are clearly labelled as such) and wait for the site's official review.
As to the frequency of Darkfall coverage... Darkfall articles consistently perform well in terms of traffic. This idicates to me that there are people who want to read about the game. As such, we will provide articles. It just makes sense.
Yet another post by you Stradden telling viewers not to read articles placed on your main page. You mind as well just tell them to not read your site at all, because is that not what you want? Be honest here man, this is an opinionated forum and site, yet you keep interjecting yourself into the threads telling people to just not read them. Yes he doesn't like the article, but he has a right to comment on it. Would you just like the community who helped you reach a million + viewers, just give up and leave your site to yourself? Or can you take an opinion, let your community debate against it, and move on to the next article? If anything, you have a tool right in front of you that you can use for these issues. It's called a PM, or Personal Message. Let's not become Tasos here and flaunt these issues in the public. This is getting to be comical to say the least. Please learn to use your own systems for this type of request so you don't make a fool of yourself, in the public nonetheless.
By the way, this is just a suggestion. Kind of like you suggesting people not read articles on the main page regardless of who posts or made them.
I think you mean "might", rather than "mind." Your suggestion is disingenuous, because you completely miss or ignore Stradden's entire point. If you want to engage in an honest debate, you need to listen to the other side. If you simply want to jump on the bandwagon and mindlessly bash a game and a site that doesn't agree with the view that you think is fashionable and to which therefore you wish to subscribe, just keep doing as you're doing.
The only people making fools of themselves here are the ones jumping on the bandwagon and mindlessly bashing each other rather than attempting to engage in honest discussion.
His entire point is continually telling/suggesting to people not to read main page over-views. This has nothing to do with this article in question, but apparently you missed that. I'm not bashing what the over-view states nor did I ever. What I am saying is that he, a Site Editor, should take these to PM's instead of derailing his own threads with this non-sense. The honest discussion can be stated here. But maybe you should read what I typed before glancing at the first line and coming to this conclusion. His point was to suggest someone not read an article because he does not agree with it. Something that clearly could of been placed in a PM. So please point to me the other side of his lack to use his own forum tools, and maybe you might be right. Other than that, these articles can continue. But Site Editors should not be telling people publicly what to read and not to read. If he does not want him to comment, he has the tools to make that happen.
May I write one as I beta tested and have played release?
" Cheating has dropped off dramatically after the nice big ban of over 200 cheaters. Yes it still exists, but I see complaints of cheating far far less now"
Only the obvious cheating like speed hacks has dropped off, the vast majority of hacks available are still ongoing. There are plenty of ways to cheat without other players being aware of it, I know alot of players that use them. At present Aventurine seems to have few methods in place to detect them.
So I think you are wrong to discount cheating as minimal, my experience says otherwise. Maybe your guild is not, but I know some guilds still require it.
Yes but we know that the reviewers/overviewers or whatever they are called at anyh given time are friendly towards DFO, so those of us looking for an unbiased report on DFO will not find one on MMORPG.com, then again I really haven't seen any unbiased reviews/overviews from any other source, but nor have I seen any other site than this give DFO as much coverage or leniency in that coverage.
If you don't like the Correspondent program, wherein people who play and enjoy their games write about the games, then I would simply suggest that you don't read the Correspondent articles (which are clearly labelled as such) and wait for the site's official review.
As to the frequency of Darkfall coverage... Darkfall articles consistently perform well in terms of traffic. This idicates to me that there are people who want to read about the game. As such, we will provide articles. It just makes sense.
Shocker, I was expecting a PM and a few stars to suddenly disappear from under my name once I posted such negatives.
People will get disappointed as they wanted better troll-food, and will try to post their trollviews.
This game currently has the elements to develop into a juggernaut, just got to wait until it can handle more players.
And my already low opinion regarding the reviews done by MMORPG.com drops several more notches.
I've played this game for six weeks now, and the author of this "review" is showing blantant favoritism by either glossing over or directly avoiding any disscusion about the serious lapses of this game.
Pretending that problems don't exist won't make them go away ( or make them any less noticeable, for that matter ).
Ok, well then can you give us YOUR perspective of what the you feel about the game after playing it for 6 weeks.
Enquiring minds want to know.
I mentioned AC specifically in a previous post in this thread, as being the only sandbox in my opinion with meaningful lore. I often quested knowing full well the reward to said quest often times would be more lore, but it was so neatly woven into the game that I didnt care. The other examples you gave in my opniion the lore second rate, and debatable as to the impact on the games themselves. The games you metioned also have an average age of 7-8 years where darkfall has an age of 60 days.
Background, story, and lore all typically come from in game events which primarily come in the form of quests. I remember in one of the first World of Warcraft patches they added the ability to skip all of the quest text and immediately press the "accept quest" button instead of being forced to read what the quest was about first. This was of course by popular demaind.
The bottom line is that lore is like big tits, it may be nice to have but it certainly doesnt make the girl. And if this is one of your few criteria you follow when evaluating women, you are more than likely going to miss out on something special. Again, just my humbled opinion.
Thoes are the games you mentioned. Not me. Again, why is it you think that having in game lore, means guided experience?
This has nothing to do with your opinion of "Games with the best lore". 7-8 years is irrelevant, they all had lore in the game, and in the world, in different forms from launch.
To follow your analogy, Lore is not the Tits, lore is a brain, you are the one staring at the tits, and not noticing the brain, or lack there of.
This is what you said:
You are attempting to put forth that Sandbox games have no lore, or story, or quests and that this somehow excuses Darkfall from having any.
This is simply, not true.
The definition of a sandbox does not mean lacking content, nor does it mean it has no story (as a matter of fact, most have more, as its the basis of all RP, a segment of players sanboxes attract). So saying its OK for a sandbox game to be lacking such things, is a fallacy. As history, and precedence has shown otherwise.
No, people will find Dar fall lacking content, lore, and bland, because its incomplete. Incomplete is also, not part of the definition of a sandbox, something the developers seem to have a hard time understanding.
Well not to go in circles, but when UO, and Eve was released they had little to no stories whatsoever. The same goes for lore. Again, lore is typically told through stories, which typically come in the form of quests. Games with heaving duty PvE and excellent quests, both in quality and number and never FFA PvP. The quests in both UO and Eve were extremely bland because they were not the primary focus of the game.
Also, the term sandbox is often misued. It means a world where you can do anything, but that anything is primarily player created. For instance if you stare at a sandbox it looks boring. Some kids will get, and play for hours and hours building sand castles and the like. Other kids will just get in and throw sand in someone elses face, and get out. To each his own. I think you are attempting to mix two genres together where this is not clearly the case. To sum it up would lore be nice in the game? To some perhaps, even to myself. Do I want lore at the expense of features that didnt make it in at launch... or new features entirely? Not on your life.
The contents of this post do not necessarily reflect the views of MMORPG.com and its management.
-Rogan Blackheart
While this may be partially true, the same can be said for anything. Claiming you know people that cheat but no one else knows how and its not detectable by devs is the same as claiming things like their is an undetectable gold dupe. The cheats most people have been concerned with since day 1 are the teleporting problems and the speedhacking. And I can say with 100% certainty that asking anyone who currently subscribes to the game will tell you that these have been dramatically curbed.
I don't discount what you say necessarily, but I believe nothing without proof. And I witnessed both the speedhacking and teleporting first had. I don't any longer...
The contents of this post do not necessarily reflect the views of MMORPG.com and its management.
-Rogan Blackheart