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Why Darkfall is Important
I have just published a new article here and on MMOCrunch about the importance Darkfall has at this point in the genre. I am very interested in hearing the feedback of the community on this. I feel that the whether you are a fan of a skeptic of the game, we all have a vested interest in the game. A successful Darkfall will sned a message to developers that sandbox games can be profitable and hopefully we can end the cycle of copy-cat games.
You can find the article HERE.
Thanks.
Comments
Good read. Januart 22nd, 2009 will be an important day for the MMO community for sure...whethere you are in to challenging ffa pvp or not.
~~
Darkfall Releases on: February 25th, 2009
Darkfall Recap of everything that has happened the last 3 months: http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/213296
"The monsters are tough. I was looking for a challenge, but these things are just too damn smart." -DF Beta Tester
"If people were dismissing it, then they wouldn't be talking about it. The well-meaning gamers root for efforts that try to raise the bar. So who's left? It's so easy being a skeptic." -Tasos
I agree with you that there needs to be a change, maybe even a little step back in time when
playing a MMO was fun and you had to watch what your were doing and not just sitting there
mashing buttons while watching TV.
I dont know if DFO can live up to it's hype but I hope it does because this is one of my last 2 chances.
If DFO flopps and Moral follows them then I am done with MMO's
Assassin's like to do it in the dark and from behind.
Nice article, you should post that on the main website.
I am not an official staff member of MMORPG.com. I would love to have it put on the front page, but that decision is up to the staff members here.
TwitchTV Partnered Streamer
MMORPG.com Spotlight Blog Writer
Co-Leader of Inquisition
Youtube Channel
I meant the main darkfall forums
I am not an official staff member of MMORPG.com. I would love to have it put on the front page, but that decision is up to the staff members here.
I think he was referring to the Darkfall official forums.
edit: beat by 6 seconds
~~
Darkfall Releases on: February 25th, 2009
Darkfall Recap of everything that has happened the last 3 months: http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/213296
"The monsters are tough. I was looking for a challenge, but these things are just too damn smart." -DF Beta Tester
"If people were dismissing it, then they wouldn't be talking about it. The well-meaning gamers root for efforts that try to raise the bar. So who's left? It's so easy being a skeptic." -Tasos
Was a good read thanks.
Great article,
sums up the current mmorpg situation quite accurately.
****************************
Playing : Uncharted Waters Online
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One step ahead of you. Help keep both bumped if you can.
TwitchTV Partnered Streamer
MMORPG.com Spotlight Blog Writer
Co-Leader of Inquisition
Youtube Channel
One step ahead of you. Help keep both bumped if you can.
Hehe nice.
Was a good read but it was also completely biased.
I don't see any innovation coming from Darkfall. Sure it will be open world, sand box, death penalty MMO gaming...but that's not innovation. Technically it's devolution as it goes back to the older MMOs like Ultima Online and Asheron's Call...what is Darkfall offering that is "TRULY" innovative? It would be like the auto industry going back to making Model T's and claiming they are new.
To quote your article:
"These are the promises that a sandbox game makes, but unfortunately there has not been a successful one made since Asheron’s Call."
Compared to Star Wars: Galaxies, Asheron's Call was far from successful and SWG offered everything you could want in a sandbox MMO. Freedom (as you say) to mold your character without roles, freedom to go anywhere you wanted, do anything you wanted and so on (all this and it was Star Wars...probably THE biggest IP out there in terms of gaming). That was until the changes came to that game, which, for many ruined the game (it did for me), but the changes came around from the powers that be wanting to make more money.
MMOs are simpler than they used to be now because companies are making them for a mass audience not for the fans of the old MMOs. Just because we like the truly open sandbox worlds complete with exploration, death penalties and everything that went along with it does make them successful. The average player wants to log in and have fun, see rewards for his time in game and be able to log off knowing he had a good time. They do not want to log in and die over and over again just to have to earn all the xp they lost (or items or whatever)..even more so if they are being camped by player killers.
Listen, I'm all for meaningful death penalties, in fact I've always thought a great one would be that if you died you would be logged off the game and your account "locked" for 2-6 hours. NO ONE would play this game though, imagine paying for a game you could not play. Death penalties DO NOT bring in gamers, no one ever says "Hey check out this game...the coolest feature is that when you die you lose all your experience and items...How awesome is that?"
Games are made for one reason...so that company can make money and Tasos is no different. They see the belabored "hardcore" MMO fans clamoring for a game that is "challenging and has meaning" (which is funny because there has yet to be a challenging MMO in my opinion, some just take more time than others) so they make Darkfall.
In your article you claim the "Death of Innovation", a bold statement to say the least. Never has the death of innovation lead to a medium (in this case MMO gaming) becoming so popular, it's truly an industry first. Do not confuse innovation in areas you do not agree with the "Death of Innovation". MMOs are more popular than ever and it's do to much innovation.
Again...I'm in the target audience that Darkfall is shooting for...it's the game type that I've been waiting for along time...I'm just not so jaded to think that is going to offer all it says it will, especially in the areas on innovation.
Personally my fingers are crossed that Darkfall delivers. Realistically I know it will come to us a bug ridden, failed launch with barely anything finished. The true freedom they advertised and that people are going on about will be hindered by bugs and lack of content...people will get bored quickly head off for other games.
Darkfall may be the game some of us are looking for...but it would be a miracle if this game was ever actually influential in the world of MMO gaming or even important (save for being important to us fans of this type of MMO).
Hey...just my opinion though, and I truly hope I'm wrong.
I can see why this might be the last thing possible for sandboxers (save maybe Mortal)
but for others like me who are open to another themepark like SW:TOR, theres still hope in the future
ill try sandbox, see if its any good
Just when you think you have all the answers, I change the questions.
I can see why this might be the last thing possible for sandboxers (save maybe Mortal)
but for others like me who are open to another themepark like SW:TOR, theres still hope in the future
ill try sandbox, see if its any good
The new Star Wars game will hopefully be worth of the franchise unlike the first attmept. Again though, it still is a franchise, which is a company trying to piggyback on the success of some movie or book because they can't come up with thier own ideas. This sort of thing is getting old, but who knows maybe it will be good.
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MMORPG.com Spotlight Blog Writer
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Youtube Channel
A very well written and important blog.
Darkfall stands for something else then the usual themepark WoW copycats we seen way to many of lately.
To me Darkfall stands for innovation from a brave game developing company. A company that have the guts to think outside the box and dont bend in their mission of completing their dreamgame.
Darkfall is important. Not only for us sandbox lovers, its important for the whole genre.
People are just afraid of anything that steps away from tradition or try anything new....Alot of people started thier mmo with WoW. WoW is a great game. I like sandbox games, but sometimes i dont like the attitude it follows.. Themepark games can be a good game, such as WoW, Final fantasy 11, and CoH. Thier needs to be an understanding between sandboxers and theme parkers that there can be multiple types of MMO's within the genre, just like there is action RPG/ Turn-Based RPG/ Strategy RPG.....etc. I agree there isnt this divide within the MMO Genre so it leave part of the population hungry for something different. Sandbox games seem to develope ounce every 5years and Theme parks are developed 5 times a year. This is truth, the mmo genre is saturated with theme parks, some good some bad....which doesnt matter to the argument.
People that argue they dont have time to play a sandbox, or an mmo thats a little harder is bull crap... WoW is very time consuming ,,,,level grind, gear grind, rep grind, and now achievment grinding. I am sick of this idealogy that sandbox games or games with death penalties are more time consuming.,..get over yourselves.
I dont enjoy writing big walls of text so ill stop there and just say they for people that are afraid for change in the genre should not be...changes is good. Change creates innovation and i think darkfall is in the right step even tho i dont see many things innovative about it , just more old school...i do feel if there is any bit of success in this game developers will start looking at create a world of endless possibilities and we can get this genre moving forward again.
playing: Dragon Age
Waiting: for FF14, Mass Effect
Want to try: Fallen Earth
Very nicely stated Waits. I was going to right up a lengthy response as well. (Because Paragus' article was writen well as well, and deserved a decent response).
I agree that too many seem to be putting all their last hopes on DarkFall. For one, I think it unfair to put that kind of pressure on DarkFall to deliver. So the entire MMO universe rests with the success or failure of DarkFall? Heh... o.k. For some reason I'm having a hard time buying that arguement.
Secondly, we've heard it all before with each new "Savior" for the MMO genre. And it each time, not only does the MMO genre keep going... it increases it's total player-base size. Yes, I too would like to find a game that delivers what DarkFall promises... but if DarkFall fails for whatever reason to delvier that... MMOs will go on. The genre will not die. It will just be another game to add to the list.
We've heard it all before with:
ShadowBane (2003)
Horizons (2003)
SWG (2003)
DnL (2006)
VanGuard (2007)
AoC (2008)
DarkFall... this time we really mean it. If you fail us... we are quitting for real this time!
Good read, thank you.
Non-static spawns. Kinda pisses me off that people don't realise what a big change this actually is.
Non-static spawns. Kinda pisses me off that people don't realise what a big change this actually is.
Be pissed off all you want...non-static spawns are not new. SWG had them, not for everything, but it had them.
Non-static spawns. Kinda pisses me off that people don't realise what a big change this actually is.
Be pissed off all you want...non-static spawns are not new. SWG had them, not for everything, but it had them.
It did? How did they work there? If you killed every furry beast from a certain area, did they disappear completely from that said area?
Non-static spawns. Kinda pisses me off that people don't realise what a big change this actually is.
SWG had this with most of it's world-based creatures.
They had a general region they were confined to, but not a specific x-y coordinate.
LoTRo has also went to dynamic spawns for their world-based "Boss" mobs. The ones that drop shards for crafting the best possible for each tier. They used to be static spawns, but back awhile ago they changed them to dynamic spawns. It is a pretty large region that they can spawn into and it's almost completely cut down on farming the high-end mobs for that game.
I too am excited to see if indeed ALL mobs will have this dynamic spawning. As that will be a step in the right direction. (Although you almost have to keep quest-givers, trainers, etc. in one place... otherwise it's just frustrating for those that are looking for them).
So, there are other games that have/had dynamic mob spawns. I'm sure there are other examples from other games as well. If DarkFall can pull it then yes, it will be great. Innovative... I guess that's open to opinion.
Amen, loved the write-up you did there.
Complete truth, nothing more to be said really.
_________
Currently playing: Black Desert Korea (Waiting for EU)
Always hating on instances in MMOs! Open worlds, open PvP, territory control and housing please. More persistence, more fun.
I think your article would be a good argument for FFA PvP games, but not so much sandbox games. You can make a sandbox game without any PvP at all, so DF's failure or success isn't indicative of the future of sandbox games.
If DF were to fail, I could see a developer easily blaming the FFA PvP feature, and not the sandbox features of the game.
Most people recognize SWG as a sandbox game, that was modestly successful. It did not have FFA PvP, it had RvR style PvP.
Darkfall may indicate teh future success of FFA PvP MMOrPGs. If what you are really rooting for is FFA PvP, not necessarily a "sandbox" style game, then yes, DF is very important.
I think your article would be a good argument for FFA PvP games, but not so much sandbox games. You can make a sandbox game without any PvP at all, so DF's failure or success isn't indicative of the future of sandbox games.
If DF were to fail, I could see a developer easily blaming the FFA PvP feature, and not the sandbox features of the game.
Most people recognize SWG as a sandbox game, that was modestly successful. It did not have FFA PvP, it had RvR style PvP.
Darkfall may indicate teh future success of FFA PvP MMOrPGs. If what you are really rooting for is FFA PvP, not necessarily a "sandbox" style game, then yes, DF is very important.
FFA PvP means "to sandbox" PvP ...sandboxy style is downright "freedom whenever i want with whatever i like to whatever my goal is"..
Considerating that SWG PvP wasn't sandboxy..except the Bountyhunter missions on Jedi ...
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I don't care what game does it - Darkfall, TCoS, etc - I'm rooting for anything that topples Warcraft's monopoly of this genre.
I can see why WoW is so popular but it does nothing for me as a game anymore and is far too long-in-the-tooth to be so successful. Compare it to any non-MMO (e.g. FPS, etc) and just laugh at the technical inferiority of the games presentation.
The only thing allowing WoW to run riot over all the other MMOs that come out is that they are so crap by comparison! Wow has raised really peoples expectations in terms of polish granted, but it still totally baffles me as to how totally outdated rubbish like WAR gets released (I say this despite the fact it's my current favourite game), hamfisted crud like AoC even gets burned to DVD and so on and so on and so on.
Game companies appear to be well aware of the MMO community's desire for a successor to WoW, yet they also know that hyping a game up will shift enough units to cover all the development costs and make a healthy profit to boot. They seem to have totally given up on the idea of stealing WoWs subs by creating a good game, figuring it to be a lost cause.
I like a look of a lot of new games coming out and will try them all no doubt, until I find something that really hits the spot. You know a company at least intends to deliver the goods when they let you have a totally free trial like TCoS. Good luck to them, anyone who actually makes a bloody effort to create something decent when producing an MMO deserves a medal, even if the end result doesn't cut it.
And to those people who moan about innovation: you won't see anything truly new until the tech moves on and you no longer need to stare at a 2D monitor screen to play a game. Until some totally new control interface or display system is released, nothings gonna be that revolutionary. And that is gonna require hardware advances, not software improvements. Raising the "it's not next-gen" point is just getting tired.
Playing: Ableton Live 8
~ ragequitcancelsubdeletegamesmashcomputerkillself ~
Non-static spawns. Kinda pisses me off that people don't realise what a big change this actually is.
SWG had this with most of it's world-based creatures.
They had a general region they were confined to, but not a specific x-y coordinate.
LoTRo has also went to dynamic spawns for their world-based "Boss" mobs. The ones that drop shards for crafting the best possible for each tier. They used to be static spawns, but back awhile ago they changed them to dynamic spawns. It is a pretty large region that they can spawn into and it's almost completely cut down on farming the high-end mobs for that game.
I too am excited to see if indeed ALL mobs will have this dynamic spawning. As that will be a step in the right direction. (Although you almost have to keep quest-givers, trainers, etc. in one place... otherwise it's just frustrating for those that are looking for them).
So, there are other games that have/had dynamic mob spawns. I'm sure there are other examples from other games as well. If DarkFall can pull it then yes, it will be great. Innovative... I guess that's open to opinion.
That's like a light version of Darkfall's spawns. If you kill every furry beast, they're gone from that region and (in time) something else appears instead. Furthermore, if you leave a group of furries alone for a long time, they will multiply and once they reach "a critical mass", they'll start to attack nearby villages/fortresses/whatevers.
I guess SWG really was ahead of its time, really didn't know it had all that. Damn you SOE!