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One crucial thing DF has going for it?
... could very well be its sense of freedom compared to recent MMO's.
Though I consider myself a skeptic in regard to DF because of a lack of information so close to launch, and sometimes the screens and movies I saw of player character design and animations made me squint in agony... I do believe that one of the makers or breakers of an MMORPG is how well a player experiences a sense of freedom; to do what you want to do, to kill (or try killing) who you want to, to go where you want to go and to do it alone or with others. All of this in a vast, open world. And this is exactly what Aventurine promised us. I do hope they keep it.
Last year I have actively played three mmo's: Lotro, AOC and WAR and in hindsight I have to conclude that the reason for getting bored with all three of them is actually the same; a lack of freedom. That struck me as a remarkable thing and it is the reason why I write this post.
Not to bash the games I've played and enjoyed for quite some time, but to elaborate a tiny bit more on that:
I found Lotro to be a great, pollished and (sometimes stunningly) beautiful game and one of the most RP friendly MMO's out there but what put me off was the lack of open PVP; you can NOT opt to be a bad guy in Lotro and fight other players unless you put up with the weak alternative: 'monsterplay'. Next to that it is a game which follows a strict storyline. Nowhere near the freedom I experienced in middle earth with pen and paper LOTRO years ago. A lack of freedom right there.
AOC had stunning graphics, great animations and modeling AND free for all pvp; more then enough good stuff for me for me to ride out the bugs and the unstable client after launch. To me those were not much of an issue. One should judge an MMO on it's amount of polish and stability 6 months after launch. What put me off however was the gameworld; cramped and instanced and the game mechanics which govern it; fighting and dying along with a big group only to find you resurrected in another instance and having to manually reselect the one you played in.
Also traveling from zone to zone with not only loading screens but also the fact that these zones are almost always 'visually closed' and require talking with npc's to travel onwards. Altogether a world design based on being fenced in by the landscape. To me these things felt like atrocities to the 'vast and open world' idea of a good MMO and made me lose interest after getting to level 72 on my main.
Finally WAR, which I just quit a few days back after having enjoyed it alot since launch. Just like in AOC, the design of the world is shaped to 'keep people at the right places' often with physical boundaries between the different areas of a zone: You are free to enjoy PVP in WAR but only where the developers tell you to. You can sack an enemy city and defeat it's fearsome leader, but you get one shotted by guards of quest hubs and warcamps. Even on the Open RVR servers I have played there was virtually no PVP outside of the designated areas. So both in world design and mechanics it is restrictive and not 'free'.
To conclude: Neither of the mmo's I tried last year gave me the sense of freedom WOW (pvp servers) or EVE have given me in the past.
Graphics or art direction aren't the things that make an MMO a long lasting pleasure to me; it is that sense of freedom in a big, open world and to do what I want to do with or without the friends I made. This also made me return again and again to single player games like Oblivion or X3 reunion.
Now IF DF lives up to this promise and has other aspects of the game reasonably sorted, it might just be an MMO which won't make me lose interest after three of four months.
*knocks on wood*
Comments
Well, I quit LoTRO, AoC and WAR for those exact same reasons. They are also the reasons why I haven't enjoyed an MMO since UO/Asheron's Call (more UO than AC).
Honestly, I only found out about this game about a week ago, so I'm not really too caught up in the vaporware/expectations hype. But it's the first game that I've been actively interested in in a very long time. And if it can deliver exactly what it's promising - open, sandbox play, etc, then I know I will be hooked. Honestly, I don't give a shit about graphics. I would still be playing UO if they hadn't kept screwing open PvP.
So for me, that they are borrowing from the UO 1-100 point skill system, as well as some of the noto ideas (though it will be much easier in DF to come back from red, thankfully) sound really good to me, because those were the parts I loved about the game. And that it will be open sandbox like AC, well it sounds like the right combination for me, and for a lot of other people I think.
Darkfall really does fill a lot of players with hope. Its not so much the game as it is the style of play it represents. It seems that a lot of players have been waiting for a game like this.
I'm surprised no one is comparing the games to earlier failures and successes along these same lines. I remember both RYL's were supposed to conquer the gaming world and failed horribly instead. They also, if I remember correctly, played much like this game seems to. I personally don't see what people are so enthralled with in this game. The graphics are fairly poor quality by todays standards. Is it the open endedness? Whats wrong with entropia universe, second life, ryzom and other social worlds? Is it the fighting system? I'm sorry, but if I want that I'll go play rakion, gunz, s4 league, or some fps. I don't see this game as revolutionary and I'm pretty sure it'll be among the other great failures of the last year or so.
i agree, im one of those long term followers who cant await this game coming out.
finally, not even 3 weeks left.
darkfall has a few unique features never before seen in any mmorpg, but the one point why so many people are looking forward to this game is the combination of (not really unique) features like full loot, open pvp, city building/sieging, housing, skillsystem and a sandbox world. there is no other game with this feature combination, except maybe UO pre trammel. but UO pre trammel doesnt exist anymore officially.
also the effort of the developing team in making this game almost bugfree upon launch (7 years development) is unseen in todays mmorpgs, just look at recent releases, all rushed out with mega-marketing to sell alot of preorders, but in the end you had a lack of promised features on release, alot of bugs and 90% of all players didnt play past the free month.
there wont be preorders for darkfall, there wont be a big advertising campaign, and there wont be a lack of promised game content at release. also, there will be alot less bugs than in most other mmorpg releases (closed beta impression).
all in all, people know why they look forward to darkfall, and darkfall beeing number one, the most hyped mmorpg pre-release, is totally right.
I think the bigest thing Darkfall has going for it is that WAR and AoC dropped the ball. Fact is there are 10million players of WoW and many (most?) are burning/burnt on that game. They need a viable alternative to WoW. AoC wasnt it. WAR is OK but didnt have the 'it' factor.
I have high hopes for DArkfall. I just worry that they bit off a bit too much
MMORPG Characters immortalized!
LLyncu: Star Wars Galaxies (Chimaera)
Xiode: Age of Conan (Mannanan)
Nah. Most WoW players will not set foot in a FFA PvP, full-loot, "hardcore" sandbox world like Darkfall. This will be a niche game, and most people are fine with that. Most people who are sick of WoW are sick of the cartoony gear-based unbalanced game, not the style of MMO it is (the "themepark" or "easymode" category that most vets put it in). If WoW players get bored of WoW, most of them will go to a "WoW Clone".
I also think Darkfall bit off more than they can chew, but with its long dev. cycle and its fanatical legion of followers, most people will play it even if it's crap in a box. Wait, excuse me, crap from the Internet, since it'll be downloadable only
.
Maybe it'll be like the recent (BS) NFL season. Lots of upsets and unexpected results. Stupid Jets can't even beat the freakin Dolphins so my team...
Sorry, off-topic
No one knows what this game has going for it because no one has played it yet. Its all paper talk and hear say so far.
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
the ONLY thing this crock of an alleged game has is that it managed (and continues) to attract blind, delusional, gullible fanbois who remain loyal to their idol tasos regardless of the crap he spews...
i wouldn't be surprised if the staunchiest defenders of df on mmorpg.com and whereever else are aventurine staff, family and friends trying to keep their madoff scheme alive
You know what star... I maybe be a bit jadded by Adventurine and have my doubts about DF... but at least it's trying to be something different... I mean who else is tired of EA an SoE coming out w/ "Big Brand" name things like Champions, Conan, Matrix, .... sheesh at least it's original and not following some already know name brand... to be honest I hope it does succeed because this market needs to be revitalized from the same "Big Name" brands that keep getting rehashed over and over (I won't even go into the Star Wars / Star Trek / Star Gate brand names)... I'd rather a small company Adventurine succeed because at least they are offering the market something original... These big companies play it too safe and think some known name brand will bring people when this whole time they forgot the basics of making a good MMO... SoE and EA no longer makes fun MMOs they just make brand name MMOs
again, i have a lot of doubts about DF but in my heart I hope they succeed... this market needs a fresh infusion of new blood
You forgot to exclude the Beta tester..they know and they play it..
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For me, one of the biggest things is that they are not taking our money without letting us try it first. The release will be via digital download, and we won't have to pay anything until our trial period is up. So if it is a crock of shit then they won't get my money.
To me, that tells me that they are really confident about their game. They are not going to release an unfinished product, because no-one would buy it. So I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.