Basic Public Relations etc...

I’ve not posted anything about Darkfall, just sat back and nibbled on the crazy, funny and rarely intelligent threads. I don’t know about you but I’m bored of it now, fed up of keeping my fingers crossed and counting to ten every time Tasos says something which ends up having a hidden layer of meaning buried deep amongst foliage.

I wish my solitary opinion could do something about the methods of which Aventurine conduct community relations but it can’t. To defend that comment simply look at the information available this close to launch, no monthly fee, no client pricing, no minimum or recommended computer specifications. Even outlets like Game have no idea about this title, also do a search for Darkfall Online on Play or Amazon and you will get nothing… Surely for a title so close to release none of this is right?

Regardless of the games hype and expectations you will have the above elements known and published in multiple locations; even ultra low budget (less than $1 million) Indie titles will have this covered and as posting upon a forum is free, cost should never be a factor. In fact system specifications are often the starting point for developing an engine (this is not specific hardware but a generalization of hardware) and as for stress testing surely knowing the level of hardware required to power a server should reflect in the power of hardware each machine requires to power the game client individually? Surely in the spirit of building community relations small details like this could be given, even if only ideas and thoughts on the back of meetings taken place. At the end of the day everything is hidden and under a blanket NDA. So much so we don’t know whose in, whose not, what information is real etc… It’s as if Aventurine doesn’t want anyone to speak the truth.

To me something just isn’t right. The amount of question marks over things is too great for them not to have some merit. This is only my opinion but why be so restrictive and protective of something that was as good and feature complete as Darkfall Online apparently is? Surely having 200k people interested is amazing and building upon that is a better idea than turning people away? Also if investors see this disregard to customer relations and marketing who would continue to back them? And (I know it shouldn’t really start a sentence but) if this is how the public relations work now what is it going to be like if and when the game is released? Companies like Blizzard and Mythic struggle to provide customer service to a standard we expect what’s going to happen with this company?

Only time will tell and although additional threads like this stoke an already burning fire, I just needed to get it off my chest as getting burned as I have in the past is not a good thing. It’s so easy for developers to offer you great products; just think to how many times you’ve been let down in the past.

Take care and good luck with whatever decisions you make in regards to biting the pre-order bullet, I am hoping the game is as good as the ideas behind it but I’m so skeptical in regards to anything involving profits and loss right now (global economy) that taking something offering the world is practically impossible for me right now.

Perhaps a signed petition declaring a determined refusal to preorder Darkfall Online would be the correct thing to do. Until we have information, factual and accurate we will not be suckered into purchasing a promise. It’s just a thought that perhaps if followed as a community of people we could encourage Adventurine to no longer disregard us.  Perhaps this kind of approach to all MMORPG companies could aid us in future released titles.  Or maybe its just a pipe dream...