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Who is the Publisher?
I was trying to find out who was the NA publisher and ran into this link.
www.darkfallchronicles.com/general.htm
Now this was when Razorwax was creating the game. However the publisher at the time was SA Aventurine.
Who is making this game?
Darkfall is being made by Razorwax AS and Aventurine SA. Aventurine is also the publisher.
I have not been able to find a NA publisher though.
Just curious on what your thoughts are on this.
Comments
I asked this same quesiton on the offical forums. I highly doubt that we will get a reply soon.
The definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.
Well, if that's true, then this really is a bait and switch tactic, as Aventurine are capable of giving away free copies, and knew about this for at least 6 years.
The fact that they haven't announced who owns the rights in North America is troubling for a couple of reasons:
~Ripper
The fact that they haven't announced who owns the rights in North America is troubling for a couple of reasons:
~Ripper
This same question was posed on the Official Forums there was some good information presented by a couple posters.
forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php
I've been asking who the publisher is since the May 27th update when Tasos first referenced there being different rights holders. If there is a legitimate publisher, why hasn't it been announced?
Thanks for the link, but there's nothing new there.
~Ripper
The fact that they haven't announced who owns the rights in North America is troubling for a couple of reasons:
~Ripper
Are you pretending to have intelligence on this situation? Do you know what publishers do?
Publishers don't just box a product and ship it. If that was the case, there would probably be no issue here. The problem is that most publishers, such as EA, have rules and regulations they want to tie into the game, such as "no blood" to get the T rating, or "bans are on our terms" which I'm sure you wouldn't want EA doling out bans in a game such as this.
Just because Aventurine MAY be self-publishing doesn't necessarily mean they're being greedy. I would be willing to bet money that if Aventurine is self-publishing, its because NA Publishers are a bunch of big-headed "I know how to run the business" asshats.
It'd be nice if you had some intimate knowledge of this situation before making a knee jerk reaction.
It'd be nice if you had some intimate knowledge of this situation before making a knee jerk reaction.
Just because you have 10 posts more than me, doesn't mean I haven't been monitoring the situation since 2005.
P.S. Posting here is probably a waste of my time, for I am, as Anonymous would say, "pissing in a sea of piss".
P.P.S. "Well, if that's true, then this really is a bait and switch tactic, as Aventurine are capable of giving away free copies, and knew about this for at least 6 years."
You have no idea what you're talking about. Free copies? Why would they do that? Why would they want to generally do that? They are a business. If the publisher wants to make money, they want a head start before the people who bought the game at launch can come ruin a good NA startup with people who have been playing for the last 6 months. They probably had to dump a series of publishers just because they wouldn't accept to the terms of "free transfers". If you want to play in a NA server NOW, go ahead, buy it again, start over. But they want to give them a chance, and who is to say they can't? It's their game, they're not being greedy, they're being rational.
Now, if you wanted to start a new character, what is the difference between the NA or EU servers other than 50 ping?
Another link from the Official Forums that has some interesting information related to this topic:
forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php
This is the part that is especially interesting:
6 months later Benjamin Cabarrubias Bye who was Razorwax's executive director at its founding appears to no longer involved in the company.
Enterprises 02.08.2001
CHANGE OF MANAGEMENT BOARD
Board:
The chairman of the board: Trond Erik Heier, Erling Skjalgsson
Director: Claus Hågensen Grøvdal
Leif Tore Sætermoen
Simon Yuen
later that month Razorwax publicly announce they have been developing a MMORPG called Darkfall since 2000, despite Razorwax being registered as a company offering bingo/gambling/sweepstakes services.
http://rpgvaultarchive.ign.com/featu...darkfall.shtml
********** In Nov/Dec 2002 Razorwax makes and announcement they claim they have ""found"" and ""signed"" a "publishing deal" for Darkfall with a Greek publisher (Aventurine), and "merged" Razorwax with Aventurine in Greece to continue development. ************
http://www.anvilsociety.com/wax/news2.htm
http://www.warcry.com/news/view/2503
4 months later Razorwax's Board changes again.
Enterprises 06.02.2003
CHANGE OF MANAGEMENT BOARD
Board:
The chairman of the board: Jade El Mehdawi, Himras 12 Kifissia GR-14562 Athens, Greece
Director: Anastasios Flampouras AKA "Tasos"
Spiridon Iordanis
Claus Hågensen Grøvdal
Ricki Michael Sickenger
All the original investors in Razorwax apart from the Darkfall "developers" are no longer involved with the company presumably after the announcement it was developing Darkfall and its failure to be successfull in bingo/sweepstakes services, and was going to "merge" with Aventurine in Greece.
And now Jade El Mehdawi, Tasos and Spiridon Iordanis are on the board of Razorwax and its owners, as well as Claus and Ricki, the very same people as well as other's like Henning Ludvigson who are also owners / partners / investors in Aventurine.
Aventurine was simply created by the original developers from Razorwax along with investor/owners who are all the developers and producers of Darkfall, after the initial investment from the other previous board members of Razowax ran out.
------------------------------
So basically they lied straight through their teeth years back when they announced that they "found" and "signed" with a publisher named Aventurine for DF.
They opened that Aventurine company themselves.
Edit: This is the kind of stuff that I wish that mmorpg.com staff would do a bit more investigative reporting on. I think there is a story at the end of this... but it would take a bit of digging to get to the bottom of.
If a site like mmorpg.com took it upon themselves to uncover the real story here they could do quite a service to the gaming public. Perhaps there is nothing to uncover, but it sure seems like the more we find out the more odd it seems.
Anyway, as with Dark and Light and Mourning... I'm sure that eventually all will be revealed.
Okay, so they absorbed a company and used its name. There's thousands of transactions like this a day. The difference being they moved their entire staff from Norway or wherever to Greece during this transition for the tax relief.
I'm still not getting where they were deceptive in any way. At the time, they did "find" and "sign" a publishing deal, then a little later they took the company over. And?
Thanks for the info. Even though companies merge all the time. I still feel that something shady is going on. Maybe nothing is shady, Anventurine just maybe incompetent.
I mean if you have created a game for the masses, and claim to have a publisher. Why all the secrecy? Why all the late information and the information given always vague. Publishers are suppose to promote the game. Yet the NA server launches in 10 days from this post. Just seems odd for a company to do something like this, especially for an mmorpg. You would think that there would be at least some type of advertisement for it. I just don't know.
As for the Transfers. Why the secrecy on restrictions? Why not post what they will be so the loyal player base can make an informed decision on whether to transfer or buy a new client or what ever.
If Aventurine is publishing this game why not allow free transfers, to show some loyalty back to the players. They claim to be players themselves, if so they would understand what their player base is feeling and would do what they could to retain them.
Oh well guess we will just have to wait and see.
The fact that they haven't announced who owns the rights in North America is troubling for a couple of reasons:
~Ripper
Are you pretending to have intelligence on this situation? Do you know what publishers do?
Publishers don't just box a product and ship it. If that was the case, there would probably be no issue here. The problem is that most publishers, such as EA, have rules and regulations they want to tie into the game, such as "no blood" to get the T rating, or "bans are on our terms" which I'm sure you wouldn't want EA doling out bans in a game such as this.
Just because Aventurine MAY be self-publishing doesn't necessarily mean they're being greedy. I would be willing to bet money that if Aventurine is self-publishing, its because NA Publishers are a bunch of big-headed "I know how to run the business" asshats.
as someone else pointed out - get a clue
the greedy part is the need to purchase the game all over again to play on the NA server - - - because the publisher expects to get some money out of it - - - if, and that is certainly a big if, aventurine is self publishing then the whole "pay again" is a bit of a scam isn't it
Why even bother talking about this mess of a game, it has taken it's rightful place on these forums just below a 1997 bad game Hostile Space . AV had the chance to make a good game and even with all they didn't put in the game if they would have just be honest people would still give them a chance but with AV/DF it's a shell game..
Yup.
Aventurine has been pissing away their subscriber's goodwill faster than a 5-year old trying to spell Christopher in the snow.
The fact that they haven't announced who owns the rights in North America is troubling for a couple of reasons:
~Ripper
Are you pretending to have intelligence on this situation? Do you know what publishers do?
Publishers don't just box a product and ship it. If that was the case, there would probably be no issue here. The problem is that most publishers, such as EA, have rules and regulations they want to tie into the game, such as "no blood" to get the T rating, or "bans are on our terms" which I'm sure you wouldn't want EA doling out bans in a game such as this.
Just because Aventurine MAY be self-publishing doesn't necessarily mean they're being greedy. I would be willing to bet money that if Aventurine is self-publishing, its because NA Publishers are a bunch of big-headed "I know how to run the business" asshats.
I know what publishers do. That's the point, really. Before the game launched in Europe, I questioned what AudioVisual was doing for Darkfall, since they didn't appear to be fulfilling any of the traditional publisher roles. Actually, they still don't appear to be doing so.
My comments regarding Aventurine being greedy by self-publishing (if that's the case) are based on a number of points:
~Ripper
"Clarification: American players wanting to clone and transfer their characters do not have to buy another client." ~Tasos
You can go home now.
Interesting. I'll agree with you on these points. We'll see what comes out in the coming days.
It says client.
Not account.
KTHXBAI
It says client.
Not account.
KTHXBAI
Personally, I think it's just poorly phrased. Nobody buys software. They buy the license to use it. In the case of online games, you're licensed to login to the game with your account. Either way, the point is moot. If you want to play on the North American server at launch, you'll need to pay for the privilege. If you wait 3 months for the transfers, you won't have to buy a license to play on the North American server, but you will have to pay a transfer fee and will be subjected to limitations.
Also, should players want to play on both the North American and European servers, they'lll most likely need to subscribe to the game twice, once for each publisher. This is similar to what happens with other games, so it's not unprecedented. What isn't typical, however, is that there's only one server/region.
~Ripper
It says client.
Not account.
KTHXBAI
Show me one person who bought a client, not an ACCOUNT, as a prerequisite to the "do not have to buy ANOTHER client" part. He mixed up the terms, not unintenionally imo, to give the impression you would not need to make 2 purchases. Technically, hes legit though, this man is a GOD.
I haven't seen an announcement of the N.A. publisher. But I think that The Adventure Company holds the rights to the game
Dark Fall.
Not saying that means anything, just saying.
DarkFall FAQ - Read then Question with Boldness
Just a week+ til launch and we still don't know who the publisher is. Something seems shady about that. Wouldn't you have to buy this "client" from the new "publisher"? If they are self publishing, wouldn't that sink their whole licensing reasoning behind the charge? If there is no new publisher then a license isn't needed, so why the charge?
Yes and I can't remember the name of the author that holds the rights to Darkfall. I do remember he is a big name author though.
Bottom line, still no word about the "publisher" if such an entity actually exists.
Gee sure would hate to see poor Av get slapped with a copyright infringement lawsuit when they try to sell their game in the US, but I am sure that their "publisher" has taken care of all the licensing requirements in the last few weeks since they were informed that they are the "publisher".
Can't wait to see the new web pages also that don't have any bait and switch or false advertising on them. To think that finally after over 7 months they will finally have the time to make a 5 minute change to their website. Damn they sure have been busy with all the improvements and preparing for the NA launch and the first expansion pack.
Excuse me while I pass out from laughing......
Yes and I can't remember the name of the author that holds the rights to Darkfall. I do remember he is a big name author though.
Bottom line, still no word about the "publisher" if such an entity actually exists.
Gee sure would hate to see poor Av get slapped with a copyright infringement lawsuit when they try to sell their game in the US, but I am sure that their "publisher" has taken care of all the licensing requirements in the last few weeks since they were informed that they are the "publisher".
Can't wait to see the new web pages also that don't have any bait and switch or false advertising on them. To think that finally after over 7 months they will finally have the time to make a 5 minute change to their website. Damn they sure have been busy with all the improvements and preparing for the NA launch and the first expansion pack.
Excuse me while I pass out from laughing......
AV has had Darkfall register with the United States Patent and Trademark Office since 2003 . (old news)
http://tmportal.uspto.gov/external/portal/tow?SRCH=Y&isSubmitted=true&details=&SELECT=US+Serial+No&TEXT=78284269#
I win!!! LOL@U
"Clarification: American players wanting to clone and transfer their characters do not have to buy another client." ~Tasos
You can go home now.
Interesting. I'll agree with you on these points. We'll see what comes out in the coming days.
wow - you really are slow - - - once again my post was just a simple explanation for what some consider "greed" on AVs part
do you understand what playing on day one means to those that have already paid for their license - - - guess not
Actually, it does mean something.
It means that AV doesn't have the business sense ( or common sense ) to take the sensible steps to keep the public informed - and by not doing so, they make for a bad PR event.
They decrease the number of players willing to take a risk on playing their game every time they make a bad business decision like this.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.