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[Column] General: Traipsing in Agon
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Darkfall: Unholy Wars is getting a lot of attention these days, including catching the eye of The Tourist. Check out our latest tourist's look at one of the day's hottest MMOs and then head to the comments to chat about it some more.
Here's the thing: as an MMO “tourist,” most people would tell you that I have no business playing a game like Unholy Wars. These would be the end gamers, Darkfall's most core playerbase, and those who stay for the thrill of the win. I enjoy PvP as much as the next guy, but believing that that's all the game has to offer is missing the forest for the trees. Yes, everything feeds into PvP, but for me, Darkfall is about the experience of living in Agon. It's about the world and the camaraderie of exploring it with a clan. It's about hours spent in the woods as a lumberjack or deep in a cave as a miner. Darkfall's sandbox feels alive in ways “safe” games simply cannot. I don't need to play twenty hours a week to experience that. If I wanted to, the game would return my investment with new opportunities and adventures I could recall for years – I've had that experience in the original Darkfall.
Read more of Chris Coke's The Tourist: Traipsing in Agon.
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Comments
A good read.
However, I've been wanting to say the following for quite some time:
While the writers are talented, this author, as well as another known as "Tingle", have the most annoying avatar pictures via news section. I don't know why, but I just want to punch those grins right off.
Go back to the artistic avatars. Much better.
I'm just being honest. hehe
At first I was not sure how this would differ from regular review and second wind style colums, but you are doing great work opening people up to trying new games and giving an almost massively level of positive enforcement to your views.
In short, keep up the good work, I have been humming and hawing over trying DF just for that "something different" your writing is another weight on the yes side of my scales.
A very good writeup. It's very easy to get stuck on the mechanics and miss the feel of the world.
As someone who mostly soloed in the last game, and got killed by nearly every single other player because I never grinded or macroed... Unholy Wars has been amazing.
The new dynamic lighting and sounds and music pull me into the world like never before, and the new skill systems have actually allowed me to compete against other players. I rode around and fought about 9 different times yesterday, and there was never a single fight where I thought it was impossible for me to win.
Even if you only PvE, the atmosphere of this game pulls you in, and the threat of other players makes the world feel alive, immersive, and fun.
Thats the thing with darkfall. It geninuely feels like a world someone would actually be able to live in, unlike most other mmos we got in past... 3-4-5-... (?!) years darkfall just has that feeling thats hard to describe with just words. You gotta experience it to feel it, quite literally.
now when i think of it, its a shame really - that such a small company could create something that feels like ancient, real, living world and pretty much all other developers only managed to create 'games', not worlds - they just mass spawned lifeless games.
The worst part is - even with much much higher budget they never actually tried to hide it. They all wanted to be just like wow, because you know if wow did it they could too - it was just like one reskinned game, and the rest was down to polish (bigger budget would give us more polished game obviously), but in the end it all felt like... one game with different mods.
People say its mmo burnout that made people not 'like' so called new games that much. I still believe its more about not liking wow anymore, which obviously means that people wont like its clones either, no?
So when people finally decide to move on, and say goodbye to that one game, why on earth would they play another game just like the game they just got tired of, and switch to another one which essentially comes with less features, polish and amount of content available?
ps: i was using wow as an example, as its obviously the most successful themepark game, and so many devs tried to copy it, but you could replace it with any other themepark game of your choice :P
i am enjoying the game so far myself even though the interface makes me want to do crack. Article's author really highlighted the positives of DF from a different place than where most of the good reviews come from.
It's got a lot of work that still needs to be done on it but so far it's got me interested.
RIP Ribbitribbitt you are missed, kid.
Currently Playing EVE, ESO
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.
Dwight D Eisenhower
My optimism wears heavy boots and is loud.
Henry Rollins
That moment you realizes the author is from a clan you know...
Also, great text, really shows the feel in Agon.
Currently playing:
Rift
Played:
SWToR, Aion,EQ, Dark Age of Camelot
World of Warcraft, AoC
Does DFUW (new engine?) have the awesome draw distance and smooth rendering as the original?.....one of the things I loved about darkfall was absence of pop-up. Not once did I experience instant landscape or structures as I approached the horizon. Everything scaled realistically as you went forward or backward...It was impressive as no mmo these days seems to be able to stop pop-up. So tired of flowers/grass/ shape-warping trees/and even buildings eerily blooming about 100 ft in front of you in a circular pattern. it sucks. It actually makes me feel like I'm walking in place as the game changes the scenery around me..lol. I like SWTOR too....but it has terrible pop-up..and so do just about all mmos I've played these days.
The other thing neglected by most mmos is actually current in the waters. I almost shat myself when I jumped into a river ( in Orig Darkfall) and was carried downstream...very quickly..lol.
As far as I can tell my draw distance is fine, but there is pop in in the distance. So I may have to try to mess with settings more, but it was a little dissapointing with the distance it actually renders things.
boo. That stinks. Thanks for the info.
There are many reasons that most companies steer well away from these types of games. One of the more important is that they are narrow niche games. That being the case, they are inherently limited in how profitable they can be. Given how expensive these games tend to be to create, thats a serious drawback.
At its most fundamental, this IS about making a good ROI. Thats why the often cursed "casuals" are the main focus of most companies. They may be CareBears, but their money is still green, and these days there tend to be many more of them.
I usually do not bother with columns or articles about games like Darkfall (or Mortal online, or Wizardry...ect). But this one was well written. But I'm not at all interested in mixing PvP "thrill" with my games. There are way too many Goonies and such out and about, who get their jollies by ruining other peoples play experience. I play these games for entertainment, and relaxation. I do not need another source of stress. But obviously, some people do like them. To each their own.
the new engine lets you see farther than DF1 did. other than the grass on the terrain, i don't see anything popping in.
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Corpus Callosum
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When in doubt, troll.
They don't take the risk because most of the people that would actually play them are far too busy attacking every example of the type for not living up to the perfection of their own ideal game and driving them into the ground on every forum, rather then just playing them.
It's the democracy of capitalism... If people want to see more of this play style then they need to play the ones actually out there now, rather than finding 'pro' reasons not to.