Darkfall "Released"

[Kageru]

The really sad thing is that while they seem to be way over their head, under-prepared and probably won't gain and hold the subs they need to fund meaningful development their PvP mechanics are still superior to Warhammer online. Locations within the game that you can own, gain benefits from owning and have a motive to defend is at least something you can build on.

[BoneDancr]

The really sad thing is that while they seem to be way over their head, under-prepared and probably won't gain and hold the subs they need to fund meaningful development their PvP mechanics are still superior to Warhammer online. Locations within the game that you can own, gain benefits from owning and have a motive to defend is at least something you can build on.

I think you under estimate the power of word of mouth.  If the game is good people will come, and they will come in droves. 

[gryeyes]

In the current situation i do not think "word of mouth" is going to be a boon from this point on.

[Herring]

UPDATE!   

[22:41] <Brannoc> UPDATE We’ve discovered a bug and are dealing with it, current ETA is 2 hours. More information is available at http://forums.darkfallonline.com - We’ll keep you updated. UPDATE

 

From the site:

Update made at 4am GMT 2/26

A bug was discovered during final testing, and we need to resolve it before we can open up the servers. We didn’t want to launch to just say we launched. We can’t apologize enough for the long delay. The current ETA is two hours but it could be longer. We will launch as soon as possible and we will keep you updated.

We have extended the free month to 33 days to compensate for the inconvenience. Problems will occur from time to time but we need you to know that we’re committed to supporting this game to the best of our ability. It’s unfortunate that we are facing these issues at launch, and we’ll do everything we can to make this up to you.

The Darkfall Team

 

[sidereal]

Screenshots of a city that isn't built in an area that was clearly ran over with a flatten terrain brush, please.

I hesitate to poke this beehive with my stick for fear of derailing from what is otherwise great schadenfreude, but it shouldn't take more than 10 seconds to come up with non-flat cities.  Start with Orgrimmar.

BoneDancr
gryeyes

Is there a fucking 'e' shortage?  Should I be hoarding my e's before I run out?

[Herring]

People are finding ways to communicate their displeasure!

[22:50] *** I_Want_My_Money_Back_U_Thiefs has joined #darkfall
[22:51] *** I_Want_My_Money_Back_U_Thiefs has been kicked by ChanServ (You have been banned)

[gryeyes]

BoneDancr
gryeyes


Is there a fucking 'e' shortage?  Should I be hoarding my e's before I run out?

My name is missing the letter A. A's are far more rare.

[schild]

The really sad thing is that while they seem to be way over their head, under-prepared and probably won't gain and hold the subs they need to fund meaningful development their PvP mechanics are still superior to Warhammer online. Locations within the game that you can own, gain benefits from owning and have a motive to defend is at least something you can build on.

I think you under estimate the power of word of mouth.  If the game is as good people will come and they will come in droves. 

I read your site.

I have absolutely no clue what you're doing here. There also seems to be a very high probability that you are insane.

No one here underestimates word of mouth. Darkfall just isn't going to get any that means a damn thing.

[ashrik]

Word of mouth? Seriously?

I think they've already got all the people who want it regardless of how good or bad it is. Post-release discussion between people who *might* play it is going to be the same as it is now. Those who think "it's not very good but it's all we got" versus "this game is shit, send it back to the kitchen" while a raving lunatic wearing a straitjacket in the corner screams about how awesome it is. Yeah man, this shit is gonna spread like wildfire.

[Sheepherder]

I hesitate to poke this beehive with my stick for fear of derailing from what is otherwise great schadenfreude, but it shouldn't take more than 10 seconds to come up with non-flat cities.  Start with Orgrimmar.

I was talking about Darkfall.  I really would like to see what exactly makes this person think that Darkfall has any redeeming world design.

[UnSub]

Word of mouth? Seriously?

For MMOs, you've got a bleeding edge crowd who absolutely have to get into the title from Day 1 or else they won't be able to PvP successfully (or as easily). Then you've got those who might wait a while to see what happens, or don't even know that Darkfall launched today. WoM will be important a week from now and in moving forward.

WoM built EVE. Not saying that Darkfall is going to be EvE mk II, but lambasting them for getting pounded at launch is a bit unfair.

... stop making me defend Darkfall. I don't want to and it makes my skin itchy.

Title of thread needs to be changed as "Darkfall sets a launch date as 'maybe'".

[ahoythematey]

Bonedancer, nobody here underestimates word-of-mouth.  On the contrary, I'm pretty certain that most here recognize the amount of damage negative word of mouth can do, as should you and anybody else who remembers Shadowbane.

[BoneDancr]

Is there a fucking 'e' shortage?  Should I be hoarding my e's before I run out?

Don't hate on my arty e-exclusion

[BoneDancr]

Word of mouth? Seriously?

I think they've already got all the people who want it regardless of how good or bad it is. Post-release discussion between people who *might* play it is going to be the same as it is now. Those who think "it's not very good but it's all we got" versus "this game is shit, send it back to the kitchen" while a raving lunatic wearing a straitjacket in the corner screams about how awesome it is. Yeah man, this shit is gonna spread like wildfire.

For the first month of Ultima Online my piss ass dial up modem would spend routine 15 minute periods trying to sync up with their shitty servers only to have my character actions bound up for another 15 minutes by their piss-poor databases design.  Thankfully, years and millions of dollars later, World of Warcraft, perfected the release and I was able to play on day 3 of login-queues even if it meant my character was frozen for 10 minute intervals similar db locking problems.

You fags know launches are crap and Darkfall will be nothing different for all the reasons already posted here.  The player base in this community has a wide tolerance for the amount of pain they will endure for their electronic crack.  It's not the luanch day that is the gateway to success but day 14, and day 30, if players don't find their game fun at those points well then their fucked. 

-end of line

[DraconianOne]

words

I feel Grunked after that.

[peryn]

-end of line

Indeed. I think 4 posts was enough from you.

[Triforcer]

Yeah, this one needs to be cut down before he blossoms.

[Xerapis]

You fags

You called?

Newsflash, dumbass. Gay people play games too. And we post on message boards.

You are hereby cordially invited to SUCK. MY. DICK.

even though i'm not a shark

[BoneDancr]

You fags

You called?

Newsflash, dumbass. Gay people play games too. And we post on message boards.

even though i'm not a shark

I couldn't care less if you take a turkey baster up the tuck nightly.  The internet is not a snuggle bunny of happiness.

[gryeyes]

Keeping it real.   

[Hawkbit]

Careful!!  He's into Darkfall; he's hardcore. 

[Malakili]

I couldn't care less if you take a turkey baster up the tuck nightly.  The internet is not a snuggle bunny of happiness.

Look out, we've got an internet tough guy over here.

[Delmania]

Ok, internet tough guy aside, has this game launched yet?  Or are they still "processing preorders"?

[peryn]

Servers are finally opening up after a 12 hour delay. Processing the pre-orders took much longer than the original estimate we were given, and we caught a bug at the last minute that we didn’t want to launch with. We apologize for the long delay and we hope you enjoy your first day in Darkfall.

For the players that are getting lobby errors, check your version and if you don’t have build 1.0.35, get it from http://www.eu1.darkfallonline.com/dl/Darkfall.exe

We have extended the free month of play to 33 days to thank you for your patience and to try to begin making up for the inconvenience.

We’ll process the problematic pre-orders that were not charged, and have 0 balance later today. If you pre-ordered successfully but weren’t charged, or haven’t received your final notice for the remaining successful charge, you’ll need to be patient a few hours longer. We’ll also look at opening up more sales by tomorrow. We are a little behind schedule but we're catching up.

Forums have been down due to large volume, almost double our highest traffic to date, people weren’t able to access them. We brought them down in order to be able to post communications so you would know what was going on. MMORPG.com was kind enough to post our first announcement but we need to be able to communicate through the official Darkfall community. Darkfall IRC was causing the Stratics network problems with its volume and it was also temporarily shut down at Stratics request. The forum will be back as soon as possible, and we hope we can keep it up.

We’ll do our best to keep you updated.

Thank you

The Darkfall Team

Edit: Yes.

[LC]

I couldn't care less if you take a turkey baster up the tuck nightly.

That sounds like my experience with Darkfall's pre-order system. Except the baster was made of glass, and the end is broken. It seems that I'm not alone:

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/225361/Got-your-preorder-but-not-the-purchase-mail-.html
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/225210/Account-is-not-active-3.html
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/225090/page/5

I agree that pre-order problems won't be the thing to drive players away. It won't be the long queues and server instability either. It will probably be the customer support that doesn't exist. They don't even have a faq that answers the most common issues on their site. Their sole means of support is a (currently non-functional) forum where the response to any problem or complaint is: "suck it up carebear" or "go back to wow n00b".

[ghost]

Let the paid beta phase begin.  It has been a long time since I came across a game that I wouldn't even try.  This is looking like it may be the one.

[patience]

Word of mouth? Seriously?

For MMOs, you've got a bleeding edge crowd who absolutely have to get into the title from Day 1 or else they won't be able to PvP successfully (or as easily). Then you've got those who might wait a while to see what happens, or don't even know that Darkfall launched today. WoM will be important a week from now and in moving forward.

WoM built EVE. Not saying that Darkfall is going to be EvE mk II, but lambasting them for getting pounded at launch is a bit unfair.

... stop making me defend Darkfall. I don't want to and it makes my skin itchy.

Title of thread needs to be changed as "Darkfall sets a launch date as 'maybe'".

This is true that there are people who will play regardless because they are that desperate. It's Vanguard all over again except it is for the UO crowd with a less buggy game.

That said the devs should be roasted. They limited preorders and sales because they couldn't accept everyone. Now they tell us they servers and account management system couldn't the load. That's a lie and it hasn't been the first time they lied.

Unlike others I'm of the opinion they are doing this in some stupid way to save face while they scramble fixing whatever broke instead of preparing their getaway car filled with a pitiful amount of moneybags in the trunk.

It's not as if credit card companies suddenly lost the power to revoke charges made in the last few days in the event of a scam nor is the dev team five people. Even if the dev team was five people the amount of money made from pre orders would have to be pretty substantial to be a worthwhile scam. I doubt the majority of people even attempted to preorder.

Anyway for a long time I have been concerned about Darkfall's management. The long dev time never bothered me. What bothered me was the way they cultivated their boorish community and they way they would communicate with anyone within and outside of it. They always left me with the impression they would treat their customers like shit and they are doing it right now with the locking of the forums and the IRC restrictions. I won't bother paying to play this game because I don't need to the hassle of being disrespected by businessmen like that.

[slog]

Hey look, it's BoneDancer!!

It's a rolling 30's reunion party.  All we need now is someone to hack the client to use GM powers and teleport everyone to the middle of the ocean.

[tazelbain]

Let the good times roll!

[tmp]

Forums have been down due to large volume, almost double our highest traffic to date, people weren’t able to access them. We brought them down in order to be able to post communications so you would know what was going on.

The hell? Weren't they posting their communication through irc bot?

on the word of mouth, at the moment it seems to be: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_05vPCO58o

[Mrbloodworth]

This is how you become a god.

EDIT: Looks like it was pulled, the HD version is still there.

The players bio reads:

I'm a level 205 Sho male called Dread Og and I play on the Darktide server in Asheron's Call. My general purpose and function is to pwn noobs which I do on a regular basis (actually all the time LOL). I post pk vids that show how good I am + I am starting a Diary so you can learn more about the best pk in AC. I also tackle cultural and political issues.

Fucking WIN.

[kildorn]

That is so unbelievably painful to watch. Like, soul crushing pity for someone.

[Signe]

All we need now is someone to hack the client to use GM powers and teleport everyone to the middle of the ocean.

We already have that here.  Do try to keep up! 

[Mrbloodworth]

That is so unbelievably painful to watch. Like, soul crushing pity for someone.

He doesn't want your pity. He "Doesn't die in games" bitch! (because he logs out)

[WindupAtheist]

The hell? Weren't they posting their communication through irc bot?

on the word of mouth, at the moment it seems to be: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_05vPCO58o

Wow, someone actually used a different clip from that movie. Best part was that guy "sorting preorders" right out the window into a fire.