So Aventurine is going to presumably launch Darkfall on Feb 25th.  That's cool.

They say they are going to Open Pre-Orders on Feb 15th.

I need some clarification here. Are they saying that they are going to open the Servers on Feb 15th, to people who pre-ordered the Game? or are they saying that you will not be able to pre-order at all until Feb 15th?

I'm not pre-ordering the game, I am asking out of mere curiosity, and so that I am better informed when I make my next point in this thread.

The never said Feb 15th. They said pre-orders will be available mid-February.

Those who pre-order will get a headstart of unknown length before release.

They also said a limited open beta starts Jan 22nd.

Originally posted by Ashrik

The never said Feb 15th. They said pre-orders will be available mid-February.

Those who pre-order will get a headstart of unknown length before release.

They also said a limited open beta starts Jan 22nd.

I see.

so then, on to my next point.

first off,  "limited open beta" is a contradiction in terms. if it is "limited" then there is nothing "Open" about it. but that's not my main point here.

my main point is this:

has anyone ever heard of a game waiting until a few weeks before release to make pre-orders available?

maybe I am just not as well-versed in PC gaming as others here are, but typically, you can pre-order your games at least 4-6 months in advance. at least that was the case with every game I've ever purchased. I didn't pre-order them all, no, but the option was always there VERY, VERY early. not 2-3 weeks before launch.

There is ALWAYS tons of confusion about the term "open" when it comes to betas, alphas etc. The term is kept ambiguous and gray by developers on purpose and is not limited to Aventurine.

Open can mean one of the following:

• The NDA is lifted, but the beta is invite only. Select members of the public are allowed to join via some kind of application process be it a lottery, or preorder or whatever.
• The NDA is lifted at the game is offered to the public en masse. Server space can still be limited, but there is no selection process involved, meaning its first come first serve.

The key part is that the NDA is lifted. I don't think there has ever been a beta test that was called "open" that still had the NDA intact.

yeah these answers are pretty much correct. i believe the pre-orders will also get priority if there were to be too many order and some people had to wait for the server to be upgraded, optimized, w.e.

the open beta is indeed open, i dont believe there will be an nda and there will be a lot of people allowed in, however if everyone were to be given the chance to download and start playing the game on the 22nd there could (potentially) be 500 thousand or more people. 300k just from the forums, take away a few thousand for inactives, but then add in a lot from people who just read "darkfall open beta click here" or w.e and are just curious as to what the game is like