Here is my opninon about the state of Darkfall, I feel it is an accurate impression. My reason for posting here are simple, I am sick and tired of reading threads here and elsewhere, saying its crap blah blah, its a scam or the opposite "its teh most perfect game ever" Its neither, its a MMO at launch. All MMOs at launch have problems. I'll address the areas of darkfall in seperate paragraphs

1. The graphics. Its the first thing people see, and it is what most judge everything on. Lets face it, which would you go for before speaking to them, the ugly chick/guy with a good personality or the supermodel with a dull personality? The graphics in darkfall are not great. The aren't the worst out in the market either. The world in my opinion looks great, the view distance is fantastic, we were harvesting an area and could see riders about 3-5 minutes away. The shadows and the availablity you have to hide and not be seen are the best in any game I have played. The player detail and animations are horrid. Yes you could justify it saying they are "streamlined" for 100 on 100 fighting. They could still be better, and the animations could be more fluid. The saving grace on this is two-fold. One all graphics can be improved over time, and two when you are in a hard fight you don't really notice the graphics.

2. The world and all the creatures. The world is not as big as some thought and bigger than others had thought. It is big in MMO terms. It will take you time to go from one place to the other. Alot of that time you will just see barren landscapes. But there is alot of creatures hidden away around the world, you just have to hunt them out. There is something fantastic landscaping in Darkfall, little ridges to hide behind in ambush, or a gully to run into to get away from enemies. The world needs something, if I knew what I would be a game designer, it just feels dead in places and you never seem apart of it, there is nothing to tie you into the world. Can they add this in at a later stage? I don't know. We will just have to hope. There is alot of abandoned houses and towns around the map.

3. PVE. The most important aspect of darkfall. It is where alot of spell regents come from, and all the enchanting ingredients. It is the bread and butter of all MMOs. I enjoy fighting the mobs in Darkfall, its though at times, and it is easy and quick to get to. There are some place where quests are missing, but in my own experience it has never been more than 20 minutes away from me. All in all, Darkfall could do with more quests, can't have too many mobs or the mobs would be interfering with the PvP.

4. PVP. It is different than standard fare PVP, its not your class versus his/hers, in a "Rock paper scissors" A beats B beats C beats A. It is very engaging, you actually move alot. Yes you left click alot, it is attack after all. You(well I find myself) moving back and forward alot during fights, and it ending up as a 1v1. There are alot of different opinions on what to use and how to use them. I use a sword and shield, block works well in group situations, it allows you to mitigate damage long enough for your group to help. Some people jump in with great big two-handers and swing like mad things, you will kill group mates this way, trust me, I have been beheaded my the person coming to save me. Sieges and such need work, but it wasn't untill players were in that they could really been seen, people who have payed to play, and spent alot of time getting a city are going to fight much differently than beta tester. At the end of the day I enjoy PvPing, even if it is huge fights, or 1v1 sparring with guildies, no two fights are every the same.

5. Community. This is were Darkfall falls down greatly. Let me give you an example, in race chat the other day, Guy A asked for a price check on an item. Noone answered, so it asked twice more. Guy B asked where did it drop?. Guy A replied with "Mobs and WTF is the price!!!" Do you really think that you will get answered when your a prick? I mean manners are free and actually help you out. Unfortunaly they seem to have been dropped off the feature list aswell. There are alot of less than savoury characters in Darkfall. "Go back to WoW" is often shouted in chat to someone complaining about being PKed by his own race. Unfortunaly to worlds have clashed in Darkfall, the one were he thinks bigger than himself, and thinks racial allies are friends even in different guilds, and the world were they can't see beyond the edge of their own ego and thinks everyone is an enemy. The truth is abit of both, your enemies could be either racial allies or enemies. Just be on your toes. I do not personally see the point in killing somebody who is already fighting a mob, if he is a racial enemy, I will wait till has finished the mob and is on his way to bank, if he is a racial ally, I'll walk on by. Not everybody is in game just so you can kill them. Some members of the community needs to get over their own issues and respect other peoples play styles, if they want to RP, well it is a RPG, so let them, you do not have read their chat, and if you do well, so what. Its not like he is actually in the room with you. Just respect others in game, it will improve gameplay for everybody. Also on a side note, if you want to insult someone, it is better if it is grammatically accurate as this allows them to actually read the insult, otherwise you are just typing to yourself.

I know this is alot of text but there ya have it. If you don't want to read, well you have got this far, keep going. My view of the game is baised as I am in a giuld of people I have known for a while, we came from another game, and we are all mature adults, with heavy,  work or in my case party lifestyles and so games are just that games, something to pass a couple of hours with enjoyable company. I have missed some attacks because I went out, but my guild doesn't mind.  I don't have to do anything I don't enjoy, or have to put something off to play when I don't want to. A game is only as good as the people you play with, enemies or friends, and I have been fortunate that they have all been good to play with.

Thinking of playing darkfall? Then do, look for a guild of like minded people and join. Don't like Darkfall? Ok but some of us do, so please respect that.

"Some people jump in with great big two-handers and swing like mad things, you will kill group mates this way, trust me, I have been beheaded my the person coming to save me."

Heh fear not Lad...I will save you...OOPS

 I pretty much agree with everything you wrote.

(and yes, there are a lot of interesting individuals playing this game, lol).

All who scream "the game sucks" are the notorious mmorpg.com trolls, nothing more nothing less. They hide behind the "honest criticism" defense, but they are mostly haters with deep rooted issues. 

The game is not the best (most polished) but overall its very fun and different, a game people will play for awhile.  

though i agree with you, you completely failed to mention the complete and utter lack of balance, the exploiters/hackers running rampant, the fact that a lot of cities are poorly designed (canons facing walls, endless zigzags of walls), city gates don't open and close, and that with training a lesser magic spell, you can jump over the wall that a guild spent thousands to make.

I didn't mention the hacker/exploiters as I haven't seen them. Yes they are there, they are there in most MMO's, I have probably lost alot to people that have gained from exploits, but I don't know for sure. People have mentioned how rampant they are, but I have no evidence to back that up. Also I did mention seiges need work, and they are making changs to seiges on an on going basis. There is major problems, my guild is a member of an alliance that lost a seige attack, and 100k because of a server disconnect, so I know the issues are there but I believe they will be ironned out in time. I hope.

Also balancing is an ongoing process. It will take time to find a level. If you look at all the major established MMO's they still balance things. I haven't seen much that is showing that the game mechanics are unbalanced and not my lack of skill.

Greetings, Original Poster. I pretty much concur with all your statements. There are some minor exceptions.

The "chat" in Darkfall is about as good as it gets for unregulated chat. That means, all the same crap, but less of the gold selling. Why? Because now you can kill the seller. The one thing that would make it more tolerable would be GM regulation over the chat channels. I believe, at this time, that will not occur.

Pretty much you were spot on accurate. I would like to emphasize how strong combat is. Recently, I decided to perch on a ridge and keep an eye out for travelers (I was just seeing how well strategy plays into this game). When a band of "raiders" come into the area, I'm capable of telling the people in my area.

What am I getting at? You can literally be a lookout in this game.

But it goes much further.

If you are caught be surprise, you can literally be engulfed in the "fog of war". In other words, you have no idea who the enemy is...people are running around in a frenzy, some people may even attack the wrong people in return. This is truly warlike, because in war...communication is the key.

It's a great strategy based game. IMO, of course.

Originally posted by Einstein-DF

All who scream "the game sucks" are the notorious mmorpg.com trolls, nothing more nothing less. They hide behind the "honest criticism" defense, but they are mostly haters with deep rooted issues. 

 

The game is not the best (most polished) but overall its very fun and different, a game people will play for awhile.  

That's funny, just the other day you were claiming that Darkfall was the best game ever.

Originally posted by Einstein-DF

All who scream "the game sucks" are the notorious mmorpg.com trolls, nothing more nothing less. They hide behind the "honest criticism" defense, but they are mostly haters with deep rooted issues. 

 

The game is not the best (most polished) but overall its very fun and different, a game people will play for awhile.  

Sorry Darkfall will fail in that nobody will play the game after a year and it will be on lifesupport by about a few thousand people. The mmorpg market is small, just for some damn reason people get blinded by that freak of nature WoW. Sorry for games like darkfall, AoC, EQ, DAoC, and others the population will have a max of 400k and settle around 50-100k after a few years because thats the true market for MMO's. Just because there are 11+million people playing WoW doesnt make the MMO marketplace 11million strong. 10.7 million people are playing a game while 300k are looking for a MMO but are stuck in Azeroth and the other 100k hate WoW and are the fuel for the games i listed above.

9th april update    

http://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php?t=174528

Originally posted by Goldknyght

Originally posted by Einstein-DF

All who scream "the game sucks" are the notorious mmorpg.com trolls, nothing more nothing less. They hide behind the "honest criticism" defense, but they are mostly haters with deep rooted issues. 

 

The game is not the best (most polished) but overall its very fun and different, a game people will play for awhile.  

 

Sorry Darkfall will fail in that nobody will play the game after a year and it will be on lifesupport by about a few thousand people. The mmorpg market is small, just for some damn reason people get blinded by that freak of nature WoW. Sorry for games like darkfall, AoC, EQ, DAoC, and others the population will have a max of 400k and settle around 50-100k after a few years because thats the true market for MMO's. Just because there are 11+million people playing WoW doesnt make the MMO marketplace 11million strong. 10.7 million people are playing a game while 300k are looking for a MMO but are stuck in Azeroth and the other 100k hate WoW and are the fuel for the games i listed above.

Yes, the Automobile market is not 2 billion people strong, because 500 million of them drive GM vehicles, so really it's only 1.5 billion people.  Your numbers are way off.  If you add up the 'real MMORPGs' - WOW excluded  - you still get over 2 million subscribers. 

Originally posted by Einstein-DF

All who scream "the game sucks" are the notorious mmorpg.com trolls, nothing more nothing less. They hide behind the "honest criticism" defense, but they are mostly haters with deep rooted issues. 

ah so true. what else can you say about the morons that continue to post here about how much they hate the game but aren't even playing it?

overall very good and accurate OP. personally i don't find the community to be massively different than any other MMO but then i almost never have my chat window set to racial chat.

Originally posted by Goldknyght

Originally posted by Einstein-DF

All who scream "the game sucks" are the notorious mmorpg.com trolls, nothing more nothing less. They hide behind the "honest criticism" defense, but they are mostly haters with deep rooted issues. 

 

The game is not the best (most polished) but overall its very fun and different, a game people will play for awhile.  

 

Sorry Darkfall will fail in that nobody will play the game after a year and it will be on lifesupport by about a few thousand people. The mmorpg market is small, just for some damn reason people get blinded by that freak of nature WoW. Sorry for games like darkfall, AoC, EQ, DAoC, and others the population will have a max of 400k and settle around 50-100k after a few years because thats the true market for MMO's. Just because there are 11+million people playing WoW doesnt make the MMO marketplace 11million strong. 10.7 million people are playing a game while 300k are looking for a MMO but are stuck in Azeroth and the other 100k hate WoW and are the fuel for the games i listed above.

How do you know that "nobody" will play the game after a year? There is nothing to back that up with. The game has never looked for 11 million players. No game does. If they can pay for there servers and staff out of subs and make profit off expansion packs or whatever, then it is a commerical success. Eve is the perfect example. It has enough subscripers and commerical avenues to sustain the game and constant development and therefore is a success and will continue to grow. Darkfall could very well end up like this. It could on the otherhand fail, it is a savage world, look at SWG when they changed the combat, about 75% of population left in a month, as far as I recall. I will not be leaving in the next while, neither will any of my guild or people I know.

Please guys if you are going to come in and tell us how the game is failed, or will fail please back it up with something. Just because numbers can be low doesn't mean that it will fail, I am not a MMO developer, nor a investor so I do not know what level of subscripers are needed, or the cost involved in the devolpment or any such numbers. I can only go on, this is a game I have bought, I am paying monthly and enjoying it. There is also many people in game who are enjoying it also. Everytime they release keys they are sold out, so there is still demand in the game, so I see no reason to say it will die in a year.

So please this was just an opinion thread about the state of the game from someone that is in the game, not Darkfall will save the world, or will fail or anything, just how it is ingame now.

Oh and Oriphus thanks, according to offical sources there is very little cheating. I know they would never say there is lots of cheating, but I do think it isn't as rampant as people make out.

Originally posted by javac

Originally posted by Einstein-DF

All who scream "the game sucks" are the notorious mmorpg.com trolls, nothing more nothing less. They hide behind the "honest criticism" defense, but they are mostly haters with deep rooted issues. 

 

ah so true. what else can you say about the morons that continue to post here about how much they hate the game but aren't even playing it?

 

overall very good and accurate OP. personally i don't find the community to be massively different than any other MMO but then i almost never have my chat window set to racial chat.

Why would they be playing it if they hate it? You have take off the dunce hat yourself and put it on the other person before you make stupid statements like this.

Originally posted by Einstein-DF

All who scream "the game sucks" are the notorious mmorpg.com trolls, nothing more nothing less. They hide behind the "honest criticism" defense, but they are mostly haters with deep rooted issues. 

Just because you can't (or refuse to) recognize honest criticism doesn't mean it's not being given.

Likewise, the people who think the way you do are the die-hard fanboys who can't differentiate between true criticism and "bashing".  You guys have even ripped apart those *playing* the game when they voice criticisms of it. However, considering the DF creed is clearly "Defend DF 110% or you're a "troll" and "hater", it's a small hop to categorizing all criticism of anything to do with DF as "bashing"; at least for those closed-minded enough to think that way.

Oh... One other thing... Unless you're a qualified and certified psychologist, keep the armchair psycho-analyzing to yourself. Okay? People not sharing your opinions of DF or its handling does not indicate "deep rooted issues" any more than the wild spin-doctoring, excuses and rationalizations conjured up by fans to defend it.

Well to be fair it's the Darkfall forums, I think it's fair to expect fans of the game to congregate here.

For what it's worth, I don't think Darkfall would have been anywhere near as successful without the trolling. So if there are any losers here, it's the trolls - they have themselves to thank for Darkfall's success.