Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

Why do you think lore means story line? More specifically, Guided experience?

UO, AC, EVE, all have lore. In game and out.

 

I mentioned AC specifically in a previous post in this thread, as being the only sandbox in my opinion with meaningful lore. I often quested knowing full well the reward to said quest often times would be more lore, but it was so neatly woven into the game that I didnt care. The other examples you gave in my opniion the lore second rate, and debatable as to the impact on the games themselves. The games you metioned also have an average age of 7-8 years where darkfall has an age of 60 days.

Background, story, and lore all typically come from in game events which primarily come in the form of quests. I remember in one of the first World of Warcraft patches they added the ability to skip all of the quest text and immediately press the "accept quest" button instead of being forced to read what the quest was about first. This was of course by popular demaind.

The bottom line is that lore is like big tits, it may be nice to have but it certainly doesnt make the girl. And if this is one of your few criteria you follow when evaluating women, you are more than likely going to miss out on something special. Again, just my humbled opinion.

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Originally posted by RBlackheart

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Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

 

Why do you think lore means story line? More specifically, Guided experience?
UO, AC, EVE, all have lore. In game and out.
 

---

 
I mentioned AC specifically in a previous post in this thread, as being the only sandbox in my opinion with meaningful lore. I often quested knowing full well the reward to said quest often times would be more lore, but it was so neatly woven into the game that I didnt care. The other examples you gave in my opniion the lore second rate, and debatable as to the impact on the games themselves. The games you metioned also have an average age of 7-8 years where darkfall has an age of 60 days.
Background, story, and lore all typically come from in game events which primarily come in the form of quests. I remember in one of the first World of Warcraft patches they added the ability to skip all of the quest text and immediately press the "accept quest" button instead of being forced to read what the quest was about first. This was of course by popular demaind.
The bottom line is that lore is like big tits, it may be nice to have but it certainly doesnt make the girl. And if this is one of your few criteria you follow when evaluating women, you are more than likely going to miss out on something special. Again, just my humbled opinion.

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Thoes are the games you mentioned. Not me. Again, why is it you think that having in game lore, means guided experience?
This has nothing to do with your opinion of "Games with the best lore". 7-8 years is irrelevant, they all had lore in the game, and in the world, in different forms from launch.
To follow your analogy, Lore is not the Tits, lore is a brain, you are the one staring at the tits, and not noticing the brain, or lack there of.

This is what you said: 

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Players that need a story created for them will find sandbox game worlds (UO, AC, EVE, Darkfall) bland, lacking life, and lacking content. Those that enjoy them can once again play in an all new sandbox world full of new stories to create. Out of all the standard style mmorpgs I have played, very rarely do I take experiences with me that I do from sandbox games. To each his own.

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You are attempting to put forth that Sandbox games have no lore, or story, or quests and that this somehow excuses Darkfall from having any.

This is simply, not true.

The definition of a sandbox does not mean lacking content, nor does it mean it has no story (as a matter of fact, most have more, as its the basis of all RP, a segment of players sanboxes attract). So saying its OK for a sandbox game to be lacking such things, is a fallacy. As history, and precedence has shown otherwise.

No, people will find Dar fall lacking content, lore, and bland, because its incomplete. Incomplete is also, not part of the definition of a sandbox, something the developers seem to have a hard time understanding.

Originally posted by bmdevine

Originally posted by mackdawg19

Originally posted by Stradden

Originally posted by qbangy32

Originally posted by BaronJuJu

I'm sure we will be seeing touted by Tasos on the Darkfall forums going "SEE! They get it!".

 

Yes but we know that the reviewers/overviewers or whatever they are called at anyh given time are friendly towards DFO, so those of us looking for an unbiased report on DFO will not find one on MMORPG.com, then again I really haven't seen any unbiased reviews/overviews from any other source, but nor have I seen any other site than this give DFO as much coverage or leniency in that coverage.

 

If you don't like the Correspondent program, wherein people who play and enjoy their games write about the games, then I would simply suggest that you don't read the Correspondent articles (which are clearly labelled as such) and wait for the site's official review.

As to the frequency of Darkfall coverage... Darkfall articles consistently perform well in terms of traffic. This idicates to me that there are people who want to read about the game. As such, we will provide articles. It just makes sense.

 

Yet another post by you Stradden telling viewers not to read articles placed on your main page. You mind as well just tell them to not read your site at all, because is that not what you want? Be honest here man, this is an opinionated forum and site, yet you keep interjecting yourself into the threads telling people to just not read them. Yes he doesn't like the article, but he has a right to comment on it. Would you just like the community who helped you reach a million + viewers, just give up and leave your site to yourself? Or can you take an opinion, let your community debate against it, and move on to the next article? If anything, you have a tool right in front of you that you can use for these issues. It's called a PM, or Personal Message. Let's not become Tasos here and flaunt these issues in the public. This is getting to be comical to say the least. Please learn to use your own systems for this type of request so you don't make a fool of yourself, in the public nonetheless.

By the way, this is just a suggestion. Kind of like you suggesting people not read articles on the main page regardless of who posts or made them.

I think you mean "might", rather than "mind."  Your suggestion is disingenuous, because you completely miss or ignore Stradden's entire point.  If you want to engage in an honest debate, you need to listen to the other side.  If you simply want to jump on the bandwagon and mindlessly bash a game and a site that doesn't agree with the view that you think is fashionable and to which therefore you wish to subscribe, just keep doing as you're doing.

The only people making fools of themselves here are the ones jumping on the bandwagon and mindlessly bashing each other rather than attempting to engage in honest discussion.

His entire point is continually telling/suggesting to people not to read main page over-views. This has nothing to do with this article in question, but apparently you missed that. I'm not bashing what the over-view states nor did I ever. What I am saying is that he, a Site Editor, should take these to PM's instead of derailing his own threads with this non-sense. The honest discussion can be stated here. But maybe you should read what I typed before glancing at the first line and coming to this conclusion. His point was to suggest someone not read an article because he does not agree with it. Something that clearly could of been placed in a PM. So please point to me the other side of his lack to use his own forum tools, and maybe you might be right. Other than that, these articles can continue. But Site Editors should not be telling people publicly what to read and not to read. If he does not want him to comment, he has the tools to make that happen.

Originally posted by RBlackheart

As I have previously stated, I am giving an overview on what was delivered, not what was promised. Regardless of what this game could have been, should have been, or someday will be. I am giving an overview of what currently exists, for better or worse. In my opinion, if I had never heard the name Darkfall, and new nothing about it, bought it on day 1 and enjoyed the game... I dont see how realizing there are features not yet implemented somehow ruins that enjoyment. The game lives or dies based on what it currently has, not what is missing, or what is coming in the future.

 

-Andy Cormier

May I write one as I beta tested and have played release?

" Cheating has dropped off dramatically after the nice big ban of over 200 cheaters. Yes it still exists, but I see complaints of cheating far far less now"

Only the obvious cheating like speed hacks has dropped off, the vast majority of hacks available are still ongoing.  There are plenty of ways to cheat without other players being aware of it, I know alot of players that use them.   At present Aventurine seems to have few methods in place to detect them.

So I think you are wrong to discount cheating as minimal, my experience says otherwise.  Maybe your guild is not, but I know some guilds still require it.

Originally posted by Stradden

Originally posted by qbangy32

Originally posted by BaronJuJu

I'm sure we will be seeing touted by Tasos on the Darkfall forums going "SEE! They get it!".

 

Yes but we know that the reviewers/overviewers or whatever they are called at anyh given time are friendly towards DFO, so those of us looking for an unbiased report on DFO will not find one on MMORPG.com, then again I really haven't seen any unbiased reviews/overviews from any other source, but nor have I seen any other site than this give DFO as much coverage or leniency in that coverage.

 

If you don't like the Correspondent program, wherein people who play and enjoy their games write about the games, then I would simply suggest that you don't read the Correspondent articles (which are clearly labelled as such) and wait for the site's official review.

As to the frequency of Darkfall coverage... Darkfall articles consistently perform well in terms of traffic. This idicates to me that there are people who want to read about the game. As such, we will provide articles. It just makes sense.

Shocker, I was expecting a PM and a few stars to suddenly disappear from under my name once I posted such negatives.

People will get disappointed as they wanted better troll-food, and will try to post their trollviews.

This game currently has the elements to develop into a juggernaut, just got to wait until it can handle more players.

And my already low opinion regarding the reviews done by MMORPG.com drops several more notches.

I've played this game for six weeks now, and the author of this "review" is showing blantant favoritism by either glossing over or directly avoiding any disscusion about the serious lapses of this game.

Pretending that problems don't exist won't make them go away ( or make them any less noticeable, for that matter ).

Originally posted by Hammertime1

And my already low opinion regarding the reviews done by MMORPG.com drops several more notches.

 

I've played this game for six weeks now, and the author of this "review" is showing blantant favoritism by either glossing over or directly avoiding any disscusion about the serious lapses of this game.

Pretending that problems don't exist won't make them go away ( or make them any less noticeable, for that matter ).

 

 

Ok, well then can you give us YOUR perspective of what the you feel about the game after playing it for 6 weeks.

Enquiring minds want to know.

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

 

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Originally posted by RBlackheart

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Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

 

Why do you think lore means story line? More specifically, Guided experience?
UO, AC, EVE, all have lore. In game and out.
 

---

 
I mentioned AC specifically in a previous post in this thread, as being the only sandbox in my opinion with meaningful lore. I often quested knowing full well the reward to said quest often times would be more lore, but it was so neatly woven into the game that I didnt care. The other examples you gave in my opniion the lore second rate, and debatable as to the impact on the games themselves. The games you metioned also have an average age of 7-8 years where darkfall has an age of 60 days.
Background, story, and lore all typically come from in game events which primarily come in the form of quests. I remember in one of the first World of Warcraft patches they added the ability to skip all of the quest text and immediately press the "accept quest" button instead of being forced to read what the quest was about first. This was of course by popular demaind.
The bottom line is that lore is like big tits, it may be nice to have but it certainly doesnt make the girl. And if this is one of your few criteria you follow when evaluating women, you are more than likely going to miss out on something special. Again, just my humbled opinion.

---

Thoes are the games you mentioned. Not me. Again, why is it you think that having in game lore, means guided experience?
This has nothing to do with your opinion of "Games with the best lore". 7-8 years is irrelevant, they all had lore in the game, and in the world, in different forms from launch.
To follow your analogy, Lore is not the Tits, lore is a brain, you are the one staring at the tits, and not noticing the brain, or lack there of.

 

This is what you said: 

---

Players that need a story created for them will find sandbox game worlds (UO, AC, EVE, Darkfall) bland, lacking life, and lacking content. Those that enjoy them can once again play in an all new sandbox world full of new stories to create. Out of all the standard style mmorpgs I have played, very rarely do I take experiences with me that I do from sandbox games. To each his own.

---

 

 

You are attempting to put forth that Sandbox games have no lore, or story, or quests and that this somehow excuses Darkfall from having any.

 

This is simply, not true.

The definition of a sandbox does not mean lacking content, nor does it mean it has no story (as a matter of fact, most have more, as its the basis of all RP, a segment of players sanboxes attract). So saying its OK for a sandbox game to be lacking such things, is a fallacy. As history, and precedence has shown otherwise.

No, people will find Dar fall lacking content, lore, and bland, because its incomplete. Incomplete is also, not part of the definition of a sandbox, something the developers seem to have a hard time understanding.

 

Well not to go in circles, but when UO, and Eve was released they had little to no stories whatsoever. The same goes for lore. Again, lore is typically told through stories, which typically come in the form of quests. Games with heaving duty PvE and excellent quests, both in quality and number and never FFA PvP. The quests in both UO and Eve were extremely bland because they were not the primary focus of the game.

Also, the term sandbox is often misued. It means a world where you can do anything, but that anything is primarily player created. For instance if you stare at a sandbox it looks boring. Some kids will get, and play for hours and hours building sand castles and the like. Other kids will just get in and throw sand in someone elses face, and get out. To each his own. I think you are attempting to mix two genres together where this is not clearly the case. To sum it up would lore be nice in the game? To some perhaps, even to myself. Do I want lore at the expense of features that didnt make it in at launch... or new features entirely? Not on your life.

Originally posted by Ozmodan

" Cheating has dropped off dramatically after the nice big ban of over 200 cheaters. Yes it still exists, but I see complaints of cheating far far less now"

Only the obvious cheating like speed hacks has dropped off, the vast majority of hacks available are still ongoing.  There are plenty of ways to cheat without other players being aware of it, I know alot of players that use them.   At present Aventurine seems to have few methods in place to detect them.

So I think you are wrong to discount cheating as minimal, my experience says otherwise.  Maybe your guild is not, but I know some guilds still require it.

While this may be partially true, the same can be said for anything. Claiming you know people that cheat but no one else knows how and its not detectable by devs is the same as claiming things like their is an undetectable gold dupe. The cheats most people have been concerned with since day 1 are the teleporting problems and the speedhacking. And I can say with 100% certainty that asking anyone who currently subscribes to the game will tell you that these have been dramatically curbed.

I don't discount what you say necessarily, but I believe nothing without proof. And I witnessed both the speedhacking and teleporting first had. I don't any longer...

Originally posted by Hammertime1

And my already low opinion regarding the reviews done by MMORPG.com drops several more notches.

 

I've played this game for six weeks now, and the author of this "review" is showing blantant favoritism by either glossing over or directly avoiding any disscusion about the serious lapses of this game.

Pretending that problems don't exist won't make them go away ( or make them any less noticeable, for that matter ).

 

 

I dedicated a complete article exclusively to the largest negative aspects currently in Darkfall Online. Articles can be 1500 words max, if it were longer maybe I would have included minor things which are easily fixable and not major problems such as

1. You can swim in plate armor without stamina drain
2. You can run full speed in plate armor
3. You can't craft in bulk, for instance it takes 20 seconds to make 20 arrows and can literally take hours to make thousands

But I cannot honestly place these over things like speedhacking, and the most important of all, inability to buy the game. Those are things I can easily include in the upcoming 8 parts as I go into detail on each aspect.

Everyone has differences of opinion. Many believe that macroing will ruin the game. Certainly hasn't done so for Ultima Online. They even have had a term coined for rapid macroing techinques that have been around for years (8x8 anyone?). If someone wants to sit in their clan town and blow spells off in the air wasting coin on resources they will never see a gain from, why the hell do I care? I have snuck into many clan towns I am at war with, killed the macroers and gotten literally thousands of free reagents. There is no may to macro coin gain, and nearly all combat skill gain costs $$$.

Maybe I missed what you are saying completely. Can you please specifiy issues I have "glossed over or directly avoiding..."? Please use specific examples and I would be happy to address any of them.

Originally posted by alkemist

Hope this is a joke. So basically the game is 100% perfect minus 3 things.

You obviously didnt read the "overview" or you would know that the 3 things you claim are minuses are actually "non issues". I guess we know where the iraq minister of information found work after the invasion.

Why exactly do we have more darkfall news threads on this site than the game has subs?

Originally posted by Electriceye

Originally posted by shukes33

Originally posted by Electriceye

Are you serious? this is it?

So Darkfall's most important and glaring issues in a nutshell (in order of importance):

1-buying the game.

2-cheating.

3-macroing.

4-The notorious Alignment System!

 

"To be honest, the rest of the "problems" you will see discussed on the message forums are non issues."

In other words, the other issues are not important enough to be mentioned, such as the extreme lack of content (closer to non existent actually), extreme lack of polish, broken combat to say the least, prehistoric UI, and I'm not even mentioning the 1998 graphics, the fact that there's NO lore, the awful control system etc.

 

So the best games on the market have more issues than DF I guess. Totally blinkered 'overview'.

'Yay I can kill anyone and take his loot!'

Seriously.. some people are incredibly easy to please.

Sorry i dont get it.
 

whats broke about the combat?

Non existent content? how come i havent gone a day yet when i havent been raided by enemies? and i havent left the newbie area yet and surrounding Leafhelm there are 3 goblin camps i have found and a Large Skeleton/zombie area. and i'm too scared to go far lol! oh ye and the crafting i started last night is going to keep me busy it seems.

Control system is different from what were used to, but it works and is actually more fun that most mmo's

Graphics are not as good as Aoc/Vanguard maybe but i would call them average if i am honest.

Polish i agree with, theres non. But i dont think there ever will be much. It's not a bells and whistles game is it?

Prehistoric UI...hmm ye your close there. seems to be workable but could be so much better.

But come on mate his review was at least honest, your statments are misleading.

Combat is extremely clunky and lacks polish. for example, you don't hit every time even though you're in range, and it's worse for ranged combat.

There is a lack of content, even fanboys are complaining about this. there is very few pve content, but of course if you're happy grinding goblins, gank and be ganked for days, then more power to you. 

 

What don't you get? you actually agreed with me on the other points (Graphics (character models are especially bad), polish, UI, no lore). Also how is this overview in any way honest? If I didn't know anything about the game and read this, the major cons of DF, I would be on the official site spamming F5 to buy an account lol. I don't think I have ever read something as biased as this.

 

I dont get how the combat is broke! you dont hit all the time even if in range? i havent noticed that at all, which makes me feel that it's something that, A: was broke but has been fixed at least 3 weeks ago, or B: it's something you have read in some other post and just decided to jump on the bandwagon :) yes i agreed to other points, just because i am honest! but combat being broke i really dont get, it works fine for me. Yes i dont hit everytime but isnt that normal in combat? lol even EQ was doing that from the first day, and WoW still does it to this day!
 

Oh ye and by the way! you wouldnt be spamming F5 to buy a copy cause you already have one dont you? or are you just making your factual statments of what you have read from others who dont like the game lol? surely not :)

Oh and as for just farming goblins i said also that i found skeletons and zombies close to the newbie area. And this morning i was at the Troll camp that i recently discovered, after trying the Elements and finding them too tough for me at the min. So ye lol i can see the lack of content :)

Come on mate wait till your more informed at least or maybe try the game yourself. I mean you believe the negative comments but wont believe the positive ones? whats that all about, it's almost like your trying to find reasons not to like it and convince others not to either. Stand up mate and make your own judgment just like i am.

What's Darkfall?  LOL.  That game is still going?

LOL

@ The trolls of course.

Talk about bias.

EDIT: What about those hissy fits now and the panty ripping?

the part about macroing being a nonissue made me laugh.

Try going into one of the big player cities. All you will see if afk macroers leveling up skills whether its magic / archery solo or a team macro for weapon skill. The game pretty much forces you to do this to compete. Macrofall am i right?

better to give the game an honest heartfelt 2/10 then try and feed this line of BS to people.

Originally posted by Overfiend138

the part about macroing being a nonissue made me laugh.

 

Try going into one of the big player cities. All you will see if afk macroers leveling up skills whether its magic / archery solo or a team macro for weapon skill. The game pretty much forces you to do this to compete. Macrofall am i right?

better to give the game an honest heartfelt 2/10 then try and feed this line of BS to people.

No it doesnt force you friend! i am a solo Darkfall player who has never macroed once and seem to be competing rather well so far. Of course if i felt like it i could but that agin would be a choice of mine. Personally i have never tried to max skills as fast as poss, i prefer to "play" the game.

But your right it is better to give the game a heartfelt 2/10 than feed bullshit. But it's also better to give an honest overveiw than just go along with what you read in other posts isn't it? For instance i make my own opinion and like the game.

I think Graphics are not top line but they are good solid graphics.

i think the UI is very bland but workable.

Combat i have no problem with at all. seems fluid and smooth to me.

Cheating i hate. Havent seen any yet but also i am not naive enough to not know it exists. Just like in any game.

Macorers dont bother me. they might level up faster than me but, hey who cares! if it becomes a problem for me then ill complain :)

Open area's with no mobs? at last a game that feels no need to fill every square inch with content. i prefer goblins to hang about in a camp rather than be everywhere! makes me feel like im in a RPG :)

Originally posted by Overfiend138

the part about macroing being a nonissue made me laugh.

 

Try going into one of the big player cities. All you will see if afk macroers leveling up skills whether its magic / archery solo or a team macro for weapon skill. The game pretty much forces you to do this to compete. Macrofall am i right?

better to give the game an honest heartfelt 2/10 then try and feed this line of BS to people.

I explained clearly in my article why macroing is a non issue, but I shall reiterate here. I never said macroing doesn't happen, because it absolutely does.

Macroing magic, and archery takes resources (arrows and reagents). Gold in this game is tough to come by. Arrows, and reagents especially are very expensive in this game. As an example, a newbie goblin will drop 5 gold about 75% of the time. Reagents on average cost 3g EACH. So if you have arrows or reagents you really want to be using those on monsters to try and recoup some of your costs. If someone wants to spend their money with zero return, and blow off arrows or spell in the air then more power to them. This in no way effects how you play, or your character in any way. If they earn enough money to blow arrows and reagents on the thin air, then so be it. Not to mention they have big red targets painted on their backs for anyone sneaking into their city because you can hear bow shots and spell casting from a mile away.

Please understand the mechanics of the game before bashing them. Macroing is, and will continue to be a non issue in this game. The same as it has been in UO for 10 years running now.

To be honest, the rest of the "problems" you will see discussed on the message forums are non issues.

If I came to this site to find some information about DFO from the articles written by people trying to pass themselves off as journalists, I'd probably think that that there is nothing wrong with the game and all the bad press surrounding it is generated by a bunch of angry trolls. You admit that there are indeed some issues, seemingly breaking the trend of constantly praising the game and its dev team, but the things you list as the game's greatest shortcomings aren't really issues at all. Not because there aren't any bigger problems to be worried about, but because you conveniently forget to include them in your article, giving all uninformed readers the impression that the game's pretty much perfect. I'm sure there's some kind of definition for this kind of cover up dance you're doing in your little article. Or is it that you're simply clueless and ignorant?

Let's start off with the alignment system. I doubt anyone who wants to PVP in a legitimate manner (that excludes griefing newbies under the disguise of a lawful citizen), has been playing the game for a while, and/or has access to a player run city cares whether he's blue or not. The alignment system is simply a bad copy of the alignment system they had back in UO. In UO:

- you couldn't grind your way back to being a lawful citizen in a matter of minutes by rezkilling your alt
- you couldn't grief someone by constantly looting their kills without any repercussions, because you'd go grey, and then they'd be able to kill you without taking an alignment hit
- you couldn't as easily grief someone into going grey/red, because of the personal flag; if you're grey and someone attacks you, you remain grey to him for as long as it takes for him to kill you, while in DFO if you don't attack back while you're grey, you'll always remain grey for the set duration of 120 seconds, and as soon as you go back blue, the person attacking you will go grey, or red if he's unlucky enough to score a killshot or a "gank" the second you turn blue
- you could actually defend yourself if you were grey (because of mistakenly looting someone's corpse, for example), once again, because of the personal flag; if you were grey or red and someone decided to attack you, he'd flag grey to you and be attackable and freely killable throughout the whole duration of the fight
- you couldn't accidentally kill a person that easily, and even if you did, you wouldn't immediately go red because of it

Yes, the system was exploitable, but much less so than the one in DFO. And no, DFO is not UO2, but if you're going to copy something, then copy it well or don't copy it at all (speaking of doing a piss-poor job copying features from UO... hello, inventory and skill systems!). You didn't even touch any of the stuff I mentioned, I guess these are just some of the non-issues people whine about for no reason at all.

Cheating has a huge impact on the game, since it revolves around PVP and competition, and yet, once again, you're trying to margninalize the issue by saying that it's is not as widespread as some people claim, which is a load of crap. You might want to take a look at the video where a legitimately stolen boat gets hijacked by a cheater (member of the guild the boat got stolen from). Not that big of a deal, right? Just do a search on youtube if you want to find more videos of people cheating or even actual cheat ads. Yes, they've made some strong statements toward banning cheaters etc., but anyone who believes any word that leaves Tasos' mouth at this point should be immediately put under medical observation. If they can simply go through the server logs and find cheaters based on what they see in there, then why the need to report every cheater by name? I'm guessing having a piece of code that highlights logs with some suspicious client behaviour is out of the question? The GMs cannot and will not do anything unless they have the name of the suspected person, because they have no means to determine whether someone is cheating or not other than to follow them, watch them, and catch them red handed, so anyone being careful with their 3rd party tools, for example only using the part of the hack that negates stamina drain (that's how "the best pvpers" of darkfall can sprint/shoot/jump for 5+ minutes straight without having to worry about running out of stam), or only using the radar hack that allows them to see every player in their range on the minimap is never going to get caught.

Exploiting falls under the same category. The exploiters have it great in Darkfall. If I was the kind of person who doesn't care about actual competition and tries to win at any and all cost, I'd love this game. There are exploits in every game out there, what's important is how quickly and efficiently a dev team can deal with both bugs and people exploiting them. Aventurine has this original, one of a kind, ass-backwards way of fixing exploits, that actually rewards exploiters and punishes those who play fair. Acid pools, guard towers, newbie weapons, skilling up on invulnerable targets etc. Every player who took advantage of any of the aforementioned exploits was already ahead of everyone who played fair, but by fixing the exploits and not doing anything about the exploiters, Aventurine indirectly punished everyone else, because they now have to fight people who are much stronger than them and work twice as hard to catch up ("twice as hard" is a major understatement in most cases). There are many other exploits that have existed since the game's not-so-official release and haven't been fixed to this day, like people farming tons of gold and high-end equipment by sitting inside walls, trees, rocks, and other similar objects, chain-soloing mobs that are nearly impossible to solo. Some people are already insanely rich, they're way ahead of the curve in every way imaginable since they can easily afford buying all the stuff they'll ever need to finish building their characters, they get a huge edge over normal players thanks to the high-end equipment, they don't have to worry about losing any of the stuff they wear, since they've got tons of it banked anyway. Nothing is being done about it. How the hell is this a non-issue in a PVP game? Do explain.

Aside from AutoIt loot macros allowing you to empty a tombstone filled to the brim with nearly weightless items in a matter of seconds, I wouldn't say there are any macros that hurt the game at all. Macros are not the problem. The problem is the insanely slow skill grind coupled with the fact that the game is devoid of any actual content, which leads to a situation where macroing is the only way of building a character without going batshit insane.

There are so many other issues with Darkfall, that it would take at least 10 more overviews to list them all. Not like this one, however, since all you do is beat around the bush as much as possible to distract the readers from the real problems. Client and server performance being one of them, considering that city building, sieging, and zerging each other is supposed to be one of the key features of the game. Unfortunately for everyone paying for the game, though, the server lags and crashes every time a big siege is about to take place. The lack of communication with the customers is another thing someone writing an article like this one would most likely list as a problem. It's funny in a sad kind of way how we had to beg Aventurine to start posting some patch notes, and all it takes to make that big-mouthed fraud, Tasos, go on a posting spree is to post some half-assed review consisting of pretty much the same amount of factual-substanse as their official website. I guess they just can't take what they dish out on a regular basis.

tldr version: MMORPG.com game correspondents are full of crap.