Originally posted by nileq

who said there will not be an open beta?

and if you read the translation of the "beta key giveaway" that the Italians did, they say that that beta key would be valid for the "Journalistic Beta" beginning early January (I even think they said the 4th)..

So comming the next few weeks we would probably be seeing more reviews.

A bunch of Itialian crap and beta keys being given out over there does not help us at all. 

The facts are that there is very little infortmation available for a game that is supposed to be released in three weeks.  You cannot argue that.  It does make me a little nervous, but it's not like I'm going anywhere.  I'l be here in three weeks and we can all talk about how much Adventurine sucks or how great they are for getting their product out this time.

Originally posted by nileq

who said there will not be an open beta?

and if you read the translation of the "beta key giveaway" that the Italians did, they say that that beta key would be valid for the "Journalistic Beta" beginning early January (I even think they said the 4th)..

So comming the next few weeks we would probably be seeing more reviews.

More reviews in a few weeks? Well we know one week isn't enough time for journalists to really try the game so that cancels out the first seven days after the fourth. So the earliest review we will see is like the twelvth of January. Which gives you ten days until launch. Realistically any reviews we are going to see are going to be half assed and real close to the launch date most likely. It seems they planned this so that any bad news reported by the journalists will be overthrown by the launch date being within days of the review.

Originally posted by Varking

Originally posted by nileq

who said there will not be an open beta?

and if you read the translation of the "beta key giveaway" that the Italians did, they say that that beta key would be valid for the "Journalistic Beta" beginning early January (I even think they said the 4th)..

So comming the next few weeks we would probably be seeing more reviews.

 

More reviews in a few weeks? Well we know one week isn't enough time for journalists to really try the game so that cancels out the first seven days after the fourth. So the earliest review we will see is like the twelvth of January. Which gives you ten days until launch. Realistically any reviews we are going to see are going to be half assed and real close to the launch date most likely. It seems they planned this so that any bad news reported by the journalists will be overthrown by the launch date being within days of the review.

Again, my cynicism surfaces but... could the open beta being so close to release date be on purpose... I mean if Adventurine has nothing to hide, and they have all the confidence in DF being successful, then why such a short OB just before launch... seems a bit suspect to me... maybe I'm just a cynic at heart

Originally posted by nileq

who said there will not be an open beta?

and if you read the translation of the "beta key giveaway" that the Italians did, they say that that beta key would be valid for the "Journalistic Beta" beginning early January (I even think they said the 4th)..

So comming the next few weeks we would probably be seeing more reviews.

It wouldn't surprise me if there was still no reviews even with press beta.  Journalists from big gaming sites aren't going to spend their time reviewing something that isn't from a major advertiser / junket provider.  Maybe on specialist mmorpg sites but not on gamespot.

It amazes me how people think that the gaming press isn't a giant gravy train fueled by collusion.  It's purpose is to sell things to you, not to provide information.  How could it be anything else? Ads are it's only source of revenue.

Originally posted by hidden1

Again, my cynicism surfaces but... could the open beta being so close to release date be on purpose... I mean if Adventurine has nothing to hide, and they have all the confidence in DF being successful, then why such a short OB just before launch... seems a bit suspect to me... maybe I'm just a cynic at heart

I just wanted to point out that most mainstream mmos have short open beta periods.  World of Warcraft, for example, was released November 23rd, 2004.  The Open Beta started November 8th.

Originally posted by Disastorm

Originally posted by hidden1

Again, my cynicism surfaces but... could the open beta being so close to release date be on purpose... I mean if Adventurine has nothing to hide, and they have all the confidence in DF being successful, then why such a short OB just before launch... seems a bit suspect to me... maybe I'm just a cynic at heart

 

I just wanted to point out that most mainstream mmos have short open beta periods.  World of Warcraft, for example, was released November 23rd, 2004.  The Open Beta started November 8th.

Hehe, true, but not a great example. WoW had a much larger closed beta to begin with, and then also had a large week long 100k+ stress test more than 3 months before open beta. They then continued to invite people into the CB, and then had another  large week long stress test November 1st, which turned into the open beta.

Originally posted by nileq

who said there will not be an open beta?

and if you read the translation of the "beta key giveaway" that the Italians did, they say that that beta key would be valid for the "Journalistic Beta" beginning early January (I even think they said the 4th)..

So comming the next few weeks we would probably be seeing more reviews.

The problem is there hasn't been a single official confirmation of that tidbit above... unless I've missed it. 

If you know of a Dev., or any official Aventurine confirmation of that... I'd be very interested.  If not, then it's little better than any other rumor we've heard from any number of other MMO sites. 

Originally posted by Disastorm

Originally posted by hidden1

Again, my cynicism surfaces but... could the open beta being so close to release date be on purpose... I mean if Adventurine has nothing to hide, and they have all the confidence in DF being successful, then why such a short OB just before launch... seems a bit suspect to me... maybe I'm just a cynic at heart

 

I just wanted to point out that most mainstream mmos have short open beta periods.  World of Warcraft, for example, was released November 23rd, 2004.  The Open Beta started November 8th.

Below is an example of what "most mainstream mmos" do:

Hi everyone,

Here's a brief outline of what you can expect over the next few days as we transition from Closed to Open Beta:

Monday, March 26:

From 7:00PM - 10:00PM EDT, Turbine admins will be on Brandywine and Meneldor with surprises for the players. (Hint: Bring Minstrels. Lots and lots of Minstrels.)

Tuesday, March 27:

LOTRO game servers will go dark in the morning and will remain closed until Friday. All player characters will be wiped.

Wednesday, March 28:

Beta forums: The beta forums will be brought down in the morning. Accounts created on the Beta forums and associated with either Pre-order or Beta keys will be preserved. All other accounts will be wiped.

Live forums: The live forums (currently located at http://www.lotro.com/forums) will be brought down in the late afternoon, and will not come back up.

If there are any posts which you feel should be saved and/or reposted on the new forums, this is the time to save them!

After March 28th, the beta.lotro.com forums address will no longer be valid, and http://forums.lotro.com will be the link to the only set of official forums. Only Pre-order customers and beta players will be able to post on the public forums. If you had a Closed Beta, Open Beta, or Pre-order account on the beta forums, you will be able to log in and use this account.

Wednesday - Thursday, March 28-29:

The forums will be open to beta players.

Friday, March 30:

Servers go live and Open Beta begins for Pre-order customers! See you in Middle-earth!

The game Released on April 24^th, 2007

A very clear schedule of exactly what will happen with OPEN Beta.  How the Closed Beta players will transition into Open Beta, and which logins to use and where you can post on the official forums. 

Basically the type of information we EXPECT a company to know less than a month before they Release the game. 

 The developers silence and this current poor excuse for a beta, makes me  think one of several ASSUMPTIONS  :

1. The game is utter crap or lacks major features and they know it but have had to release due to economic reasons. Cover up by not realsing anything new and hoing for box or digital sales. 

2. The game is ready (good/bad state) but the expected influx of people will murder any network / server infrastructure.

3. The developers are really truely stupid and are going to go for some kind of selective entry to there enlightened MMO. That will not go down well with the general spirit of MMO launches and probably wont do there profts any good. 

Two I think is the broadest and most reasonable.  But how knows with this game...  because the real fuel for these assumptions is the developers shitty PR and lack of information. Nature abhors a vacuum and the DF launch is a giant one at the moment. This silence is far worse than any trumped up PR campaign. Seriously someone needs to do a image overhaul.

Originally posted by tombear81

 The developers silence and this current poor excuse for a beta, makes me  think one of several ASSUMPTIONS  :

1. The game is utter crap or lacks major features and they know it but have had to release due to economic reasons. Cover up by not realsing anything new and hoing for box or digital sales. 

2. The game is ready (good/bad state) but the expected influx of people will murder any network / server infrastructure.

3. The developers are really truely stupid and are going to go for some kind of selective entry to there enlightened MMO. That will not go down well with the general spirit of MMO launches and probably wont do there profts any good. 

Two I think is the broadest and most reasonable.  But how knows with this game...  because the real fuel for these assumptions is the developers shitty PR and lack of information. Nature abhors a vacuum and the DF launch is a giant one at the moment. This silence is far worse than any trumped up PR campaign. Seriously someone needs to do a image overhaul.

Aye. 

I think #2 as well.

I did find it particularly intriguing though this part in Tasos' quote he gave before the Holiday's break:

forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php

"Support, billing, and account management are all coming together. Our server deployment is just about complete. A new website is under development and we hope it will be finished in time for the launch." - Tasos - Dec. 24th post on official web site

I guess I find that statement at odds with his previous statement of:

www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm

"Darkfall could launch today." - Tasos - Dec. 4th interview with mmorpg.com

So which is it?

It could launch TODAY on Dec. 4th...

OR...

They are still working on Server deployment as well as other things on Dec. 24th?

It's inconsistencies like those that make me question pretty much everything that Tasos says.  I like the other Devs... but Tasos... I don't trust him.

I'm sticking to my prediciton that if DarkFall attracts more than 40k users... they are in deep trouble with their server performance.

Which is why I think they are:

ONLY launching in Europe

NOT doing any advertising

NOT actively promoting their game

NOT providing any additional information on subscriptions, or purchasing

NOT providing any additional information on OPEN Beta or a Free Trial

I guess we'll find out in 3 weeks.

Thee are tons of info, official and leaked . . .

Originally posted by xzyax

I did find it particularly intriguing though this part in Tasos' quote he gave before the Holiday's break:

forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php

"Support, billing, and account management are all coming together. Our server deployment is just about complete. A new website is under development and we hope it will be finished in time for the launch." - Tasos - Dec. 24th post on official web site

 

 

I guess I find that statement at odds with his previous statement of:

www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm

"Darkfall could launch today." - Tasos - Dec. 4th interview with mmorpg.com

 

 

So which is it?

It could launch TODAY on Dec. 4th...

OR...

They are still working on Server deployment as well as other things on Dec. 24th?

 

It's inconsistencies like those that make me question pretty much everything that Tasos says.  I like the other Devs... but Tasos... I don't trust him.

 

he mentions somewhere the GAME is ready, but they're waiting for their new business partners to catch up / get things in place etc.

so BOTH!

edit: context ftw

Originally posted by bongloads

Originally posted by xzyax

I did find it particularly intriguing though this part in Tasos' quote he gave before the Holiday's break:

forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php

"Support, billing, and account management are all coming together. Our server deployment is just about complete. A new website is under development and we hope it will be finished in time for the launch." - Tasos - Dec. 24th post on official web site

 

 

I guess I find that statement at odds with his previous statement of:

www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm

"Darkfall could launch today." - Tasos - Dec. 4th interview with mmorpg.com

 

 

So which is it?

It could launch TODAY on Dec. 4th...

OR...

They are still working on Server deployment as well as other things on Dec. 24th?

 

It's inconsistencies like those that make me question pretty much everything that Tasos says.  I like the other Devs... but Tasos... I don't trust him.

 

 

he mentions somewhere the GAME is ready, but they're waiting for their new business partners to catch up / get things in place etc.

 

so BOTH!

 

edit: context ftw

Umm... no.

He specifically said:

"DarkFall could launch today."    (There was even a little period after the sentence).

He didn't say:  "DarkFall could launch today if..." 

He said it could "LAUNCH TODAY."  Click on the link if you doubt it.  It's from the interview he did here on this site from Dec. 4th. 

It seems Darkfall is heading to be the biggest disappointment in the MMORPG genre to date.

Originally posted by Steelrose

Why should they want game mag reviewers to try their game, when they do not want to appeal to the masses that read magazine or game 'review" websites? 

 

Because this game has a gameplay model that requires a large population.  Without it the game simply will not work.  This isn't a solo or small group grinding game...it requires LOTS of people to play it for it to work.  And I don't think it will.

Originally posted by xzyax

Originally posted by DarthRaiden

Originally posted by Agricola1

But still I can't remember being one month from launch and not known wether there was a French and German version or not. This just feels more and more like it's gonna be a Vanguard 1.5, I think Vanguard launched on the exact same day two years ago too!

 

Only english version...

I'd be curious to get a European perspective on their thoughts of having to use English on their server.

 

I do understand the logic behind it, as it's much more efficient to only use a single language and just expect your customers to adapt to that. 

 

It is also probably a bit different in that most Europeans already know English almost as well as their know their native language.

 

With that being said... I'd be a little peeved if a game opened up a Server in the U.S. and then made the official language be Mandarin Chinese. 

So, just curious if any Europeans had any comments on THEIR server being English only?

Most of europe never have there laungage on the server, most of europe have to use english. Except the damn germans and french who are still pissed english got choosen over therelaunguage as the "general laungage" so they nag unthi.... - ok im just trolling here .

But seriously, only the biggest of games gets more laungages then English, french and german. the next in line that usually gets localized is Spanish or Russian these days. As i guess those are the heaviest used laungages by gamers after english/german/french. this is exluding any asian laungages.

So only EU citizens that has german or french as ther mother laungage would be ... irritated if even that at this. Scandinavia rather use english couse we hate our own kind anyway, and east europe does private servers or talk english on live! Or all join one server and force any public chat into there laungage (curse you russians! ) - then again, the swedes are really good at that also (yeah i think my own fellow gamers are more often then not very immature with this).

P.S - Sensitive subject this, hopefully none will take it the wrong way, ill edit anything offensive out if asked, just pm.

Originally posted by AlienShirt

It seems Darkfall is heading to be the biggest disappointment in the MMORPG genre to date.

I really don't think so.  There was a poll, which I think was pretty close to how players feel.  25% think the game will be awesome,  50% think it will 'barely' launch without major features, and 25% feel it is mostly vaporware.

I think most people are seeing January 22nd with 'hopeful skepticism'.  I don't think many people will be really surprised if it doesn't launch at all.

Compare that to AOC and Warhammer.... now THAT is disappointment.

Originally posted by Azrile

I think most people are seeing January 22nd with 'hopeful skepticism'.  I don't think many people will be really surprised if it doesn't launch at all.

If more of the followers of this game actually showed 'hopeful skepticism' rather than 'blind acceptance of developer hype', this forum wouldn't have become the flame-fest it turned into.   

You do point out that most people remain very doubtful about this game (for very good reasons that are growing with each passing week).  But there are still more than enough on these forums to convince developers they can say anything they want and a good number of people will continue to believe them.  As long as developers know that, many will keep treating the community like garbage.   

So here we are again in the exact same position we were this time in December! No system specs, no info on price. Perhaps the only extra info we have now is that Tasos has stated it would be an 18 gig client to be downloaded off bit torrent (I know sounds like that sux too!). He showed off a vid at the open coffee thingy whilst he was courting investors (I know instills confidence doesn't it!). But that's about it.

We have a date for the "open Beta" which is tomorrow (allegedly) however it is really a closed beta (invite only with NDA in effect) with Tasos trying to convince us it's really an open beta, honest!

Again we've come full circle and my position on Darkfall and Aventurine hasn't changed, Aventurine have failed to provide evidence to the contrary. The January reviews are non existant, nothing has happened except for more claims from Tasos at the open coffee (the sources being unconfirmed by the DF website!) convention where he was courting investors, which lends even more credence to my belief it's vapourware. Also they've changed from play before you pay to pre-order model now, with no rational explanation or excuse as to why, in my opinion.

Aventurine if this game exists and has been ready to launch since November (as you claim) get up off your arses, call MMORPG.com give them a beta key and ask them to review it! They've already asked you once and you refused, do it now before it's too late.

 As of now, it's January 21st in Greece, one day before the original official launch date for Europe (now the invite only limited access free trial/stress test beta).  We don't know anyhting more one day before the trial starts than wedi a month ago.  We don't know they system specs, how and from where to down load the client, how to create accounts or anything else.

If people are going to actually play on the 22nd, they need to release this information today.  If they wait until the 22nd, it'll be a mess.

~Ripper