The history of Darkfall, by and large is a history of trolling. Not the Darkfall fans or players, but from other people. The first people to start trolling Darkfall were the Age of Conan fanboys(lol).

It started when one of the AoC developers started making a bunch of accounts on various forums across the net to promote that Darkfall was vaporware. He may have gotten away with it at first, but he made the mistake of trying to do the same on the Darkfall boards themselves. The community lead, Brannoc, tracked his IP back to Funcom HQ and called him out to his superiors. A public apology was made, but the damage was done. People who followed Age of Conan would occasionaly hear someone mention "Darkfall", to which the AoC sheep following would say "lol vaporware". I was briefly one of those sheep. In 2006, after my dissapointment that Middle Earth Online had been warped into... LotRO... I followed AoC. I heard people mentioning Darkfall, and it was quickly followed by "VAPORZ!! LOLOLOL", so I started doing the same, cause I figured "Oh it must just be common knowledge". 

When Age of Conan started to smell fishy in late 2006, I decided to look up what exactly Darkfall was (if only more trolls had done the same). I saw the feature list and said "Oh man, that's quite ambitious, I'd love for this game to come out, too bad it's vaporware." Then I went on the forums, and read the developer updates, and it became quickly apparent that the game was completely authentic and that, once again, I was faced with the fact that the internet is full of STUPID people. I officially joined up with the Forumfallers. (not that anyone really cares)

Over the next 3 years, especially on THESE boards, people came up with the most elaborate excuses as to why Darkfall was fake. The conspiracy theories would have put the Lizardmen believing New World Order nuts to shame. Several dozen posters just dedicated themselves to derailing and flaming every Darkfall thread that came up. Eventually, some members of the Darkfall community decided to argue back. A few of them, however, were a little overzealous, and did more harm than good, but most argued logically and gave plenty of evidence and feedback supporting their arguments. However, we're working with trolls here....

Some troll tried to google Earth the Aventurine office address, and said that they found no trace of any building and that it was a fake address. Later, it was found, that the moron had translated the name of a Greek street incorrectly and was searching somewhere on the other side of Athens. 

More trolls swore up and down that Darkfall could never, ever ever handle 50 man battles with twitch combat, much less the advertised hundred and two hundred man battles. Arrows would NEVER actually FLY across the map, there must be some kind of targetting. There couldn't POSSIBLY be collision detection. 

Conspiracies were made as fast as they died, the trolling community grew, and they grew angry, because they sensed the battle slipping away from them. 

Then, the 20 minute video came out, August 2008. All trolls vanished all at once from the boards. Many new people flooded the Darkfall forums. It took just a few weeks before several trolls started popping up again, saying that the battles were scripted, that the graphics don't really look like that, that it was all done with Gary's Mod and doesn't prove the game was real. But the number of trolls was greatly lessened.

Then, come September, beta went into operation. The trolls tried to have a field day with this. There were very very few leaks from this beta in the early days, so trolls figured that must mean there was no beta at all! It was all just a scam, they knew it all along! A few leaks popped up, but that was counter intuitive to the troll argument, so they ignored the evidence. 

Come time for semi-open beta in January, the Darkfall forums got DDOSed. The trolls claimed that it was all Aventurine's inside job, so that they wouldn't have to send out beta invitations. The irony is, the day the servers got DDOSed, I got my beta invitation, and was playing one of the smoothest betas I've ever been a part of. (sadly, launch was not the same story, I concede). 

Trolls went nuts, screaming that they knew it all along, Darkfall was a big scam!! and then... the forums came back up, aw, trolls silenced again. 

Fast forward to game launch, most of the trolls decided, their fight was lost, so they had to go covert. They are among us now, making new accounts almost daily on the Darkfall and MMORPG boards thinking they can pass as subscibers. They made half attempts at trolling features they didn't fully understand, or had only read about, and this carries on to this day.

With the launch of the North American servers, and the first free expansion(a la Eve Online), the forums will mostly locked to anyone who doesn't have a subscription. The game will continue to grow and get constructive feedback, because I've never seen anyone as critical with their game as the Darkfall fanbase. They pull apart every detail. 

So now, with the expansion being patched in, and North American servers a few days away, this has been long long LONG in coming. To all the trolls that still are sad and hurt that the game actually came out, and try their best to flog and bring down an INDIE developer MMO, that managed to do more than the vast majority of MMOs in the past 6 years I TOLD YOU SO. The game is out, it's growing, and though you tried DDOS, fake reviews, flaming, derailing threads, lies and slander, the game is doing fine.

I'm not really a pvp guy, but I'm glad to see DF getting a big patch (or expansion, whatever).  I enjoyed the open world and the harvesting/crafting, and now that housing has made an appearance, I'll be resubbing and probably moving to the North American server.

Hopefully AV will continue to flesh out the game for many years to come.

Cheers.

Originally posted by SignusM

 (Snip) and bring down an INDIE developer MMO, that managed to do more than the vast majority of MMOs in the past 6 years (Snip)

Managed to do more what?

Just curious.

I was gonna waste this little jewl on Darh but your even better.

SIGNUS please stop your holy crusade for Aventurine. The time to mock us nay sayers is when the "expansion" goes live and it completes the game and it is so polished that the sheer shine of it reaches across the whole world even to the darkest corners where computors are unheard of.

And all bow down to Tasos and beg to be forgiven for their doubt and blasphemy. But he says "Nay for you did not believe in me and my gosple and the greatness of Darkfall shalt never be yours to behold."

And Tasos puts a banner across the top of the Darkfall login page, "Only those who believed may enter." And he calls unto him his faithful fanbots and he singles you out in particular and he says, "Signus you were my greatest follower, thou did bear scorn and ridicule in the darkest days and thou did preach my gosple to the haters and trolls and blasphemers who spat upon you.

"And for thy faith and survitude thou shalt be exualted amoung the nations of Agon and you shall take your rightful place at my right hand and feast upon the blood of noobs for all etrnity."

And then all the haters and trolls (Like me) are cast into deep pits andTHEN you can look down your nose at us and say, "NOOBZ! I  TOLD  u so!"

Untill then please shaddup... at this point the expansion has not yet been proven and the game is on the edge of a precipice one wrong move and it falls to its death...... its not "Out and growing" its barely hanging on and it desperatly needs a shot in the arm so it can start crawling upwards again.

• it was definitely Funcom's faullt that Darkfall spent so many years in development, had silent periods, never had open beta, missed at least one other beta years before and failed to launch as "feature complete" as Tasos said it was.
• It's the trolls' fault that Aventurine seemed to launch a game that was barely beta quality.
• How many subscribers does Darkfall have?  Not many.  You even posted at one point that it was 13k+ (and your post was subsequently removed, by you or somebody else).  Is that doing fine, financially, considering how much time and money Aventurine hsa spent?
• How much are you paid to moderate the game's IRC?  You're not paid?  I guess they're not sharing their financial windfall with their loyal volunteer moderators

While I agree with you that the trolls, on both sides, were and continue to be ridiculous (which is funny, since you're trolling), your "I told you so" is misplaced.  Any reasonable person could see that the game was in development.  the real questions were whether or not it would ever go live, be good and/or be successful.

• It went live, albeit in a beta state, IMO.  Congrats!  That's an accomplishment in itself, especially for an indie developer.
• There are good, fun aspects to it, but ultimately it's flawed and needs more work.  After so many years spanning concept and development, Aventurine should have hit a home run, but they didn't. The "expansion", if it's good, takes the game out of beta status, IMO.  Let's see how well the game does from this point forward?
• Is it successful at this point in time? it depends how you define success.:
  • Yes, Aventurine successfully delivered "a game", but it was a shadow of the game they promised.  Core elements like PvP and skill leveling were there, but even they weren't really ready for launch, as evidenced by the numerous tweaks in the patches after launch (hence it's "paid beta" designation by many actual players, much less "trolls").
  • Have they delivered a completely new and innovative experience?  Not exactly, so they're not particularly succesful in that regard (we'll see how villages play out - they  look promising).  Yes, the game is diferent than JAWC (Just another WoW clone) and that's both commendable and refreshing.  I also think it's necessary for the industry, as a whole, but we'll have to wait and see if it's good enough and different enough to really take hold and be truly successful.
  • Are they financially successful?  Its tough to say, since neither their sales nor their subscriber numbers are public, but it appears that their total maximum subscriber count is extremely low by MMO standards.  Based on Tasos' comments of recouping their 10 Million EUR development costs by 2010, the number of resources they have devoted to the game, their time and development costs, overhead, etc...I don't see how they could be considered financially successful with under 15k subscribers.

Ultimately, your entire argument comes out to "neener-neener, I'm right, you're all wrong", except that you're not right, at least based on the arguments you've presented. Instead, all you've really done is--once again--demonstrate a lack of maturity and professionalism as one of the official Darkfall community staff.

~Ripper

P.S. KingsIsle is an indie company, comprised of many ex-Shadowbane developers, and they were able to deliver a quality, polished product in substantially less time and it's far, far more successful than Darkfall will probaby ever be. On top of that, they delivered an innovative combat system in Wizard101. So, "neener-neener" back at you ;).

The Game is growing? Are you the record keeper?Where are you getting your info from?If you cant prove it by legal document then you no better than Taoes..= Liars

Personally, I don't know if Darkfall will succeed or fail, I simply don't care really. I'm just surprised that it actually did launch, so kudos to Aventurine. As for their business practices, well, they pretty much rank up there with Mourning and Dark and Light, which I wouldn't touch with a 100 mile fiber optic. So ya, I'm glad Darkfall is your heaven of all games but Aventurine is the portion of the problem that pissed me off, not the game itself.

I understand being a fan of a game and enjoying it, but you seem to be very impressionable, and even say so since you mention believing the vaporware hype before. Now you believe the hype that this game is growing and fantastic, next month you'll believe another hype and make posts on that one.

The game is still tiny, majority of people who play MMOs still hate it or will never try it. It is a tiny niche game and will always be tiny. Leave it at that, they wanted a setup that could only allow 10,000 people to play at once, clearly they didn't even want it to be big.

So instead of preaching away how everyone was wrong, get a grip on what the game actually is and what it will always beL a tiny niche game that most people would rate poorly and not play.

at least AV is trying to fix there game and put in what hey promised the game would have!

and not like AOC and WAR fighting to keep there subs making the games worse then they already are...

and yes there are more players coming to DF everybody knows there are not more players right now because not everybody can spend 50 bucks to check out a game without a trial or Demo!

how can we prove it? we read the boards on DF forums there are questions spamming about how to get a account and when will NA launch so what more prove do you want?

also the resub posts since yesterday launched threw the roof!

game is growing ? LOL yeah right.  This game is destin to be the next dark and light.

Originally posted by SnarlingWolf

I understand being a fan of a game and enjoying it, but you seem to be very impressionable, and even say so since you mention believing the vaporware hype before. Now you believe the hype that this game is growing and fantastic, next month you'll believe another hype and make posts on that one.

 

The game is still tiny, majority of people who play MMOs still hate it or will never try it. It is a tiny niche game and will always be tiny. Leave it at that, they wanted a setup that could only allow 10,000 people to play at once, clearly they didn't even want it to be big.

 

So instead of preaching away how everyone was wrong, get a grip on what the game actually is and what it will always beL a tiny niche game that most people would rate poorly and not play.

Just /signed... that would have been my words. ^^

Originally posted by Thendil

at least AV is trying to fix there game and put in what hey promised the game would have!

and not like AOC and WAR fighting to keep there subs making the games worse then they already are...

and yes there are more players coming to DF everybody knows there are not more players right now because not everybody can spend 50 bucks to check out a game without a trial or Demo!

how can we prove it? we read the boards on DF forums there are questions spamming about how to get a account and when will NA launch so what more prove do you want?

also the resub posts since yesterday launched threw the roof!

People are excited about the NA release. However 300 THOUSAND people signed up for beta (According to Tasos) untill the game has a large, stable subcriber base it is far, far, FAR to early to proclaim victory. If the patch (Or expansion as some insist on calling it) is lackluster and fails to deliver what it promises watch the number of rage quitting threads sky rocket.

Just read they delayed the weather part...

Maybe other stuff will be "delayed" who knows...

The game may recover and do well despite the business practices of Adventurine, but its  still teetering of the brink of shutting down. You didnt tell us anything except that you dont like people criticising your game.

Originally posted by Thendil

at least AV is trying to fix there game and put in what hey promised the game would have!

and not like AOC and WAR fighting to keep there subs making the games worse then they already are...

and yes there are more players coming to DF everybody knows there are not more players right now because not everybody can spend 50 bucks to check out a game without a trial or Demo!

how can we prove it? we read the boards on DF forums there are questions spamming about how to get a account and when will NA launch so what more prove do you want?

also the resub posts since yesterday launched threw the roof!

I know..Df has to many problems.. If Taoes think he can throw the player a bone i mean a expansion they would think they are doing something good for the players...As for AOC and WAR..What you stated is moot! Df is no different! Oh and talk is cheap on a forum..Legal document of what they (DF) has is another story...I know i cant get the actual figures from Europe..But once they hit the states here.. it is a open record..

Mod edit spelling..

If the OP would take a look in the mirror he'd see the image of a troll that he seems to so despise.

But even worse, he's gloating over such hollow  victories.

Yes, the game came out (finally), on one server, and would be lucky to have 10K subs still active on it.  There are closed beta's with more people in them.

Yes, the game supports 1000 people fighting at one time.  Of course the combat model has most everyone circle knife fighting so its not much of an accomplishment.

Sure, lots of people are enjoying playing DF.  So much so that they spend most of their time macroing their skills because its too boring and tediious to actually do it yourself.

And that NA server launch that existing EU players are going to have to pay to join,  probably has done more harm in stripping away the core fanbase than any 100K posts made by trolls.

So enjoy your "victory" I guess, seems a bit pyrrhic to me.

Originally posted by Aguitha

game is growing ? LOL yeah right.  This game is destin to be the next dark and light.

I see the trolls are still strong with this one.  Many of the same people who swore the game didn't exist are still bashing it now. Wonder if they even ever played it or gave it a chance, or were ever interested. Ah well, guess you can't teach a troll new tricks. Same exact people in 2007 screaming Aventurine was working with Gmod are now blathering on about nonsense still. Cute :)

Read a majority of the posts, most of them are completely uninformed, and many of them are just hate/anger mongering for no apparent reason. A few good points were brought up though. Sadly, this is the story of the game. Dig through a pile of garbage to find some actual information. Thanks trolls.

Despite whatever you might want to say, despite how many times you said it would never happened, the game launched in a stable state, with the vast majority of promised features (85%ish) and no amount of trolling will change that. And yes, subscriptions are growing, hence why a new server is being opened. 

Originally posted by Krayzjoel

The game may recover and do well despite the business practices of Adventurine, but its  still teetering of the brink of shutting down. You didnt tell us anything except that you dont like people criticising your game.

Um.. my game? You can't even spell the name of the company correctly, why bother posting?

This is nothing more than a gloat post to all the idiots who swore the game would never ever release. I see it's a good troll magnet, as I expected it to be, but no one cares anymore, don't know why you continue the act. 

Originally posted by hoopty

The Game is growing? Are you the record keeper?Where are you getting your info from?If you cant prove it by legal document then you no better than Taoes..= Liars

It's not even like these are hard names to spell. Aventurine is a precious gem, people have no reason to spell it "Adventurine" and I've seen a simple name, TASOS, spelled Tacos, Taoes, Toes, it's just sad. 

There is an in game log of how many people are playing, there were about 17k on last I checked I believe. So yeah, I'd say that's growing. And for those saying "That's nothing! WoW this and WoW that!" Darkfall was never meant to be anything more than a niche game, and considering it only cost about 10M euros to make, it won't take a hell of a long time to earn back and make a profit. Unlike Age of Conan, who is still in debt, with one of their companies already being bankrupt. 

No one wanted Darkfall to be another WoW clone, so long as there's enough population for fighting and competetive play, we're all happy. 

Considering that SignusM is volunteer moderator at the DarkFall forums, his posts should be construed as 100% pure shill.