Originally posted by Feather5

Spent my youth playing myth of soma and lom3 (europe) nostalgia.

Who were you on Mir3 mate? :)

EDIT: Argh, turns out that was posted at the beginning of the year, I read it as September 3rd this year. Curse you yanks date formatting! :P

Korean MMORPG's have always been far superior to western ones. It seems that these days, Koreans are the only people who stay true to the word MMO, with little or no instancing and a lively persistant open-PK world.

I haven't played a good western MMO since UO.

Americans are fucking the MMO genre over, and they're trying to take the Korean market down too. Look at TERA, had too many yanks on their dev team and it's instanced to fuck by the sounds of it.

It won't be shut down soon.
Darkfall (well, the company Aventurine SA) is one of the top 5 technological developments in Greece and have recieved multiple grants from their government. With the current state of the economy in Greece, Aventurine are (well they were, not sure about now I'm inactive and now they're not confirming what's going on with the wipe) recieving a few thousand monthly subscriptions internationally.
I don't think it'll go anywhere anytime soon, because by current Greek standards, they're a good company. If Darkfall 2.0 is a success (which bloody hell I hope it is) they'll be laughing.
The engine Darkfall has been made on was also created in-house and will apparently take only a couple of years for an entirely new game to be created on it.
Also if you look on http://www.aventurine.gr , you will notice some quite interesting things, and Darkfall isn't the only project this little company are working on. Click about, and then Projects at the side of that page.

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Past Commercial Projects
While Aventurine was formed to create Darkfall, along the way we chose to benefit from quick partnerships that allowed us to research and create technologies we wanted to use in the game.

 

- Partnership with defense contractor Kestrel Information and development of a real-time GIS security application for tracking commercial vessels in Greek territorial waters. The application is used by the Hellenic Coast Guard.

- Design of 3D real-time systems for the management and dissemination of geospatial data for military C4I systems. The current status of this project is classified.

- Consultants in a number of military and civilian projects.

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They've created programs for the Greek government and military.
If you read the Future Projects part, it also says they've got an undisclosed online game project in the planning stages, and are looking to lisence their engine to other MMO companies.
Look on the Sports section, they've even got sponsored fucking cars!
 
Not to mention since Darkfall's release Aventurine have re-located to a different (better) office building twice. So yeah, Aventurine is a pretty damn successful Greek company, so this post is complete speculatory nonsense.
The problem with Aventurine is that they're too fucking small, and are working on multiple projects with what? 60 people at most? But if you look on their jobs section, they're looking to hire people in practically every sector of the technology/v.games industry, which is great. Maybe their just aren't many in Greece, who knows?
 
But yeah, Aventurine aren't going anywhere, nor is Darkfall. And if they do run into financial difficulties, they're nutcupping the Greek government anyway.
Nice try OP.

Yeah, I'd be quite surprised if those hits have been generated legitimately too, but you never know.

In all seriousness though, who really gives a shit about a popularity counter anyway? Besides, look at all the other trash that's on that list, TOR... WoW... Rift...CoH..... Come on! However those games got so popular will always be a myth to me (well, maybe not star wars, because it's star wars).

This is great news :), depending on how it is after release I may even buy myself a copy.

Thanks for posting!

Really looking forward to this game.

Peoples main concern with open dungeons seems to be the boss camping issue... There are PLENTY of ways to eliminate boss camping without turning our MMO dungeons into a regular, co-op online RPG dungeon (which COMPLETELY kills the immersion. I don't understand the argument that instancing HELPS immersion, this baffles me infact).

A dungeon should have multiple bosses of similar difficulty, dropping different items. This design wouldn't exactly eliminate camping completely though, because if UberBoss drops the UberGlovesOfDestruction and DrunkenMonkiesClan wants to farm it to gear all their members, then camping is still gonna happen.

Here are some ways, right off the top of my head, to eliminate boss camping in open dungeons (and these are right off the top of my head, a developer could do much better I'm sure):

• A dungeon could have a (daily/weekly) time limit which each player is allowed inside for. After this time is up, you can't enter 'til tomorrow
• Once a person has killed a boss (or is member of a party/raid that has killed one), they should be denied access to the boss room of that boss. This could be done by making a gate to the boss room close (or a force field blocking entry) when it has been killed, so people who've killed it can't get in for the rest of the day/week. And this gate would only be seen by people who don't have access to that boss.
• Once a boss is killed, the party could be teleported outside the dungeon so they have to run through the mobs again to get to it (immersion breaking design, I don't actually like this too much).

Let's break away from the typical WoW/EQ style dungeons for a minute.

In my opinion, instances shouldn't be used in a dungeon centric MMO. Why? Because it encourages lazy, steamlined one-path-only dungeon design. Instead, dungeons should be large enough to accomodate multiple raid partys, and should have multiple boss rooms which can each be accessed via multiple paths, making it more unlikely that you end up bumping into another group or killing the same boss at the same time.

Also, create dungeon /shout chat, so each party/raid can organise themselves so that they do not encounter a boss at the same time. Obviously, some guilds would rather show up as someone else is attacking a boss and try to PK for the taking in this environment.

In my opinion, instancing should be used purely to help newer, low-level players in a PvP-centric game. If instancing is the main ingrediant of a games "endgame" (read: like WoW), then it is more of an online RPG than an MMO.

An MMO should be built around the fact that is plays within a persistant world, afterall isn't this the point of the genre?

Depends on the game. No one combat mechanic is indefinitely better than another, it depends on the mechanics of the game in question.

There are many ways to improve the targeting system though, I hope future releases that use this system doesn't follow the typical tab 'n' mash WoW trend.

They can spend as much of it as they like within the game, and trust me there are PLENTY of ways to launder large amounts of ISK like that to turn into $$$. Such as buying a v.high skilled character on the trade board and RMTing the account for example.

Not sure I should be discussing this here, but their are indeed ways to launder mass ISK.

Heared about this in Teamspeak.

Bet you they RMT'd all that ISK :P

Is it an MMO or is there instancing outside the towns? Just wondering this because the site says it's an action-RPG.

How's the PvP if their is any?

Gameplay looks quite nice

Originally posted by Madimorga

Originally posted by Pynda

 

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Originally posted by Fir3line

 

how does something like this happen? How cant you play online poker anymore, is there some sort of IP or CC ban?

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On the federal level there has been a ban on using financial institutions to transfer money to supposed internet 'gambling' sites, and then recently seizures of bank accounts and criminal charges of money laundering, racketeering, etc. filed. Consequently most poker sites are not accepting American players anymore. (Even though there was a Supreme Court decision made decades ago that ruled that poker was a game of skill and not gambling.) A new federal bill is before congress on the subject now, and a salient feature is that only multimillion dollar American gambling conglomerates who have been licensed for over a decade will be allowed to start any new online poker companies in which U.S. players will then be allowed to play.

[can you spell corruption?]

Furthemore, in my state a bill was passed making playing online poker a felony punishable by five years in prison. Apparently for my protection I'm supposed to go up the road and play at a casino for a minimum of 300X the amount of money I'm comfortable with wagering, and with rake rates that make losing nearly a foregone conclusion.

[spell corruption one more time please]

 

 

Oh, you live in that state.  My condolences.  For your protection, you're also far more likely to be robbed and murdered in the parking lot than if you'd had a winning night in front of the computer.

===OFF-TOPIC===

Errm, actually i'm a student currently on his summer break, and I have no job. Why? Because I make enough money to fund my social life playing online poker. In about 3 months of moderate playing (average about 10-30 hours a week I'd say) I've made just over £250 (probably almost $400? Not sure on exchange rate) according to PokerTracker and Holdem Indicator.

And I'm a beginner. I only turned 18 this Feburary (so haven't been able to play real poker online untill recant) and untill then I'd only ever played a bit of casual Poker with my dad. And I only play micro-stake tables too. Usually 2c/4c or 3c/6c, with the occasional 5c/10c when I've built up a deep enough bankroll.

I know it's not a lot of money compared to the time I spend playing, but that's the thing... I enjoy playing, fucking love it.

A handful of times I've been drunk and dicking around losing a £10 deposit in a single night too, I've recantly made a pact to not play whilst under the influence but that just shows what more I could've made.

If you do your research, invest in a software (tracker / calculator, or both), talk to the pro's and become involved in the Poker community, online Poker can be fairly profitable, and fun. As long as you learn to realise when you're playing on tilt (when this happens, stop. For the rest of the day minimum).

Could I make a profit in a real-world Casino? Doubt it.

Sorry for the massive Off-topic reply, but I don't like hearing people saying "online poker is a scam blah blah", last person who said that I let her come over and watch me play, now she's playing herself, and I have also benefited very much through having something in common with this girl :P

===ON-TOPIC===

Apart from online Poker, which I don't class as a video game, bit too serious - I'm playing EVE. And yesterday I bought Terraria, which is basically like a 2D Minecraft, but I actually think it's better than Minecraft overall. The crafting is very good(more shit to make than Minecraft, some really cool stuff), and the gameplay (combat etc) reminds me of the Castlevania series on the SNES.

Brilliant game if you're looking for a semi-casual non-MMO sandbox to play with ya mates.

Originally posted by Requiamer

Originally posted by poythres

Originally posted by Ghost12

Originally posted by Robokapp

Originally posted by Lidane

Originally posted by Robokapp

in WoW the body dies, then returns to life upon merging with the spirit. that's temporary death.

in EVE the body dies, then stays dead for ever. that's permanent death.

 

the spirit however is immune to death and eternal. in both.

What a load of crap. In BOTH cases, you get a new body for your "spirit". Ergo, neither game has perma-death.

Perma-death implies that death is PERMANENT. In case you forgot what the word means, that means no new body. No reincarnation. No passing your gear and money to descendants or clones of your character. You die, and that's it.

 according to whom?

In using the term "permadeath" it refers to the permanent deletion of your character upon death. Some MUD's had this back in the day, but I dont know any instance of an MMO employing this. Its pretty stupid, IMO. I dont even think hardcore PKs would play it.

And honestly what is the big deal with full loot. Few MMO's have full loot and IMO its a bit extreme, and I consider myself a PvP'r. Asheron's Call and Shadowbane had it right, with Partial Loot. You drop a couple valuble items on you randomly, viola, that is a system I would love. The right balance of risk and reward. These current themeparks where you keep all your items is not for me, makes death meaningless.

Just to hop in - this is the correct definition of permadeath in this context. It's a gaming term - Diablo (1 or 2? I forget) had it for Hardcore ladder players for example - you die, lose your character, it's gone forever.

It is a pretty brutal tactic. Full-loot means you lose what you're carrying, Perma-death means you lose everything you've worked on, on that char up to that point.

Haven and Hearth does have permadeath, mostly - however you can create a "descendant" char that gets 25% of your old char's experience to start. 25% is really not that much though - think about restarting at level ~20 in WoW after your max-level char dies.

Ye they are quiet a few nuance now into the perma death feature. There is also the good arcade perma death on life counter that is a nice idea too. I'm still waiting for a good perma death mmo, one that will be centered into rping.

This is a reply directed towards the entire perma-death conversation as a whole:

EVE does infact contain both of your definitions of perma-death. If you forget to clone yourself in EVE, say goodbye to years worth of skills if you get pod-killed. Your character will be completely reset like a day 1 character, and you're fucked.

My definition of endgame? Well if you really want my answer: Shit.

Any MMO which has what they refer to as "endgame" is a restricted game with linear progression, which implys the game will eventually "end".

An MMO should be what you make of it, there shouldn't be a set path which you follow to the end and eventually complete.

Full loot PvP brings out more emotions, and gives death a meaning.

I see it like this... What's the point of doing a PvP instance (lets say in WoW) over and over, when I know exactly what the outcome is going to be (reward), and where there is no element of surprise. I don't see any fun in it, sure lets say you fight hard and win the battle, nice you get some honour points, but if you lose it doesn't matter, infact it's good! You still get a few points, you don't care too much.

This simply translates to time/money = satisfaction (a very predictable, linear formula). You know what else follows this formula? Drugs. You spend your time and money, get the reward, and gain satisfaction in exchange for health/social problems. The new generation of MMOs follows a similar formula. Enough about that, that's a whole new ballgame.

Did I also mention that when I kill somebody I want to know I've caused an impact. When we roam in EVE, and say blow up 2 billion ISK (nearly $100 worth) worth of a spaceship, I love watching all that other assholes money just going BOOM! In one big, fiery explosion. It gives me something to laugh about, it gives me events to remember, and all these great kills, (and great losses) bring you so close to your CORP mates, because you're going through all this together.

Not to mention that people are much more careful in a full loot environment, people don't just start an encounter they may lose for the shits and lulz, because they're gonna lose shit.

In a full loot PvP game, heading into battle / looking for a fight / having a fight with your friends by your side have been the best gaming experiences I've had. No themepark MMO, which has been created purely to milk cash from people who just love wasting their time to get pointless little pixel rewards can bring me memorable events like that of a full loot sandbox.

I like the adrenalin of risking my pixels in order to gain somebody elses. One day I might lose gold/ISK, and one day I might gain. But I will always try my best to win my fights, so I can afford to fight another day without having to grind or borrow money to get back on the battlefield.

Peace!

Yes, most definitely.

Those nay sayers don't understand the effects of Cocaine on a Quake 3 Arena player. :D

EDIT: Forgot to mention nothing like a fat joint when playing online poker. I find I make better decisions whilst high even though weed is supposed to do the opposite.

Professional gaming tournaments where big money is involved, should do drug tests yes. Their are drugs that are pretty darn easy to get hold of that greatly improve reaction speed, concentration and hand-eye coordination.

Originally posted by Chilliesauce

Originally posted by Adam1902

There's a difference between a 'PvE player' and a carebear.

Carebears believe that another players actions in the game world shouldn't effect theirs, this is the 'mainstream PvE player', and yes these people are exactly what you described, because they want harc restrictions on their game. They WANT "You cannot attack this player". Nowadays these people are called PvE players, I call 'em carebears.

There are PvE players who exist who do not want these hard restrictions in place.

It is amazing that even now people put labels on eachother.  Carebears? really? i really doubt that you know anything about 'mainstream PvE players'.

Infact, I have done my share of mainstream PvE. I was a fully equipped Tier 2 tank in vanilla WoW, but I ended up leaving soon after The Burning Crusade for a couple of reasons:

1) The raids were not only incredibly easy, but required less people, and this made it much less fun for me

2) I started to miss the encounters with other groups in boss rooms, I miss fighting over bosses.

So yeah, I'd say I know a fair bit about mainstream PvE. And I know that not only do these gamers want restrictions, they also want even the PvE elements of the game to be made easier (as proven by WoW).