The ultimate hardcore revolutionary PvP game that took 10 years to develop is actually one of the worst PvE grind games with only end game PvP content, oh the delicious irony and the final insult to anyone who supported this game hoping it would actually be anything like what was promised.

I can understand why so many people spent years defending this games developers for all their abysmal faults and making increasingly elaborate excuses for all there failings because there was always the small chance that they might actually pull it of or maybe some of it, but to see some of the same people now going so low as to be supporting Darkfalls PvE based gameplay is incredible.

Darkfall is a PvE MMO, just think about that for a minute.

Darkfall is primarily about grinding stats and resources from PvE gameplay.

You can only participate competitively in the PvP aspects of the game after grinding the required amount of PvE content.

In this so called PvP sandbox game about freedom you are obligated to first endure months of PvE grinding and you are required to join a "good" clan and meet any other number of criteria stated before you can start playing with the sand without getting your face repeatedly stomped into it.

There are no hackers
Servers have a healthy and growing population
Games a sandbox
Join a (good) guild
There is no PvE grind.
Game is awesome best ever

Did I miss anything?

Oh yes anyone still playing this game who has themselves endured this painful PvE experience and has high stats should continue to inform prospective new players that there is no grind and stats don't matter and that they are at fault for everything.

To add insult to injury there are currently and have been many other MMO's on the market that have offered much more accessible and rewarding PvP gameplay options without the stupendous PvE grind requirements that this so called premier PvP game requires, there are even (shock horror) some that don't require any grind whatsoever.

Why would anyone actually interested in PvP play Darkfall?.

Most of the people I see now defending the game actually seem more interested in preserving the advantage they have gained from grinding stats on mobs or misleading new players into thinking they can be competitive without doing so.

There is nothing hidden about this game now, of though of course ironically it was hidden for almost its entire development period.

Don't fool yourself into thinking this game is not a success purely because it is not well known enough or has not gotten enough exposure, nothing could be further from the truth, the problem is the majority of that exposure has been negative.

For the best part of a decade the developers themselves and to a much greater extent their followers have been espousing the virtues of this incredible next generation title as the second coming and the best thing since sliced bread, generating far more buzz and hype then any other independently developed MMO has enjoyed and even more then some mainstream games have achieved.

Basically nearly everyone who is interested and might play a game like Darkfall, most of the hundreds of thousands of people that have played games like UO, AC, Shadowbane, SWG, Eve Online etc. already know or have heard about Darkfall, they make up the over 300 thousand people who signed up for the not so open beta and who are still waiting for the promised free trial.

Whether or not this game is a gem is a matter of opinion, but hoping that this game will really kick off after it gets more advertisement is futile, as the developers themselves said many times over the past decade, they believe that Darkfall will speak for itself, well it did finally speak with a rather pathetic whimper almost drowned out by the howls of derision , frustration and laughter.

And now coming up to a year after launch some people (troll haters) only hear the beep beep of life support, and the fact that there still is no free trial a year after launch adds insult to injury, this game only caters to a tiny niece of an already small niece that is already dominated by Eve Online.

Darkfall was at its peak for launch (if you want to call 10-15k subscribers a peak or rather mole hill) its only been down hill from then, the developers are obviously improving the game, but when you have so much that needs improvement that's hardly something to be boasting about, but at least the game has not been canceled ( which is yet another reason why this game is such a tremendous success to some people).

Of course if you consider any MMO that actually manages to launch a success then I suppose you will probably consider Darkfall one, but of course many of this games supporters are willing to lower their expectations and standards to any level so that they can do so.

Only way to save this game from obscurity and stagnation is a free trial but of course only if the game is acutally as good as the current few thousand long term subscribers and honey mooners keep saying it is not to mention the developers, there is simply not enough people currently to sustain a healthy game population and community, this games retention rate is abysmal and its possibly even more unforgiving for new players then Eve Online, and it has one if not the worst reputations.

Darkfall could of proved all the troll haters and critics wrong with an open beta but they choose not to, they again could of done so with a free trial, but what have they done so fare?, ran a trial promotion in a Greek Gaming magazine, now that demonstrates the kind of confidence they have in their product.

It appears Darkfalls developers currently consider the future for their game and any potential growth will only be possible domestically in Greece at this time.

 The only thing that will save this game from fading further into obscurity and infamy and its current steady decline in subscription numbers is a free trial and/or a much more reasonable client cost, getting it on Steam would also be helpful but I think that's very doubtful.

This game with no free trial, an upfront cost of 50$'s for a torrent client download, a terrible reputation for poor community relations, lackluster or worse reviews, and its current state is simply not competitive, its only catering to a niece of a niece a cost commiserate with the budget independent work in progress title it actually is would make it a lot more attractive.

As predicted a year after launch this is a repeat of WW2 online or any of the many other indy over hyped under delivering games of the last decade,Terrible launch in an unfinished untested state and the subsequent exodus of the majority of the community have dealt a mortal blow that very few games recover from, Darkfall can struggle on and probably will for years due to the relatively lower costs in Greece and the total investment made with around 10k subscribers but will never grow substantially best case scenario is stagnation.

A waste considering the potential for a game of this type and a sad joke considering the expectations of the believers and the proclamations of the developers over its decade long gestation and then abortion.

I was finally thinking of actually trying the game again to see how much it had improved or not, and there was obviously a lot of room for improvement but when I saw Eve Online for a few dollars on steam a few weeks ago offering the opportunity to return to the game again after many years the choice was obvious.

I don't think there will be an international free trial because the game only appeals to a few thousand people, the developers know this and this is why they have kept the game secret for so many years and constantly lied about its true state of development, did a closed beta, only lifted the NDA shortly before release, and offered preorders, and are still asking 50$'s for the game.

The reason why they are offering a free trial only in Greece is because the domestic market is much less competitive and standards are lower, internationally Darkfall is minnow but in Greece its the only fish in the pond.

Darkfall could very well enjoy the same levels of success as Turkeys domestic smash hit sensation Knight Online, hopefully these two impressive tittles will continue to thrive and provide encouragement to all aspiring first time developers of those country's.

Seriously guys I'm sure the next expansion and the transfers and boxed version that are hopefully coming very soon will totally change things, not that they need changing because games fine, population is fine, Aventurine are fine, community is fine, everythings fine.

You might think that more people having read this thread then are actually playing at peak time on either of the servers or this forum having more people reading it then Darkfall has subscribers are a bad thing, but it actually shows how much interest their still is in this groundbreaking revolutionary advanced next generation title.

See what Aventurine are doing is slowly working on improving the game until its absolutely perfect then WHAM! they will hit us with the 1 year launch anniversary free trial and will totally blow away all of the 300,000 troll haters that have deserted them with its best game evar awesomeness, then we will all be playing it and holding hands singing kumbaya and weeping about how wrong we were to doubt Aventurine and apologizing for being horrible little troll haters.

Just like Eve Online, Darkfall will grow slowly at first but then rapidly increase its player base and finally start receiving the incredibly positive mainstream press reviews it truly deserves.

The Xfire numbers will prove this, mark my words.

So in closing a heart felt thanks to all the hardcore elite brave patient persistent old school gamers who have kept the faith all these years and fought the good fight to keep the dream alive, your efforts will be rewarded and this game will be the tremendous success we all in are deepest hearts know it is destined to be.

Darkfall will not go quietly into the night, oh no! It will be reborn like a phoenix from these ashes and will rise into internet gaming history as the single most important piece of entertainment software of the 21st century, Aventurine will eventually be acclaimed for their genius, perhaps not in are lifetimes but in some distant more enlightened time.

Please don't give up, keep your subscriptions going and convince as many people as possible you can to keep playing this incredible success by any standards game even though we don't need you anyway this game is obviously not for you go back to WoW.

Darkfall has over 10 thousand concurrent players per game world, and the largest MMORPG battles ever - involving thousands.

If all the conclusive evidence presented so far in the form of the numerous screenshots, videos and player testimonials has not convinced you that this is in fact the case, then check the website if you don't believe me and Tasos, its on the official website so it must be true, as everything on the official website has always been true.

Remember Darkfall is also massive by design so it surely must likewise have a massive amount of players or that would be a serious design flaw, and the Darkfall developers are flawless as many of their friends have repeatedly been telling us for years, so it probably does.

And don't believe Xfire numbers they are lies and mean nothing unless they indicate a rise, optimistic anecdotal unsubstantiated subjective story's about rapidly growing and healthy server populations are all you need to pay attention to unless you are a troll hater.

Dont know how many other people are doing this but if you are new to the game and are not sure about investing money yet you can still get access to a reasonable amount of extra content before paying.

All you have to do is keep making new characters on several servers.

Play the first 2 slots on any server to around level 4-6 each and you will have around 200-300 free points to spend.

Keep an eye on the special offers each day and wait until they are 20% off a lower level dungeon pack before getting it

Then start on another server and repeat, but wait until another offer and get another dungeon pack for free.

I've only been playing since the game has gone F2P casually and have 3 dungeon packs from free points doing this, and have only used 3 servers so far, theoretically you could even get some of the higher level dungeon packs doing this.

The more you do it the less repetitive the game becomes because you have access to more content, not to mention you can try out some wacky builds and experiment whilst getting free content before you decide which character you want to play further.

 This game reminded me of Spore.

The character creator is the best part and everything else after that is mediocre and repetitive at best, the only reason why you would be motivated to play threw the same identical content again was if you wanted to see what a different character played like, personally the game did not motivate me enough to attempt this more then a few times before I lost interest.

The game being yet another massive single player online game did not help either, UI is awful and pvp is unbalanced and the usual tacked on as an after thought rubbish.

And 6/10 is fair, its the over inflated hyped up based on "potential" reviews that most MMO's get its being compared to that are at fault, this is just another slightly above average game with very limited re-playability that is currently flavor of the month which will experience at least a 50% drop in subscribers after the first month.

Originally posted by thinktank001

Originally posted by kobietruman

as the english would say (at least the ones i've seen on t.v.) "not bloody likely"

  

 

 

From what I understand is the preorders only gave them enough cash to run the game thru Q4 09.   It has to release sometime then or they will have to try to open up another beta server ( or more slots on the current one ) to make more cash.   Unless they get a nice anonymous donor.

They can just keep offering new waves of pre orders and then delaying them for the chance to participate in various stages of "beta" testing with various exciting bonus goodies that may or may not actually ever be received whenever they need more money.

They started at 50$'s which was a bit steep but they obviously wanted to start by skimming of the cream, if they drop down to 25$'s a pop I'm sure they will get a whole new even larger gaggle of excited eager beavers biting at the bit for the incredible once in a life time chance to become the MMO philanthropist investor tester developers of their dreams.

I mean as long as they are being totally honest about the state of the current game and what any prospective customers can expect from the current state or the game I'm sure the actual release state of the game or the possible eventual non release of the game will not actually be their responsibility if you did not read what you were buying.

As long as they continue being totally honest and communicating regularly on twitter with their customers they have never lied, If they mysteriously stop being totally honest and stop communicating regularly on twitter with their customers some time around the possible release or non release of the game then that would be your fault for not reading what you were buying.

Just a reminder if you have already had the enormous privilege of paying for the chance to beta test this game please don't attempt to cancel your order and charge back on your credit card, you could go to jail or get sued by Star vault or worse, so just say no and don't do it you evil heartless morons , and just wait patiently for your tin box and T-shirt that I'm sure is coming very soon along with the finished game.

Remember Starvault have never lied, you just did not read what you were buying, so its all your ignorant fault.

Darkfall has the largest world of any MMO ever,excluding all the ones that are larger that don't count because there not hand crafted.

With over 10,000 concurrent players per server participating in the largest MMO battles ever involving thousands, all you need is a good imagination and some wishful thinking to experience them.

It also offers the ultimate left click circle strafe AOE spam PvP action and that's the reason why its the #1 choice of top players and clans, if Darkfall is not your #1 choice then you are obviously not a top player or a member of a top clan like me.

But be warned that PvP is everywhere but its with accountability, so don't worry about the pointless ganking and griefing without consequences you might of experienced in every other so called PvP MMO.

Also there's no leveling , you just improve the skills you use, so you can finally say goodbye to the monotonous level grind found in so many other inferior titles.

If you don't believe me do some research and read the official website, or ask Tasos and his friends, or any of the few people left that are not troll haters.

Did I mention that its roleplaying mouth breathing strategy shooter adrenaline rush nerd rage politics in a MMO, truly massive by design, its obvious why Darkfall is currently one of it not the most rapidly increasing MMO on the market.

Patch and second expansion coming in October or soon, please play, we promise we wont charge you a third time for the game.

This is all indisputable because you can't disprove it only speculate and hate rage, I saw it with my own eyes and Tasos has the logs to prove it.

No sorry, Darkfall subs are rapidly increasing, Javacfact.

If subs were decreasing then Darkfall would not be a tremendous success, but because its a tremendous success we know that subs are definitely rapidly increasing.

This has already been conclusively proven 100% many times by multiple verifiable and highly credible sources, only troll haters think subs are decreasing.

I logged in and all the towns I visited were bustling with activity I must of seen at least 10 people afk macoring and bloodwalling per hour, and there were at least 4 or 5 new players at the goblins before I ganked them until they logged.

If you were not completely ignorant and actually did some research on this game before making this pointless pathetic wall of text about nothing post you would understand that the vast majority of the above 10,000 concurrent players playing at anyone time on both the US and EU server don't use X fire because it causes lag in game when you unsheathe your Johnson.

Ignore this thread and its lies, they are only the machinations of the troll hater blizzard employee brigade, White Border commands it.

I have informed Tasos about this fowl indiscretion and he is preparing another 10 paragraph nerd rage diatribe on the evils of X fire and all who frequent its fettered domain, he has asked me to personally thank all the US customers who paid for this awesome best game ever again as well as another much deserved 1 month holiday for the Aventurine team (interns excluded).

Remember another awesome massive expansion is in the works and will surely be coming soon or soon after, so keep subscribing, but if your not, then we don't need you anyway and this game was obviously not for you, and don't forget another patch will probably hopefully fix the game and maybe some more exploits and hacks or not that don't exist because I've never seen them anyway or possibly only once.

True story, Ed Zitron used Xfire when reviewing Darkfall, let that be a lesson to you on the dangers of this perfidious software.

And that is so true, LOL, just because a lot of people only play for the free month or stop playing soon after does not mean they have also stopped subscribing, that's just another crazy hair brained conspiracy theory from a pathetic clueless troll hater.

Actually I'm not going to even bother arguing.

TROLL

Originally posted by Ajmags

AV is a dishonest Company and Quite frankly I hope there game fails .

I was one of the biggest fan boys these theives had and they lied and Deceived I cant deal with people like that.

Not only that but the game is boring and severely lacking in content.

 

No sir you have failed , Aventurine is an honest company, and quite frankly Tasos hopes you will go away now that he has your money.

The only people who have lied and deceived are the troll haters like you.

Game is not boring because I think its the best game ever and it has sandbox freedom politics adrenaline rush potential content.

You obviously have never even played Darkfall and are not hardcore enough but the games not for you anyway , we don't need/want you.

In the unlikely event that there's anyone still questioning Javacs figures, more irrefutable evidence that Darkfalls subs are indeed definitely increasing rapidly:

The new website update is clear a sign of a game that's subs are increasing rapidly, you can see for yourself that not only is Darkfall the #1 choice of top players and clans, it also has over 10 thousand concurrent players per game world and it has the largest MMORPG battles ever - involving thousands.

And if that's not enough to convince you this certainly will, would a company losing subscribers spend weeks on holiday without updating its community or addressing any of the serious complaints from its customers?, Would a company that's losing subscribers charge the people left interested in their game twice or never advertise?, of course not, even more proof that Aventurine are sitting pretty fully confident in their game and its continued incredible commercial success, if anything they probably still want to reduce the amount of people that are playing so they can provide a better service.

Obviously Darkfall has over 20 thousand subscribers already, probably a lot more, the website facts prove that, and subscription rates obviously must be rapidly increasing or are exactly the number Aventurine currently want, according to all the credible and reputable information presented, if you can't accept this has been proven beyond reasonable doubt then you must be an unreasonable and ignorant troll hater.
 

Originally posted by miagisan

#134 down from #132 yesterday
Highest: #50 on 2009-03-18

 

dropping like a rock! :)

Yeah but playtime is INCREASING RAPIDLY, and subs are INCREASING RAPIDLY because I say so, why can't you troll haters understand, this game is a major success story.

Tasos "EU2 is on our minds, perhaps a couple of months down the road. There's no specific date as of yet but it's definitely in the plans."

See, Tasos would not have a second EU server on his mind and be making plans for it with no specific date if subs were not RAPIDLY INCREASING!, more proof that Darkfall subs are indeed definitely RAPIDLY INCREASING! or will be soon, perhaps in a couple of months.

What a tremendous success this game has turned out to be for those left playing it, these Xfire statistics prove that beyond doubt.

No sir not dropping like a rock,far from it, much more like a meteoric rise success story that will stand the test of time.

The reason why the game has dropped from 50 to 134 on Xfire is because most of the tens of thousands of Darkfalll subscribers don't actually use it so its very unreliable for statistical analysis except for when it can be desperately interpreted positively in some way or form no mater how ridiculous, then its highly reliable.
 

Originally posted by niceguy3978

Originally posted by javac

i love how trollbois are trying to spin this obvious upward trend as meaning nothing or being somehow negative.

 

Ave are about to open a third server, official forum registered accounts are still going up by 500 per week, clan counts from the actual game show an steady upward trend since the expansion and now xfire also shows solid growth in both users and playtime. quite the contrast to eg: WAR which has now closed 63 servers since release, or AOC which is also on life support.

 

Just another case of the emperor has no clothes.

 

Can you link to where they are talking about opening a third server?  I'm genuinly curious, especially as to which region it would/will be in.  Thanks!

He can, but it would be a link to another one of his posts talking about them talking about it.
 

Originally posted by miagisan

#132 ranked

193 players

 

 

HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Yeah but those 193 people playing Darkfall have INCREASED THEIR PLAYTIME TIME BY ALMOST 100% THIS MONTH!

Based on this compelling body of evidence presented I now understand why Javac thinks Darkfall could have 150,000 subscribers 1 year from now.

Originally posted by Kyleran

Originally posted by Cyborg99

Originally posted by Mazin

Originally posted by Cyborg99

Originally posted by Kyleran

Originally posted by Cyborg99

I'm not a fanbot but where are you getting the idea that they're strapped for cash?

 

Selling somewhat expensive pre-orders to raise enough cash to finish the game was my first clue.

 

 

Yea but where does it say they need money to finish the game? I'm not calling you a troll....oh wait yea I am. Provide a link or troll away

 

You can't really be that dense??

Blizzard or Bioware isn't gonna come out 6 months to a year before they launch a game to give out 10,000 preorders to get in beta for there games, they are going to finish there games and do internal beta's to you know actually fix problems.

It's obvious what they are doing, I'm not knocking them for it they are an indy company, they are doing what they have to do to try and complete the game.

Call me a troll if you want, I'm calling you blind.

I don't even like indie/small developers. All I'm asking for is some hard evidence. I can make up stuff too if I don't need to provide any hard evidence. So if you can't find anything on google about them being broke then just admit it, lol I'm not going to bash you (or maybe I will)
 

 

Er...what makes you think I mind being called a troll?  That sort of thinking makes no sense to me.  OK, to make you feel better, I'm insulted by your accusation sir.    (ROFL, Internet forums are such serious business)

Go ahead, play detective, look for "proof" if you like.  It is possible to observe the actions of something and make some intelligent inferences (call them hunches, guesses or what not) especially when compared to its peers.

Major development companies do not sell semi-expensive pre-orders months (if not a year or more) in advance.  That's a fact. 

One Development company (Aventurine) recently sold pre-orders for their game because they were a small, indie developer who needed the money.  Fact again.

MO is a small, underfunded indie developer. Fact. (compared to say, Blizzard, Bioware or even Cryptic.

MO/Starvault looks far more like DF/Aventurine than it does ToR/Bioware.  Fact.

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, its most probably a duck.

Sure, I might be wrong, and in no place did I say they weren't going to succeed (I voted that they probably would make it). but it doesn't change the fact they are not a cash rich organization.

Even their intial beta start up problems are all characteristic of an underfunded effort.  Nothing wrong with that, but it does put the project at risk, and I do risk analysis for a living.

Am I always right? Of course not, but I get pretty close on most occasions.

If you don't believe me, fine, keep looking for proof, meanwhile, I think I'll just keep "trolling"

 

 

Looks like he's got you their Kyleran, just admit it and move on don't you know using common sense and basic knowledge of the industry is a dead give away and the first sign that you are a trolling troll troller (and quite possibly a hater if you attempt to use it on more then one occasion).

(Priceless to see a Darkfall supporter preaching about realistic expectations from an indy developer in this thread)
 

Really sad and pathetic to see all the desperate no life troll haters still resurrecting year old posts full of all their walls of text about nothing crazy conspiracy theories and failed predictions when they have allready been proven wrong time and time and time again.

Darkfall is only just getting started and already has a tight knit and rapidly growing community of thousands of dedicated players, since the awesome new expansion and the hugely successful US launch the game has only gone from strength to strength and is widely predicted by many industry experts to be this years sleeper hit.

Great things are in stall for this wonderful and unique game that's only just leapt from the starting block, Just like another indy developer CCP and their comparable smash hit title Eve Online, Aventurine are starting slowly with Darkfall and building on strong foundations and wont repeat the same mistakes and failures of the past made by so many less competent company's.

Despite the naysaying and ignorant complaining of the tiny vocal minority of disgruntled themepark enthusiasts and PvE fans Darkfall is thriving and expanding rapidly, the future is bright and the sky's the limit for this incredible next generation revolutionary title that's only just got started.

Expect subscribers to smash threw the 50k mark in the next few weeks or days and grow ever increasingly way past 100k in a few months, I think its safe to say based on all the evidence so far that Darkfall will almost definitely be challenging Eve Online for its leader of the niece market by the end of the year.

All this makes the prediction of 750,000 peak subscribers from a year ago start to look very conservative and perhaps a little to cautious, indeed 1 million subscribers sometime next year could even be a possibility if this level of growth and interest continues unabated.

R.I.P Troll haters, Darkfall is alive and kicking!