Darkfall Online is joke given its history (do you know it??) to 95+% of the gaming world until we're proven otherwise, that is either play tested or tested by players we personally know.

I will not be one of the first to play that game unless they have a Very long and Very smooth beta period before release.  In no way does that title deserve anyone's trust.

I would start by suggesting you give it another go.  It's still pretty great and it still gives me that feeling from time to time (and I have mostly not played since DAOC first came out. And played most everything else that has come out since.  The only missing element is the crowds.  It's still pretty active.  You can still find grinding partners if you try -- or you can two box as it won't even phase your Vanguard / EQII capable machines.  Wife and I four box on two machines so not a real issue for us.  :)

New zones are awesome. 

As to whether something will come along to give that experience again, I honestly think that is the definition of a "3rd Gen" came.  Perhaps "4th Gen"  as I think we've already seen there generations (counting from EQ):  "1st was EQ", "2nd was DAOC and its RVR system", "3rd was Wow".   I think Wow doesn't quite live up to that title, but close enough given the huge number of players it has attracted and the way it has rewritten what it means to be a 'good' game.

Finally, if someone would loan me $10M I guarentee I have the ideas and the basic sense to know-how to get to the 4th Gen in a realistic implementation.  Too bad I don't expect anyone to write me that check.

Originally posted by BigBlackWook

I'm just tired of people going afk five times in an instance due to 'mom agro'.

So how do you feel about folks going afk five times due to 'kid agro' that Mom and Dad have to deal with?  Unless you want to limit material to college students (who wouldn't? but that would require a time machine for many of us!)  you really can't win there.  It will happen in pick-up groups.  Learn patience -- it comes with age I am told (I am still awaiting that lesson for the most part myself).

Back to OP.  Lot's people hope this will be "The Next Big Thing!" (why does that remind me of COH??).  I too hope it will provide great game mechanics and an in-depth world to explore and control, but I have also learned to distrust DEVs more then I do Insurance Sellers, Pool Installers, and Used Car Salesmen.  They lie.  They lie to your face.  They lie some more after you catch them.  They just plain don't do what they say they plan to do even if they actually planned to do it (which I am beginning to think is actually quite a rare combination in itself).

Personally, I hate the so-termed, Mature Themes, especially as that may (solely??) relate to the graphics.  I not only could care-less about seeing heads rolled, I actually care not too.  Is that Mature too?  I hope they will include a Gore-slider^TM (Trademarked here first??) for those of us Mature players who actually have young children staring over our shoulders (not too mention my own pair of older eyes that hates that I can't escape other people's nightmares any more no matter if I am watching a movie, TV, or now my favorite genre). 

I won't be alone in my desires.  I expect some will find that hard to believe.  Assuming the devs actually provide serious gore as many of the Mature audience are drooling  (Night of the living dead comes to mind here) to see included, then they should definitely provide a dial if you want large audiences that are in fact Mature (Read that as folks with money to buy multiple accounts and subscribe continuously for years to something they actually can play without guilt/hinderence).

Game sites and magezines tell their readers what they want to hear -- if a good number of readers rate it high... and the game site/magezine want to keep those readers coming back to learn more... there is no reason to rock the boat.

Funny enough it doesn't have to work in reverse.  Good news trumps bad at least 90% of the time. (it's pushed higher in most commerical sites due to ad revenues and the "well Chuck so and so let us in on that secret last year, let's just pass it for now cause we may want another tidbit later..."

Do not delete posts that are not flames.   Inflametory is not the same as a flame.  We'll just learn to post elsewhere.  I do not appreciate mine being deleted today.  If someone added something to it later delete that post not the entire thread.

Step back from your involvement with the gaming companies -- you have got really chummy.  That is NOT why this site was ever interesting.  I don't care if you had the latest greatest gossip the day it broke.  I come here because you are a single source to learn more about the MMORPG market.  I do not expect to learn it all right here, but I come here first to find it.  You're advertisers should care about that.  And you should attempt more objectivity.  If a game threatens to quit advertising -- let them.  There are lots of others that would appreciate the traffic.  I wouldn't doubt often enough they are either on their way out of business with that attitude anyways.

You're making money now, but taking SOE's game plan as your own has never been a means to success.  You don't have the market in a stranglehold like they do to get away with it.  The information you publish could be published elsewhere very easily.

Sounds like a great expansion.  I am glad they finally get the nostalgia aspect (fey caught it and I hope Kunark will even more).  Kunark zones were almost always my favorite zones in EQ.  I loved the ledge in Overthere and would love to see that a major hunting spot again.  Don't skimp on it's importance to the spirit of the continent.  Outside of Karnor Castle was great.  Loved Warsilik woods (please keep the extreme hilliness and trees that were so thick you often couldn't see yourself let alone the mobs.  Chardok and Seb should be terrifyingly awesome. 

Field of Bones and Kurn's tower -- keep the skeles, keep the furbies, keep the fun!!  I used to bury myself into a tight corner 'single cell' room within Kurns and just grind away for days.  We'd camp out and back into it.  Half the time we would die trying that and have to run back naked.  Was an absolute blast.  Swamp of no hope -- you can change that as much as you want -- hated it =).  Giants in frontier mountains.  Goblins behind Sarnak Fort.  The windmill.  Sarnak Fort!  Another place that was a blast back in the day.  I hope we can recapture some of that magic here.  Lots of pulls and if you did everything right you could keep at it all day long.  One tiny mess up and you were trained by legions of Sarnaks.  Mhahahah.  Those were awesome things to watch, but it was always doable with a good solid group.

I hope Iksar toons will be able to start in Cablis again -- not sure if the lore I heard from the interview will allow for that, but it would be awesome to be a young iksar swimming around those zones again.  I really got into EQ most deeply when that first came out.  It caught me up in the lore and uniqueness of it.

All in all -- a superb decision to relaunch these zones.  Please do them right.  Please do not release pieces of it hoping folks won't know what's missing for a while -- that always fails.  Add a few surprise zones for each level area.  Big.  Big.  Big.  Could do something with the 'Bandit Caves' and the islands off the coast of Field of Bones.  I seem to remember some huntable islands.

If at all possible bring back the boat that Iksar's had to CATCH (and I do mean CATCH!) from the Overthere in order to get back to the mainland (before FV -- I hate FV and POP books).  Those boats and the Barrel Barge of Oasis were hillariously fun.  Terrifying the first few times, but so much fun.  It's those little things that matter.  Don't forget them.

Originally posted by mk11232

If you want to ensure that your money doesn't support SWG then log into your station access and cancel the SWG subscription.  Yes you can actually cancel a game from the sub and that game will no longer receive money. 

You're right I had no idea that would be the result -- ever read that anywhere or just a 'logical' guess?  In any case,  I will do that when I get home.  That's one step at least if I won't be funding them on 4 All-access accounts. 

And if SOE suddenly removes games from their all-access subscription lists I do indeed expect that the price will fall -- it had better or what exactly am I paying for??

Yes, it's a deal, but the deal is getting ruined by games no longer popular.    By the way I am not a 'Veteran'  - I did not play or quit due to any change on SWGs part.  I quit fairly early (within 6 months of launch) because it was a boring grind with no real fun.  Great Crafting / Great Housing / Great Class system / Pretty good UI (in some ways -- bad in others), but I did not enjoy the primary activities provided.  It's true, I did come back a couple of times to give it another shot, but to this day (last time I tried was in March) I still find it boring.  Any previous comments to me about SOE were purely about their lack of respect for the customers -- SWG team in particular suffered from that obviously or these issues would not be talked about at all.  Rest of SOE is not as bad today -- although far far from perfect.

As to being selfish, should I create another post asking SOE to make SWG play $3.00 a month?  That's about what it's worth.  I'd agree to do that as long as the game is self-sufficient and not draining talent, financing, concentration, etc from the games I actually enjoy.

I have VG subscriptions, don't play much right now, but I think it is too early to call VG dead.  It is fundementally a good game.  I am willing to give it time to grow yet.  Yes, I wish it had been better at launch, but it does not have fundemental flaws in game design that SWG has/had/and likely always will due to LAs involvement.

I am tired of paying for this money loser with my all-access subscription price.  I am happy with all of the others (well planetside sucks too, but I am not so sure it takes up as much resources as SWG is doing in its prolonged death throes). 

Please dump it!  Bring my fees back down.    EQ rocks and population is booming even faster after the release of the Anniversary edition last month.  EQII continues to get better and better and the two new expansions will certainly rock.   Vanguard should hold its own with some guiding care and Matrix Online just needs an expansion to boost it to a playable status.

SWG has had all the chances it deserves.  Let it die -- or at least quit making me pay for it!  All-access subscription are not to become  a welfare system I hope.

Originally posted by Enigma

I dont think so lol

You show me links where EQ2 developers give current numbers and I'll stick with that.  In the meantime, Ive never seen official numbers (and game outlet stores do nothing for me in terms of proof)

 No offense to you.  I just go by things officially and not through second and third party guesses. I work for SOE as a volunteer GM of sorts and I dont even know the answers.

If you only rely on official information, you must have a really hard time navigating through life.  Take some risks.  Risk does not translate exactly to loss.   Often times a gamble is the wise course. 

Of course, since you do work for SOE (volunteer or no), you do have reason not to like the reports by some.   A bias can affect ones ability to accept risks.

Are we sure rank isn't broken?  I log into this sight at least several times a week (I visit daily, but the autologin is constantly getting reset on me).

My rank is 1 of 100 -- I have been a member here for a very long time. 

 Why the 30-day time-out?  That also seems rather difficult if we are counting posts. 

Is it the average player's comments that you are seeking or professional reviewers / Trolls only?? 

I have played just about every MMORPG and generally have excellent manners on forums.   I am by no means an amateur, but neither do I make a living posting on forums.  I play and read as I can.  Like I said I visit daily and definitely log in quite often.  Why a 1??

Quote:

Today’s beta testers have more selfish goals: we seek to gain advantage by learning the layout of the game and the UI and to try the game before we buy it.

Don't blame the beta testers (alone at any rate).  The companies have blatently fostered this behavior.  If the experience were about test users would not always be so expected to 'play' the game.  They would be granted abilities/capabilities that they wish to test.  Now granted at some point that includes 'playing', but in my experience (having beta'd more then a dozen games -- easily more than that) is that very, very little of this occurs.  Instead players are told to just go out and play or go out and 'test'.  Like that means much.  You want less selfish beta testers, then start by treating them as testers first and players second. 

What's worse is the favortism that is bread into beta's i have participated in lately.  There is always a core group (usually a guild or two if implemented) that the GMs and Devs continuously give advantage to or turn to for opinions.  These folks are Rarely the run of the mill testers, thus the game is astonished to find that those folks getting all those perks did not to share the information / experience / opinions that do no directly benefit them.

You wan't it about testing?  You singlehandidly have the power to make that happen.  Do it.  You want opinions of the non-vocal majority?  Implement in-game polls.  Ask.  Randomily send tells and request feedback.  Search folks out in certain areas and play with them. 

Devs and certainly in game customer support appears far too lazy and far too into enjoying their position then they are in actually gathering feedback from the masses they hope to sell to.

One beta tester's 'feedback'.