Hi, I was just wondering , I hear so many good/bad opinions of this game. Literally every post is at the extreme end of the good/bad spectrum.  I am watching some youtube videos of gameplay and well.. it looks awesome.  But can someone tell me honestly is this game dead or dying? Would it be worth it for someone to start at this point in time?

A lot of people will tell you it's dying, some would say it's growing, but I'm with those who say the game is dying. Although it's not "dying" per se, but the population *is* very low and continues to drop. Players are very disappointed with the current state of the game and the very slow development speed of Aventurine coupled with the empty promises and poor customer support, so many players have been leaving or simply unsubbing while waiting for DarkFall Arena, the upcoming DarkFall "Expansion" which no one knows when it's going to come out and was previously known as DarkFall 2010.

You could try the game now, but personally I wouldn't recommand it until the Expansion is released.

the game is growing very slowly but the overall population is really low.... the main reason is the very slow development.

The game is still very good and u gonna enjoy it if you join a clan.

Npc towns 6 months ago was completely ghost towns..but now i have came back and subbed again i see at least 3-10 players at all hours..maybe its just my area (elf lands) but as far as i know human lands always been better..........

So saying that and playing myself on npc towns i rly cannot tell what the situation is on player cities..but always there is crowded.

Still the game can offer tons of fun even for the soloer. and if the expansion that who knows when it going to be live comes finaly it would be good for you to have made some preparation of stats and learning the game overall. if you really like the youtube videos and find it interesting then you gonna love it even more when you try it.

Be sure you have a strong pc specialy if you wanna play with shadows on and high. game still is buggy on some systems specificaly with ati video cards. i have ati 6950 (8gig ram, i72600k cpu) and with all full and shadows at medium i get 70-120 fps.

 Thanks for the replies.. I am currently playing the trial (daily maint is going on right now) and I am quite immersed into the game. It really feels like a 3D ultima online kind of. I love the combat system.. and yea the graphics are sweet, I  can max everything except I turn shadows down just to stay above 40 fps. Im having alot of fun.. I cant quite say that I have found a  new "main" game , I have joined a clan that seems really nice.. its pretty small, I guess they are mounting up and coming to get me after maint, so I can live at the clan house or whatever..

But yeah one of the best trials Ive ever played.. I just cant let myself forget its full loot pvp, I make sure to travel light and inexpensive lol