This is an obvious and hamhanded  attempt to game the system.  Also, if you look at the "week", "month", "6 month" and "1 year" tabs, it appears it has been going on for a while. (2.9 million unique hits over the last year vs 5.2 million for WoW.) That being said, I doubt that Aventurine would be behind it.

If Aventurine were doing it, most likely they would keep it to more credible numbers over a longer period of time and would not go for a burst that was 5X the activity of SW:ToR. Also, while being at the top of the popularity list may translate into some bragging rights, it's unlikely to have a significant effect on Aventurine's real concern (subscription numbers) 

As to someone doing it to "hurt" Mortal Online, I suppose it's possible.  If so, it's a misguided attempt, since any significant damage to Mortal Online is even less likely than a significant boost in DF subscriptions. That being said, some critics of MO do lurk in IRC so that they can make threads complaining about the IRC moderators, so I wouldn't be surprised if it was some misguided attempt to hurt MO.

According to the top post on this forum page, the day that Darkfall didn't make top on MMORPG.com was also the same day that AV was having a lot of hardware problems at their server farm. =D

http://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php?t=297075&page=5

Darkfall has history of exxtremes in numbers in 2008 the official forumfall had on april 65k registered members when beta was announced in aprox 2 months it went up to 350k+registered members for small indie game.

And it belongs for along time also  in top 10 most visit forums on mmorpg.com now almost 200k posts, while its small indie game.

-Anything to "hurt" mortal online...Anything... BwaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

The reason we of the "secret Cabal" started this conspiracy was because Mortal online was such a steller. polished , content filled, working, non buggy, awesome game that we knew only a conspiracy of great magnitude would work to slow its eventual WORLD DOMINATION.

Such a fantastic product had never been seen before and such a legit and ethical company (SV) is unheard of in todays market.

We had to strike a blow- And strike we did. Our secret cabal has now traveled around the whole USA (cannada, mexic and parts of Puerto rico as well) and voted for DF from every public computer , at every library in every town.

We would have gotten away with it if not for you meddling kids. O_o

Originally posted by username509

Most popular game counter has been manipulated before several different times.  Many times a random game was bumped up to knock Mortal Online out of the 10th position.  (For some reason Mortal Online seems to have a huge forum post count for the relatively small niche playerbase it has.)

How much of that post count is positive? I think we can agree that there are very few MO supporters on that board (5 maybe, rotating in and out).

 

The reason it has a large post count is because SV do not allow game discussion on their forums, so those looking to read or make honest assesments of the game have to come here instead.

Also, why should an MMO with approx 200 (max) concurrent players be anywhere near the top 10 of anything, except a text book example of not to design, code, and run an MMO?

 

Maybe when Darkfall 2 gets released and they wipe all the accounts that grinded up through exploits and cheats and make it so the grind isn't reminicient of a Korean MMO it could become a decent game.  

Do you think MO will do that too? IF they can get the game working at all that is, as it clearly does not now.

 

As it stand right now many playercities are almost indefensible because of poor design.  It looks like Darkfall developers are fixing this with Darkfall 2.  

 

Yet you are happy to defend the even worse design and implementation of MO, why is that?

Originally posted by Picklebeast

-Anything to "hurt" mortal online...Anything... BwaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

The reason we of the "secret Cabal" started this conspiracy was because Mortal online was such a steller. polished , content filled, working, non buggy, awesome game that we knew only a conspiracy of great magnitude would work to slow its eventual WORLD DOMINATION.

Such a fantastic product had never been seen before and such a legit and ethical company (SV) is unheard of in todays market.

We had to strike a blow- And strike we did. Our secret cabal has now traveled around the whole USA (cannada, mexic and parts of Puerto rico as well) and voted for DF from every public computer , at every library in every town.

We would have gotten away with it if not for you meddling kids. O_o

RL LOL... Thanks

But the secret is out and they'll wield it against us.

Originally posted by HanoverZ

Originally posted by Picklebeast

-Anything to "hurt" mortal online...Anything... BwaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

The reason we of the "secret Cabal" started this conspiracy was because Mortal online was such a steller. polished , content filled, working, non buggy, awesome game that we knew only a conspiracy of great magnitude would work to slow its eventual WORLD DOMINATION.

Such a fantastic product had never been seen before and such a legit and ethical company (SV) is unheard of in todays market.

We had to strike a blow- And strike we did. Our secret cabal has now traveled around the whole USA (cannada, mexic and parts of Puerto rico as well) and voted for DF from every public computer , at every library in every town.

We would have gotten away with it if not for you meddling kids. O_o

 

RL LOL... Thanks

 

But the secret is out and they'll wield it against us.

Whats really funny is that it will probably turn out to be SV bumping thr DF numbers...It was supposed to bump MO but the code is bugged LOL

Originally posted by deathshroud

im so glad the hate train hasnt landed on Darkfalls shores yet, its jsut rediculous over on the mo forum of mmorpg.com.

Darkfalls not MO... and it is truly ridiculous there!

How many people put their own money into Darkfalls development by buying stock + numerous accounts?  The extremes "fans" will go to when it's their own money on the line. I dont remember AVENTURINE openly discussing a "viral marketing " campaign or directing players to post "positive" things on gaming forums such as MMORPG.com.

Originally posted by Picklebeast

Originally posted by HanoverZ

Originally posted by Picklebeast

-Anything to "hurt" mortal online...Anything... BwaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

The reason we of the "secret Cabal" started this conspiracy was because Mortal online was such a steller. polished , content filled, working, non buggy, awesome game that we knew only a conspiracy of great magnitude would work to slow its eventual WORLD DOMINATION.

Such a fantastic product had never been seen before and such a legit and ethical company (SV) is unheard of in todays market.

We had to strike a blow- And strike we did. Our secret cabal has now traveled around the whole USA (cannada, mexic and parts of Puerto rico as well) and voted for DF from every public computer , at every library in every town.

We would have gotten away with it if not for you meddling kids. O_o

 

RL LOL... Thanks

 

But the secret is out and they'll wield it against us.

Whats really funny is that it will probably turn out to be SV bumping thr DF numbers...It was supposed to bump MO but the code is bugged LOL

 Lol'd to this one.  Not sure how exactly this is supposed to help or hurt DF or MO, if I'm not mistaken this is purely a "popularity" on this site function and if that is the case do we really think they can get more than ten people a day who wouldn't already know what's going on with both of these games?

My experience with mmorpg is that DF has or had some of the most diehard and ravenous fans I remember ever seeing in an mmo, when DF launched anyone who complained about it's shoddy design was quickly roasted and I've never seen a game where more potential players said "I would give this game a try if not for the fans" so it would lead me to think this is something coming from a DF fan.

I checked a link on the DF forum from this post and had already found atleast three people on the first page who still swear DF is the best game listed on this site so it wouldn't be too far fetched to imagine that one of the games fans is behind this.

At any rate I hope it doesn't have anything to do with either AV or SV as that would be pretty pathetic (though we will probably never learn exactly who is behind this) and I don't see how this could help either game and the leads seem to be doing a good enough job ruining their game so it would be a colossal waste of energy.

Its not the first time this happen. If i remember right 2 years ago DF hype (or whatever it was about) was put to zero for the same reason, and you had some fan cry on the DF official forum because it was the most natural thing to do (use script) since everyone was doing it. Was pretty lame.

Originally posted by Requiamer

Its not the first time this happen. If i remember right 2 years ago DF hype (or whatever it was about) was put to zero for the same reason, and you had some fan cry on the DF official forum because it was the most natural thing to do (use script) since everyone was doing it. Was pretty lame.

It happened like 2 weeks ago to DAOC, its not just a DFO thing.

 

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Originally posted by Plutonicwoes

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Originally posted by username509

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Originally posted by headen

 

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Originally posted by deathshroud
im so glad the hate train hasnt landed on Darkfalls shores yet, its jsut rediculous over on the mo forum of mmorpg.com.

---

 
You're about 2 years late. The hate train arrived on time and unloaded it's delivery to Darkfall in full force. DFO was very disappointing in many ways to many, many people, including myself. It's just not the buggy, exploited and corrupted in-house that MO is. Don't get me wrong DFO had that too, but no where near the levels seen by SV. So, don't think MO is special with the attention your game gets. The reason the *hate *has lasted this long is well... SV continually breaks more things and leaves exploits in and openly gives players an advantage with items and free teleports. Where as AV cleaned up A LOT of those types of things. They just need to install the sand now.

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It's very possible someone in adventurine is spamming mmorpg popularity counter and your saying MO is currupt?
MO is special with the attention it gets because the hate train hasn't stopped it just keeps going.  Most DF haters quit after a few posts.  Even the most hardcore DF haters quit after a few months.  Mortal has haters that have made hundreds even thousands of negative Mortal Online posts and they've been at it for over 2 years now.  
You'll notice the the DF forums on mmorpg.com are mostly dead now while the MO forums are still alive over overflowing with hate posts.
In fact the probable reason why hackers spamed DF popularity counter was probably to keep MO out of the top 10 list. 

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1) It is very possible someone in AVENTURINE (no d) is doing this?  I am not saying you're wrong, but there is 0 evidence to show it., yet you act like it's accepted fact.
2) The conspiracy theories on this site just kill me. I hate to tell you, but no one playing Darkfall gives two squirts about MO or it's popularity. There isn't some grand war between the two games. 
3) The fact that a forums section on here is dead really shows nothing at all. 99% of people I play MMO's with have no clue this site even exists.  The actual games forums are still quite alive and  I would think that is a more important indicator than some 3rd party forums.  The WoW forums aren't exactly busy here, yet that game seems like it has some population.
It is no secret DF is hurting right now, I won't deny that.
Could someone be causing this, sure. In fact I think this is with out a doubt faked. 
I have this insane idea though, we could just wait and see what the Admins come up with rather than just pulling things our of our ass.

---

 

 I'd be more inclined to agree with you if you didn't end up doing EXACTLY what you nailed him for doing and also contradict yourself in the same post.

"0 evidence to show it, yet you act like it's accepted as fact"

 Then you go on to say...

"No one playing Darkfall gives two squirts about MO."

"99% of people I play MMO's with have no clue this site exists"

"In fact, I think this is without a doubt faked" -> earlier -> "It's very possible someone in Aventurine is doing this"

 Uhh...

Originally posted by HanoverZ

Originally posted by Requiamer

Its not the first time this happen. If i remember right 2 years ago DF hype (or whatever it was about) was put to zero for the same reason, and you had some fan cry on the DF official forum because it was the most natural thing to do (use script) since everyone was doing it. Was pretty lame.

It happened like 2 weeks ago to DAOC, its not just a DFO thing.

Indeed, it has happened to games like DAoC, EQ1, Entropia, Neocron, and Asheron's Call 2.  The reason why none of these other games has over 2 million hits for the year, however, is that they were only the recipient of unexplained spamming once every month or two.

Darkfall, on the other hand, was the beneficiary of these types of wild hit count aberrations a couple times to several times each and every week.  This has been happening for at least 7 or 8 months, impacting the counter so dramatically by inexplicable numbers, it has almost 2.9 million hits going back a year.  I say inexplicable, because of the overall lack of news articles, lack of feature articles, lack of major occurences with the game, and lack of forum activity evidenced on the Darkfall portion of this website.  A high hit count with such little activity is completely incongruent, as the Admin pointed out.  Obviously, it was being manipulated.

Since the cheating was stopped, and now DF is only getting legitimate hits, the wild variations in hit count has stopped, and not surprisingly, the game hasn't come close to breaking into the Top 10 any day this past week.  Shortly, it will go from number one for the week (based on the 55K false hits from last Saturday) to not even being in the top ten, because it is no longer benefiting from false hits.

Originally posted by Rohn

Taking a look at today's "Most Popular Games" section of MMORPG.com's homepage reveals what has become an extremely common occurence - the spamming of the Darkfall section of this site to run up the hit count.

DF has not been the only beneficiary of such dishonest and puerile tactics, but it has been the most regular recipient.

No this is correct.  There is a ton of people looking at the game.  Its one of the few unique ones out there.

Originally posted by -Zeno-

Originally posted by Rohn

Taking a look at today's "Most Popular Games" section of MMORPG.com's homepage reveals what has become an extremely common occurence - the spamming of the Darkfall section of this site to run up the hit count.

DF has not been the only beneficiary of such dishonest and puerile tactics, but it has been the most regular recipient.

No this is correct.  There is a ton of people looking at the game.  Its one of the few unique ones out there.

Yeah, right, because more people are interested in Darkfall than in all the other online games in the world put together. 

Originally posted by Ex0dUs101

They probably macro'd it the same as they do their skills :P

lol. My first thought exactly. Not that I'm not a fan of Darkfall. Game has a lot going for it. Population is just not one of them.

Originally posted by -Zeno-

Originally posted by Rohn

Taking a look at today's "Most Popular Games" section of MMORPG.com's homepage reveals what has become an extremely common occurence - the spamming of the Darkfall section of this site to run up the hit count.

DF has not been the only beneficiary of such dishonest and puerile tactics, but it has been the most regular recipient.

No this is correct.  There is a ton of people looking at the game.  Its one of the few unique ones out there.

Compared to actual player numbers you have to agree that it sounds somewhat fishy. Vanguard is another of the unique ones with about the same numbers of players and Eve is a lot larger...

Originally posted by -Zeno-

Originally posted by Rohn

Taking a look at today's "Most Popular Games" section of MMORPG.com's homepage reveals what has become an extremely common occurence - the spamming of the Darkfall section of this site to run up the hit count.

DF has not been the only beneficiary of such dishonest and puerile tactics, but it has been the most regular recipient.

No this is correct.  There is a ton of people looking at the game.  Its one of the few unique ones out there.

Now this is an Epic Fail......

Originally posted by HanoverZ

Originally posted by Requiamer

Its not the first time this happen. If i remember right 2 years ago DF hype (or whatever it was about) was put to zero for the same reason, and you had some fan cry on the DF official forum because it was the most natural thing to do (use script) since everyone was doing it. Was pretty lame.

It happened like 2 weeks ago to DAOC, its not just a DFO thing.

Agreed, these things happens with many games,

I don't think anyone believe that there is an actual conspiracy working here or anything but acting like this hurts more than it helps.

It tells us that MMORPG.com should look over how these things should work, nothing more.

Originally posted by Loke666

Originally posted by HanoverZ

Originally posted by Requiamer

Its not the first time this happen. If i remember right 2 years ago DF hype (or whatever it was about) was put to zero for the same reason, and you had some fan cry on the DF official forum because it was the most natural thing to do (use script) since everyone was doing it. Was pretty lame.

It happened like 2 weeks ago to DAOC, its not just a DFO thing.

Agreed, these things happens with many games,

I don't think anyone believe that there is an actual conspiracy working here or anything but acting like this hurts more than it helps.

It tells us that MMORPG.com should look over how these things should work, nothing more.

It doesnt hurt more. Since for ever, the 1st game most ppl saw once they got on mmorpg.com was DF. Thats how we kept having many new trials and new players buying the game at the end. It will helps DF more then you think.

Of course, for the other games, we now know that we cant take the rating seriously when rift, kotor, wow and some other AAA get burned by a game that do 0% advertisment