PVP:Yes | Distribution:Download | Retail Price:n/a | Pay Type:Subscription
Desktop Client | System Req:
Darkfall News - Update From Tasos: Support and Cheating
Posted by Keith Cross on Mar 31, 2009 | 29 comments in our forums
Darkfall's Tasos Flambouras has posted a brief update on the Darkfall forums, addressing concerns about support requests, and then responding to claims of rampant cheating in the game, asking people to pay attention to players of the game rather than forum posters or Youtube.
The shop will be open today again for a limited number of copies. This will happen at 3PM GMT.
Second, having to do with support requests: If you see your support request priority is low, it doesn't mean that we’ve classified as low, it actually means it was handled immediately. Requests are currently prioritized by order received. New requests have a lower priority than older ones.
Concerning cheating and exploiting: We’re banning some people almost every day but the problem is minimal to say the least. We’ve also been working on addressing the issue at the source as time permits.
Most of the people getting banned are confused by claims they cannot be detected because we have a small team and won’t dedicate resources. Trolling posts on this and other forums and videos on Youtube attempt to create the false impression that cheating is rampant. The logic behind this is: everyone is doing it, and so should you. This couldn’t be further from the truth however.
Most of the people posting about cheating in Darkfall aren't even playing the game and are doing so to create an impression. The only way to really know what’s happening in the game is to ask a few players you know for a fact are playing how many times they’ve seen people using exploits since we started banning for it.
Read more here.
"There is no cheating in Darkfall, people who cheat are baned daily, but no one cheats in Darkfall"
I was trying to give this game the benefit of the doubt, but come on, he is trying to be a good liar. Theres cheating and alot of it. I m going to get attacked for that I m sure but who cares I saw it first hand ALOT.
"We’re banning some people almost every day but the problem is minimal to say the least." With a player base of say 10k 20k people yet you are banning people everyday for the problem. Is not to say the issue is minimal.
"The only way to really know what’s happening in the game is to ask a few players you know for a fact are playing how many times they’ve seen people using exploits since we started banning for it."
Well of course with a game world as large as Darkfalls afking a "few" people isn't going to give you any type of idea of how many people are cheating. You would need to ask hundreds of people get a good sampleing of how bad the sampling is.
"If you see your support request priority is low, it doesn't mean that we’ve classified as low, it actually means it was handled immediately."
What the heck does that mean. It doesn't mean that we've classified as low, it actually means it was handled immediately. Yet the line right below it says that "Requests are currently prioritized by order received. New requests have a lower priority than older ones." How can a low priority request that was just put into the system be handled immediately if order requests should be the ones getting fixed first?
They really need to get someone to handle there PR as Tasos doesn't have a clue as to what he is talking about or even doing.
It may just be me, but this "update" seems to be the most condescending post I have seen yet.
I also understand now why the "boyz" are quick to spout the "most people that bash Darkfall, haven't even played" nonsense.
You would think that, with the problems since launch, that Tasos and crew would realize that a more humble approach in dealing with customers would be in their best interests. Then again...
Thanks Bloodworth, most certainly the best comment of the day.
As usual with Tasos, his arrogance just oozes out of him. The best thing the Darkfall team could do is to stick him in one of their dungeons, lock the door and throw the key away. He has done more damage to this game than anything the rest of the team has done.
Knowing how hard Blizzard has had to work, with a large team, just to control cheaters, you can just imagine how most of us are chortling over Tasos's comments.
Yeah, I am not impressed with this post at all. Everytime we get an "update" from tasos, I am more and more inclined NOT to play Darkfall.
I am sorry but the thousands of reports, videos, comments from ex-players that comment on cheating and hacking has to indicate something. I agree that it probably isn't as bad as it is made out to be but at the same time, his update reads like damage control to me.
I mean look at cheaters/botters in WOW, WAR and AOC and other games. Even if you take smaller MMO's that have recently launched, none of them were free from cheating. Heck I bet Wizard 101 has a problem with it. But in a game like Darkfall, common sense will tell you that cheating will be bad. Was it bad in Ultima, Dark age of Camelot and other PVP/RVR focused games? Of course it was.
Tasos and Aventurine should be focused on making the game more available and working to fix the many purchasing/sign-up and other admin issues related to getting Darkfall and being able to play. Posts like this are not helpful. it is full of disrespecting their customers and potential customers. And trust me, with billing dates approaching, they will need more potential customers.
However he could be right too. There isn't need to ban many cheaters when so few people are actually playing the game too. Fewer players willnaturally result in fewer cheaters too.
Yet again, Tasos shows his ass; and by default, Aventurines' ignorance.
Priceless. Best post I've seen all day.
You know what Tasos should do? He should remove his advertising from those "trolling forums". And demand they remove forums bearing his great games' name, when they are clearly unworthy of the honor.
That'll show 'em.
the thing is though, there *were* no WMDs in Iraq. The guy above was right all along.
funny you should side with tasos, albeit unintentionally i'm sure.
on topic: for what it's worth i haven't seen anyone i was sure was speedhacking/cheating. the times i've been killed i've pretty well deserved it. afk macroing spells & chopping wood, well that's another thing entirely.
the thing is though, there *were* no WMDs in Iraq. The guy above was right all along.
funny you should side with tasos, albeit unintentionally i'm sure.
That pic is of the Iraqi Minister swearing that Iraq had us Americans on the run and would soon be declaring victory over us infidels, when in fact we were just coming into Baghdad right behind him as he was talking. Poor moron hung himself afterwards.
So you just made yourself look silly.
Unintentionally I'm sure.
the thing is though, there *were* no WMDs in Iraq. The guy above was right all along.
funny you should side with tasos, albeit unintentionally i'm sure.
on topic: for what it's worth i haven't seen anyone i was sure was speedhacking/cheating. the times i've been killed i've pretty well deserved it. afk macroing spells & chopping wood, well that's another thing entirely.
Hey champ, before you spout off and look like a fool, try and be educated.
The above picture has nothing to do with the topic of weapons of mass destruction. It's the Iraqi Defense Minister telling the press that Iraq was crushing the infidels (US lead coalition forces) and the "war" would be over soon. When in fact it was completely opposite.
Now ya get it?
Hey champ, before you spout off and look like a fool, try and be educated.
The above picture has nothing to do with the topic of weapons of mass destruction. It's the Iraqi Defense Minister telling the press that Iraq was crushing the infidels (US lead coalition forces) and the "war" would be over soon. When in fact it was completely opposite.
Now ya get it?
HA! I beat ya to it!!
When I played WAR, WoW, and many other games, I saw more cheaters in those games than I have seen in Darkfall.
The Trolls have a deathgrip on Darkfall.
He sounds more like Vuuar everyday. So what is the line on macroing cheating or no? Have they even decided yet as many of the 'loyal fans' concider its OK.
One thing, if Tosspot says its not a problem you can bet your bottom dollar it is.
When I played WAR, WoW, and many other games, I saw more cheaters in those games than I have seen in Darkfall.
Well no small wonder there.
You'd have seen more people in WAR, WoW and other games, period.
That said...
I do find the new mantra of "cheaters? What cheaters?" from DF fans to be rather funny... but perfectly in character.
At one point, starting almost immediately after the game's "release", there were numerous threads and posts where people would talk about seeing other players shooting blue missles up in to the air just to macro up their skills... or off auto-harvesting in a similar manner... Many of the fans were okay with it; some arguing the game was designed that way. (This was in the actual DF forums here of course).
As soon as they realized macroing was seen as a bad thing and gave DF a negative image, they did their patented and perfected "DF Reversal", changing their entire argument 180 degrees. The result is what we often see now:
"I never see anyone macroing in DF. It's all blown out of proportion by the haters and trolls"
Such is the nature of the rabid DF fan. They'll defend any point-of-view to their dying breath... as long as it's flattering to DF. As soon as it isn't anymore, they drop it like a bad habit.
You know that picture of the Iraqi Minister would be best side by side with the one of ex-President Bush under the sign on the air-craft carrier, I'm sure you know the one, so don't be too quick to judge something that isn't done yet.
There are always many aspects to any complex problem, and cheating in-game is a seriously complex problem. I completely agree Darkfall have appalling customer relations, and would seriously benefit from both a drop in the BS Quota, someone new with some PR knowledge, and ideally also updating their online persona (cute webpage ... oh no, wait, it's the same one from ... when??).
Overall though, a significant issue is that the current online player poputation is about as far away from "normal gamers" as you can get - "normal" gamers buy games, they do not sign up to invite-only betas for obscure games widely rumoured to be vapourware at the time. There are cheats in every game, the problem is when your game is full of hard-core players, you are also likely to have an over-average number of cheats. Gold sellers and macro-makers do not survive and thrive by finding and using exploits for games most people have ceased to play - they get in early, say ... in beta, or earlier if they can.
The best way to find out if Darkfall really are getting it right is more servers, more players, and see for yourself. Until there are a lot more 'normal' players, we just won't know, not that it matters anyway if you can't buy it.
When I played WAR, WoW, and many other games, I saw more cheaters in those games than I have seen in Darkfall.
The Trolls have a deathgrip on Darkfall.
Maybe because in WAR, WoW and the many other games, they actually have A LOT more people playing the game. Like a couple thousand times more.
The Fanbois have lost their religion on Darkfall.
Perhaps, but there are definitely many more concurrent players on Darkfall's EU1 than on any individual server for either of these mentioned games.
The only game with more concurrent players on a server, that I have ever played, is EVE.
My experience, anyway...
Perhaps, but there are definitely many more concurrent players on Darkfall's EU1 than on any individual server for either of these mentioned games.
The only game with more concurrent players on a server, that I have ever played, is EVE.
My experience, anyway...
Kinda hard to say that with any certainty when Aventurine curiously removed the ability to see how many are online at one time.
there was no 'curious' about it - it was being used to see who/how many of your enemies were online before going to raid their city. would be good if they could just show the total number of concurrent users again though.
there was no 'curious' about it - it was being used to see who/how many of your enemies were online before going to raid their city. would be good if they could just show the total number of concurrent users again though.
I agree. and they could have easily done that by simply removing factional and personal search strings ( such as /whois ) while leaving the server total search strings in place.
The fact they didn't, and insead removed everything, makes me skeptical that they just wanted to keep you from identifying enemies.
your counter-arguments are very convincing.
your counter-arguments are very convincing.
And you flip flop more than a pancake.
Why did this turn into a political thread anyway?
I think it was because Javac was wrong about something two pages ago and didn't drop it.
Darkfall's Tasos Flambouras has posted a brief update on the Darkfall forums, addressing concerns about support requests, and then responding to claims of rampant cheating in the game, asking people to pay attention to players of the game rather than forum posters or Youtube.
I think that alot of the BS has cought up with Tasos and will continue to. Tasos wants people to listen to the players playing the game rather than real sources like youtube and most likely mmorpg.com, what person with logic would not? We also know how much hate there is for mmorpg.com on the official Darkfall Online forums. We also know that no matter how bad Tasos uses his community of fanbots as human toilet paper, they come back for more and will defend the game to no end. It is more than easy to search mmorpg.com and other game websites for Interviews with Tasos Flambouras and catching him in many lies. You can also read his posts from years past for the same.
I think that it is more than pathetic to tell people not to belive what is right in front of them and to listen to a community of BS artists who follow their BS artist leader. The Baghdad Bob was classic though.
Perhaps, but there are definitely many more concurrent players on Darkfall's EU1 than on any individual server for either of these mentioned games.
The only game with more concurrent players on a server, that I have ever played, is EVE.
My experience, anyway...
That's like, completely irrelevant.
the thing is though, there *were* no WMDs in Iraq. The guy above was right all along.
funny you should side with tasos, albeit unintentionally i'm sure.
That's like, compleatly irrelevent.
His point is that you will meet more actual people in the world of darkfall because there are more people playing on a single world than the other games mentioned.
Ruling out Eve because it too has a massive server style layout.
Which does not tell us much about the "pie" that is Darkfall, how many slices are cheating is just as hard to figure out with a bigger pie slice than with a smaller one.
Darkfall's server has a huge slice of pie, if you cut that piece of pie up and asked each piece what the others were doing...
OK I'm done with Pie analogies, I'm hungry now.
i love it when the blizzard person, the people responsible for the plague that is WoW trolls a DFO post. LOL. keep up the worship