A rather humorous poster once said “My rule on wiping in-game is the same as in real life. If someone else does it for me, I feel violated.” The month of August starts in 16 days, and in that month we are expected to receive more information regarding Darkfall 2.0, aka Darkfall 2010. To those of you keeping tabs, what started as a promotion for an update so altering it had to be considered a relaunch has devolved into Aventurine’s initial mention, and refusal to confirm or deny, the possibility of a full character wipe. In the latest Epic Blog, Tasos Flambouras states the following:
Wipe speculation: We addressed this, to the extent of our knowledge of the topic, during our last activity report when it was brought up by some members of the community in relation to Darkfall’s relaunch. This is not an issue for the present, but you wouldn’t know it looking at our forums. Furthermore the speculation and discussion about the possibility of a wipe is based on the current Darkfall status and facts. We haven’t wiped the server and we wouldn’t do it as things are now, so discussing this is pointless.
We’ll ask you to be patient a little longer until we give you all the facts on “Darkfall 2.0″ and we can have a discussion on a great number of topics, including this one.
Apparently Tasos has taken his PR spin lessons at the same school as Dave Georgeson, who you’ll remember stated that he wasn’t lying when he said Everquest II players wouldn’t be subject to free to play, by launching Everquest II Extended and calling it a completely separate product. Take a look at the comment in bold in the above statement. Thrown into the PR machine with the lever switched to reverse, you come out with “Darkfall 1.0 (the current version) has not and will not be wiped.”
Tasos, the community isn’t asking if Darkfall 1.0 will be wiped. They are asking if Darkfall 2.0 will bring a character wipe, a topic you brought up and have been juggling since. If Aventurine hadn’t mentioned a character wipe in the first place, we wouldn’t be having this discussion right now. It’s like serving someone a sandwich and making an off-hand remark about hoping the turkey didn’t land in the toilet, then wondering why the person is so concerned all of a sudden and asking questions related to your comment.
Aventurine’s position so far can be summed up as “we’re not saying there will be a wipe with Darkfall 2.0, but if there is the process of getting back to where you were has been hastened to the point where it isn’t a big deal anyway.” Don’t expect any more details on this topic soon, as forum moderator Teucrus has reminded us:
Well until you have been given all the info on DF 2.0 there will be nothing new on the topic. You knew this since last week.
Those concerned will vote yes on a wipe, because if Aventurine had already set their minds on no, they could easily quell the theories by just coming out and saying no. Two letters, very simple. So it’s reasonable to conclude that Aventurine either has not come to a conclusion, or they have and are simply holding out on saying “yes” until the last minute. Not giving an answer has a potentially toxic effect on the community and can cost them in disgruntled subscribers. Saying yes now is certainly a toxic move that guaranteed will not only cost them in disgruntled subscribers, but potential customers.
“This is a topic we’ll open up for discussion after we’ve given you more information on the new version of the game, so you can understand all the parameters involved.”
On the other hand, you can all line up for your $20. Tasos has confirmed that Darkfall is NOT going Free To Play.
We also read around the Internet about Darkfall going free-to-play: Rumor has it that if you start a sentence with “rumor has it…” you can say pretty much anything you want. Not true.
MMO Fallout 