Whenever I see flyby videos of Darkfall 2.0, I always feel as though I’m watching a version of Morrowind with improved graphics. Darkfall 2.0 launches at some point in the future.
Tag: Aventurine
Darkfall 2.0 News: Aventurine Stalls On Wipe Announcement
Whenever the topic turns to Darkfall 2.0, I can’t help but think back to how Jagex moved Runescape to Runescape 2 (now just referred to as Runescape) and the huge amount of changes the game went under just during that initial transition. So seeing this quote from Aventurine, I can’t help but hold high hopes for this ambitious update:
After 3 expansions, 2 siege system revamps and 60 major content updates, we decided that we need to do things from scratch to satisfy the thousands of great ideas, suggestions, criticisms coming from the community, and to properly implement the lessons learned by us since Darkfall’s launch.
The Darkfall Epic Blog was updated to showcase a substantial list of functions Aventurine will be overhauling with this update, a reminder that Darkfall 2.0 is far closer to a brand new game than a simple expansion pack. As for the dreaded (or anticipated, depending on who you ask) wipe, Aventurine still has not come to a conclusion, once again noting:
We explained that whether we wipe or don’t wipe, the game is so different that it’s of little significance. You should not think in terms of the current version of Darkfall when it comes to Darkfall 2.0.
The current state of Darkfall 2.0 is nearing a playable version. More to come.
(Source: Darkfall Epic Blog)
Darkfall Free Weekend: This Weekend
Rejoice, fans of free for all sandbox MMOs, because Aventurine has a proposition for you. If you’ve departed Darkfall for any reason in the past, you are cordially invited to come back and experience the changes that have occurred in your absence. The instructions are relatively simple:
Anyone who does not have a currently running subscription needs simply login via the Account Management Page, ( here for European accounts, and here for US accounts) click on the button to activate your free days, and enjoy the benefits of our Happy-Hour weekend! All running subscriptions will automatically have 3 free days added to their account and don’t need to take any action other than to log-in.
The welcome back weekend lasts from Friday to Monday, according to the email sent out by Aventurine to past subscribers. In addition, players will partake in 400% experience gain, plus a massive increase in drop-rates and items dropped by foes.
So what do you have to lose? Other than everything equipped and on your inventory.
Darkfall Free Weekend Coming
Noted Darkfall eccentric Tasos Flambouras updated the Epic Blog today with a rather short post:
In two weeks, every Darkfall account will be reactivated to participate in a free weekend with accelerated skilling and great loot.
Turn your speculate-o-meters to ten, folks. Is there going to be more news on the elusive Darkfall 2.0? Is Aventurine using this free weekend to attract their past players and gather everyone’s attention to make a big announcement?
I sure hope so. My Google rankings love a good announcement. Stay tuned after the announced announcement of the free weekend’s announcement, and I will bring you the announcement of the date for the free weekend announcement.
Darkfall: Projecting Dave Georgeson On Wipes
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.
Darkfall Suicidal: Character Wipes Not Off The Table
One week ago, I put my money on the table that Darkfall 2.0, a relaunch of the game, would bring free to play to the game. There is still no information as to whether or not the game will indeed go free to play, so let’s focus on another avenue of the Darkfall 2.0 launch: Character wipes. As far as MMOs have it, the topic of character wipes is akin to playing that five finger game where you move a knife around your hand stabbing without hitting your fingers. In this case, however, it’s a chainsaw instead of a knife.
How badly do communities respond to character wipes, especially two years out of launch? As ZTZ on Massively put it, it would make the Galaxies NGE look like a set of patch notes. In the Darkfall Epic Blog, Tasos Flambouras (potentially soon to be renamed John Smedley Junior) toyed with the idea of a character wipe, noting that such an implementation would not be necessary, but indeed a possibility depending on how Aventurine sees the update:
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.
Tasos refers to this update several times as the end of a chapter, and the beginning of chapter 2, and for the record my money is still on some sort of free to play, or buy to play, coming with this update.
I’ve seen a few people liken this to Shadowbane. Some of you may remember that Shadowbane was shut down in 2008 (five years after launch) to reboot the title, during which all characters were wiped. The game stayed up a good year after that, before shutting down. We’ll need more information on the specifics of Darkfall’s relaunch before making any comparisons between the two titles, however.
$20 Says Darkfall “Relaunch” Is Free To Play
When was the last time you heard the phrase “this patch is like a completely new game?” In my line of work (work? Blogging), a whole lot. Such is the case with Darkfall, where on the Epic Blog head boss man of Aventurine Tasos Flambouras talks about a complete relaunch of the game. How much of a relaunch is it? Well it is certainly no linguine, and it is without a doubt not just an expansion pack.
This relaunch is not an expansion.
Thank you, Tasos, but we need more information.
It’s a new game we’ve been developing in parallel with the current version of Darkfall. The scope is massive, and it has been difficult to stay on schedule after several unexpected issues we’ve had with the current version, changes and additions we decided to make for the new version, some business developments, and the decision to add the siege system into this version of the game rather than in the relaunch.
That’s more like it. But let’s discuss the title of this post, and my assurance that this is likely a prelude to a free to play announcement, and continue reading the announcement:
There are shifting priorities having to do with business issues for this relaunch, and another part being some Asian developments we also need to take into consideration. We can assure you that everything we’re doing in this regard is in the best interest of our players and of Darkfall, and that the relaunch of the game will be very exciting for everyone.
I distinctly remember Dave Georgeson saying something along these lines shortly before Everquest II went free to play, when they announced big changes coming but wouldn’t actually announce free to play because the service was going to be considered a new game, because the existing community would have flipped the chess board and went home if they had to share space with the freeloaders. By that I’m referring to the comments about making this decision for the betterment of the community.
The current estimated completion date for development is August, which makes release somewhere between now and when Rift consumes World of Warcraft as the most subscribed MMO…In Burundi. At least we can be assured, despite the vague language, that this isn’t a prelude to Darkfall shutting down or being sold to Gamersfirst. It’s a new version being developed, Tasos isn’t in the process of lifting Darkfall up so he can suplex it.
$20 Says Darkfall "Relaunch" Is Free To Play
When was the last time you heard the phrase “this patch is like a completely new game?” In my line of work (work? Blogging), a whole lot. Such is the case with Darkfall, where on the Epic Blog head boss man of Aventurine Tasos Flambouras talks about a complete relaunch of the game. How much of a relaunch is it? Well it is certainly no linguine, and it is without a doubt not just an expansion pack.
This relaunch is not an expansion.
Thank you, Tasos, but we need more information.
It’s a new game we’ve been developing in parallel with the current version of Darkfall. The scope is massive, and it has been difficult to stay on schedule after several unexpected issues we’ve had with the current version, changes and additions we decided to make for the new version, some business developments, and the decision to add the siege system into this version of the game rather than in the relaunch.
That’s more like it. But let’s discuss the title of this post, and my assurance that this is likely a prelude to a free to play announcement, and continue reading the announcement:
There are shifting priorities having to do with business issues for this relaunch, and another part being some Asian developments we also need to take into consideration. We can assure you that everything we’re doing in this regard is in the best interest of our players and of Darkfall, and that the relaunch of the game will be very exciting for everyone.
I distinctly remember Dave Georgeson saying something along these lines shortly before Everquest II went free to play, when they announced big changes coming but wouldn’t actually announce free to play because the service was going to be considered a new game, because the existing community would have flipped the chess board and went home if they had to share space with the freeloaders. By that I’m referring to the comments about making this decision for the betterment of the community.
The current estimated completion date for development is August, which makes release somewhere between now and when Rift consumes World of Warcraft as the most subscribed MMO…In Burundi. At least we can be assured, despite the vague language, that this isn’t a prelude to Darkfall shutting down or being sold to Gamersfirst. It’s a new version being developed, Tasos isn’t in the process of lifting Darkfall up so he can suplex it.
Darkfall Anniversary Sale: $9
Darkfall is one of those games that comes around and defies all authority by, yes, having one of the worst launches in recent history (with the game being unbuyable for a good while post-launch), but taking those startup issues, beating them over the head with a brick, and throwing the dead bodies into a lake. That was two years ago, and Darkfall continues to defy the predictions of trolls by pushing out regular content updates, including an upcoming reshaping of the world.
In celebration of the game’s second anniversary, Aventurine is putting Darkfall on sale for $9 USD and Euro, until April 1st. In addition, the three month subscription is now on sale for $24.95 (Three for the price of one and two thirds). Topping off this sale is the addition of 25,000 meditation points for those who resubscribe in March or create new accounts. The points may be lost if you have too many saved up, so Aventurine is recommending that players use up some of their existing points:
Note: Don’t claim the points if you don’t have room for them, for example, if you already have more than 75 thousand points in your account. If you do, then you should work some off to make room for your free points. Meditation points are non-refundable.
More on Darkfall as it appears. This sale runs through to the end of the month.
Aventurine Has Regained Investments On Darkfall
For many companies, regaining the insane investment that MMOs require can often take a game plan of around five years, which is why MMO Fallout specifically designed its patented (not really) longevity test around the five year period. For Aventurine, however, this has taken approximately two years. In an interview with Greek TV (fair warning: It’s in Greek), Tasos Flambouras noted that the company has already seen a return on all of its investments, meaning the profits should be higher in the year to come without all that debt to pay off.
“More and more young Greek scientists conquer their ideas to the international market. Typical is the case of the initiators of the electronic game «Dark Fall», which was created in Greece before 2 years and rampant around the world with more than 100,000 users in over 150 countries and big profits for their creators.”
You’ll have to excuse the poor translation. 100,000 users? And people think Darkfall is a failed MMO.
MMO Fallout 