Tag: Darkfall

Tasos Flambouras Works With Amnesty International


A team of Greek developers have combined their powers in order to create a video game for Amnesty International. The aim of the game is to bring awareness to Amnesty International’s push to end the death penalty in the countries where it still exists. Players take the role of an AI advocate in several countries that still push the death penalty, including the United States, China, and Iran. The player must open an Amnesty International office and raise public support for banning the death penalty.

You may recognize a few of the names on the group roster: Tasos Flambouras, Irene Zeleskou, and Allan Stellakis from the Darkfall developer Aventurine. Well, you probably recognize Tasos Flambouras anyway.

“The hardest part was to find an idea that could become a game but not betray the issue. We had seen something developed in the past by a French company for Amnesty International — it showed people being shot by an execution squad and the player had to stop the bullet with his hand. We thought this gave the entirely wrong message — the issue is not as simple as stopping the bullets. We needed an idea that worked for an issue that is so depressing and dire, but that was also fun to play. It also needed to put across Amnesty International’s message without portraying the inmates as angels — they are scum and they’ve committed crimes, but there are other reasons why they shouldn’t be executed.”
-Tasos Flambouras

Amnesty: The Game is available to play from the group’s website, linked below.

(Source: Game Politics)

(More: Amnesty: The Game)

Darkfall 2.0 Visual Test Video


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.

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.

Week In Review: This Article Is Private To You Edition

World of Warcraft phasing, North Korean isn’t (?) gold farming, Nintendo wants massively single player games, Guild Wars 2 has breasts, and Darkfall’s “wipes” in this week in review.


For the one or two of you who have followed my Star Wars Galaxies articles, you’ll notice I’ve stopped doing them. The short end of the story is that I have nothing more to talk about with the game, while writing up the fifth week article realizing that from a few weeks in my articles were nothing more than “I’m having the same problems, there are these bugs, and I’m traveling far for the missions.” I know all three of the people I saw over the month and a half that I played will be angry at me for saying this, but at this juncture (with the shutdown coming) Star Wars Galaxies is like a museum. You go in an see the exhibits, how the cavemen lived years ago, and you walk out. The game hasn’t aged well and if Sony and Lucas Arts had anything to say about it, the massive size of the game (You truly have to experience Star Wars Galaxies to understand how enormous this game is) made a free to play transition simply unfeasible.

I will be covering Galaxies in the final days, however.

1. When You’re Phasing: Important Quest NPCs.

I’ve recently re-subscribed to World of Warcraft after being offered seven free days, and one of the more impressive features I’ve seen so far is the phasing technology. Now, I’ve commended the story telling in Runescape as allowing moderately world changing events to take place in the player’s own vision, but Blizzard takes this a step further by introducing far more story moments, cutscenes, and the aforementioned phasing. To the unfamiliar, phasing is a system where players can see different versions of the same area, depending on the completion of quests. So if I lead the invasion into the Worgen territory, I will see an empty battlefield afterward. A player just entering the area would still have hostile NPCs and a war raging around him.

For the complaints players have of being in the same area yet not seeing one another, this relieves one of my biggest gripes with MMO quests: The “Kill the leader of the Centaur,” quest only to have the leader respawn after a predetermined time. Or being given a quest to eradicate rats from an area, only to have them still be in that area. The quests feel far less superficial, as you have the visual feedback that you’ve actually accomplished something.

My main issue is that the quests were clearly not co-written. All of these quests were written specifically when Cataclysm released, but clearly not with any overlap. Thus, I’ve had to abandon three or four quests because the phasing caused the NPC I needed to turn the quest into to die, turn hostile, or simply leave. My research on the forums shows these quests bugged with reports dating back to around Cataclysm’s release, meaning I can chalk off those low level rewards.

2. North Korea…Isn’t Gold Farming?

Believe what you will. Following last week’s news that North Korea is funding hackers to bring in a few million dollars by breaking into South Korean MMOs to set up bots to farm gold, the North Korean state-run propaganda machine has come out to state that all claims are false, and made up by their South Korean neighbors. Granted, we won’t know for sure who is telling the truth, as either side could be using this as a propaganda machine against the other.

3. Nintendo Patents Massively Singleplayer Online Games

Say hello to the future additions to MMO Fallout, perhaps. In a bizarre move, Nintendo has patented the concept of the MSO, or Massively Singleplayer Online game.

“A method and apparatus that allows a player to play a massively single-player online game without directly interacting with other players, while affecting and being affected by other players playing the online game.”

An idea for this would be a Diablo-esque game where players can play in a single player or multiplayer environment, but with a global auction house (similar to Diablo 3). Granted: This is a Nintendo patent, and generally when Nintendo patents something weird, we never see that idea again. So this may be the last you hear of the MSORPG.

4. The Tree People Have Breasts

I saw an interesting thread on Guild Wars 2 this past week detailing two things the MMORPG.com forums can’t seem to get enough of: The Sylvari and breasts. The poster went on a rather impressive explanation as to how the Sylvari join with other races and must thus make themselves more attractive to that specific species. The Charr are easily satisfied, but the humans are more xenophobic and likely to become hostile to an overly different species, IE: The Charr. So in order to be more attractive, the Sylvari took on traits attractive to humans, ie: big mammary glands.

It’s a very detailed way to say “because we know what percentage of our players are heterosexual men, therefore boobs. Breasts, melons, headlights, creampuffs.” You know the recipe.

5. I May Be Right About Darkfall’s “Wipe.”

I’ve revised my speculation on Darkfall’s wipes a few times, after revelations that the wipe may not be a wipe in the sense of “characters deleted, starting fresh.” The more Aventurine talks, the more a better image begins to come into focus, and after their latest blog I think it’s safe to say that the “wipe” refers to new skills that will replace old skills (but start at 0) and redundant skills being removed completely, which Aventurine has confirmed as true. Such a system isn’t really a wipe in the traditional sense, and regaining the few new skills will be far less enduring than a full wipe.

But who knows? I know I don’t.

Week In Review: Why Hath WoW Forsaken Me?


Thanks to World of Warcraft’s seven day welcome back week, I have something to hold my attention for seven days, at least until the little girl from The Ring comes through my television set to murder me (the joke’s on her, I’ll be playing The Room on a second television. Try and brave that to kill me). Other than the thought of impending death, I’m having a lot more fun on my recreated toon than I expected. I started a new undead hunter to test out the phasing and new quests. There are a lot of major changes to the game, like the removal of weapon levels and ammunition. I’m taking notes, and I’ll be doing a “Why Aren’t You Playing” on World of Warcraft at some point.

1. Earth Eternal Is Officially Back

At least to the point where you can play it. If you head over to the Earth Eternal website, you can log in with Facebook and install the client. You will need to make sure that the previous Sparkplay version has been uninstalled before you do, as conflicting installations can cause problems. There may be an issue with the requirement to sign in via Facebook, and you may have to wait a little while before the website recognizes that you have the game installed (this happened to me), but otherwise you can jump right in.

Earth Eternal is just as adorable as it was when we left it, and the game has undergone quite a substantial upgrade in the graphics department. Find me in-game, my username is Omali.

2. Bioware Hates The Heterosexuals

This falls into the category of “I wish this wasn’t true.” Over on the Old Republic boards, a poll popped up asking players what type of relationship they will pursue with their companion characters, choosing from same sex, opposite sex, all relationships, or none. Of course, this sparked a bit of a fizzle (not an explosion) on the blogosphere from the lunatic fringe, claiming Bioware was “discriminating against heterosexuals” presumably by not allowing them to spew homophobic drivel on the Old Republic forums.

What this ultimately ends up as is a matter of civil discussion, and people who don’t understand what that means. The subject of homosexuality is a touchy one, but in the context of the thread, Bioware was simply asking about your choice of partner, not your opinion on who will burn in eternal hellflame.

3. I Buy My Gold Straight From Kim Jong Il

This is an odd story, yet not all surprising. According to the New York Times, North Korea is employing hackers to break into South Korean MMOs in order to write bots for them to farm gold to sell for the government (and of course so his son can get his epic mount in World of Warcraft). The outfit that operates the bots reportedly brings in some hard cash, $6 million over two years, and is the same office that operates drug trafficking, counterfeiting, and other illegal practices for the glorious leader.

So the next time you see a gold farmer in-game, ask if you can have Kim Jong Il’s autograph. They like that. Also consider this another reason to gank bots in your favorite MMO. That gold you just looted could keep North Korea from achieving nuclear technology.

4. Firefall is Releasing Similar To Google Mail

In an announcement on the Firefall website, CEO Mark Kern has expressed his interest in launching the free to play MMO as close to the Gmail method as possible. The project is currently in friends and family beta, where it will slowly expand to allow more people. Oddly enough, Kern considers the game already “launched,” and believes that the expanded base is not bringing in new beta testers, but rather simply expanding a low-key launch to a wider audience via invitation.

First person to send me an invitation gets a free…something, I’ll figure it out.

5. Then Again, Darkfall Could See More Success

I admit, I’ve been hard on Darkfall for the past few weeks, given Aventurine’s refusal to acknowledge a wipe. I’ve hinted in the past that the wipe may have to do with the removal of certain skills, and revamping of others, explaining why Aventurine won’t call it a “wipe in the traditional sense,” or why the company feels that the issue won’t be as hot topic as players are turning it into.

What I have seen over the past few weeks is an outbreak of support for a wipe, even going as far as a full wipe. Some see it as a necessity to level the playing field, while others see it as a way to rid the game of ill-gotten gains through bugs, dupes, macroing, and exploits. Overall there appears to be equal pull in both directions on the forums, for and against a wipe of any sort.

My stance throughout all of this has not been predictive. Rather than trying to read the community and predict death or success, I’ve kept to stating the possibilities (on both sides) and citing past examples of wipes and their resulting success, or lack thereof. I’ve leaned a little more toward the death side of the fork in the road, so consider this a balancing “I still have faith this can work out” piece.

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.