Darkfall’s status as of 8:00PM CST/2:00AM GMT:
Servers: Down.
Forums: Down.
Website: Still advertising your chance at joining the Darkfall beta.
Stratics IRC: Wait a minute… Stratics still exists? And it’s our only source of Darkfall news? My god, they DID recreate UO!
<Brannoc> We are currently processing all pre-orders and when that phase is complete the game servers will be available for play. The forums are offline temporarily while we make adjustments. The IRC channel will remain locked during this time.
Well, that explains everything, then.
From the SomethingAwful threadnaught about Darkfall:
Darkfall is on the verge of another MMOG first. Some games have had horrific launch days, plagued with constant crashes and bugs, but I don’t think any other game has completely failed to start the servers up.
Apparently, the developers, Aventurine, were overwhelmed with the amount of pre-orders, despite having a limited preset number of pre-orders, and in a very fair display of even-handed fairness are not bringing the servers up until every pre-order has been added into the system, presumably by Eastern Orthodox monks illuminating vellum parchments and carefully integrating them into the Book of Woe using Perforce.
And now, while you wait, forlorn, in a Stratics chatroom waiting for SRC Wackyname to come answer your GM ticket, here are some quotes from the past from the humble Darkfall development team.
“So why don’t we announce a date already? It’s because there’s no way we’ll miss a release date and we’re not going to just set a date as a goal, and either postpone or be forced to release something unfinished.”
– Tasos Flambouras, Darkfall producer, from a dev diary.
“We welcome the “too good to be true” or the “Darkfall promises everything” ranting about Darkfall because we’re in a position to know that we’ll offer more than we promise.”
– Tasos Flambouras, same diary
“Darkfall could launch today. It’s more ready for launch than most, if not all of the MMORPG titles at the same stage that I’ve personally sampled and it has been for quite some time.”
– Tasos Flambouras, interview, December 2008
“A lot of communities would like to be like Darkfall’s. Slandering our game is a way to get a reaction.
We have a thick skin; this kind of thing doesn’t touch us. It actually makes us feel like we’re on the right track. It has also served to fire up our community and has created diehard fans. It got a lot of people to take a closer look at our game and realize that this is what they’ve been waiting for. All the “trolls” have achieved is to inadvertently help perpetuate the buzz for Darkfall.”
– Tasos Flambouras, same interview.
For good game performance, you should have a PIII-800 and a GeForce1-2 or ATI Radeon. The game engine will also take advantage of the latest graphics cards that are coming out, like the GeForce3 or the upcoming ATI 8500. So if you have one of those, then the game will look stunning.
– Kjetil Helland, Darkfall lead programmer, IGN interview, 2001
As for the board whisperers, they’re a reaction to a highly anticipated and ambitious game by an independent studio. ‘Whispers’ have proven in the past to have an agenda or two behind them, and whether it’s competition, attempts at forcing information, or manipulating an active community, we shouldn’t propagate them by rehashing them.
– Tasos Flambouras, MMORPG.COM inteview
The “PvP stigma” you speak of, is proof that PvP hasn’t been handled well by MMOGs so far, in contrast with the mass market where PvP games are the overwhelming majority of multiplayer games being played. It’s a shame, especially since MMORPGs are the most suitable games for epic battles, conflict, glory and shame. It’s our ambition, through Darkfall, to alter the negative perception some MMOG players have of player on player combat.
– Tasos Flambouras, same interview
Hype surrounding Darkfall is huge right now, despite our best efforts.
– Tasos Flambouras, Darkfall community announcement
#1 by Technogeek on February 26th, 2009
“Stratics IRC: Wait a minute… Stratics still exists? And it’s our only source of Darkfall news? My god, they DID recreate UO!”
That was the point at which I knew I would never stop laughing.
#2 by The Claw on February 26th, 2009
This isn’t hatred or bitterness. It’s just hardcore PvP (poster vs. poster) action. Darkfall’s fans and developers should enjoy it!
#3 by Wufiavelli on February 27th, 2009
God i cannot wait till this over and i can enjoy the game without all the rabble, zergs, and fly by night malcontents (many will stay) leave.
Said this would be tragically bad.
Game will likely survive it though.
#4 by TariqOne on February 27th, 2009
We’ll see.
The problem is that right now it looks like a mad rush to buy Darkfall, but that is more because they created a situation where 10,000 customers was an overwhelming number. What is the real amximum market for this game? I doubt it’s 300,000 or even 200,000 people pounding on the door. Is it 100,000? Hard to tell.
Whatever that number is, experience tells us that this is likely the high-water mark. With a launch like this, and the general STFU-or-GTFO nature of the core Darkfall community, what sort of retention rates is Darkfall going to see in the first three months.
The numbers just don’t seem to work, in my view. I personally can’t see more than 30,000 subscribers by the time the dust settles and that’s likely overstating it. Given that the world was designed to have a PvP focus in a large landmass on 10,000-concurrent-user servers. 30,000 total subscribers or anything less just seems like a recipe for a big, empty, moribund PvP world at most hours of the day.
Sure, it might survive, but Aventurine seems to be quickly using up what little margin for error they had to pull it off.