General Discussion

Originally posted by imbant

Common mistake...judging a games community before it releases.  DF's community hasnt arrived yet, all you have now is the forum fallers who are just the really devoted followers of the game, but they represent an extremely small percentage of what wll be the DF subscription base.

 

No - the common mistake here is yours.

Games communities begin to form long, long before a game releases these days.

They form on Dev forums and fan forums.

And more than that, you will probably notice that the behaviour of the two (forums and the game) interact.

This is where the "community standards" are born.

If the Devs and community moderators allow their forums to degenerate into a bunch of trash talking fanbois then they have no right to be surprised when the game releases and is dominated by the same people.

It's also surprising how a small core of hardcore fanbois or trolls or smack talkers can drive many others away from the game.
It's also really odd when you begin to notice that people who post things like "go back to WoW", "...we don't need you...", "n00b" and "can I haz ur stuff? LOL :P" tend to be gankers, zergers and griefers when the game finally goes live.

So, if you want my advice, make sure you stamp out unwanted traits in your community now.  Your game will be better for it.

Originally posted by Gyrus

Originally posted by imbant

Common mistake...judging a games community before it releases.  DF's community hasnt arrived yet, all you have now is the forum fallers who are just the really devoted followers of the game, but they represent an extremely small percentage of what wll be the DF subscription base.

 

No - the common mistake here is yours.

Games communities begin to form long, long before a game releases these days.

They form on Dev forums and fan forums.

 

And more than that, you will probably notice that the behaviour of the two (forums and the game) interact.

This is where the "community standards" are born.

If the Devs and community moderators allow their forums to degenerate into a bunch of trash talking fanbois then they have no right to be surprised when the game releases and is dominated by the same people.

It's also surprising how a small core of hardcore fanbois or trolls or smack talkers can drive many others away from the game.
It's also really odd when you begin to notice that people who post things like "go back to WoW", "...we don't need you...", "n00b" and "can I haz ur stuff? LOL :P" tend to be gankers, zergers and griefers when the game finally goes live.

 

So, if you want my advice, make sure you stamp out unwanted traits in your community now.  Your game will be better for it.

 

I see what point you are trying to make, and there is some kind of reason behind it.
 

But you arent going to convince me that the very small number of fans who regularily post on those forums and the ones that have been "attacking" the hype meter as this thread point out are any indication of the what the community will be on release.  In a sandbox game, attitudes and character are your reputation.  So once people have to be held accountable, it changes everything.

But mainly because we are talking about maybe 100 people max who came from forumfall to hype the game here...the rest dont care about this site for obvious reasons.  So to base opinions of the community on what is a fraction of a % of what the release fanbase will be is really just not accurate.

And even if you want to look at the forum community...that is still such a small % of what the actual community will be.  And i only meant the people who actively talk on those forums...the majority are lurkers

Originally posted by Abrahmm

Originally posted by Rubycat

Yes actually they are.

-its fully listed out in the Darkfall official forums that they are hyping up their game while de-hyping others-

 

 

Wow... thats just sad... You would think they would be smart enough to not trash similar games like Earthrise....

We're talking about a group of people who think Darkfall, friggin Darkfall, is going to be the best thing ever.

These aren't brain surgeons.

Originally posted by Sharajat

Originally posted by Abrahmm

Originally posted by Rubycat

Yes actually they are.

-its fully listed out in the Darkfall official forums that they are hyping up their game while de-hyping others-

 

 

Wow... thats just sad... You would think they would be smart enough to not trash similar games like Earthrise....

 

We're talking about a group of people who think Darkfall, friggin Darkfall, is going to be the best thing ever.

These aren't brain surgeons.

Opinions are fun.  OMG people excited for somethin new and different....  OMG challenging gameplay....run away! 

Originally posted by imbant

I see what point you are trying to make, and there is some kind of reason behind it.
 

But you arent going to convince me that the very small number of fans who regularily post on those forums and the ones that have been "attacking" the hype meter as this thread point out are any indication of the what the community will be on release.  ...

But mainly because we are talking about maybe 100 people max who came from forumfall to hype the game here...the rest dont care about this site for obvious reasons.  So to base opinions of the community on what is a fraction of a % of what the release fanbase will be is really just not accurate.

And even if you want to look at the forum community...that is still such a small % of what the actual community will be.  And i only meant the people who actively talk on those forums...the majority are lurkers

That small percentage can do damage beyond belief - particularly if they have the developer's ear.

Particularly in Beta Phase.

They can shout down and drive away people with valid and justified concerns.  They can do so so effectively that the Developers are left with the (sometimes wrong) impression that the game is "perfect" and that everyone loves it.

You mention "lurkers" - and you have a good point.  People only stay with forums if they enjoy them and feel comfortable there - that includes the Lurkers.

This is when you build your community, not post release.  By then it is way to late.

Im thinking that we may just be assigning different meanings to the term "community".

I can agree with you to a certain point, and maybe it is a mix of both.  But when i think of a game community, i think about what it is like on release and what the character of the people who play on my server is (which could be a lot or even none of what is currently active on the forums). 

Since we dont know everything about the game mechanics yet, we dont know what effect it will have on the community.  An example would be in WoW you could ninja loot something, and then insult every member of your faction, and then go on forums and insult the sexuality of the opposing faction...but if you are still cool with your guild then you can still play the game.  Your own faction cant do anything about you and the best the other side can do is hope to kill you in a battleground or maybe gank ya on the way to an isntance one day.

In darkfall...if you ninja something (though the mechanics really make this hard to do but for the sake of arguement) and rub it in everyones faces...and run your mouth on forums...guess what...your reputation is gone and people recognize the importance of reputation so you will have a tough time in game.  if your guild still keeps you around, it will be associated with you and will suffer consequences of anyone who wants to get back at you, and if you get booted out for that reason, no one will take you in and probably will kill you on sight.

Now that is an extreme example, but im just trying to point out what game mechanics can do to a community and how people act.  The internet provides people with annonymity (sp?) and can turn otherwise normal people into real jerks because they dont have to face consequences for their actions.  But when they do....they may change their attitude.

/rant

imbant, as a comprehensive darkfall fan, you must see how it can become annoying.

It's alright, DF will fill many people's shoes and what not, it deserves to be hyped due to their promises, it deserves to get its hype down due to a faulty development proccess, it ended up in a 6.98 which imho was fair, being as objective as I can.

However, reading about DF everywhere, seeing how people who supposedly aren't interested on a game talk it down to add a "DF rulez" at the end, people in this forum want their forum games to be clean of this shit, we already know what DF fans think about every game excepting darkfall, there's no need for it to be repeated over and over.

We all know about DF, the viral advertisement is all over this place, we know the features, everything there is to know, now, can't they just stop there?

Hmm, time to help community and hype Darkfail 1?