Darkfall

The end of the year is approaching rapidly and the time to put up or finally shut up is also fast approaching for the DF boyz and all their cronies.

So I am assuming that DF will somehow manage to complete the following list before the end of the year without any issues:

1. Announce an actual date for a public Beta to start which they do not even have yet 3 months from a supposed commercial launch which in itself is beyond hilarious but......moving on.

2. Meet that Beta date and actually start a Beta.

3. Fix any issues that may a pop up during that Beta.  This game and it's tech have NEVER been tested in a real world environment yet with thousands of concurrent outside connections.

3. Announce an actual date for commercial launch.

4. Meet that date and launch.

All in the next 3 months. Sounds funny. Yes?

I'll let you imagine the type of madness that will ensue when / if they actually finally decide to grow a pair and allow thousands of people from the public to play test this and write their reviews.

I'll be here with my pop corn when that happens.
 

They need to:

1. Beta Test

2. Launch

Much simpler now isn't it? Even if they don't make a 2008 launch i would be happy with a beta.

And i think canceling a beta 2 times and delaying for years to finish your game requires more balls than hyping and unfinished piece of crap, launching it, charging for an extra month your subscribers and acting like everything is OK.

http://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php?p=1740002#post1740002

Did you even look into this game properly?

They can do the beta so close to a 'release' because they've already got rid of the bugs / majority of them and they've tested for lag by having hundreds fight in one location.

All I believe they need to do now is 'stress test' it or something even  though they are using state of the art serves and a leading service.

Then again I'm not a professional but that's what I've heard.

Doesn't matter, they release when they ready.

If OP cant wait he should try to find something else, no point in bringing hes private problems and questions  here.

A short open beta since they been in closed beta since 2007.

Then launch.

Did that make it easier for you?

Originally posted by Thorpeyrox

http://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php?p=1740002#post1740002

Did you even look into this game properly?

They can do the beta so close to a 'release' because they've already got rid of the bugs / majority of them and they've tested for lag by having hundreds fight in one location.

All I believe they need to do now is 'stress test' it or something even  though they are using state of the art serves and a leading service.

Then again I'm not a professional but that's what I've heard.

Agree. Seems OP havent done his homework.

They had professional testers since late 2007.

Game have therefore been in closed beta for almost a year already.

Open beta is planned to be a very short one.

More a stresstest then searching for bugs.

Why do people think that hype is equal to a good MMO today? And if a game have no hype, its supposed to be crap.

Remove the hype from any other MMO and just look at the beta and launch.....nothing magically! Same with Darkfall.  It will hopefully just go into beta nd then launch. If they find any problems, fix them and then release. Opposit to almost all other developers are doing.

I think the problem with Darkfall seems to be that they are unable to commit to a release date and they dont seem to care what kind of signal it gives to their potential customers. And the reason for that could be many. Lack of funds? Incompetent and/or amateurustic development team? Carelessness?

Either way it doesnt excactly instill trust in consumers if game is delayed over and over again. They need to realise that PR is just as important as anything else when releasing games.

Originally posted by Yamota

I think the problem with Darkfall seems to be that they are unable to commit to a release date and they dont seem to care what kind of signal it gives to their potential customers. And the reason for that could be many. Lack of funds? Incompetent and/or amateurustic development team? Carelessness?

Either way it doesnt excactly instill trust in consumers if game is delayed over and over again. They need to realise that PR is just as important as anything else when releasing games.

I dont agree. Of course companies with no limits funds can involve themself in large advertising campaigns. Smaller companies cant afford that luxury.

Read this quote from Tasos Flambouras and you'll might get a better picture of how Darkfall developers prioritate.

http://www.warcry.com/articles/view/devjournals/darkfalljournals/2813-Darkfall-Dev-Journal-21-Community-Q-A

Community: why has Darkfall had such a hard time securing a solid publisher and with the impending release of both age of Conan and Warhammer online aren't you concerned that the game will be unable to maintain a self sustaining profitable player base considering that the other games have giant budgets and giant advertising campaigns.

Tasos Flambouras: In very simple terms, it's not so much as Darkfall having a hard time securing a publisher as it is that publishers have had a hard time securing Darkfall. I'll explain: We do have the capability to self-publish, so the competition to any publishing offer, aside from other offers, is our own plan for self-publication. In our self-publishing scheme we hire the same services that most publishers use so in effect "cutting out the middleman" is usually to our advantage, especially since as a newcomer in the gaming industry it's rare to get a fantastic deal. Furthermore, getting a publishing deal isn't crucial to us in regards to development, and we won't just jump at offers. We have the "luxury" to try to do what's best for the game in this context. That being said, we have been and still are in discussions with publishers who present a good and viable alternative to our self-publishing plan.

Giant budgets and giant advertising campaigns demand giant paydays. We definitely don't need to be a World of Warcraft killer to be successful, but the same may not be true about some of the other games in development. When faced with the question of budget allocation we decided that it's more important for us to first make as good a game as possible and then to market it on its merit. The opposite doesn't work in the long run, and quality would be compromised by taking some of the development resources and throwing them into marketing so we're betting everything on our strength. We couldn't compete with some of the large titles when it comes to marketing since it all comes down to dollars and cents, but we can still make one hell of a game.