"When we were talking about this concept and about full PvP, about a dark and realistic world, about blood splatter, decapitation etc. a few years ago, everyone else was playing it safe and using terms like "Quakefest" and "dudefest" to describe our concept while simultaneously discounting the PvP community as a whole. Now everyone is jumping on the bandwagon and suddenly it's all good because they found out there's a market there. They've hacked in the PvP but that doesn't even come close to offering freedom, so they have to sell the byproducts of PvP."
Where is your dark and realistic world? Where is your blood splatter? Where are your decapitations? What have you done to sate your mature audience? How much longer are gamers going to be able to take orcs, goblins, trolls, gnomes, dwarves, halflings, and cat-people seriously in an online setting? 'Darkfall' makes quite a lot of promises itself, you realise, and yes, even I'll admit that it all sounds good, but where is it all working in front of us? What I really mean to say is this: you guys aren't exactly innocent of dangling your own carrots or teasing players with your own promises. At least Funcom have something to show for it after the years of work they have been putting into 'Age of Conan'; the gaming community is actually seeing the fruits of their labour - it's actually happening!
"You can't have a true real-time game when you can select your targets, and 'set up' your attacks allowing the system to attack for you... Other games may try to imitate real-time action by giving you the illusion of control through options."
Semantics. What is "real-time"? Even in a game where you select your targets, the player is still making a real-time decision on what spell or attack to use. 'Darkfall' promises gameplay that is akin to the first-person shooter; a bit like the combat and character interaction in 'The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind' or 'The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion'. Even in this "real-time action", the player is limited, and is still bound by their own real-time decisions (what attack or spell to use and when?), but after a while the player realises that it is most effective to go in gangbusters, i.e. "hack 'n' slash", or to bunny-hop around to prevent an opponent from targeting you properly at range. In the end, players are still going to be mashing buttons, strafing, kiting, and slashing their weapons in your "real-time action" setting, how is 'Darkfall' going to be different? I believe we've seen it all in other games before; how is it unique?
"As a result Darkfall is more action packed than anything out there and this is supported by its features as well as by the lack of gameplay restrictive features: no target selection, aimed attacks, full physics, no radar, no floating names, no floating damage, no fuchsia, or chartreuse colored circles at your feet, no invisibility, 'true stealth', visual and audio cues, full mounted combat, naval combat etc."
Again, more promises and carrot-dangling; where is the proof? Where is something current? I just find it a bit rich that someone could sit behind their computer monitor and fluff themselves up so much with what their game promises, when in actual fact they haven't got much to show for it.
How long has 'Darkfall' been in development? Eight years? [Editor's Note: Darkfall developer Aventurine SA was founded in October 2002, although Darkfall interviews date back to August 2001 as part of a company called Razorwax.] Now, I'm not going to use the "v-word" here (vaporware), but I believe I share the sentiments of the gaming community when I say about 'Darkfall': Yes, it all sounds good, but where's the beef? Where is your public beta? Where is your release date? How long do you expect to keep your faithful around with mere promises? How many developers do you have working on 'Darkfall' at the moment, and how are you working so hard to get this game out soon to be the next big thing? How will you make good on your promises if you haven't got the man-power to do so?
