Tobold's Blog: Darkfall boycott ended

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Darkfall boycott ended

It turns out I can't keep up my attempt to completely boycott mentioning Darkfall. My readers keep bringing up the game in comments, and the stories around the game are just too outrageously funny to be completely ignored. So my Darkfall boycott is officially over, but I'll step in if the game's fans are misbehaving.

In their latest move Aventurine does something of which I can completely understand the business logic, but which is bound to royally tick off the hardcore players which are the core audience of Darkfall: If you want to play on the new Darkfall US servers on release, you will have to buy the game again, even if you already paid for the European version. You *do* have an option to not pay, reuse your Euro client, and transfer your character to the US servers, but only at some point at least 3 months after release.

I find it highly entertaining to watch how extremely anti-hardcore Aventurine's business practices are. First they punished early adopters by forcing them to camp the website to buy the Euro version of the game, now they'll make them jump through hoops again for the priviledge of being early on the US servers. There is a sublime logic behind it, and a refreshing honesty: Being the first on a server has obvious advantages in a competitive persistent online game. So why not make people pay for that advantage?

Darkfall is like a very exclusive club with restricted access. That is contrary to the policy of every other MMO, all of which try to get the maximum number of subscribers. But by separating those who really, really want to play from what syncaine would call the tourists, Aventurine avoids the fate of AoC and WAR, dropping off a cliff after high initial box sales. That saves them money on server hardware etc., and thus has some justification as a strategy. So kudos to Aventurine for doing their own thing in managing their subscriber numbers.

The downside is that some US Darkfall fans will be less than happy about this. There will be yet another Hitler movie with Darkfall subtitles on YouTube, and the whole gammut of outrage and overreaction on various forums. Might be quite amusing to watch. Anyone got popcorn?
- posted by Tobold @ 9:13 AM Permanent Link

Comments:

I think I'm just enjoying seeing the US guys see how EU players usually get treated.

# posted by

Anonymous : 25/6/09 10:25

Makes perfect sense to me. Heck, they're actually being overly nice by allowing you to transfer your EU character to the US servers.

Has any other MMO ever allowed character transfers between regions before?

Also, since when should you have access to one region after you bought a box for another region? I've never heard of it happening...

# posted by

Beltayn : 25/6/09 10:31

Agreed Plastic Rat, I'm surprised that anyone would have expected anything different to this. Sounds like completely standard practice to me.

# posted by

Carson 63000 : 25/6/09 12:18

Also surprised, if Wow is the "benchmark", we've always had to purchase the same game twice to play to US vs EU. I'd like to know the reasons why they do this though. (Admin costs?? Preventing players from playing to both sets of servers??)

# posted by

Linda : 25/6/09 12:37

I hate this region bullshit so much, it's the internet FFS.

# posted by

rulez : 25/6/09 13:27

@ Marz

Its usually because the different regions have different publishers of the game. As Tasos said regarding darkfall

"The European rights and the American rights to Darkfall do not belong to the same company, therefore you cannot freely transfer between the two territories, as is the case with most MMORPGs."

# posted by

Bonno : 25/6/09 14:16

@ Plastic Rat
Yes SOE allows players to play on both EU and US servers with one account. I have EU friends and have played on EU servers using my US account for both EQ2 and Vanguard. I'm sure there are others as well.

# posted by

Fumbles : 25/6/09 14:39

ForumFall is not happy about this announcement, at all. Most of us are waiting to see what this coming 'expansion' patch is going to bring, which is more or less going to be a make/break patch

The insanely stupid part about all of this is that underneath all the drama and forumfall, DarkFall actually delivered on it's core goal of solid, skill-based PvP, far beyond anyone's expectations. It's the combination of everything else being slightly (or horribly) off, and now this re-buy, that is making everyone think twice.

# posted by

Anonymous : 25/6/09 15:06

Has any other MMO ever allowed character transfers between regions before?

Guild Wars does. (you just set an option somewhere with the account, I think, though I've never actually tried it before.) Plus the international districts. (Though the server architecture probably makes it a lot simpler than a lot of other MMO's.)

# posted by

Pickly : 25/6/09 15:44

The regions have a fairly good reason to exist, actually.

Languages, of course, but time zones as well. If I'm playing on a Euro server from the US, prime time is 3 in the morning.

# posted by

Toxic : 25/6/09 16:01

The insanely stupid part about all of this is that underneath all the drama and forumfall, DarkFall actually delivered on it's core goal of solid, skill-based PvP, far beyond anyone's expectations. It's the combination of everything else being slightly (or horribly) off, and now this re-buy, that is making everyone think twice.

I fully agree with and endorse this statement. Who would have thought that syncaine and me could agree on a description of Darkfall?

# posted by

Tobold : 25/6/09 16:16

You can try to make money through volume or margins. Most F2P games try for the former, and it looks like Darkfall is going the latter route (at least through this pay-twice pricing). Good for them! I'd like to see WoW adopt a premium / more expensive monthly subscription that allows you to jump servers at will.

# posted by

changed : 25/6/09 17:57

Darkfall's biggest issue is Mortal Online is about to release and if you preorder you get into Beta. I think DFO is going to take a big hit from this.

# posted by

Epiny : 25/6/09 18:26

I don't see why this is an issue. Wouldn't this be good, as it prevents people who essentially AFK macroed their characters to an unfair level to be denied the chance to dominate a new server?

I was seeing in many DFO comments that a rollback was needed to deal with the macroing problem, this is as close to one as can be.

# posted by

Anonymous : 25/6/09 18:33

A roll back is one thing, being charged $50 to wipe your character and start over, after you already paid for the game and have been paying monthly payments is sort of retarded.

Makes sense for the DFO producers though. If I was still playing DFO I would probably do it... but I'm playing WAR and looking at MO.

# posted by

Epiny : 25/6/09 20:14

I know I won't pay for another client. Already paid them for 2 EU clients. Not worth it.

Only downfall is not everyone exploited the system when the game first came out and we are all suffering because of it.

# posted by

Tom : 25/6/09 20:54

Can't you keep playing on the Euro server if you want?

# posted by

Toxic : 25/6/09 21:38

Yes you can continue to play on Euro if you want. The NA server should offer better latency though and a frest start. Though honestly I thought the latency was really good on the Euro server even if I was in the US.

# posted by

Epiny : 25/6/09 21:56

All this stuff aside, Darkfall still has to prove that it is a good game on its own.

Just that it is intended for a hardcore audience does not make it automatically a good and enjoyable game for either audience.

And... *drumroll* ... I am with Ed Zitron. SCNR.

# posted by

Longasc : 26/6/09 13:50