To make a PvP game, I think the design from the outset has to accomodate PvP in all its forms. Designers need to say, “I’ll actively implement game play options that will make a griefer’s life miserable.” or “I don’t care if a griefer quits. Screw him.” To do this, you need to rely on the social elements of the game and remove the computer as being the mediator of all crimes. A little reality in this situation can go a long way if done right. Give other players the ability to carry out justice on the griefer that is long lasting or permanent in nature. Why is it not acceptable to character wipe a griefer’s character? If you don’t care to have the griefer in your game anyway, then why care about his account or characters. Make a griefer play the MMO in “hardcore” mode once they’ve committed an act of griefing.

While I know there’s lots more to consider in the above scenario, I often wonder why no brain cells have been put towards figuring out the problems in PvP games and coming up with real solutions instead of another colored PvP switch with brighter lipstick on it. WoW did a wonderful thing for the MMO industry in that it helped expand the customer base from 2 mil to over 16 mil+. The price we paid as developers for that growth is measured in the flexibility we have to design radically different systems for our future games.

No one has nailed a PvP world yet. It will eventually happen but it hasn’t happened yet. Closest we’ve come as an industry is Eve online and there’s significant improvement to be had from there as well.

Still, as you demonstrated, there are still many other Darkfall-related tidbits to talk about.

I wish I could read more of Owain’s take on Darkfall now, regardless of which reason will cause him or his guild to stop playing. And I hope he will address the political climate in the game, which already appears to be consolidated between three or four alliances: http://df.urme.com/ Looking at that map, I wouldn’t be surprised if it later boiled down to the two blues and the whites in the middle, with the Death alliance having the best spot.

And if Darkfall is collapsing: Heh, there goes my interest for Mortal Online as well, next stop on the Hardcore train wreck line.

geldonyetich :The forums look like a full fledged implosion in progress.
A helpful forum poll is showing that about half the players are quitting either now or by the time their subscription ends, another 22.8% are thinking of quitting, and 27% are planning on sticking around (half of which will wait for the 3 months transfer).
Of course, this is just the vocal forumites, who are hardly reflective of the average Darkfall player. For example, this poll would seem to suggest that the Europeans are outnumbed by Americans by about 5 to 3. It would appear this change is affecting the majority of the players, but it probably helps pad the American side that the forum is in English.
If I’m reading this correctly, the lead complaint is just that they don’t like the idea of having to start over on a new server.
The lesson here: if you cater to the hardcore, expect to be financially PK’d the minute you do something that minutely ticks them off.

I think you made one slightly incorrect assumption about Darkfall or its playerbase. As we all agree for most MMO’s the forum trolls no matter how vocal really are a small percentage of the games population, and rarely show real trends.

But Darkfall is a game that was marketed almost exclusively to the hardcore forum trolls. It has no casual player component. There were no retail box sales at Walmart. In order to even get the game up to this point you either had to be a forum troll who knew it was out there, or a close friend of said forum troll. And even then you had to deal with a purchase system geared for only the most determined and obsessive. (the Cartmanland marketing model).

So in this case Adventurine should probably be paying an awful lot of attention to those forum trolls. They are not just a higher percentage base then in other games. They are pretty much ass Adventurine has got.

These folks launched the game originally using the “Cartmanland” business model.

They have also always talked about wanting to keep their hype down. This should really help dampen their hype if that’s their goal.

Richard

I’m sure the BBC and Voice of America must be behind this evil plot to meddle in Darkfall’s internal affairs.

Thank you for not calling it broken, you’d get Owain started on another round of punditry.

I must admit, acoustically I did like it (reminded me many Cartoons I watched as a kid)…it was the visuals that were, lets say different, yet, there was a big crowd going crazy down there anyways..just like Darkfall has a Crowd.

Nice write up on DF even if they quickly clarified their position. I think the choice to have players transfer only after 3 months from launch and without possessions is a sound one for the American server.

As for MO, I am not sure it will do any better than DF…we shall see.

The bottom line is that DF failed in so many levels, it was a big disappointment for many, including myself. Not because of the the Full loss and full Loot, but because of the mechanics this Full Loss and Full loot is implemented in.

It is nothing like Ultima Online, and I doubt it will ever be. The worst thing of all this is that the Marketing has been done solely through word of mouth, and that word of mouth had given a completelly wrong picture of the game. Of course AV knew that, yet, they let it continue because in the end they can justify plausible denyability and cash in on the copy sales.

We shall see what the future holds.