Darkfall: CEO Announces No Intention to Reboot

Shelassa

Aventurine CEO and founder Zad Mehdawi took to the DarkFall forums today to announce that despite player petitions there will be no rebooting of the original game. Mehdawi cited the company's commitment to making Darkfall Unholy Wars a much better game over time. He also thanked the community for their support and interest and reinforced the idea that Aventurine wants to be a company of which every player can be proud.

We realized, despite the initial excitement, players that played DFUW would not return to play DFO. Players were getting bored with the DFO game after a month or two. It is too hard to get into the game. The sad truth is that this is not a game that anyone would play for years. 

Our dream is to create games that people will remember for many years to come. We want to build a company that will last for many years, too. A company whose employees will feel it is the best place they have ever worked.

You can read the entire letter on the Darkfall forum.

What do you think of the news? Do you think Mehdawi gives compelling reasons for not reopening Darkfall? Leave us your thoughts. 

Thanks to mmoesports for the tip. 

 

MrSnuffles

 

If you have a very small remaining player base and they tell you for years that your new version of the game is bad and they want the old version back then you might want to listen.

When your game fails then you do a re-boot and it fails even with your biggest fans then you need to take a step back and listen.

-/-

This attitude of, "we know better than the player", has given EA the bad reputation it deserves, it has made Microsoft the laughing stock of consoles with the disaster that was the Xbox One release.

I am shocked this game still makes the news, it's been declining for years and i am surprised the company still has money.

 

Arklith

'This is not a game anyone would play for years' 

you mean like the people that played the old DFO for years without updates and crap Dev communication?

Laughing-man

The way his post is worded it makes me think they were wasting resources on trying to continue to develop DFO until his post.

Horrible management continues at AV, story at 11.

 /facepalm

Man, I really liked Darkfall, and I even enjoyed Unholy Wars, but frankly AV hasn't actually added anything 'new' to the game in years. Very frustrating.

Abuz0r

DFUW is an amazingly fun game, but the skill gap is immense.  There are players running around that can beat your entire team of 6-8 people all by themself.  They destroy you while you can't touch them.   Like literally, they pull you and 7 of your friends out of your castle, chasing them, swinging at them, unable to hit them, and then 1 by 1 they slaughter you.  No help needed, they just beat your whole team.  

There are no legendaries, no blues, just people in gear like you, who are so much amazingly better than you that you might aswell start an investment bank in the game because combat isn't your thing obviously.

I slowly lost interest in this game as I encountered players that were so much vastly better than anyone else I knew in the game, and any time I happened to encounter them, it meant losing my gearbag and everything I had on me.

IAmMMO

 Game over AV.  You had stumbled into a good base for the game to which improve from with DF 1.0! You had a beautifully crafted by hand large world for players to be in with lands for the races that actually had different bodies. You found by luck a good pace for real time PVP where players learned to use the physics engine with certain skills for some creative play, just like the a bug in fps gaming lead to rocket jumping, yet they destroyed all that with DF 2.0. 

 They really should have done improvements to DF 1.0 instead of the ruse they pulled on the players for a whole new reboot. All that was needed for DF1.0 was to add a little more sandbox  to it, balance the magic a little and look at the player down time for PVP. Which they could have taken a page out of SWG book by making non rare wearable gear not lootable, then add a feature to make what was in the players pack lootable only, and make rare player made gear from rare resources lootable, so it would have been risky to wear for  the advantages it gave, so many good ideas were thrown at Dev team. 

 To fail to realize what they had with DF 1.0, and then refuse to bring it back is the beginning of the end for DF 2.0!  AV will have to stick to its other projects, which it seems more devoted to anyway, DF 2.0 is just a demo of the engine, which they license out, they also do government projects, they're not fully devoted to DF 2.0 anyway, they their to sell an engine, DF 2.0 is  run on a skeleton crew who keep this demo running. Cheating was another thing that hit the game, but cheating is hitting all online competitive pvp and costs money to police, which is hard for small companies.

KenFisher

I doubt even a reboot would do it.

 

It's more like wipe and re-install from CD.  :-)

HEKKRA

We did not create this company to make money.

 

I don't understand a CEO of any company would say this directly to customers. It doesnt make sense.

Cecropia

Originally posted by HEKKRA

We did not create this company to make money.

 

I don't understand a CEO of any company would say this directly to customers. It doesnt make sense.

The entire announcement just seemed off to me; it came across as fake and in an odd way kind of creepy.

Sadly this is where I say goodbye. DFO was one of the best video games I've experienced throughout my 3 decades of gaming. I would have been back as soon as the server went up. DFUW, while good and I gave it a decent shot, just didn't manage to do it for me. 

Thanks for the memories, adios Aventurine. 

d_20

I played the original DFO for 2 years till the servers were shut down and my chars wiped. I played DFUW for one month after it launched. So go figure.

Anyway, DF 2010 was probably the best vision they ever put out, but were apparently unable to deliver on. That was a long time ago, now.

So it goes.

mgilbrtsn

Originally posted by MrSnuffles

 

If you have a very small remaining player base and they tell you for years that your new version of the game is bad and they want the old version back then you might want to listen.

When your game fails then you do a re-boot and it fails even with your biggest fans then you need to take a step back and listen.

-/-

This attitude of, "we know better than the player", has given EA the bad reputation it deserves, it has made Microsoft the laughing stock of consoles with the disaster that was the Xbox One release.

I am shocked this game still makes the news, it's been declining for years and i am surprised the company still has money.

 

They've made a lot of changes which has had player support, so I don't know that they don't listen to players.  If they are committed to improving the game, and it must have some following, otherwise they would let it go.  No company wants an albatross hanging around their necks.

H0urg1ass

I played the original for about two hours.  I asked a few honest questions in chat and every time I was treated like garbage.  It had one of the most toxic communities I've ever encountered in a game, and ffs, I've been playing EVE Online for ten years.  In order to to make me cringe harder than sitting in Adversity TeamSpeak for five minutes you have to be pretty toxic.

Besides, there'a half a dozen open-world sandbox games coming out just around the corner.  No need try one that already failed hard.

nitron

Dfo was the most exciting game ive ever played. Without the initial bugs and stuff it would have been amazing

oxyde

I played DFO at launch and even with its problems is was an incredible experience.  I have not had my heart ever skip a beat like it did many times while playing.  I was hoping for the reboot because I cannot stand Unholy Wars.  Well,  there goes that wish. 

Well.....bye.

Cecropia

Originally posted by h0urg1ass

I played the original for about two hours.  I asked a few honest questions in chat and every time I was treated like garbage.  It had one of the most toxic communities I've ever encountered in a game, and ffs, I've been playing EVE Online for ten years.  In order to to make me cringe harder than sitting in Adversity TeamSpeak for five minutes you have to be pretty toxic.

Besides, there'a half a dozen open-world sandbox games coming out just around the corner.  No need try one that already failed hard.

Funny how people's experiences with the community varied so much. I had nothing but starter bag gifts, clan invites, and helpful tips when I first started playing. Out of curiosity did you pick Human as your race? I remember a lot of the complaints were coming from people who started out in the Human lands.

Sure there were douches I came across just as any other game (especially one with DFO's ruleset), but my experience in the Mahirim lands was a pleasant surprise.

Callidor80

People seem to forget that this game, in its original form, was borderline vaporware. It was years upon years before anything substantial appeared after info was released on it. Then when it launched it was just a mess, all the systems were there, but it was borderline non functional, like a tech demo. Then years passed, they made the game work properly, but everyone had lost interest due to their obvious incompetence.

So commeth unholy wars, basically a fixed and dumbed down version of the original project. My point is this game has been various levels of shit for almost 10 years, why  do people even bother caring or covering it anymore?

Cecropia

Originally posted by Callidor80

People seem to forget that this game, in its original form, was borderline vaporware. It was years upon years before anything substantial appeared after info was released on it. Then when it launched it was just a mess, all the systems were there, but it was borderline non functional, like a tech demo. Then years passed, they made the game work properly, but everyone had lost interest due to their obvious incompetence.

So commeth unholy wars, basically a fixed and dumbed down version of the original project. My point is this game has been various levels of shit for almost 10 years, why  do people even bother caring or covering it anymore?

A lot of people enjoyed the shit out it otherwise no one would care and we wouldn't even have this thread. Kind of obvious, right.

Callidor80

There sales of both iterations say you are dead wrong.

OhhPaigey

I liked the original DF more.

kenpokiller

Originally posted by IAmMMO

 Game over AV.  You had stumbled into a good base for the game to which improve from with DF 1.0! You had a beautifully crafted by hand large world for players to be in with lands for the races that actually had different bodies. You found by luck a good pace for real time PVP where players learned to use the physics engine with certain skills for some creative play, just like the a bug in fps gaming lead to rocket jumping, yet they destroyed all that with DF 2.0. 

 They really should have done improvements to DF 1.0 instead of the ruse they pulled on the players for a whole new reboot. All that was needed for DF1.0 was to add a little more sandbox  to it, balance the magic a little and look at the player down time for PVP. Which they could have taken a page out of SWG book by making non rare wearable gear not lootable, then add a feature to make what was in the players pack lootable only, and make rare player made gear from rare resources lootable, so it would have been risky to wear for  the advantages it gave, so many good ideas were thrown at Dev team. 

 To fail to realize what they had with DF 1.0, and then refuse to bring it back is the beginning of the end for DF 2.0!  AV will have to stick to its other projects, which it seems more devoted to anyway, DF 2.0 is just a demo of the engine, which they license out, they also do government projects, they're not fully devoted to DF 2.0 anyway, they their to sell an engine, DF 2.0 is  run on a skeleton crew who keep this demo running. Cheating was another thing that hit the game, but cheating is hitting all online competitive pvp and costs money to police, which is hard for small companies.

 

Wow that's dumb. I haven't played but whenever someone relates mechanics to the Quake-quirks.

 

SHIT IS CASHHHHHH.

Cecropia

Originally posted by Callidor80
There sales of both iterations say you are dead wrong.

Franchise is still running a half decade later. The $ to make that happen is coming from somewhere.

Tibernicuspa

Here come the 10 or so Darkfall 1 fanatics to spread a bunch of false rumors about the Golden Paradise that DF1 was, the perfect game they should never have shut down?

 

Oh boy.

unclemo

The original Darkfall was a good concept, but rampent hacking and cheating ruined the game.

Tibernicuspa

Originally posted by unclemo
The original Darkfall was a good concept, but rampent hacking and cheating ruined the game.

And the really poor design that forced you to macro and grind to stay alive.

By the end the only people DF1 appealed to were the exploiting hyper competetive twitch crowd, a few hundred people.

DFUW is much better balanced out, but has a broken economy.

Cecropia

Hmmm. I just stumbled upon something interesting that those who were hoping to see the return of DFO might want to check out. It's called Battlefall and I had no idea it was in development.

You can register and sign up for the next Alpha wave here.

From the site:

-In 2013 began the epic quest to create a game with a simple vision:

 

“Sandbox PvP. Skill-based Combat.

Easy to learn, hard to master.”-

 

Ya never know...

Seelinnikoi

With Greece leaving the EU at any moment, and the falling subscriptions in the game... I wonder if Aventurine will keep its business doors open...