The original thread was closed due to derailed flaming (or a derailed flamer). Please keep this on topic. This was originally written by Frank from Sun, I just copy pasted it so that the community can have a constructive discussion about it. So, without further adieu, here's the original post:
Also called: How to lose your fans.
Below you find the recipe on how a gaming company can loose their biggest fans in the most effective way. It just really takes a constant breaking of promises, and in the end all credability is gone, and i stopped being a beleiver.
First of all id like to say that i am a huge fan, or rather i was. I am fan enough to keep my sub running and most likely to play darkfall2 when it comes. So with that in mind I would like to complain/whine about the following things that I find totally unacceptable.
I believe that the players are being held as total fools, with a never seen before list of promises never kept, and simply a long history of lying to the players and simply not telling the players that truth.
Luckily (or unlucky for the players) Darkfall is the best mmo ever made in my eyes and the 2.5 years ive played ive been happy with it and it says a lot.
But Aventurine, the devs and the communication – oh my god, you treat your players like idiots and I simply hate that a game company treats their fans like shit.
I would like to call you out on a few things that really springs to mind, and everytime I read them I die a little bit inside:
Of honorable mentions then January 14th, 1 year and 7 months ago you posted about new tradeskills, dyes, rare drops and not to forget you wrote “yes tons” for the question of more craftables and new items – AND THIS IS 1 YEAR AND 7 MONTHS AGO, WHAT THE FUCK !!!!.
The siegejoke of all time: April: self siege fixes - changes to siege system. May: siege system rewritten and ready for testing. June: new siege system out within one month. Early July: siege system still being testes. should be out within one month Late July:: testing siege system ongoing August: siege system expansion still testing. September: siege expansion still being worked on. in "final testing " stage. (but now it’s a hard task because they now state it was made for df2.0 and they are working on putting it in df1 – please look at june and july siege updates – does it smell of …?).
Anyways, Ivanhoe from Sun made a post about broken promises.
The updates that are from 2010 , most of them being 1.5 years old and while they sound great it just kills me to read it all over. Its broken promises, it shows a company who are either incompetent or in so much trouble that they have to constantly lie to their paying customers.
We deserve the truth here, because going over this list Is simply such a sad thing, and it pains me to read everytime and think of what the game could have been, but we have just been lied to for a very very very long time.
Ivanhoes list of broken promises, read it and weep.
/*Frank
Jan 14,2010 We have some major improvements for trade skills underway which target their depth and add a lot more items to the game We’re improving monster drops and especially rare drops. We’re planning a huge itemization boost almost doubling the amount of items in the game. This will mean more ingredients, more recipes for crafting, and this should help diversify the economy significantly. We’re also planning on Clan Vendors. We’re planning on player/clan vendors in capitals and possibly in clan cities. You need to compete to secure a vendor spot in a capital, or you need to earn one. Yes we are currently testing our system for armor and clothing dyes in conjunction with the sweeping changes in 2010. The colors are craftable and not all colors are created equal.
Is there any plan at all for more types of craftable armor or weapons anytime in the future?Yes, tons
Starting with the dynamic lore system where players can seriously impact the game’s lore and events happening in the game, it’s in our future plans to allow our players to increasingly affect the world. Will the sliding corpse bug ever be fixed? Yes and it won’t just be fixed but it’ll be replaced with something very cool. We’re currently working on introducing dynamic PvP opportunities to the game. Demigods are a part of a bigger design a part of which is the Dynamic Lore System. The Demigods will be introduced when it’s time for them to be introduced. Anti -aliasing will be implemented. We’re speaking with several partners concerning a N. America box release but we can’t give an ETA on that yet. Salvaging skill will be added and currently being worked on. Plans to implement a tiered clan bank access system. planning on diversifying the different melee skills by adding unique attacks/moves or specializations for each weapon type
Feb 22 2010 Advanced leather armor -All races are getting upgrades to new armor. April 21 2010 Besides the existing mounts, the game will see a wide array of mounts being added. April 22 2010 A major feature on the way are the Prestige Classes April 29 2010 Player Model updates, almost all the races have been finalized. April 29 2010 Attribute consumables, skill books and scrolls should be more common: Yes they should be and they will be on low level mobs. Introduce new potions / consumables that affect skill/spell/stats for a given time span: These are the temporary boosts we’re talking about in the character progression discussion post. Quests to increase specific skills/stats: We’re working on this. Increase the skill/stat level that attributes consumables raise to: We’re looking at adding new types of attribute consumables along these lines. Decrease the number of “necessary” spells/skills or simply make them more readily available and faster to skill up: We’re doing many small things to this end but we feel that Prestige classes will address this in the best possible way. Heal mount shouldn’t be affected by encumbrance: We’re going to address this like we did with the transfer spells.
May 18th -2010 We know you are also wondering about character animations: in this case we can tell you that they will get a complete overhaul and Aventurine is currently working on setting up a motion capture studio. July 02 2010 - Enviromental sounds will be patched in as soon as possible. Sept 1 2010 - The release of boxed versions of the game across EU and NA. , It will be on Amazon and Steam soon, Adding a type of cloak or tabard for clans. working on specific plans to improve crafting making it more diverse. Several new spells coming to the game. We’re working on several new additions to archery in connection to the prestige classes. we’re going to offer more weapon types and ammunition types for archers We’re re-making the entire interface. speaking with partners in Asia about offering Asian servers as there seems to be strong interest in the game. adding many craftable-only items to the game. We’re rolling out a political map in the near future and several other clan tools. We also have several plans for additions to clan cities. fix city cannons from being able to destory your own city walls. adding new villages and housing slots. (dyes / dyeable robes or further cloth accessories that are external to armor.)
Sept 9th 2010 Prestige classes are the largest feature ever added to Darkfall and will definitely change the face of the game. The final design for them is complete. From here we go to the technical design, implementation, testing, evaluation, more testing etc. Sounds like this will take forever but it won’t. Getting a Darkfall box out is underway and Darkfall is available now through most digital download channels and we’re in talks to get it on more of them Sveral new spells on the way. we will reward mages for being mages. adding more PvP centric additions on land Archers are getting new weapon types and ammo types and they’re also getting secondary skills in connection to prestige classes We’re rolling out a political map and several other clan tools. We also have several plans for additions to clan cities and we’re working on implementing various types of clan insignia We announced that we’re working in the direction of mobs leveling up, and mobs attacking player cities
Jan 2011 new interface new environmental souns system major changes to crafting armor changes affecting gameplay choices. Darkfall arena announced (used to be called darkfall 2010) all racial areas getting total spawn and environmental revamp. All Subcontinents will get revamped. Own epic monster on each continent Monsters getting overall art revamp. new animations for monsters new armors like barbaian and animations. underwater effects for swimming new gui is complete and ready to implement.
Feb 2011 New information interface will be released next month. implementation of our new website and new forum layout is underway. GUI interface is now in production. New lighting system. More armor talk Largest monster in Agon. Another major upcoming change in the game will come as a direct result of the conquest system is being rewritten.
March 2011 grungroc Along these lines, each continent will have their own unique boss of which we already presented the Ragaizan One of the new features being added are land based PvP objectives new lighting system Crafting and melee skill skill-up rates will be increased. Some of the ingredients for the attribute consumables will come from the sea