This week we’ve mostly been playing the free trial of Darkfall and are reviewing it after playing for a few hours. No, I don’t see how this can go wrong at all, why do you ask?
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7 comments
mchris says:
July 9, 2010 at 6:40 am (UTC 0 )
Lets get a fire started! Goddam carebears!
Actually that was a pretty balanced review – I don’t think anyone could take umbridge with it.
One thing I might disagree with is the length of time required to make a fair and balanced judgment on this game. I think your thrust was that we should be able to get the gist of a game after only a few hours. I think that is pretty debatable. Certainly as Eve players you know that the nature of the game changes over time. The thrill of doing a fleet op., with all its military precision, doesn’t come for a long time. It’s an experience that takes a long time to achieve. Certainly more rewarding that the first three or so hours of tutorial.
Also, your full disclosure notwithstanding, these are MMOs you are reviewing. Because we are supposed to play them for a long (too long?) time I think it is ok, or even desirable to have long entry level periods.
One of the foundations of MMOs is that they have scope for different kinds of play (PVE, PVP, trading, crafting, etc.) and that is a lot to teach in a short time.
It would be arrogant to suggest that I "get" and can make a fair judgment on sport such as "association football*" after only two hours of play.
Do you disagree? Or is it an unfair comparison?
The review was very imformative and I enjoyed it. I’m with you on the no scoring policy. Overall scores to judge the entirety of a game are absurd imho.
*As I believe it’s called.
Van Hemlock says:
July 9, 2010 at 9:45 am (UTC 0 )
Well, partly it’s pragmatic; I’ve got a lot going on in the average gaming fortnight, so by necessity, can only give it a few hours.
I generally agree – MMOs are complex beasts with a lot of time requirement to fully ‘get’ – the whole Op. Cheapseats thing, of which these are something of a continuation, is a bit tounge-in-cheek; these companies give us forteen consecutive days to evaluate a product which usually needs years to fully understand and then get all uppity when the trial fails to sell it addequately.
Mind you, I suppose I’m something of an Expert User at this point, having played so many, so can grasp most of the new things relatively quickly. Ultimately though, I still maintain that if the first two hours are awful, it doesn’t matter how rich and elaborate the grander game is in months to come – folks are unlikely to stick around to find out. And really, I don’t believe players should endure two hours of an awful game just to get to ‘the good bit’ – these are meant to be games, not chores! Getting the New User Experience and Tutorial stages of an MMO right is absolutely crucial to it’s continued success, no matter how awesome the End-Game is, or wether you’re Blizzard or Adventurine.
In this case, the first two hours were indeed interesting enough to warrant further examination – with a review of this type, that’s all I can say for sure. I can make informed guesses at what further gameplay might be like, but that’s all they’d be, and I hope that listeners understand that!
Akely says:
July 9, 2010 at 11:39 am (UTC 0 )
I agree with the sentiment that the first hours is crucial. I’ll take EVE Online as an example. When I first trialed it, years ago, the noob experience was not that well thought throug. At lacked in pacing and left tjhe player hanging just after explaining the basics. The focus was mainly on combat, and there was little indication on how the game would evolve. Tha game did nothing that kept me in, and I really tried to like it.
EVE nowadays (I started the trial about a week ago) is very streamlined. It has lots of different stuff to try, with good pointers on where to go to learn more.
And it does not have to take long to "get" a game. I was in fleet operations in wormhole space on day 4. Granted I was of no practical use. I was only doing some scanning and salvaging, but just being able to BE there was great. Few games even allow for that.
A game need to have something that pulls you in. It might, nay must, then evolve. Wise man said "That which does not evolve do not go forward, it goes backwards."
Akely says:
July 9, 2010 at 2:10 pm (UTC 0 )
Oh. Why did you not just leave the computer on and logged in while you was at work, or slept. Afraid the heat would boil the atmosphere away?
Zoso says:
July 9, 2010 at 6:16 pm (UTC 0 )
DARKFALL HATES THE NORTHERN IRISH SHOCKER!
(Unless Northern Ireland was another option in the sign-up)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminology_of_the_British_Isles
Great Britain’s the big island, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the political entity thingumy. Excellent Euler diagram on the wikipedia page…
Gazruney says:
July 12, 2010 at 8:28 am (UTC 0 )
Darkfall had not taken my interest at all so far but hearing you describe the combat and AI actaully had me thinking it sounds like a decent game based on twitch skill rather than having your skill being deifned by arranging your abilities in the most optimum order on your hotbar.
Telke says:
July 15, 2010 at 9:10 am (UTC 0 )
If i recall right, your skills rank up about 3x faster killing mobs in pve- and past 60 skill or so, the improvements get smaller and smaller – so a little PvE play will get you to 20-30 in most of the important skills, which makes you eligible to join up with NEW, or one of the other newbie clans, where you can zergrush higher-skilled players to your heart’s content. But they could do a lot more to communicate stuff like that.