WTF Aventurine? We have to rebuy Darkfall?

It’s a day of WTF’s around here.  If the EA Bioware/Mythic news wasn’t bad enough, Aventurine decided to drop this bomb on us:

“On the American server: The American server will launch on July 7th. Characters from the European server can be cloned and moved without their possessions 3 months after the American launch. Certain restrictions and charges will apply, to be announced at a later date. In the meanwhile if you want to play on the American server at launch you need to buy the American Darkfall client.” – Tasos

Then Tasos clarified with this:

“Clarification: American players wanting to clone and transfer their characters do not have to buy another client. Everyone else needs to buy the American Darkfall client to play on the American server.” – Tasos

Basically, if you want to play on the brand new American servers when they launch then you have to buy a new client.  If you want to TRANSFER (3 months after the servers launch!) then you don’t have to pay.   Sneaky, underhanded, and the end.   I’ll pass.  I’m not going to rebuy this game all over again.  I had plans to try and revive the fun this summer and play with some friends but there is just no way.

Seriously, if anyone is still playing Darkfall this was the best possible way to drive them away.

  • Also, if we want to transfer from EU to NA there will still be a transfer fee, we just won’t have to buy the client again. So either way, current EU players will be paying them a second time to play on NA. Total B.S.

  • The other sad part about all this is that it shows how easy communication is, (even if the message being communicated is terrible) and yet we see nothing but silence from Tasos regarding issues with the game. But when Tasos really wants to he can sure post a response quickly. *sigh*

  • June 24th, 2009 shall henceforth be known forever in the annals of MMO history as the:

    “Day of Epic Fail”

  • Absolutely priceless… You might as well just come out with an announcement that your game is failing and you need more money to keep it afloat. Please give us more money, thank you.

    One more MMO to be a no-man’s land in a couple of months.

  • @Ethic

    If you mean “weak” as in “subscribers” then we are in agreement.

    😀

  • I thought this was a joke at first. I was going to go back to the game to give NA a shot, but not now.

  • I’m really glad I never tried this title.

    This is horrible. Sorry DF fans. Not a good day for you all.

  • Once again, Tasos refers to the rights belonging to different entities, which implies a publisher for North America, but one hasn’t been announced. Who owns the rights to publish Darkfall in NA? It’s AudioVisual in Europe.

    ~Ripper

  • @Ethic

    Have fun being hardcore with yourself. I’ll be waiting for a real game and not waste my money or time.

  • But Darkfall is so hardcore we have to pay for it twice!! *Does his best Tasos impersonation* Let it be known to all carebears that this is how real MMO companies do business. 🙂

  • Euro’s suffered this same issue with DAoC and WoW when they first released. We had to buy the euro clients to play on the euro servers when they went live. It sucks granted, but Aventurine aren’t exactly unique in doing it.

  • Wonder how Syncaine’s going to spin this. Obviously Darkfall made a perfect decision in doing this, after all, but we need his brilliance to explain it to our carebear asses…

  • @Zebarmy

    Yes, that’s true. Though I don’t really think Euros should have had to buy a new client either, but that’s another day. I think this is all part of a larger picture with AV though. All the B.S. and hype from Tasos versus what they actually launched with…the complete lack of communication with the community…it all adds up.

    Like Keen said in one of his posts, when Tasos went on his Eurogamer review rampage, that was more communication on one topic than he had ever given the community on anything else. People get to the end of their rope and I think this pushed a lot of us over. 🙁

  • I would have considered buying the client if they didn’t allow the exploited characters to transfer. Three months after release, NA-1 will be getting characters that have been exploited for half a year. Darkfall is dead, stick a fork in it.

  • A while back you mentioned you were on the fence, as to whether or not to buy pre-order of MO. So wondering if this shifted you one way or the other on preorder?

  • This would be a normal way of doing sales with most games, except most games have better launch schedules in multiple regions.

    Americans are not accustomed to this sort of things, since most media is released there first.

  • I guess their intention (or the intention they wish to project) is to have clean servers for the new American players rather than loads of veterans waiting for them when they create their first characters – even if they are not all gankers it’s a bit of a spoiler to have people in place driving the economy and such the moment you appear.

    But that could simply be fixed by limiting which servers can receive the transfers.

    That way new players can choose to start on a brand new server similar to any MMO launch, or start alongside a veteran population transferring in from European servers.

    Their current model is just going to lose them a lot of players – notably the players who were not only “early adopters” but were willing to play from across the pond.

  • Maybe a lil over board? Here’s how I read it….. “We’re launching NA servers for our yankee friends. We’re going to work on a method to transfer characters over to the NA servers, we expect this service to be available ~3months. But if you absolutely must play on NA servers @ launch then you’ll need to purchase an NA copy.”

  • Sneaky and underhanded? Yes. Unprecedented? Not really.

    Every single MMO I can think of has forced players to buy two separate boxes for playing in both North America and Europe. The shady thing is that they kept this under wraps for so long, dragging out your hopes to a thread. I’m curious how many players’ threads will now snap at this news.

  • Snafzg, how did they keep it under wraps?

    If you followed any multi-national MMO you HAD to see this coming?

    If it is common practice to do this, who’s fault is it?

    Aventuring went out of their way to tell NA people that this was an EU server, they only offered it during EU primtime hours.

  • @Maedhros

    Aside from NA players being peeved, I believe the larger issue here is how this will effect Darkfall’s success.

    A move like this is only going to scare people away that though “Oh hey, i’ll give this a shot at the NA launch.” Keen is a perfect example and I am sure there are many, many others that are in the very same position.

    It seems like they’re basically making an attempt to split their tiny subscriber numbers into even smaller portions. For Aventurine, this just doesn’t seem like that wise of a decision.

  • This news broke my core in 37 places. My core will be in a cast for a few months and I will never play Darkfall again; doctor’s orders.

  • @Bartlebe

    I understand that. But really, Keen represents what, maybe 1000 NA players that will not rebuy?

    Darkfall will have to have more than them to survive. Honestly, it will hurt but it wont be a game breaker to not have guys like Keen back. And I am generalizing by using keen.

    To suceed for NA they will need 10k new players, which they could get with a good advertising campaign and boxes in stores. These players *will NOT care* about this issue now.

  • Whether or not it is unprecedented doesn’t really affect me. Euros are screwed all the time and it’s just as ridiculous. I empathize with those who deal with this regularly.

    That said, for Darkfall to do this when they need new subscribers and old ones to return is a bad move. It has alienated everyone that I know who was planning on returning to the game and has hurt them far more than allowing those who already bought their game to play on the U.S. servers without having to buy a new copy.

  • Pretty sure the number is far greater then 1000. I would say at least half if not the majority of players on EU1 are north American. There is an even larger number that have already quit. Most of them waiting for the NA launch.

    I do not think Aventurine want this, i just think they planned poorly with the launch and publishers.

  • They kept this under wraps because they announced plans for an NA-1 server months ago and gave very few details about their plans. The new server is coming up in less than a month’s time and only now do they spill the beans on their plans.

    I think it’s fair to say that’s keeping it under wraps.

    Underhanded and sneaky may be a bit of an overstatement but players have been asking them about this since the original announcement and they never heard a peep.

  • Strange, I agree. I never understood why MMO companies do stuff like this. It’s the same with WoW too. If I want to play on the US servers, I have to import the US version. Why? No idea!

  • To be quite honest, I think Aventurine is far too small to manage a TON of new subscribers for their NA1 release. We’ll have to see if the few players that love the game will stick around. I’m gonna wait a few months before I buy the game. I’d love to play this game over WoW, but this and Aion have me torn!

  • Aventurine can KISS it, I have planned on making a new character when the NA server opened but having to rebuy the game is a cheap underhanded way to drum up more money for a game that falls way short of what it promises.