Spouse Aggro explores Darkfall's self-imposed limitations

by Rubi Bayer on Nov 10th 2009 9:00AM

Beau Turkey from Spouse Aggro took a look at Darkfall yesterday, a game he checked out earlier this year, and had an interesting perspective on the game and how it's painted itself into a corner with regards to its player base. "[...]the game really deserves more praise than it gets. It is fantastic looking, is very immersive and so far the developers have proven that updates will be frequent enough and great.", says Beau. So what's the problem?

Whether it's a problem or not really depends on your perspective. Beau explores the combination of open PvP, hefty system requirements, and no ongoing free trial period and how they combine to aim toward a very specific target audience: young, male, and aggressively PvP-centered. What this means is that Darkfall is unlikely to enjoy the huge player base that WoW or similar games like EVE Online do. As Beau points out, EVE Online is similar in several ways, but gives players the option to get away from PvP areas/turn the graphics down and still enjoy them/use a free trial, which potentially opens the game up to many more paying customers.

The entire post can be read over at Spouse Aggro.

Source

Tags: beau-turkey, darkfall, darkfall-online, PvP, spouse-aggro

Reader Comments (21)

You know, I really hate to be "that guy," but, "There is nothing hardcore in a PvP system like this, it is actually about as hardcore as a hardcore rock show, meaning that it is really justa bunch of boys rubbing against each other," came across as a bit on the homophobic end of things to me. Of course, that's just me, and perhaps it was simply a jab at the fact that the game's playerbase is predominantly (though arguably) adolescent males, in which case I apologize. Of course, if it was playing the, "Being gay isn't cool," card, then I don't.

Ultimately though, I agree entirely with the article. The lack of a free trial is a killer to ANY MMO in the industry today.There are many times I've thought about playing Darkfall, but the prospect of paying for a key, downloading the client, patching it up, paying the sub, all just to realize that I don't really want to play the game is not appealing to me.

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