Loading... Darkfall Q&A, FusionFall Launches

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Posted Thu, Jan 15, 2009 by Ethec

Welcome to the 995th Edition of Loading...

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The Pulse

First, you vote with what you view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the result is the Ten Ton Pulse (What is Pulse?).

Here's today's top 5 Pulse results:

Biggest Movers in the Top 20 in the last week :

Champions Online (UP 23 to # 19)
Star Trek Online (UP 21 to #17)
Jumpgate Evolution (UP 19 to # 16)

Loading... Daily

Loading... pushing buttons like a Guitar Hero pro in bullet time.

Our latest VIP access interview is setting our servers ablaze at the moment, pushing Darkfall to an incredible #2 in our Pulse rankings in the space of a day. Our premium members posed Darkfall developers Claus Grovdal, Tasos Flambouras, Trond Evanger a set of questions, and the answers (as one commenter noted) were remarkably informative and to the point.

That Darkfall has been in development for seven years shouldn't be a concern, especially in light of games like Pirates of the Burning who had similarly lengthy development runs. If anything, a long development period can be a mark of a budget-conscious developer with a solid commitment to paying a small staff over the long haul. Look no further than the Pulse for the long term hype benefits of committing wholesale to a singularly popular (yet, shall we say, nichey?) vision for a game. This, among other reasons, is why I haven't given up hope on Hero's Journey (Hero's Journey Forever?), especially in light of Simutronics increasingly successful licensing of its own tools with HeroEngine.

But when the sum total of Darkfall media was a scanty set of screens, a lackluster set of E3 interviews in a dark corner of Kentia Hall, and a few dubious beta previews from friends of the developers, it was easy to pull out the v-word. But if Aventurine keeps this up, we'll have to accord Darkfall the legitimacy it may in fact be due.

Funny story: during the Walking in Stations presentation at EVE FanFest last November, Sr. Technical Producer Torfi Olafsen (whose habit, as mentioned before, of cursing a blue streak in English with a thick Viking brogue almost gives me the giggles 3 months later) presented SecWars, a nifty and surprisingly deep mini-game that players will be able to enjoy and gamble upon with other players when WiS goes live. Olafsen noted that SecWars was just one of the simplistic casual games you'll be able to enjoy in the comforts of a player-run bar-r-r-r-r (imagine I rolled that "r" like nobody's business), which led one goon (I think it was a goon) to ask if there were any plans to bar game-ify World of Warcraft.

One kids-oriented MMORPG that by all early impressions rivals and quite possibly exceeds WoW's level of complexity (or at least depth of mechanics) was launched yesterday and deserves credit of only for giving its younger audience a lot of credit. I credit Garrett and LadyLotus for that assessment of FusionFall (stay tuned for the review next week), and after loading up the game last night I have to agree - this isn't Ponystars, er, not that I've played Ponystars for any length of time. (Sorry Historian - I'll make it up to you and Acclaim when Spellborn launches).

But any MMORPG that makes it to launch and and certainly appears to deliver on their "box promises" deserves three cheers no matter what the market does with their game, so huzzah x3 for Cartoon Network and Grigon. FF runs on any platform that can run a modern browser (the download is sleek and the graphics surprisingly good) and the first few levels are free to play, so there's little excuse not to try it out, whether you have kids, are a kid at heart, or are just harmlessly creepy like me. If you find yourself hooked, it's $6 / month for a single account or under $10 / month for a family friendly 4-pack of unique accounts, so the

What's your take on FusionFall? How cool is it that a game is easily accessible for a younger set and requires brain power, yet has kid safety in mind? Your comments are welcome in the Loading... forum, or email me directly if you like.

Shayalyn's Epic Thread of the Day

From our Articles, News and Events Discussion Forum

Darkfall VIP Access Interview

What's huge, dark, mysterious, and looming on the launch horizon next week? Darkfall, the most anticipated game you may have never heard of. But rest assured that fans waiting for an enormous sandbox of a skill-based fantasy MMOG are not only rabidly anticipating its launch in Europe on January 22, but starved for information since Darfall's developers, Aventurine, have flown well under the radar for a game this close to launch. Until now, that is.

VIP Access Interviews are a feature of our premium membership program which allows them the opportunity to interview game developers. They ask the questions, we select some of the best, and we pass them along to the devs for answers. Although we had far more Darkfall questions from our premium members than we could possibly get answered, we were fortunate to get some solid and very up-front information from the folks at Aventurine...just in time for launch.

Whether you're just learning about Darkfall or you're already a fan, the interview and discussion thread have something to offer you. Check them out!

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Awesome Quote from the Epic Thread:

"Good job TTH! You have made my day and one of my questions was answered so I can now say that my Premium Membership was well worth it! Really that's pretty cool to have your own question answered...thanks again guys and gals of TTH."

- Waku

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Do you have a favorite Epic Thread? Let us know!

6 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 59 in January! 59 in 2009!

New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today [Thanks Phil Comeau for links and Real World News]

Previews

Wind Slayer Preview

Interviews

Darkfall VIP Access Interview

Op/Eds

Guides

Hot Content - Or, what I took a fancy to:

Real World News

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Financing fell through, as their business plan didn't fly with investors.
Feces-throwing monkey on the loose in Tampa Bay
Wildlife officials are attempting to lure him into a trap using Rhesus Pieces candy.

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