The recent lack of Darkfall posts is due, surprise, to an overall lack of playing DF lately. It’s moved from a game I played daily to something I put a few hours into a week, which in turn moves me out of keeping up with the day-to-day clan stuff and being part of the daily adventures that happen.
As I’ve long stated, either you are invested in an MMO and fully ‘get’ it, or you are at best floating along with it. I’m seriously floating with DF right now, and that sucks.
Part of the blame is personal. I know if I made an effort to log into the game more, I’d get more out of it. I’d once again become embedded in the day-to-day stuff and that’s very important in a sandbox. Momentum and all that. But I need Aventurine to do their part, and I just don’t think they are fully holding up their end of the bargain, at least enough for me.
I’ve been personally making the (unfair) comparison between DF and EVE lately, as EVE is once again tempting me to stop just training and start actually playing. Jester tracks EVE player activity as it relate to expansions, and one of the observations that is backed up by solid data is that between expansions activity dips.
What if you never do expansions?
That’s currently where DF:UW is, and I think the in-game activity and overall excitement reflects it. Semi-consistent patches are good and important, but there really is something about an expansion coming out, and its more than just getting more ‘stuff’ all in one day. It’s about generating excitement and getting people over the hump and back in full-time.
DF:UW right now, IMO, needs that jolt. It’s a much better MMO than it’s population reflects, but it’s also an MMO that makes it very easy to drift away, while at the same time not doing much of anything to get new blood in or old blood to return.
Hardcore Casual 
The next jolt will be the combat balance patch.
I wonder if some of what you are feeling is due to the clan hopping. I also know that activity with Death has been a lot lower the last few weeks (w/ Sinister being the most active clan).
In a game like DF, how you feel about it is largely dependent on your experiences with other people. If you log in and no one is doing what you want to do or you don’t feel included… you log out.
Maybe DF needs some “Living World” love a la GW2. Maybe the game needs more excitement and promotion to the wider MMO community and not simply known as “that niche PvP game where people can steal your loot”.
Do the developers promote any sort of community based activities or do they largely remain detached from the game?
The developers don`t reallly communicate with the community at all. Also the forum mods and GM`s they employ are very biased which is not healthy for the game either.
Hope you are playing enough to swing buy and pay rent once or twice this week. ;-)
See you in game in 10 days or so scrub. We have some stuff to finish.
I’ll pay it, and yea, still need to finish those dungeon feats.
Before you resub to Eve, be aware of a few things:
>CCP recently changed the TOS, making it a bannable action to claim you are someone you are not, or to claim that you represent someone you do not. e.g.: i can’t say that i am Chribba’s alt, nor can i say that i am acting on behalf of Chribba without risking a ban.
>CCP announced that it would be spawning gold magnates and guardian-vexors for SOMER blink for use as prizes during their next giveaway. Navigator went on record confirming that CCP had no way of making sure that SOMER didn’t just keep those prizes, and stated that CCP, as well as the players, would just have to trust them. Later, amid much controversy and player outcry, CCP decided to downgrade the prizes to merely superpowered versions of the new cruiser and frigate coming in the next expansion.
>A couple weeks later, a leaked evemail from SOMER revealed that CCP spawned 30 ishukone watch scorpions for them, not as prizes, but for their own personal use. Mahm warned his people in the evemail to keep the ships on the down-low, as 30 IW scorps hitting the WTS forum might give the game away.
>Also, Poetic Stanziel quit Eve. Again. (Again again)
You can find stories on all of this stuff on TMDC. Also minerbumping.com has a good one on the blink giveaway, henceforth known (by me) as the “B20 scandal”.
I’m surprised anyone with a brain gives two shits about any of those.
I’m not surprised that you’re surprised– just keeping you apprised with this reprise. And here, a gift for you: two shits.
I know, right? What kind of idiot actually cares if CCP secretly gives all kind of goodies to a few “special” corps.
I mean, just look at professional football, where the refs start the Patriots up by 14 points and let them bring three extra men on the field – everyone’s totally cool with that.
Also, you’re a moron.
Because a specially painted Scorpion that will sit as a hangar queen is totally equivalent to two touchdowns two successful conversions and three extra men on the field in a billion dollar a year industry.
Somer Blink’s ETC trades provide CCP a very large profit source. The SCL tournament organizers are (debatably) strengthening and advancing EVE as an E-Sport, which is also good for CCP as a company. The useless iScorpions are thank you’s for making us a bucketload of cash on your own dime.
Should a profitable venture like Somer Blink need a thank you? No most definitely not, but to get your panties in a twist because your useless ass didn’t get a purty Scorpion is, as you would say, moronic.
But I’m sure, in your addled mind, being on the receiving end of rebranded Scorpions, is EXACTLY the same thing as being given free Tech 2 Blueprints at a time in EVE’s history when only a limited number of T2 BPO’s were allowed to exist and the use of them was the only method of manufacturing T2 items.
Totally t20 all over again right?
wloire, you’re a pretty vulgar and insulting person, I’m guessing you play the EVE?
wloire, I see that you’re an EBIL Gewn–assuming that you are the same as the EVE online pilot named ‘wloire’. Since the EVE-O forums were completely filled with people from your alliance complaining about this event, I’m wondering why you come to Syn’s blog to hurl this kind of invective at strangers, when you have so many people, including your alliance leadership, who you violently disagree with closer to hand.
I’d quote the 400 goonswarm members QQ’ing about the “sanctity of their sandbox”, and the 800 GSF line members sayign that they provide the most content, and deserve these rewards much more than some lottery site, but the margins of this book are not large enough to contain them.
Sold that character years ago.
Even if it was me, why should it matter if my opinion were separate from my corp mates?
Sacred sandbox my ass. Tournament winning teams get spawned BPC’s for billion isk ships with an actual combat advantage and no one bats an eye. Someone is gifted a useless painted scorpion whose value is quickly diminishing and the EVE community is up in arms.
Makes total sense.
It’s one thing to differ in opinion from all of your self-selected peers. It’s another thing to crassly insult someone else for sharing that same opinion. You really don’t see the difference?
Let’s say you’re insulting someone else for being a racist. He comes back with, “but you’re in the KKK!”. You retort: “what difference does it make if my friends in the KKK with me are racists?”. That makes sense to you?
Anyway, you sold that character,so we’re back to you being just a run-of-the-mill internet foulmouth.
You’re logic isn’t sound. The Goon’s may be one sided on this issue (they’re likely not but let’s ignore that for now), however they’re organization is not defined by their position the issue. Unlike the KKK in your example, whose membership is uniformly racist as a point of entry, to be a member of the Goon’s you do not ~have~ to be of one mind on the iScorpion debate. Thus criticizing those who fall on the opposite side of the debate from my own opinion, is not hypocritical. Had I joined the “No hand outs from CCP” corporation then I could understand your concern,
You also forget that I was called a moron prior to resorting to any name calling. I apologize for being so foul as to refer to someone as an ass. I’ll refrain in the future, if only to avoid inane logical fallacies.
All that only to fail the grammar check massively.
Yes, wloire, you mongoloid, CCP secretly giving one alliance a bucketload of free isk is -exactly- like CCP secretly giving one alliance a bucketload of free isk. The officials arbitrarily handing one entity in a competitive game advantage over the others is -exactly- like the officials arbitrarily handing one entity in a competitive game advantage over the others.
The alliance tournament is openly organized and advertised, registration is open to anyone who wants to compete, and the prizes are openly advertised months in advance. See all that ‘open’ shit? That’s the opposite of what CCP did with blinkscorpions.
The only reason to keep it a secret is because CCP knew they shouldn’t be doing it and it would create a huge backlash throughout the community.
Again, failed logic. The iScorpions were worth 15 billion prior to it getting out that there are now at east 100 in circulation and likely more coming. The price will rapidly drop for the next one.
Let’s however assume they magically remain valued at 15 billion isk. If Somerset were to sell all 30 Scorpions he received that would be worth approximately 450 billion isk. Somer sponsors RvB “Ganked Nights” to the tune of approximately 1 billion isk, every second week. Peanuts right? Tack on the sponsorship’s for Agony and EVE University as well while we’re at it.
How about how he donated 320 billion isk to the EVE Open tournament teams? That wipes out that 450 billion pretty quickly. But 130 billion isk is still quite a bit to be gifting to a single player right? He would be receiving quite the advantage. Except, wait, doesn’t Somer Blink rake in a shit ton of cash? Yes he does. Somewhere between 80 trillion and 300 trillion isk (lifetime) depending on whose math you trust. That means the total value of the scorpions, should there price magically remain at 15 billion isk each, and should Somer sell each and everyone, would amount to approximately 0.15% of his gambling three year profits.
I never disagreed with you that CCP should be open about the giveaway (I don’ think that even came up until just now). But as I said before, getting all worked up because Somer Blink was gifted items that are useless in combat (beyond a normal Scorpion’s use), and worthless in value to Somer is ridiculous. A waste of your energy and a waste of your time.
And, upon checking, it appears Somerset’s alliance has 28 members. Talk about power projection. I’m sure all that 450 billion isk will really solidify them as a power player in EVE.
“I see you guys already have a shitton of isk. Therefore, it’s totally okay to give you a shitton more, because it’s not like it would make any difference.” – t20, to his alliance mates in BOB
Also, i’m not so much worked up about CCP giving them to SOMER, specifically. I’m worked up about CCP thinking it’s okay to secretly give -anyone- a shitload of free stuff.
As far as i’m concerned, SOMER and BOB aren’t the only ones that got a lot of shit under the table from CCP – they’re just the only ones we know about right now.
“Thus criticizing those who fall on the opposite side of the debate from my own opinion, is not hypocritical.”
I never called you hypocritical; I said it didn’t make sense to come here to criticize a position that the majority of your alliance strongly espoused, when you could criticize that position closer to home with people you actually know. Try reading what people write, next time.
“You also forget that I was called a moron prior to resorting to any name calling.”
Nah, you clearly implied that Sjonnar was brainless before he insulted you…before he’d even addressed a single word to you. Sorry, now you’re a liar, as well.
Little late on this reply but no I did not imply Sjonnar was an idiot. As we were once in a corporation together (if he is the player I believe he is), I was implying I’m surprised someone I considered to be a decently intelligent individual actually cared. If you read the initial response again: “I’m surprised anyone with a brain…” when referring to his message directly, implies he has a brain.
The immediate turn around and attack to what was a initially a lighthearted show of disbelief changed my level of respect but I guess this sort of heated passion is to be expected when jealousy overcomes rational thought.
“What if you never do expansions?”
Well I have a love and hate relationship with expansion.
If expansion mean new content w/out making old content irrelevant then I am all for it.
On the other hand if expansion mean gear reset (like wow) then I don’t want it . Imagine if Dread sets are useless because there is Dread set 2.0. Then all the crafting effort went to waste.