For those that may be unaware, the hardcore, PvP oriented MMO, Darkfall Online (DO) was finally launched in late February. Response to the game, however, has been mixed. Hardcore PvPers have expressed an almost unmitigated love for the game, with its ‘kill anyone, anywhere, and loot their corpse’ style of play. Some prominent bloggers, developers, and others don’t seem to appreciate the game, however. Some have even made particular note of what they perceive as the extraordinary immaturity of the players.
Since launch, the overall furor about the game has died down. Criticism of the game has been reduced to a whisper, and the howls of joy by rabid fanboys have diminished somewhat. Beyond all that, the game has grown considerably. It may not be for everyone, it seems, but it certainly pleases a rather hardcore, rough-and-tumble subset of MMO gamers.
And then, last week, all hell broke loose. A reviewer over at Eurogamer.net named Ed Zitron reviewed the game, and he had nothing nice to say about it. He called the game buggy, unfinished, fraught with problems, full of idiotic (and repetitive) quests, and he pretty much hated his fellow players. To add insult to injury, he gave the game a 2 out of 10 score.
Hit the jump to read about the consequences of this for poor old Ed, and to catch a video of the response of the player-base.
Darkfall’s lead developer, Tasos, took issue with the score. What’s worse, he reviewed (and published) the logs of the review copies of the game given to Eurogamer/Zitron, and found the game had been played for less than three hours, total. He cried foul, and Eurogamer has offered to re-review the game.
And now, it seems, that Darkfall’s fans want bloody vengence. A whole series of guilds have declared war on the Eurogamer guild, and on Zitron’s character. Many have camped outside his spawn point, and the idea is pretty straightforward. They’re going to kill Ed Zitron again, and again, and again, and again, until he cries.
Of course, the problem with that strategy is that it’s unlikely Ed will ever be logging in to this game ever again. He hated it. He gave it a 2 out of 10. And now, he’s probably heard that everyone in the game wants to kill him, so he’s even less likely to log in for a quick quest or two. No, Darkfall fans, it doesn’t seem that vengence will be yours.
To catch a glimpse of the intensity of the hatred that the rabid Darkfall fans feel for both Eurogamer and Ed Zitron, watch the vid. It’s both cringeworthy, and highly entertaining.
[Thanks Maticus!]
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I don’t know about the rest of you, but that video was a bit over the top for my tastes.
The in-game war declarations were against a player-created clan which no Darkfall player confused with the real Eurogamer.net. It was a spontaneous eruption of crowd behavior not unlike “the wave” in a stadium. As a Darkfall player who was logged in at the time, I believe the war declarations acted more as an emotionally defensive circling of the wagons by a playerbase feeling wronged (remember, Eurogamer’s description of a 2/10 game advises readers to “pity…the morons who buy it”) than its outside interpretation as active aggression against Eurogamer.
Also, the video was almost entirely self-parody, mocking Darkfall players nearly as much as Eurogamer. It’s one of those things that you have to know the lingo to fully appreciate, but that video is considerably more self-aware than outsiders would give it credit.
Funniest thing ever. Sounds like it was narrated by that belgium poofter who had all those “im like a totally pro WoW player and you’re all noobs” youtube videos, where he would brag about his WoW skillz and beat up his hot sister that was also his girlfriend while fondling his boyfriend. Those belgiums are whacky.
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