Darkfall: MMORPG dream?

Dreams, while they can often be the most awesome things we experience, they can also be riddled with pain. Or perhaps they are much too fleeting for their greatness to be truly appreciated. Darkfall, with all its claims, would be a wonderful dream. But is it for real?

Some of you may have heard of Darkfall. Chances are, most of you haven't, and there is good reason for this, despite what Darkfall seems to offer. Darkfall is an in-development MMORPG that has an impressive list of features, including things such as real-time first person combat, unrestricted PVP, nearly (as far as we can tell) unrestricted crafting, enemy NPCs that create their own settlements and migrate to avoid hunting, and dozens of other things that really make it seem like the MMORPG I've always hoped would come along. Despite all this, though, something odd may be going on over at the developer studio Adventurine, and the situation is worth taking a look at.

Darkfall has been in development for over 7 years, which certainly isn't uncommon for some titles, but something about Adventurine's approach is a little odd. Darkfall is in its beta stages right now, which is great, and while there are thousands of people wanting to get in, Adventurine simply doesn't have the resources to allow that many people to play on their servers. This has created a community full of people who have been following the game for years who are often times unsure the game even exists. Stalwart hopefuls often cite that the beta testers are bound by an NDA, thus explaining the lack of gameplay videos besides the official ones, but many are quick to point out that this rarely stops a few people to post videos anonymously. So what gives?

The overall situation has created a cautious fanbase who hope that the beta is actually going on, but have little evidence to know whether or not it truly is. Recently, though, Adventurine has released a revised release schedule, dating an "open trial" to stress test servers for January 22, 2009 (today), and a final release for February 25th, 2009 in Europe, a change from their previous schedule which had the final release for January 22nd and no planned stress test besides the beta testing the is supposedly already going on.

Darkfall's official forums have already been flooded today, to the point where the forums are almost unusable. The response to the game is immense, and Adventurine has a bit of a publicity phenomena on their hands. So far they have made no official announcement regarding today's trial beta and what is happening with it, and most long-time Darkfall followers expect to hear little or nothing about it anyways. The true test will be whether or not the team meets its release date of February 25th.

While it does seem Darkfall is in a precarious situation with its fans, there are tons of screenshots and a number of videos that seem to prove that at least something is in development and is looking very impressive. Adventurine has every right to maintain its NDA and continue beta testing as it sees fit, as a company often feels the need to shield the common populace from its unpolished titles. I know, from experience, that titles that are too quickly opened up to the public in their beta stages can be ridiculed, judged, and left behind as though people were seeing a final product. The main problem Adventurine is having is its misleading announcements, which often leave fans thinking a chance to test out the game will come soon, even though that probably was in no way the plan to begin with. When it comes down to it, the company just needs to play into its release strategy a little more tactfully to avoid getting people so excited other nothing.

Darkfall looks VERY promising. It is breaking a mold that MMORPGs have followed for far too long. So, Adventurine, here's to your awesome game endeavor, and I hope to see some great release news come the end of February.