In our last article, we discussed Aventurines' latest video of the Darkfall gameplay. Not only was that a treat, but for the forum community who sit at their computers constantly spamming their F5 key to hopefully be the first one to get a glimpse at news information before anyone else, there was something else posted just a few hours later. It has been posted before many years prior, but never saw the light of day. And from many failed dates, Aventurine finally announced that they would never announce another time or date without being sure they could hit their mark. And the did it finally. They announced Beta.
For many die-hard Darkfall fans, (Myself included) we have spent many hours being bashed and verbally beaten on the Darkfall General Discussion forums on the website. Day after day and year after year, we hammer what Darkfall will be like and even make up fiction to how someone managed a glimpse of the game. Even if it was pure speculation. The developers kept their mouths shut for many months, only posting a news article to let everyone know they were still breathing. Even for an Indy company, their PR lacks where Madonna does clothes. Tasos Flambouras, Executive Producer of Darkfall, did well at keeping Darkfall off the radar and shortly after its announcement in 2001, the game was considered Vaporware. The game found many hurdles over the years. Even to the point where the developers had had enough and attempted to sell what was already made of Darkfall. They couldn't find what they were looking for so they decided to continue developing the game slowly explanding their employee roster to get the game done. And they have.
Finally since the first beta announcement, we have a beta sign up forum posted just a couple of hours after Tasos posted the Darkfall gameplay video link. It was a shock to myself and I know several other members of the community were shocked as well. In the past, the developers have said that in order to participate in their beta, you had to be an active member of their forum and community to be considered. This is not the case anymore as a follow up post was made by Tasos confirming this. Darkfall is slated to release in Q4 of 2008 with a short beta process prior to launch. You can find more information regarding the Darkfall beta and the gameplay video at www.darkfallonline.com/forums. The game will be an MMORPG all on its own. There will be MMORPG's and then there will be Darkfall. Rejoice!