Breaking News! Darkfall Launch Still FUBAR: 'Keep Calm and Carry On'

Exactly 60 years ago, in the spring of 1939 the country of Great Britain found itself on the brink of war against the burgeoning superpower of Germany. In an effort to reassure the citizens of the crown that all necessary measures and precautions were being taken, the British Government's Ministry of Information commissioned a number of propaganda posters to be displayed throughout the country upon the outbreak of war. The posters were simple with clean white text and a stark red background bearing such slogans as 'Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution will Bring Us Victory.' The only graphic utilized was the silhouetted crown of George VI. One particular poster was kept in reserve, to be distributed only in times of crisis or invasion. Since the UK was never directly invaded these posters laid undiscovered in government offices and archives until a copy turned up half a century later in a box of dusty old books bought at auction:


The original, unkown artist deserves great credit for creating such a timeless piece. Even long after the war was won, people are still able to find a reassurance in the simple and level headed message.

Having been through a number of MMO launches, I think that people experiencing this weeks Darkfall Online should try to take this same message to heart. If my guild can be used as any example, over 75% of the population that wants to get an account open is unable to do so (even some people who got through the pre-order). On top of that of the few that did make it in, the servers are down right now, and have been down for significant amounts of time. There are tons of people on various DF forums complaining, whining and throwing fits. In my own humble opinion, they are wasting bandwith. It is not something worth stressing out over.

During the first week of the Shadowbane launch, the servers were up less than 50% of the time.
For perspective, when SB launched we went through the same crap. Servers were getting hammered for the first week, the game was basically unplayable. Big Beta guilds like the Rolling 30's got a big head start but we know what happened to them (does anyone have a copy of the original herald posts from the sb front page?) ... This is when EB rose out of the ashes of Compton to dominate the Scorn and Vengeance servers (without exploiting).

I remember way back when, when I was still playing UO, shortly after the introduction of Trammel there was a huge land rush. Everyone was going crazy staking out spots for placing castles, keeps and towers. I saved up a ton of gold and bought a castle deed I was going to try and place on Ice Island. I remember being up at some ungodly hour waiting for the server to come up, trying again and again to login the very second they did. They finally came up, and crashed almost immediately. A little while later they came up again and stayed up long enough for me to place a castle… but not long enough for the data to stick. Crash. The servers came up a third time that morning and I logged in horrified to see that they had reset. Long story short I ended up having to settle for a Large Tower. When I quit I sold it for $250 USD so there is a bright side to everything.


So I guess the moral of the story is, Keep Calm and Carry On. Things will work out. Adventurine will (eventually) get their shit together and EB will be there to kill you and burn your city down. Slow and steady wins the race.

What stories and anecdotes do you have about terrible MMO launches in the past? Feel free to leave a comment.