Farlan admits Dark and Light was rushed; play for free
by Joystiq Staff 
{ Aug 14th 2006 at 8:25PM }
While it has only been available since June, the makers behind the MMO Dark and Light have seen it necessary to undergo an overhaul of their game. Because of this, they are offering up free subscriptions to players.
In a change of pace from typical game companies, Farlan actually admits to releasing the game too early:
Farlan Entertainment now acknowledges that the game was released prematurely due to pressure from its investors and from the gaming community.
[We are] embarking on a new initiative to correct and improve various operational aspects of Dark and Light. While worldwide play in the Internet game will not be interrupted during this period, Farlan is nonetheless offering a thank you to the hundreds of thousands of Dark and Light subscribers who have signed on thus far by offering three months of play with no monthly subscription fee.
Way to man up and admit your mistake Farlan. If only other companies would follow suit and do the same thing with their obviously rushed products.
Check out the full press
Farlan Entertainment Acknowledges Dark and Light™ Performance Challenges, Announces Free Subscriptions As It Makes Improvements
• Three Months of No Invoices for Existing and New Subscribers
• No Disruption of Any Kind in Gameplay, User Access Keys or Accounts During Repair Period
• Farlan Adds Technical Resources to Assist with Improvements
• New Access Keys Still Available for USD $39.99 (39,99€ taxes included)
PORT LOUIS, MAURITUS - (August 15, 2006) - Farlan Entertainment, publisher of Dark and Light™, The Largest MMORPG You've Ever Seen!, today announced it is embarking on a new initiative to correct and improve various operational aspects of Dark and Light. While worldwide play in the Internet game will not be interrupted during this period, Farlan is nonetheless offering a thank you to the hundreds of thousands of Dark and Light subscribers who have signed on thus far by offering three months of play with no monthly subscription fee.
Dark and Light, which debuted in June of this year, has broken new ground in many aspects of MMORPG entertainment, bringing to the industry the largest virtual game surface ever, total freedom of movement without loading time, and three axes of character progression, among other breakthroughs. However, Farlan Entertainment now acknowledges that the game was released prematurely due to pressure from its investors and from the gaming community.
To rectify the situation, the company is taking several major steps. First, to facilitate the change/upgrade process, Farlan has signed a new production agreement with SnailGame Entertainment. SnailGame, a game developer which currently handles distribution of Dark and Light in China, will provide additional people to focus on graphic and scenic production. Farlan wishes to reiterate that NP Cube will continue to oversee Dark and Light's evolution and technical/creative control.
Second, Dark and Light's development team will focus on improving and correcting the game's technical challenges, especially its handling, user interface, processing speed, game immersion, and battle performance. The process of upgrading and improving Dark and Light is already underway; for example, a new major patch was recently installed that corrects a number of game balancing and graphic interface issues. Additional major improvements will be forthcoming very soon.
Third, to reward the Dark and Light subscribers who have stayed the course during the past few months, Farlan is making Dark and Light available for three months with no subscription fee; that is, no invoicing for the next three month period. All operational aspects of the game, including user accounts and player credits, will be maintained during this period. It is anticipated that this free subscription phase will provide ample time for the various technical corrections to be made.
The free Dark and Light subscription is being made available to current subscribers; however, new access keys are still available to any player wanting to take part in Dark and Light. Purchase price for an access key is $39.99 USD (39,99€, taxes included). To learn more, go to www.darkandlight.com.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Anta @ Aug 14th 2006 8:29PM
how come I never heard of this game before?
Mark D. @ Aug 14th 2006 8:38PM
@ #1
Because it sucked?
Anyway, I'd try it out if there was a demo or something.
Chris @ Aug 14th 2006 8:50PM
If the staffer who wrote this article knew anything about Dark and Light, it would be apparent that this is another in a long string of sad attempts to leech money from the player base to pay back investors for a failed and miserably unplayable product.
See at the bottom in the very last sentence they sneak in how you still have to pay 40$ up front for the game?
Pabjvar @ Aug 14th 2006 8:52PM
Im not a frequent commenter. But we must feel proud that at least one cgrou of developers ha taken action to correct their mistake. We must use this an as example. Just for this makes me try the game, although at the end is a piece of #$%#. But nevermind, we learn to make a good game through a lot of bad games.
coolio @ Aug 14th 2006 8:53PM
These games are next on the list of "free play":
Auto Assault
Lord of the Rings Online
Age of Conan
Vanguard
and the rest of the soon-to-be-failure MMOs.
Chiablo @ Aug 14th 2006 11:12PM
Hmm... I saw a ton of hype following Dark and Light and was interested in it.
The thing is... I didn't even know it had gotten released. Absolutely no news found me regarding this. It makes sence to me now: the game had bombed very badly, so it fell from the gaming news.
Vanguard will succeed where others have failed. Why? Because if they are smart, they will release it within a month or two of the WoW expansion. They will gather all the flocks of fleeing hardcore WoW players when their guilds get obliterated by the new player limit cap.
Dukrous @ Aug 15th 2006 1:59AM
@coolio:
Only one I agree with is Auto Assault...there's enough people who can't stand WOW (like me) to make other MMOs work financially.
Zozart @ Aug 15th 2006 2:00AM
"See at the bottom in the very last sentence they sneak in how you still have to pay 40$ up front for the game?"
So? It's still a commercial game. Offering /current/ subscribers free months is in good faith; opening the game up to everyone for free would annoy those who have already paid for it.
boneyard @ Aug 15th 2006 3:50AM
this indeed sounds like a expected step from dark and light they have been doing so many odd things during development this is prolly just another planned step. can't say it find it really good of them or such.
Thintalle @ Aug 15th 2006 6:08AM
pressure from the gaming community .. hah yea right ..
I saw about noone on the beta-forums that said the game was ready to go.
Cryoakira @ Aug 15th 2006 7:15AM
Please guys, try to get some infos before writing such positive articles.
D&N has been a total failure, not only as a game release in alpha state dispite all the warning from the beta testers.
Furthermore, Farlan and NP3 have been ignoring their players questions for months, lying quite some times, trying to make their customers sign renouncement to their refund rights, asking some fans to vote on websites (like mmorpg.com) to raise the rank of the game and so on. Currently, DnL, albeit free, is next to empty.
It's 9 months (since Settlers of Ganareth) too late to try to be honest and confess the things averybody already knows.
Urbanstorm @ Aug 15th 2006 11:50AM
@#7 I thought the people that couldn't stand World Of Warcrack went to Guild Wars ???
On the whole Vanguard hype.I hope you all realize that it's pretty much a everquest 3.Plus they already shut out any chance of being #1 when they said they were gearing more for the "hardcore" base than being more open like WoW and GW...
There's a reason why WoW has 6 million players and guild wars has 2 million and that because they both offer casual and hardcore players somthing.
michael g. @ Aug 25th 2006 1:21PM
I m the 1 who posted on the D&L forum that they would prolly release their game as prematurely as they ejaculate.i was right. then after the poor fools paid for the game and it didnt work all they could get back was a credit at the online store they bought it from. it was a good scam if there is such a thing, scammers suxxX!