Darkfall Preview

Ten Ton Hammer let us know that they've conjured up a new preview of Aventurine's Darkfall, after checking out the game firsthand during its final days in beta.
I'm not sure if it's just because the Alfar are the closest thing to Dark Elves in the game, but the Alfar areas of the game were filled with every type of despicable individual you've ever had the displeasure of running into. The dregs of the Internet have found their way here and contaminated the gene pool. There were some very friendly and helpful players there as well, but they were *far* out numbered.

One of the favorite actions of these individuals is also the single largest complaint I have about Darkfall right now. In last week's Forever Fantasy, I mentioned how I'm not really in favor of being able to loot players, but I understood the concept and was willing to give it a try. I'm proud to report that no player has managed to kill me yet (though a few have tried) so I haven't had my body looted. Instead, what these players will do is wait for you to get jumped by more than one mob, then loot the tombstones (mobs become tombstones instead of corpses) while you're fighting for your life. This is old school EverQuest ninja-looting brought back tenfold. I can't count the amount of times this happened to me.

I've heard the problem becomes far less prevalent when you get out of the starting areas, but as it stands now, the system really, really irritates me. If you're too much of a pansy to attack me (especially while I'm in the middle of fighting something else), then you do NOT deserve any of my loot. It brings the general arguments against kill stealing to a whole new level. I think it's something that needs to be altered in the game as soon as possible, but from what I understand, it won't be.
Old school MMO gaming. Gotta love it.