I'm struggling a bit with how I feel about the return of Defiance, the free-to-play third-person shooter mmorpg. If there were some actual major game update and revamping such as real renewal of gameplay, visuals, and bug fixes and such, then I'd probably be a whole lot more excited for it. I plan to jump into the game again just to see if I find myself in the mood to continue playing but I dunno when that'll actually happen. Possibly day one but maybe not. I had liked it. It wasn't impressive but it was fun enough.
The return of Defiance will not include any previous data if you had played before. It will also require the creation of a completely brand new account since it's an entirely new system. This will be a fresh start for all players. It will not have controller support, will only launch on PC with Windows support, and will only have North American servers to start with.
The game will first only be available to download and play on their own launcher with hopes to also be available on Steam in the future. I understand how annoying that can be but awhile back, I had literally spent two years every single day playing hundreds of F2P mmorpgs and almost every single one of them required its own account and game launcher so I'm like whatevs.
I was planning to write a lot more details related to their FAQ but I just don't even care anymore while writing this. They didn't do anything, man. They're like, "We'll see if players are playing and then we might update the game based on their feedback." It just feels like a scam to me. I guess if I was rich I could just pay to bring Marvel Heroes back, activate the cash shop and swim in the profit. I dunno. I'm not trying to be a jerk but this whole thing just makes no sense to me. Zero update at all? Zero enhancements? Zero fixes? Nothing? They took away some DLC content. I don't actually care about that. I do think it's funny, though.
Fawkes, the studio bringing Defiance back to life, says they were inspired by a large community in youtube comments as well as the reddit forum to try and bring the game back. If this is a studio that has a genuine passion for the game then this revival could be extremely cool. But I would think if they were that passionate, there would already have been a revamp done to the game for a relaunch. I also understand that they could have done a super cool revamp to the game before relaunching and if the game still died miserably, yeah, that would suck too. I am in no way suggesting they delay the game until they fix it up or something. It's just not a nice surprise. I'd love to see this work out.
Then, Fawkes has a focus on being "cost effective" and using ai for "cost reductions and lean operations." This is in their About page. Who do you think that's for? Do you think they describe that in their About section for the players? I don't. Remote work as well which I don't want to get into why that's not actually a good thing, convenient, sure. Anyways, that just bugs me.
I have not been a part of the Defiance fan community all of these years. Are they serious about playing the game or are they just reminiscing? It is possible that just the reddit and youtube fans could be enough to give the game real life. But it would most likely be small, maybe in the hundreds. That has to be enough for people. I've never forgotten a comment I had seen years ago, "if you designed and developed a game, how many people do you think would play it?" They didn't put it as nicely as I have but I've never forgotten the point. For me, it would be none or one. Appreciate the one. I'm not suggesting one active player can keep an online game alive. Don't miss the point. 😊
I kind of don't want to post this because sometimes I do feel that "if you don't have something nice to say, don't say it" and I usually don't purposefully go out of my way to talk about things I don't like. But I guess that's the thing, I did like Defiance. I also was really surprised by the TV show and loved the heck out of it. I hadn't watched it right away. I probably saw the show a year or two after it was cancelled. I don't remember exactly. I just remember it being really good. So, I'm not here to just hate on something I never cared about. I did care and I have concerns.
Fawkes' message of bringing Defiance back seems heartfelt. In a world ruled and run by lies, I'll believe it when I see it. I do hope they have the passion for this. The tone and direction I intended to go with this post is not the same as it has ended up being. I was excited for the news but the whole re-launch with zero update at all bothers me.
If I end up regretting my post and loving the game more than I expected again, I'll probably be back to write about this again and possibly remove this post. I certainly am not trying to keep you from playing it when it's up. Please do go give it a try starting April 18th, especially if you never played it before. Do know that it will look and probably feel outdated but it was a fun and cool game. Thanks for reading. Game on.
Unrelated, if you've still never played it, try DC Universe Online.
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