Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
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Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
The Intrepid pack has been significantly devalued
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I feel like this is another example of an intent which has changed a bit after these initial packages were made. This one actually working AGAINST Intrepid's sales though
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Will A1 have set time slots or will it be open testing?
- Steven: It will have both time slots as well as long period testing that we’d like to test the server.
- Jeffrey: We’ll probably start with time slots first until we get stability worked out, then we’ll go into longer form.
- Steven: Our goal is to have several weeks of consistent play at the end of that testing that we can bang our chests about."
The source is an hour long and no timestampMy assumption is Steven and intrepid plan to just hammer servers early with as many people as possible to purposely crash them.
Anyone upset by this is either not paying attention to posts and announcements or completely misunderstood what is happening with the upcoming testing.
@Gigabear nowhere in the Kickstarter or the website store does it imply that alpha access is exclusive.
But just like us all...you are certainly welcomed to your opinion.
I do appreciate your youtube videos though! @Jahlon
To the second, there was no explicit statement of exclusivity, but they were referred to as "closed" alphas and betas. That 100% is no longer the case.
Not sure how this helps the discussion along at all, as it seems to be pretty much entirely ad-hominem based solely on your own subjective opinion of the ill-defined concept of what constitutes "entitlement." One would expect a content creator who spends a lot of time voicing their opinions would be fine with others doing the same.
Its over 9000!!!
If we want to get technical the terminology is whats upsetting you and we can play games with semantics. All the tests are still closed and are invite only.. you just so happen to be invited to one section of it if you have a registered account.
Intrepid is more than holding to their word and people who bought braver or above will have access before anyone else... That's all that was written and promised in packages that were sold anything else was personal inference and if you assumed wrong that's on the individual.
Nobody is "crying" here at all, much less over letting other people into the test. As I said, I'm ok with that. That doesn't harm anyone, and is probably good for the game as a whole from both a marketing and testing perspective.
What I firmly reject is the implication that a "closed" alpha becoming a completely open alpha is semantics. The level of spin doctoring to imply that a need to register somehow mitigates this is breathtaking. That is the case for every open testing cycle. An account is always needed to log into an MMO.
What I have not done here is imply, much less state, that Intrepid was breaking their word. Rather, what has happened is they made a change of direction in the alpha tests which has rendered a major incentive to buy into the packs with alpha 1 on them moot. I would have still bought in, but I strongly suspect if others knew they didn't HAVE TO to access Alpha 1, some of them would not have ponied up that cash.
Everyone gets access to the most important part of the experience now almost as quick as the highest backers, the PVP combat. The rest is important sure, but that's the meat of the experience.
What Intrepid will do, if anything, I leave to them. I felt it important to share my thoughts on the matter, and have now done so.
I think there is a more than fair argument that it was IMPLIED that getting into these testing phases required buying in, and some people would not have bought in if they had known otherwise. That is just common sense really.
However, there isn't much to be done about it now other than to say shame on Intrepid. At the end of the day, more people testing the game will be more of a benefit than people's gripes on this issue.
Just because this bonus content is called an Alpha, doesn't mean it's the Alpha that we exclusively signed up for.
Getting bent out of shape over the fact that the public gets to test this bonus side content after us in petty and small.
As the big man himself explains, Phase 2 is the "intended Alpha One, and will only be accessible by Alpha One players."
I'm not dodging the point. I just don't see how it changes anything. None of these alphas, at any point, were even hinted at being open to all.
Now, again, I'm fine with letting everyone in. But, if they go this route, the Alpha 1 perk in the packs is worth about half what it was expected to be. Since for about 6 months or so everyone can log in whether they have the pack or not. Really leaving only A1P2(half of alpha 1) as requiring a buy-in.
And it needs to be said, AGAIN, that kickstarter packs are far less impacted by this. Heck, lifetime is worth more than the entire Intrepid pack all by itself by a lot. For Intrepid backers, it was pretty much a year sub and some cosmetics outside of Alpha 1 access. This doesn't mean ks backers didn't lose anything, just that it wasn't as big of a slice for them.
You didn't even know the appetizer was coming. It wasn't part of the meal you paid for. No one else around the table gets your awesome, expensive meal: just you. The appetizer was added to your evening, for free, then shared with everyone else around you.
You still get to eat your fancy Alpha access, and you get first dibs on three free battle royale, castle siege, and horde mode appetizers. Why are you mad that your friends get some too?
I should have made that clear earlier in the OP.
I like this sort of analogy, since I work at a four star. What has happened here is more akin to Intrepid and KS backers making a reservation and paying in advance, and the proprietor has come to the floor and announced that we're still paying for our 3 course meals full price, but the restaurant is now giving away the first one or two courses for free to all comers.
It would help to clarify I absolutely do not view this phase in the context of a bonus, but as the fully expected start time for alpha one based on what was communicated at pax east with the expected content on offer around the time I backed. There is no free appetizer here, it was on my ticket for the "reservation."
And it's fine if others don't agree. I'm fully supporting the game regardless, and whatever fallout from this does occur will be up to Intrepid to gauge and adapt to. I don't think it will be nothing, but we shall see.
The point was just to say that I value exclusivity, and if something has to change which makes an exclusive no longer exclusive, like what happened with the LTS, something ought to be done to restore some value. Like how Wand of Many things was retroactively granted to those backers over issues surrounding the LTS.
"Nobody is "crying" here at all, much less over letting other people into the test. As I said, I'm ok with that. That doesn't harm anyone, and is probably good for the game as a whole from both a marketing and testing perspective."
Unless your looking to get handouts from
"I'm not suggesting any change be made to the way alpha tests are being conducted. It's about what to do for Intrepid backers(and ks) who bought into it under the expectation of exclusivity they are no longer getting."
Which goes back to my earlier post..
With the purchase of the item still granting the earliest access to the alpha (not an early release, not a completed game... A testing period) was no implied or stated exclusivity with alpha or beta access.
Your experience or purchase has not been diminished because they are opening up a small portion of a partial game to registered users. In fact backers are getting access 3 months earlier than expected and the core game alpha will start with phase 2 at the end of this year which will again Be restricted to people with alpha 1 access only and the alpha version we have been being promised for months.
Are there any other ways to accomplish this besides opening the servers for a lot of players?
No, I've spent over $500 just on cosmetics. I obviously don't care about getting free stuff and have no qualms about paying for it. The reason this thread was posted was because the entirety of the cash shop is built on a concept of exclusivity with a host of one time only item offers. Outside of subs, that is going to be the primary revenue stream for the game. It may even end up outpacing subs. I honestly don't know.
Why is this relevant? Simple. Intrepid backers had no idea their exclusivity would be rolled back, nor did anyone expect it until they dropped that bomb during the panel. But, they do now. When exclusivity becomes subject to change, the entire concept of buying limited time items suddenly seems a whole lot less appealing. Will other players get access to the items later on we purchased as "never available for purchase again?"
When a closed alpha becomes open for whatever the reason may be, nothing is off the table. And THAT is the problem with this decision. As was brought up earlier with the LTS issue, exclusivity was already breached once. I don't wish to see this keep happening because I want the game to succeed. People must have confidence that the exclusive premium items they are purchasing will remain so. It's that which is driving much of the demand in the first place.
Whether items in the cash shop appear once or stay in the shop forever (either at a discounted or same rate) isn't the question. If it's marked "exclusive" or "limited time only" then it's clearly marked as that and shouldn't be brought back at any point in time.
At this point the "exclusivity" of the alphas and betas were in the mind of the individual and were never sold as "You can only participate if you buy". If that's how it was understood I expect that person has never been in early stage testing before.
The wording is "Invite to closed alpha 1". You bought in.. your guaranteed a spot and that's great.
That doesn't prevent the developers from saying "hey you guys bought in you get to see this and test it before anyone else and at the end of it we are gonna open it up to stress test because our sample pool is to small'
Ashes had 2 options here... Send out emails sublety and invite 15k more people (we all know how well that would work out) or open up the server for a brief time, with limited game systems and bash the servers as hard as they can before transitioning into the alpha they had promised in the KS and backer options.
No one has been misled here... All of this hubub is because of EXTRA testing time ashes decided to throw in because they got comfortable early... These next 3 months isn't the alpha that was marketed and people need to understand that. Short and simple.