Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two Realms are now unlocked for Phase II testing!
For our initial launch, testing will begin on Friday, December 20, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific and continue uninterrupted until Monday, January 6, 2025, at 10 AM Pacific. After January 6th, we’ll transition to a schedule of five-day-per-week access for the remainder of Phase II.
You can download the game launcher here and we encourage you to join us on our for the most up to date testing news.
Comments
As a fee, it made absolute sense 10+ years ago. Not so much now though.
That said, Steam isn't as bad as - say - Apple though, as there are many other alternatives for developers to sell to consumers, and other means for consumers to acquire games and such. Whereas with Apple, if you are not on their store, paying their 30%, and using their payment processing for all in-app purchases (which also has a 30% cut to Apple), then you are simply not able to have your app on the App Store and Apple users have no access to your app via any other means.
This is the core of the Epic Games vs Apple lawsuit going on right now, which has been super interesting to follow.
I do not like apple.
Their products are nice but the company and costs.. fuck no.
Yeah the whole apple vs epic thing has a been a shit show. I do not even want to get involved, it is a lot more than just the 30% and I do agree, things were a lot different 10 years ago for the industry but now with so many indie companies coming up and how relatively easy it is for people to create and publish their own games because of the saturation of coding professions and hobbyists, they can make a killing off a cheap game or app they made themselves.
Don't ever play Marvel Strike Force, then. Their "offers" are more like £65 for a quarter of a character that you can't even use yet. Hilarious.
It's not uncommon these days for studios to charge extra for access to their betas. For a lot of people, early access and the chance to give feedback before things get set in stone is well worth the extra cost.
Looking at the $500 pre-order package, you get $165 of in-game time and $150 in Embers, totaling $315. That means you're paying $185 for access to every test phase starting with Alpha-1 up to release, a lot more exclusive cosmetics, and a name reservation. $185 is still a decent chunk of change, but well worth it for people such as streamers and hardcore fans. It's a good way to make sure the vast majority of testers are those most interested in the success of the game.
Not even joking, I was in 6th grade using my moms computer to pirate ps1 games and music cd's for all my friends. None of us had money and we weren't profiting on it (not that we didn't try though haha). I dislike steam but they have definitely served their purpose positively.
Yeah, don't get me wrong - as a DRM (Digital Rights Manager) Steam led the way in combating theft. A number of different DRM platforms followed (e.g. Origin, BattleNet (the DRM not the original Diablo matching service, and whatever Ubisoft's DRM is called). Steam has clearly moved into the Amazon model of creating a marketplace for small businesses to sell their wares. Again - great - those companies just need to manage their margin v. volume so they not only make a buck, but can seed enough capital for the next project.
AoC could create enough momentum from marketing that they can stand up their own distribution hub, which converts some percent of that 30% from cogs to margin. At scale, that's real money.
the 500 dollar one is giving you 11 months in subscription fees and a 150 dollars in embers which is 315.. plus cosmetics and a name preserver. so your really only donating 185 at that point.. now you may not be an ember guy and the embers might be pointless for you.. which I totally get. but You play the first 6 months to almost a year of the game without ever paying the 15 dollars.. so it is alot more than alphas and betas.
the 250 one is probably the biggest bang for your buck where almost all your money except for 60 would actually go to in use for game purposes.
not horrible man.. I get it.. they have to fund and keep the money rolling in... MMORPGS don't have a year turnaround. it is a 4-6 year turnaround where they are not making penny. they have to prepay for servers and all that which is quite expensive. So i understand.. which it was a little more affordable for the average joe.. but lets be real... all the season passes of all the games we pay for every other month that is 10-20 dollars.. I mean we probably spend 100s of dollars on free games a year because of that. so it is really feasible and affordable if you ask me.
exactly, they take your donation and use to fund things that go into developing the project.
I personally enjoy supporting game developers that like to raise the bar on industry standards instead of another reskinned clone every few years for top dollar because of its corporate product recognition in the industry.
I don't want to see developers like this fail causing gamers to be stuck in the same endless reskinned grind.
Speaking of which, that seers of blackroot...
Except your definition of donation is completely wrong. You only can "donate" to a public entity or charity. Intrepid Studios is neither of those. Youre making a purchase, not a donation
Definition of donation
: the act or an instance of donating: such as
a: the making of a gift especially to a charity or public institution
b: a free contribution : GIFT
When you donate, you dont get something in return because it is a gift. Please stop trying to justify the ridiculous $500 tag. Calling it a donation is a flat out lie.
the piracy thing you keep throwing around has been debunked multiple times.
Someone can't properly comprehend their own citation.
Donation means making a gift. The definition posted does not include the word "only".
Rather, the definition includes the word "especially" - which means while the donated gift is most often to a charity or public institution it's not always or only to a charity or public institution.
In fact, it has been proven several times.