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.
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.
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.
Is no nda for A2 favorable for the game?
arsnn
Member, Intrepid Pack, Alpha One, Alpha Two, Early Alpha Two
Im really glad that Intrepid did decide to show parts of the A1 and generally goes through a transparent development process.
But personally i feel like a long testing period of around 1-2 years, which is planned for A2 could be one of AoC´s biggest risk for commercial succcess.
If think it would be very naive to think intrepid can constantly retain players in the testing environment until release, hype will die down, some will players come back with updates... it´s basically an uphill battle for every testing phase to engage people. The content density will simply not be there.
Now i dont think this would be a marketing issue, if there was a nda in place. (The testing Issue would persist, testing with 50 people online is not really productive, but that´s besides the point right now.)
Due to the fact content creators will basically dissmantle every part of the game, by the time the game releases there is already a broad and accesible information environment. Hype fatigue will kick in as the game makes only incremental steps towards the final product.
A good example for a game that botched their release due to fatigue is crowfall. The game had many issues and would have died anyway, but the interest in the game could have been much bigger initially, if the release did feel like a fresh experience instead of a 1.1.2 update.
On the other hand you had New World´s release, where non nda tests were very relatively short. The game did not even have to be good to create interest, a fresh experience and copium "it´s the next big mmo for sure" was enough.
Personally i would think MMO releases are generally better adviced to hold information close to their chest, even if the A2 turns out to be decent, it may depress long term interest.
Shorter non-nda tests are a better choice, i´d rather frame the nda testing phases as "pre-Alpha 2" rather than dropping the biggest marketing opportunity for MMOs, which is the fresh experience at the release.
Am i too pessimistic on this topic?
But personally i feel like a long testing period of around 1-2 years, which is planned for A2 could be one of AoC´s biggest risk for commercial succcess.
If think it would be very naive to think intrepid can constantly retain players in the testing environment until release, hype will die down, some will players come back with updates... it´s basically an uphill battle for every testing phase to engage people. The content density will simply not be there.
Now i dont think this would be a marketing issue, if there was a nda in place. (The testing Issue would persist, testing with 50 people online is not really productive, but that´s besides the point right now.)
Due to the fact content creators will basically dissmantle every part of the game, by the time the game releases there is already a broad and accesible information environment. Hype fatigue will kick in as the game makes only incremental steps towards the final product.
A good example for a game that botched their release due to fatigue is crowfall. The game had many issues and would have died anyway, but the interest in the game could have been much bigger initially, if the release did feel like a fresh experience instead of a 1.1.2 update.
On the other hand you had New World´s release, where non nda tests were very relatively short. The game did not even have to be good to create interest, a fresh experience and copium "it´s the next big mmo for sure" was enough.
Personally i would think MMO releases are generally better adviced to hold information close to their chest, even if the A2 turns out to be decent, it may depress long term interest.
Shorter non-nda tests are a better choice, i´d rather frame the nda testing phases as "pre-Alpha 2" rather than dropping the biggest marketing opportunity for MMOs, which is the fresh experience at the release.
Am i too pessimistic on this topic?
3
Comments
I would suggest to Intrepid that they don't have A2 servers up permanently. Do it in periods of a few weeks at a time (perhaps up to a month max), then shut things down while they implement changes and additions for next stage, with the occasional spot testing for checking fixes. Also, keeping wipes to a minimum will help against tester fatigue, but sometimes a wipe is also a good thing.
I would hope they structure A2 to be more focused testing than A1 was, asking players to test a new class for 2 weeks for example, or to test some changes to castle sieges, and then take servers down again after.
I think this can work as well. But it still would mean they didnt keep the promise of a persistent A2.
Calling the test pre-Alpha 2 would be a work around that would leave many people with a bad taste in their mouth.
Well we can agree to disagree, i think launching a product with full momentuum can have a big effect.
Also im not concerned about infos leaking to people that want that infos. My concern is rather engagement fatigue with the game. With only incremental progress that is shown by big Youtubers and Streamers over the years, the game may drop it´s novelty and hype once it launched.
And tbh investing 250 for an oppurtunity to may become a content creator is a bad argument for a company to jeopardize their own product.
Though there more than likely will be a NDA for pre alpha two, leading up to the start of alpha 2
With that said, these things are subject to change, so we shall see as we get closer to the release date of Alpha Two and further in the development process ^_^
What features are you excited about with Alpha Two?
This is my assumption as well.
I personally think there is another wave of testing that will need to happen before the NDA is lifted, Alpha 1B.
At the very least, I expect Intrepid to have the combat and corruption systems somewhat tuned before Alpha 2.
"Dont ruin" i feel they need to be more transparent about the state of the game. Them only showijg whats working has people wanting the game out next year...
We will do 1 month of constant testing. Do what you like! Or, focus on xyz. But after 2 weeks, perhaps have an intermission to do some siege testing. Maybe setup some events to test the encounters less so than the triggers. Maybe a naval siege/event of some sort. Just more focused testing. They may do this to a degree but If they have some sort of a schedule then maybe people knowing that different testing "events" will be coming might allow them to shake things up a bit.