Opinion on Alpha Two being open until launch?

HexologyNate

Hey all,

So apparently Alpha Two will be a persistent open server before launch - which is awesome as it means content can be tested and polished before launch which extremely helpful and beneficial.

I do have a few concerns though, the first being burn out and loss of interest. Now hear me out, this isnt necessarily burnout or loss of interest from ME so much as I am worried that if the server is opened for a prolonged amount of time (which presumably it will be) then there is a chance that players will play enough content to potentially become burnt out or bored of Ashes. Now I know that ALL content wont be released during Alpha Two; most of the content will more than likely be unplayable until Launch. Part of me does wonder however - if enough content is available, then will people play through it and feel as though they have finished their Ashes experience?

My next concern is not super likely nor is it really a big deal, it being the possibility of unfinished or unpolished gameplay being posted/streamed on twitch/youtube/social media scaring or dissuading potential players due to ignorance. Most of us here on the forums are excited and cant wait to see the game become more fleshed out as our feedback is taken on board and things change, however there have been instances where bugs/non-final features ETC have caused players to be dissuaded from supporting development/joining the community as in their mind the 'issues' wont be fixed or they think the things they see will be implemented in the launch of the shipped game.

Finally, I worry that some people will get a bad taste in their mouths due to inevitable wipes/rollbacks/downtime/maintenances etc, and will in turn spread that malice or soured taste through the community not just on the forums, but in general..

Obviously these concerns aren't anything serious, I just wonder if anyone else has any worries? If so what are they? What do you think of the things I aforementioned?

Have a great week guys!

daveywavey

As long as whoever's burning out has helped to make the game better overall, I'm good with it.

Caww

You have to be fairly committed to AoC to even enter A2 given the $250 minimum cost, I'm not sure those people (me) will be terribly discouraged as the process moves along.

HexologyNate

Caww wrote: »

You have to be fairly committed to AoC to even enter A2 given the $250 minimum cost, I'm not sure those people (me) will be terribly discouraged as the process moves along.

Yeah I agree, I feel the same, but an MMO is only enjoyable with a large community, so I would rather not lose people if possible.

Depraved

only a small % of players will join alpha 2, so even if all of them get burned out, the game will still retain the majority of players on release.

the 2nd concern is probably the biggest one

bloodprophet

This is one of those things that people are getting confused by still.
This will be a true alpha, NOT an alpha like we have seen recently in the last 10 years or more. Not importing an Asian MMO that has been out for a while.
We will be testing systems NOT content. As they add systems those of us in there will be testing things as they add them and helping them find the right direction and making sure stuff works properly. With many eyes and fingers the "Testers" will help them spot things that are off. Sometimes adding one things breaks something else and they may not realize it till later.
Was a video as we loaded into Alpha one of Steven talking about this very thing and people still failed to understand.

I still laugh every time I see someone comment on here about the content from alpha 1.

TheSgtPepper

Otr wrote: »

Alpha 2 will not take longer than the $250 would cover a subscription.
If players will enjoy seeing featured others will not, and be testers, and then later they burn out in the released game... it would happen anyway, no matter when they start playing.

^^^ This. If you enjoy testing games, have made alts, or replayed a game after putting in 1000 hours you'll be fine. If you are purchasing a ticket to board the hype train because you are bored you will be so disappointed and burn out because an Alpha is not a feature-rich end product that some, despite dozens of instances of people telling them "THIS IS NOT CLOSE TO FINISHED IT IS AN ALPHA", think that it is.

PenguinPaladin

The burn out concern is also a part of testing that we can look into post release possibilities as well tho...

If durring the alpha 2, a certain server experiences enough burn out, and too many players stop playing... we can see the devs worry about how a server merge could take place. And so on. Its a test. Concurrent testing is a good test for the team, the game, and how the game responds to potential loss of players. Also they shouldnt worry about people playing the alpha losing interest in the full release either, as they advertise that you are buying into a testing environment. They should be treating those in the alpha 2 as testers more than customers. If someone ruins the game for themself thats their problem.