Question about pricing

DarkUnicast

Hello everyone,

I took a better look at the packages available in the shop and noticed that only the package " Voyager Plus Pre-Order Pack " gives access to the Alpha Two stage when that will be available.

I was wondering if there is a reason as to why only this one gives access to Alpha Two and why it's so expensive.
I mean, I really like what I've read and seen about Ashes of Creation and I really want to try it myself.

But why is it so expensive?
Is there a particular reason, why not lower the prices and allow more people to test it out?

Sorry if my question seems dumb, but I have never ever seen these prices for a game.
Thanks in advance for your replies and clarification.

Depraved

theres 2 packages that give access to alpha 2

DarkUnicast

Yeah well.. they are still too expensive.
I mean I would really love to support the game and test out stuff and contribute to the feedback but its too expensive

Ludullu

The price is high because this will be a real testing environment. Servers will keep resetting, chars wiped, there's gonna be all the bugs and no balancing. Intrepid mainly wants people who realize that they paid the money either to purely support the development or to properly test the game.

Even during alpha1 ($500) there were people that were doing dumb shit during testing, which Intrepid explicitly asked not to do. The lower the price the more such people will be present during testing.

Ludullu

DarkUnicast wrote: »

Yeah well.. they are still too expensive.
I mean I would really love to support the game and test out stuff and contribute to the feedback but its too expensive

You can still contribute by watching streams (alpha2 will not be under nda) and giving your feedback from them.

DarkUnicast

NiKr wrote: »

DarkUnicast wrote: »

Yeah well.. they are still too expensive.
I mean I would really love to support the game and test out stuff and contribute to the feedback but its too expensive

You can still contribute by watching streams (alpha2 will not be under nda) and giving your feedback from them.

Thanks NiKr
I understand your point but I would've loved to be able to also test it myself.
The pricing it's half my salary so yeah.. I guess I'll have to wait out until Beta two comes out unfortunately.
I cannot afford the keys for Alpha two

Nonetheless..I'm still surprised by the prices

Ludullu

DarkUnicast wrote: »

Thanks NiKr
I understand your point but I would've loved to be able to also test it myself.
The pricing it's half my salary so yeah.. I guess I'll have to wait out until Beta two comes out unfortunately.
I cannot afford the keys for Alpha two

Nonetheless..I'm still surprised by the prices

And for me, even the $250 price equals ~1.5 months of minimum salary in my country. I'm lucky enough to have the money for it w/o having a job, but there's also Liniker on the forum who's in a guild that bought these packages at prices equivalent to 2 months-worth of salary.

So while I get that we all want to test the game, I do agree with Steven's pov on this because the people who spent way more of their money (relatively speaking) will give so much more back to the game during testing than someone for whom this price is just a daily expense.

DarkUnicast

NiKr wrote: »

DarkUnicast wrote: »

Thanks NiKr
I understand your point but I would've loved to be able to also test it myself.
The pricing it's half my salary so yeah.. I guess I'll have to wait out until Beta two comes out unfortunately.
I cannot afford the keys for Alpha two

Nonetheless..I'm still surprised by the prices

And for me, even the $250 price equals ~1.5 months of minimum salary in my country. I'm lucky enough to have the money for it w/o having a job, but there's also Liniker on the forum who's in a guild that bought these packages at prices equivalent to 2 months-worth of salary.

So while I get that we all want to test the game, I do agree with Steven's pov on this because the people who spent way more of their money (relatively speaking) will give so much more back to the game during testing than someone for whom this price is just a daily expense.

I guess it makes sense.
Well... I'll just limit myself to watching other streams for the time being.
Thanksfor your input

Mag7spy

DarkUnicast wrote: »

NiKr wrote: »

DarkUnicast wrote: »

Yeah well.. they are still too expensive.
I mean I would really love to support the game and test out stuff and contribute to the feedback but its too expensive

You can still contribute by watching streams (alpha2 will not be under nda) and giving your feedback from them.

Thanks NiKr
I understand your point but I would've loved to be able to also test it myself.
The pricing it's half my salary so yeah.. I guess I'll have to wait out until Beta two comes out unfortunately.
I cannot afford the keys for Alpha two

Nonetheless..I'm still surprised by the prices

Its not about you testing to see what you think, its about the devs testing systems, adjustment and developing as they work towards completing the game. They don't want an average consumer playing and saying this game isn't done and thinking its alpha like how some other games name it or call things early access. That is not the same as actual alpha development.

Depraved

yeah it seems that the value in $ of playing alpha is 60 USD if you buy the 250 package and remove the extras.

id love to pay 60 just for alpha access without any of the extras, and then jus tpay my monthly fee once the game comes out. i could care less for skins or store credit, unless i can use that store credit to buy more months lol

Strevi

DarkUnicast wrote: »

Yeah well.. they are still too expensive.
I mean I would really love to support the game and test out stuff and contribute to the feedback but its too expensive

@DarkUnicast
I expect the Alpha 2 to be good enough to also be enjoyed. To be like an Early Access. And I think they want to prevent a large amount of players to rush playing the game while it is not polished and burn out by the time is properly released.

Noaani

Strevi wrote: »

DarkUnicast wrote: »

Yeah well.. they are still too expensive.
I mean I would really love to support the game and test out stuff and contribute to the feedback but its too expensive

I expect the Alpha 2 to be good enough to also be enjoyed. To be like an Early Access.

This will not be the case.

There are 2 stages of beta testing to be had after alpha testing. Beta 2 may welm be akin to early access, alpha 2 will be a buggy mess with patchwork content.

Strevi

Noaani wrote: »

Strevi wrote: »

DarkUnicast wrote: »

Yeah well.. they are still too expensive.
I mean I would really love to support the game and test out stuff and contribute to the feedback but its too expensive

I expect the Alpha 2 to be good enough to also be enjoyed. To be like an Early Access.

This will not be the case.

There are 2 stages of beta testing to be had after alpha testing. Beta 2 may welm be akin to early access, alpha 2 will be a buggy mess with patchwork content.

Maybe you are right. Depends what each player is used to play and how tolerant to bugs is. The betas however will be very short, 2-3 months maybe. For such a short time is not even worth considering paying to get access sooner to the game. But for an Alpha 2 which could last one year, the price is ok.

OneLeggedMan

Strevi wrote: »

The betas however will be very short, 2-3 months maybe. For such a short time is not even worth considering paying to get access sooner to the game. But for an Alpha 2 which could last one year, the price is ok.

I think the beta is going to be even shorter than that. I think they will be 2-3 months out from full release only running a few weeks. Steven mentioned it in a live stream recently. September.... maybe august?

But yes they are going to be short but 2-3 months before full release.

Of course, my recollection may be wrong. I'm fairly certain, but too lazy to find it as I'm already avoiding my work.

Balrog21

I think a lot of people misunderstood what alpha2 really is. As mentioned above, this is not a play the final game build, there will be bugs, there will be character wipes, server resets, and hopefully specific spot testing on certain systems. Steven even said before that all the features won't be available at alpha2 launch, they will be implemented as they come available. It will be a very frustrating day after you've spent hours leveling your toon and when you wake up the next morning and your toon is back to level 0 after a server wipe. Especially if you don't know this was the possibility of testing during alpha2.
Just to reiterate from above, the price is high to keep the riff raff out and clowns out so people who are honestly wanting to test the game and give good honest feedback can.
Hope this helps!

Depraved

pretty sure betas will be around a week, maybe 2.

and it isnt early access...progress will be wiped