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.
Comments
Ashes is quite a niche game, and it's fairly obvious that Intrepid is also, in part, doing this for the industry.
Imagine how easy it is to get a general idea of the wishes of players, for any other upcoming MMO developer, just by hanging around here and seeing what we talk about. Ashes has provided this both directly and indirectly, by making people think about what makes a perfect MMORPG.
And their continued dedication to showing us their vision for us to critique or praise means that the entire genre benefits. For every 'No, Intrepid, your game will fail, do it this way!' discussion, a different MMO can be tuned for all the people who shouldn't play Ashes.
Intrepid are the ones in the position to take all that feedback head on and refuse to change things that don't match their game, and show the others that you don't need to make a game that appeals to everyone, you make the game that makes sense.
All the people who end up upset that the game isn't what they want, should go find the game that Intrepid is empowering to become what they want.
The Phoenix will not fail, because the Phoenix has already succeeded.
I think this is a fair enough balanced take. I do think it would be beneficial to put the spotlight on the trouble areas once every two months or something. Could actually make for some really... turbulent... but also potentially productive discussions.
However, I also agree with all the counterarguments that it's not fully feasible for them to showcase the good without creating false expectations, without making their streams unwatchable.
I heard whispers of Riots MMO plans getting scrapped. Still hoping otherwise (but then again the $500 League of Legends skins don't make me wanna give them any money...)
As I said - don't spend much time.
I've seen parts of the recent livestreams. Not all of them, but parts. The parts I have seen were enough to know the game was still in a testing phase.
At least, I would hope it was still in a testing phase.
It wasn't littered with bugs that make everything un-testable, but it also wasn't polished in any way.
You are not an investor. I know role playing is awesome but this is not it.
See my previous advice:
Because you're genuinely not equipped with the information needed to take part in this discussion if you haven't.
They cited lightning systems as an iterative focus in the last few streams (which is far down the priority pipeline) and only verbally brought up intended features, but there was no actual demonstrations of how a branching quest functions, or the mechanisms of a boss-allied raid group, or of the anti-zerg mechanics.
Is that even intended for Alpha 2 Phase 2?
(Please share the quote about a Boss-allied Raid Group.)
If you are looking to see if the game is polished, you would need to watch the whole thing. It may be that everything looks polished until the very end, and if you don't see the end, you could mistakenly think everything was polished.
However, in order to see if it is not polished, all you need to do is watch until you see something thst isn't ready for live release.
There is plenty of that.
The entire dragon fight is obviously in a testing phase. I don't need to see any more than that to know the game is still being tested.
Yeah, they have some things they are working on still. They talk about branching quests, but they are not yet in a state to show on the livestream at all - because the game is still very much in an alpha state.
Keep in mind, Intrepid aren't going to go out of their way to show us the parts that look like shit. All that does is give fuel to the haters and detractors.
They are showing us the parts that are ready, telling us about the parts thst are not, and this should make it abundantly clear that the game is still in testing.
If it wasn't, they would have shown us those branching quests.
We used to hear what's going wrong and now we don't. That's what causes unrealistic expectations and therefore backlash when they are disappointed. That's all I want to avoid with my post so I don't understand why you are debating about who knows more about the game. Instead try to advise Intrepid on how to avoid having so much backlash as they had this year. Remember a good reputation can make a game as much as a bad one can destroy one. Ask Archeage about it, the game was great but a bad p2w reputation killed it, even the full f2p version never worked because Archeage had a bad name. I don't want Ashes of Creation to fail because people are slowly but surely getting upset at the game.
And even if most of us will play it regardless of how bad the public welcomes it, if the game gets a bad name we are cooked 🙂
Edit : and if you believe there is no backlash and everything is alright then ignore this thread and move on to the next one.
Then prepare to be disappointed because that's not going to happen. They're also not "falsely marketing" the game by not going out of their way to show bugs and unfinished content/features while it's still heavily in development.
This point only holds if we’re talking about a full game release, not an alpha. In an alpha stage, the game's direction can change drastically without it being considered false marketing.
The issue is that many people mistakenly treat alpha as early access, which leads to unrealistic expectations. No matter how often it’s explained, some still equate alpha testing with the polished experience of early access games. What’s often missing is the understanding that alpha involves substantial changes and experimentation.
For example, although it’s unlikely, people have even mentioned the possibility of Ashes of Creation shifting from hybrid combat to a fully tab-target system.
The real problem begins when players get too attached to elements in an alpha build, thinking it’s representative of the final game. That’s a misunderstanding. Alpha is a development phase, and Ashes of Creation has always emphasized that this is a true alpha.
You trying to label it as false marketing is the same way i look at your post being toxic as you are trying to constantly label the devs as lying to people. Even though again this is a alpha...
I watch the monthly streams and don't pay attention to Twitter posts, discord, or even this forum until much more recently. Most of my ashes news comes from the streams and reaction videos, which other YTs do of the streams.
I've seen every live stream and consistently think this game looks impressive and polished, and I can't wait to play the alpha. I know deep down I'm testing a product and that nothing is going to be perfect. Not all systems will work, not all systems will even be available, and in some cases, there will be so many bugs that I will not have any fun playing the alpha.
That being said, I'm going to be pretty disappointed, and I think so will other people when we boot into the alpha for the first time and don't have an experience even close to what we have seen in the showcases. I don't expect the entire game to look and feel as polished as the showcases, but if it's not even close, I will definitely feel baited. I'm still 100% aware I'm paying for a test, and I won't be in arms demanding a refund if this happens, but I'm going to be pretty sad, considering all the hype these showcases bring.
As someone else pointed out in this thread, this is my fault. I shouldn't have these expectations when they clearly state in the streams that the experience won't be like this. But also... we're being shown what we think it looks like. Can you blame someone for expecting it to look how we've been shown? I don't know... I see both sides of this one, but no matter how it shakes out, I'll be happy to test this game in alpha and play the finished product, which I think we're all excited for
If you don't like what they're doing, don't follow them.
That's OK.
Phase 3, in 2025, is going to be much closer to what we were expecting the start of A2 was going to be, so people will be disappointed in any case.
More importantly, we get a chance to jump into the current state of the game to check things out for ourselves in just about one more month. Rather than relying on Intrepid's spin.
If you weren't disappointed by Nodes 3...
And you weren't disappointed by Before 2020...
I dunno why the "marketing" of the Livestreams is suddenly a deal-breaker.
But... OK.
It very much is when the discussion is about those live streams.
I'm not engaging further with someone who hasn't actually watched them.
This makes no sense.
If I can watch 10 minutes of something and see that it is not polished, why do I then need to spend any more time watching it in order to be able to tell if it is polished or not?
I have seen 10 minutes of the last 2 livestreams, and in that 10 minutes I have seen plenty to understand that the game is still in alpha.
Even if the rest of all the recent livestreams showed nothing but a perfectly polished game, I have still seen enough to know that the game is in a testing state.
The key thing is though - and you even mentioned this yourself - it is what Intrepid are talking about but not showing that really indicates how still "in testing" the game really is.
✓ Occasional Roleplayer
✓ Guild is " Balderag's Garde " for now. (German)