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Alpha Two Phase III testing has begun! During this phase, our realms will be open every day, and we'll only have downtime for updates and maintenance. We'll keep everyone up-to-date about downtimes in Discord.
If you have Alpha Two, you can download the game launcher here, and we encourage you to join us on our Official Discord Server for the most up to date testing news.
Alpha Two Phase III testing has begun! During this phase, our realms will be open every day, and we'll only have downtime for updates and maintenance. We'll keep everyone up-to-date about downtimes in Discord.
If you have Alpha Two, you can download the game launcher here, and we encourage you to join us on our Official Discord Server for the most up to date testing news.
Ashes is going to get bombed on Steam reviews (I hope it's not)
Volgaris
Member, Alpha Two
Ashes isn't ready for a Steam EA. Even the production servers are still very much in Alpha states. The normal gamer on Steam is going to see an MMORPG in EA and think it's closer to a Beta state or even a Head Start state.
I don't think a Steam EA sell is bad, it's just WAY too early. This will be the first official rating from a major third party of the game. People are going to rank it as a full release not as a MMORPG in alpha. An MMORPG in alpha is much rougher than other games in alpha. They're going to compare it apples to apples when it's apples to oranges.. Enshrouded in EA is rated great because it's got a full loop to progress through fairly smoothly. Ashes lacks a real MMORPG game loop. They're going to see MMORPG but there's no dungeons, the dropped loot isn't there, the crafting stagnates, and so much more that interrupts, stunts, slows, and sometimes stops the loop. And that's alpha, but 80% of the people buying steam EA aren't going to like it... Despite the EA warning, no one reads that..
So why do this? Do they need money? Steven says it's funded. But a Steam EA release out of the blue makes anyone with a brain question that. Do they need more testers? Probably, I feel the testing fatigue, and notice the lower populations. Are they getting greedy? They've already found 6 or 7 ways to sell the same product, why not another? Regardless of the reason I don't blame them. It's just not ready. Judging by the pace of progress, it won't be ready by the 11th.
I don't think a Steam EA sell is bad, it's just WAY too early. This will be the first official rating from a major third party of the game. People are going to rank it as a full release not as a MMORPG in alpha. An MMORPG in alpha is much rougher than other games in alpha. They're going to compare it apples to apples when it's apples to oranges.. Enshrouded in EA is rated great because it's got a full loop to progress through fairly smoothly. Ashes lacks a real MMORPG game loop. They're going to see MMORPG but there's no dungeons, the dropped loot isn't there, the crafting stagnates, and so much more that interrupts, stunts, slows, and sometimes stops the loop. And that's alpha, but 80% of the people buying steam EA aren't going to like it... Despite the EA warning, no one reads that..
So why do this? Do they need money? Steven says it's funded. But a Steam EA release out of the blue makes anyone with a brain question that. Do they need more testers? Probably, I feel the testing fatigue, and notice the lower populations. Are they getting greedy? They've already found 6 or 7 ways to sell the same product, why not another? Regardless of the reason I don't blame them. It's just not ready. Judging by the pace of progress, it won't be ready by the 11th.
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Comments
This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
I don't think you will be able to leave a review unless you purchase EA on steam.
I suppose you could purchase, leave a review, then get a refund. lol.
So review bomb is probably the wrong term. It's going to end up with mostly negative reviews. I don't think there's a bomb campaign or anything going after it. And Steam requiring a purchase is a good guard against it.
The Irony being when the game does go live, people that would have otherwise gotten the game will avoid it because of the negative reviews it received during EA.
If that honest review contains a " I think it's too soon for a Steam Release " - it should be honest. (lol)
I am not even joking, though.
What aside from " it's too early to think it's truly early Access " or so can someone write ? There is barely the last Archetype on the live-Servers and BOOM!! suddenly Early Access ?
Bold of Intrepid. Very bold.
So it's about 2 more full Years or 3 more Years then. This is pretty much the Time Window when Early Access hits the fan. It was like this with Baldurs Gate 3 - (about 3 Years),
and it was like this with V Rising (at least 2 Years).
Maybe i am off with my Calculations, though. Both those Games were not an MMO.
✓ Occasional Roleplayer
I am in the guildless Guild so to say, lol. But i won't give up. I will find my fitting Guild "one Day".
Steven is trying to be clear Ashes is an Alpha.
Even Steam gives a bunch of warnings about the potential crappy state of an Early Access game.
I agree that this is how it should be.
However, with the number of people that treat the current alpha as if it supposed to be a live game, I can only see that getting worse when moved to a mainstream platform.
While Valve may give warnings about the game, players are so used to them that they just click through, and expect the game to be in a mostly finished state, with small things like balancing to be done, and a few assets still to be added. Being on Steam alters expectations.
They don't expect a game to be 20% of what it is supposed to be.
The only exceptions to this are times when developers have exceedingly good communication with the public - something Intrepid does not have.
Jepp.
It will be a Slaughter. Of Expectations.
✓ Occasional Roleplayer
I am in the guildless Guild so to say, lol. But i won't give up. I will find my fitting Guild "one Day".
This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
He is. But people don't read that. People don't know what an alpha is. I hope I'm wrong the MMORPG genre needs a win that isn't plagued with PTW and RMT. Problem is Steam doesn't have "Alpha" status. But Ashes should have done what 7D2D did. And been more clear about the ALPHA state of the game. EA != Alpha.
I don't think you'll need to do that. The reviews will speak for themselves after a few weeks. Although I think it's fair for any of us who have tested to be able to review the game there.
Ok, ok, so I use mostly SQL
Steam allows you to refund for any reason no questions asked.
I feel pretty entitled to leave at least a honest state of the game review.
I don't think it's review bombing if it's honest and with thousands of hours of play since alpha 1.
This is my personal feedback, shared to help the game thrive in its niche.
No you don't get a steam key. And currently there is no way to link the accounts. Which is fine by itself, it can be a little complex linking with an outside party like this. I expect you will be able to around launch if you wanted.
Many people feel a little deceived or a lot rather. Selling the game in a new market place makes perfect sense. And creating a new way to sell the same product is what they've been doing since kickstarter, so one should be surprised at this point that they are selling yet another package of the same thing. Reducing the price to 50 bucks makes sense too. All standard behavior IS has shown for the past 8 years or so.
The possibility for that ended 2 or 3 years ago.
However, based on what I've seen so far, I consider that possibility unlikely.
Too many other fun games to compete with now.
Ashes really needed to hit Release Before 2022.