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Alpha Two Phase II testing is currently taking place five days each week. More information about testing schedule can be found here
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.
Comments
Selling KS exclusive perks as suggested in the OP is the problem.
The piece people forget here, is the summer backer program was opened up, not because Intrepid went back on their word, but because they had legitimate interested people with due to how Kickstarter works could not pledge.
Its not like they did the SB program a year or two later, it was literally on the heels of the KS and was done so people who's credit card/debit card situation was not compatible with KS.
The issue lies in promises made by the the team. If you buy something under the impression that it will never become available again and thus spend a large amount of money, and if that item were to become available again, wouldn't you be upset?
If the issue is having beta 2 being available to buy then it already is on the store.
Welcome to the real world, you will at times lose out on things
I'm admittedly a nobody, but I find it strange that IS offered exclusive lifetime subscriptions early on when they would have to know that it would be wanted by a wide range of supporters in the future. What a huge mistake on their part. Massive revenue lost, very short-sighted.
A choice would be to offer a more expensive version of lifetime sub, etc., argument being that the price was exclusive and not the sub. But that'll just piss everyone off instead of just the early backers. So, they screwed up, and late comers miss out.
But if the option to get lifetime subs was longer than the Kickstarter period that would mean a huge loss in the long run which is what MMOs with a sub based game need. Plus its a considerable reward for people who backed them when ashes were not much more than bare bones
People generally spend way more per month than the sub, especially those footing an initial, e.g., $900, lifetime sub. People invested in the game will spend more for the most part.
So 5 years of guaranteed sub plus cosmetics is not a huge loss of revenue in the long term. The loss leader would exist only for the small percentage that 1) buy lifetime sub, 2) play for more than five years, AND 3) spend nothing on cash shop items ever. (And even then won't be much loss seven years from now.)
In five years after release (seven years from now) lifers that are still around will still be pumping money into the cash shop or be long gone anyway (so no monthly sub income in that case).
Maybe IS did the marketing research that proves me wrong, or maybe they simply screwed up. Either way, such is life as it is now.
Reality is that there are options to buy into the Beta now.
So now I have to ask, was your pitch to get a Beta Key backer package related to you not wanting to give you IT guys two of your beta keys?
...Except the lifetime sub. That was the one claimed exclusive from KS that they clearly violated. And it was one of the most important KS exclusives, if not the most. If there was one thing sure to tick people off to offer again it was that one.
And yes, a lifetime sub is the kind of thing you rarely see offered because it means betting against yourself. The only way for IS to profit from a lifetime sub is if the people paying for it aren’t playing the game long enough for it to pay for itself. Let’s say the subscription is $15 a month and you paid $500 for the package with the sub. If you play the game for 3 years, a subscription would cost ($15/mo * 12 mo/yr * 3yr) $540. So you’d save $40 in that time frame. And that’s discounting the value of everything else in the package.
When you desperately need startup capital (like every KS project) it makes sense to have this offer. That $500 per person is something you need NOW to get the game made and published. If you have no game then you’ll never get profits, now or later. So it’s an investment on both sides.
After the game launches? (Or the point where you have enough “seed money” to finish development.) It makes no sense then, you’re no longer in dire need of immediate funds and so it makes no sense to give up long term profits that way. So fro their perspective, offering a lifetime sub again won’t make financial sense (even ignoring the fact they’ll tick people off yet again).
If it was something that would always be offered I wouldn't have put myself out the extra cash at the time. I would have saved for it.
From a financial standpoint it doesn't make sense to bring the lifetime sub back. If a large portion of the playerbase isn't paying the monthly sub, the games progression will suffer over the years
However, you are right, and the feelings of those that invested early on in Ashes should not be taken into account by IS. It also doesn't matter that IS changed their minds and extended the KS to SB because it wasn't a lie. #Capitalism and what not.
I think you nailed it when you said "It sucks that you feel lied to...". It totally sucked to see IS use wordsmithing to give me the impression they had no intention to stick to their original statements. It really made that investment hurt. I was never mad about others not having the same options, just that IS changed their minds about it after they had received my money.
Again, you missed the important point of why they did the summer backer program.
They didn't throw up the Summer Backer program to just make more money. They didn't do it a year later because the coffers were dry.
They did it, and included the lifetime sub option, because there were people who wanted to back during the Kickstarter and due to how Kickstarter functions they were unable to.
There are people who do not have credit cards. There are some banks that do not allow their debit cards to be used at Kickstarter. These people would normally get around it by using PayPal, but PayPal is not a valid payment method at Kickstarter.
There are some debit cards and credit cards that Kickstarter does not take. I know this first hand because I fucked up my Kickstarter backing by having a Discover loaded in Kickstarter and they do not take it.
So, yes in a black and white scenario Intrepid did "violate" the KS exclusivity of the life-time sub. Given they did it immediately after their KS, for a limited time, in order to do right by the people who were blocked from being able to back on Kickstarter shows they were doing right by their community.
The Summer backer Lifetime sub in no way cheapens or lessens the lifetime sub for the people who could purchase it a month earlier.
People who were angry about them making it available to the people who literally could not make the purchase need to get over themselves about their outrage.
Now, if Intrepid were to offer it again, or offer the KS/SB rewards again in 2019/2020, then yes outrage away, but a studio opening up an in-house crowd funding to take care of customers who were blocked due to the platform, that was just taking care of your community.
@Skafftaruss If you're that desperate and can work out how I can arrange it (I have brain damage), I'm supposed to have 5 additional beta keys, take one of them.
I'll take @Nagash 's word if he believes there are another few members of the community that would benefit from that at the same time.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1791529601/ashes-of-creation-new-mmorpg-by-intrepid-studios/rewards
As long as you’re logged into Kickstarter’s site, you’ll see your pledge and rewards at the top.
And it’s a good thing too because the Summer Backer program was a flop. Hardly anyone bought anything. It was funny in a sad way.
But I’m still happy for those who did, and I’m extremely happy if people who couldn’t invest in KS got a chance to contribute and earn something fro it. And I’m also glad that IS understood that offering KS-exclusive items outside of KS would be scummy, and as a result they made the rewards different.
Too bad. I mean that in every way. In that it’s too bad they missed out. But also, they missed out. For whatever reason. That doesn’t give IS any right to go back on their claims, and commit advertising fraud.
This is a world in which not having a standard way to pay for things is going to mean you miss out on a lot. This Kickstarter I’m sure is the least of it.
In every scenario they did. And don’t put “violate” in quotes like they didn’t, it makes you look like a fool.
I take it back. You clearly don’t just look like a fool.
No. It wasn’t. You really lack perspective. I guess some people are beyond reason.