Thanks for the offer... I guess.

I really don't know where to stand with the gaming industry anymore. Its like everyone is indie now days. I got an email "offer" to pay at the least $75 and up to $500 (lol) to "pre-order" (shutters at the thought after so many failed titles in recent years) while its in alpha? What? Guys come on. The gaming industry has taken wild advances since sonic and mario, that's for sure. Never the less, I am interested in this game, when its done and fully released. Does anyone know, when this releases, will it be at the least $75? Or is this for all the weird birds and keys that I have no idea of their value because the game isn't made? Also, is this being released to steam as well?

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insomnia

The game will just have a sub fee with a cosmetic shop. Now there are packs that gives acces to certain testing phases

mcstackerson

Last we heard, ashes will not be on steam.

Enigmatic Sage

shinhoudken wrote: »

I really don't know where to stand with the gaming industry anymore. Its like everyone is indie now days. I got an email "offer" to pay at the least $75 and up to $500 (lol) to "pre-order" (shutters at the thought after so many failed titles in recent years) while its in alpha? What? Guys come on. The gaming industry has taken wild advances since sonic and mario, that's for sure. Never the less, I am interested in this game, when its done and fully released. Does anyone know, when this releases, will it be at the least $75? Or is this for all the weird birds and keys that I have no idea of their value because the game isn't made? Also, is this being released to steam as well?

2-3 years seems to be the general consensus of the community

shinhoudken

Its almost a relief to hear it won't be on steam, but with such a large community in the gaming industry, its near unbelievable. I can only hope this bolsters a solid community and keeps away the fair weather gamers of steam.

shinhoudken

Thank you Insonmnia, that makes the 75$ (at the least) jagged pill much easier to swallow. I wish they offered a more reasonable request of 20, or even 50.

Heruwolf

shinhoudken wrote: »

Thank you Insonmnia, that makes the 75$ (at the least) jagged pill much easier to swallow. I wish they offered a more reasonable request of 20, or even 50.

While a $20/50 request seems reasonable, it's hard to fault Intrepid Studios on their $75 price for Beta 2 or even their $500 price for Alpha 1 access. I say that primarily because the general public is not exactly good at understanding how game development works, nor are they very good at changing opinions that have already been formed. So creating that high bar of entry by monetary means it is most likely trying to limit the lower echelons of the public from gaining access too early while still getting the benefits of mass public testing from the early stages.

shinhoudken

I guess, but this seems to me, you're paying them to work for them?

Azherae

shinhoudken wrote: »

I guess, but this seems to me, you're paying them to work for them?

Think of it a little more like give and take. You give them data, but someone on their side has to analyze and aggregate that data and interpret it.

The more data they have, the more that person or team needs to be paid. Also, it's possible that a person could just 'take the time and play, and give no data at all'.

By having a cost, Intrepid ensures that you are both 'invested in giving the data', and 'the people whose job it is to look at your data, are paid well'.

Make no mistake, the Community Team are almost-overworked-angels at this point, and the data collators can't be too far off;

Gubstep

shinhoudken wrote: »

I guess, but this seems to me, you're paying them to work for them?

Hm... Kind of. Everyone has their own reasons for joining in the alpha. $500 varies from person to person, so some it may be a small amount and others it's an unreasonably high amount. Essentially you are investing in the game. You are not paying for the right to play the game and this is where the discrepancy begins.

Intrepid has been very open about this and pretty much all the community outlets agree. If you're buying a package JUST to play the alpha, you're going to be disappointed. Especially if you've never participated in an alpha test before. I recommend anyone who is thinking about dropping money on it just for the sole purpose of having exclusive access to the alpha just wait and play something else.

For me personally, I enjoy testing and seeing how different systems change over time. I've worked in UE3/UE4 before and work on web services/servers for my job. For me the lifetime sub was enough to justify my braver of worlds package, but even without it. I probably would've invested anyways just to see the feat that is building a server architecture from scratch to interface with Unreal Engine. I don't think people understand the degree of complexity and utter insanity that is required to not only build an MMO server architecture from scratch to interface with an existing engine, but make it support hundreds of players on screen.

That's the benefit that I personally see myself getting from investing early, but as I said, everyone has their own reasons. And if you're really that on the fence about buying a package, don't. Once you've invested money in something then it becomes an expectation and you will probably grow frustrated at some point in the development cycle and get burned out early.

My 2 cents

JustVine

It's like buying a fitted dress or suit. Its an investment. No one but me is an expert on my likes and dislikes. The earlier I can tell them these things relative to the product they are making, the more likely my voice matters in how it turns out.

Obviously there is some risk of it being not what I wanted. Some people are willing to put forward some risk for the reward of 'finally everything I needed in an mmo'.

Some people find testing fun on top of that (or just reeeeally like costumes and have enough faith it will turn out well.) This the general mindset of the people who spend 500$ (if they have the money.)

It's only 'work' if you consider going for a fitting 'work.'

Enigmatic Sage

it's simple:

you donate a non-refundable donation buy purchasing the monthly package to gain access to the tests and to support the company.

You get what is in the packages you pay for with your non-refundable donation.

George_Black

So:
1) You pledged $75 without looking at the package info
2) You created a forum account to talk shit
3) You think that testing is "paying the to work for you"

What do you want?

JustVine

Enigmatic Sage wrote: »

it's simple:

you donate a non-refundable donation buy purchasing the monthly package to gain access to the tests and to support the company.

You get what is in the packages you pay for with your non-refundable donation.

I strongly dislike calling it a donation. This isn't a charity. It's a business. They are making a sellable product. There is some expectation of a product delivered. If they do not deliver /any/ product it means something very different than if this was a 'donation'. If you are uncomfortable with the more accurate term investment I would have to ask why.

Enigmatic Sage

JustVine wrote: »

Enigmatic Sage wrote: »

it's simple:

you donate a non-refundable donation buy purchasing the monthly package to gain access to the tests and to support the company.

You get what is in the packages you pay for with your non-refundable donation.

I strongly dislike calling it a donation. This isn't a charity. It's a business. They are making a sellable product. There is some expectation of a product delivered. If they do not deliver /any/ product it means something very different than if this was a 'donation'. If you are uncomfortable with the more accurate term investment I would have to ask why.

You can call it whatever you want. It's a donation.
Donations can be given to all sorts of different organisations including charities.

JustVine

Enigmatic Sage wrote: »

JustVine wrote: »

Enigmatic Sage wrote: »

it's simple:

you donate a non-refundable donation buy purchasing the monthly package to gain access to the tests and to support the company.

You get what is in the packages you pay for with your non-refundable donation.

I strongly dislike calling it a donation. This isn't a charity. It's a business. They are making a sellable product. There is some expectation of a product delivered. If they do not deliver /any/ product it means something very different than if this was a 'donation'. If you are uncomfortable with the more accurate term investment I would have to ask why.

You can call it whatever you want. It's a donation.
Donations can be given to all sorts of different organisations including charities.

That's unfortunate I was hoping to actually increase my understanding of your perspective. Oh well.

Enigmatic Sage

JustVine wrote: »

Enigmatic Sage wrote: »

JustVine wrote: »

Enigmatic Sage wrote: »

it's simple:

you donate a non-refundable donation buy purchasing the monthly package to gain access to the tests and to support the company.

You get what is in the packages you pay for with your non-refundable donation.

I strongly dislike calling it a donation. This isn't a charity. It's a business. They are making a sellable product. There is some expectation of a product delivered. If they do not deliver /any/ product it means something very different than if this was a 'donation'. If you are uncomfortable with the more accurate term investment I would have to ask why.

You can call it whatever you want. It's a donation.
Donations can be given to all sorts of different organisations including charities.

That's unfortunate I was hoping to actually increase my understanding of your perspective. Oh well.

I honestly didn't think I needed to spell it out for you.

Enigmatic Sage

Donations are generally given to fund projects, not to be confused with investments which have contracts for % returns etc.

Considering there is no actual finished product, it would be classified as donations. You can still get extra's tacked on to your donations value which allows the individual in this case to get cosmetics, access to tests and game time when the product is potentially finished. This allows the donator to increase their donations value for incentive of items in a finished product.
Considering there is no box price for the game and only a monthly sub, it is still a donation because there is no finished product to subscribe to yet.
Donations are also generally non-refundable, not to get confused with terms and conditions of sales for actual products.

You see where I am going with this?

You are donating your money for support of the company to finish their product. Your donation gives you bonuses to this products development for both early development and post development.

JustVine

Hey, thanks for the actual answer.

That's sort of a fair definition for most tiers. I disagree with the higher tiers but that's for reasons that involve a long esoteric conversation I am too tired to have rn.

Cheers.

Enigmatic Sage

JustVine wrote: »

Hey, thanks for the actual answer.

That's sort of a fair definition for most tiers. I disagree with the higher tiers but that's for reasons that involve a long esoteric conversation I am too tired to have rn.

Cheers.

you're welcome

George_Black

Pretenders

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