Alpha 2 Keys

I heard a lot of talk about a2 keys being cheaper than normal.

i personally believe this is a horrible idea. 1 you mess up with people who purchased it before.

just release the a2 packs for sale again, for the people who missed them.
no need to punish the people who bough them early. and no need to cater to people who bought them late.

release them full price. and it's the only way to go.

or you could make them cheaper and make a bunch of A2 buyers very upset. Or you could make them same price but without skins and make new players upset.

but if you release them same price as before same pack....no issues.

thoughts?

personally. if we cater to people that are late now.... we'll expect this in the future as well and maybe even hope to take advantage of it.

what do you guys think?

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Comments

Liniker

If anything, they should sell the new A2 access for 375$ minimum.

This would honor their previous backers and still give the opportunity for people to access it - if they care enough to pay that value. People paid 500$ to access A1 anyways so it shouldnt be an issue.

Torstein

Liniker wrote: »

If anything, they should sell the new A2 access for 375$ minimum.

This would honor their previous backers and still give the opportunity for people to access it - if they care enough to pay that value. People paid 500$ to access A1 anyways so it shouldnt be an issue.

Couldn't disagree more, but maybe this was a low quality bait and I fell for it?

Liniker

Torstein wrote: »

Couldn't disagree more, but maybe this was a low quality bait and I fell for it?

whats low-quality bait is thinking the large audience is going to think its ok for a developer to sell alpha access for 250$, announce for over 4 months the sales are closing while having a 90 day refund policy, and reopen alpha sales for cheaper just a few months later.

If you think its all good, you likely couldn't care less about Ashes and Intrepid, because if that were to happen, the moment it gets picked by the media and big streamers we will have a shitstorm hitting the game in one of its most important development phases which is A2, hurting its reputation A LOT.

I couldn't care less about the price or if they sell it or not, I have spent thousands to support this game and will continue to do so, I only care about this project's health and image, as a creator myself, I'm voicing my concerns before its too late.

GoodSheperd

Getting upset about the game gaining more funding, and having more people being able to experience a game we want to love sure seems weird.

The argument that I paid $250 to gain access and now someone gets to pay less is dumb. If you didn't want to spend the $250+ to gain access you should have gambled like many others did for A2 keys.

Also, it is just access, and i know people are saying they dont care about the cosmetics, but you are still gaining real money currency AND paid game time.

Torstein

Voicing your concerns and thoughts is awesome Liniker, so I'll do the same.

Selling alpha access for 250$ was never cool, but that was the price that was set in the kickstarter thinking the development would not take this long. Intrepid has honored the kickstarter supporter package prices by selling new supporter packs with prices that reflect the kickstarter pack. These supporter packs did not only grant access to alpha 2, but game time, ember and cosmetics as well as supporting a project we all wanted to see come to fruition.

AoC and Intrepid has already been facing public backlash from their prices that are honoring the original kickstarter backers, so them moving away from the supporter pack model towards selling one perk from said supporter packs at a lower price that is more achievable by most is in my opinion a good thing.

Now, I am sure some people did get tricked by FOMO with the alpha 2 access and them closing the sale of the supporter packs, but I don't think that's a great reason to hike the price of alpha 2 access to try to save face to what streamers might think. Especially if Intrepid needs more testers then they currently have.

If this is a massive issue, I think a far better way to deal with said situation would be to offer refunds to anyone who bought supporter packs from the date they announced that they were going to remove them.
This way the one's who got caught up in FOMO would have the possibility to undo their supporter pack purchase, and instead buy an alpha 2 access key.

And you saying that if anyone disagreeing with you means that they simply don't care about AoC or Intrepid seems quite narrow minded.

Noaani

Faimith wrote: »

Noaani wrote: »

Friss wrote: »

I heard a lot of talk about a2 keys being cheaper than normal.

Where did you hear this?

From the recent Twitch stream, it was confirmed that there will be new Alpha 2 keys available for purchase before the launch of Alpha 2. The developers discussed the timeline and mentioned that these keys would be sold in limited quantities leading up to the testing phase. Keep an eye on official announcements and the Ashes of Creation website for more details on the sale dates and availability.

It's the "cheaper" part I was questioning.

When you remove the price of cosmetics and such in the various packs sold, the keys themselves weren't that expensive at all.

Ayeveegaming1

My opinion on this is that it is good that they are bringing them back. I have friends that I want to play. I am not concerned with the pricing of it at all. All the money that we kickstarted, and given over the years is just water under the bridge. We need more people. They will not be getting the packages we recieved from kickstarter. They will not be given the "no subscription" benefits. We should in my opinion be eager for more people instead of butthurt on what ever price they set for the package. We want players, we want money to fund the game. I understand how people can be upset, but in the end, just let it go. Embrace these people and try to sell more of these packages. It can only get better with more funding and people.

RocketFarmer

No one has forced anyone to buy anything. Why all the fuss? If you thought you were buying a full game, you weren’t. If you thought you’d be the only customer, you aren’t. If you thought you were special, you aren’t.

They could have sold keys individually from the cosmetics and other benefits. Difference between then and now is you got the package deal for that month. That’s just marketing. The Alpha 2 keys are the same now as they were then. If they sold them as “exclusive”, then there would be something to settle.

And guess what, the early investors/consumers of a product tend to pay more for the benefit of the later customer. It’s just how the market works. Unless the price increases, but I don’t see that happening.

Did you buy into the game to succeed or fail? Or what was your motivation?

If they want to sell Alpha 2 keys for $5 and we end up with a better game, then whatever I paid earlier would be worth more, not less. $50-$75 would sound about right for a persistent Alpha 2, in my opinion, and a lot of people would claim that’s too much for a game that’s not even released. People are going to complain whatever they do, so stay focused on making the best game. The price needs to be enough to get more serious game testers than some casual player who’ll provide no real benefit to development. Perhaps they offer a few free weekend keys to test peak server conditions.

Otr

RocketFarmer wrote: »

No one has forced anyone to buy anything. Why all the fuss?

The end of alpha 2 sale was advertised for a long time as if it was the last chance.
They created a FOMO feeling and took advantage of it.
We don't know how long Alpha 2 will last. It can last even 10 years if it self sustain itself and as features are added, it can feel better than other games 1 year after it becomes accessible. So if you would not buy the access, you would be forced to see other players playing it.
Now they plan to open the access again and they said they discuss how to make it so that does not feel unfair to those who already got access with the higher price.

Ayeveegaming1

Otr wrote: »

RocketFarmer wrote: »

No one has forced anyone to buy anything. Why all the fuss?

The end of alpha 2 sale was advertised for a long time as if it was the last chance.
They created a FOMO feeling and took advantage of it.
We don't know how long Alpha 2 will last. It can last even 10 years if it self sustain itself and as features are added, it can feel better than other games 1 year after it becomes accessible. So if you would not buy the access, you would be forced to see other players playing it.
Now they plan to open the access again and they said they discuss how to make it so that does not feel unfair to those who already got access with the higher price.

It was mentioned the reason why they are reinstating the alpha 2 keys is because they have improved technology. Whereas before they could only put a limited amount of people in a testing area, they can put more in now. They shut the alpha 2 access off because they could not hold more people online at the same time. The team overcame this hurdle and now need more testers, hence opening up the alpha 2 keys. It is a needed decision that they could not have accounted for in the past.

George_Black

I wouldn't give a fck

Ripteye

Glad they added them back just took advantage and upgraded to Voyager Plus. More people to play with, I don't get the negativity. Life has never been fair. Be glad Alpha 2 is close and they are doing what is necessary to make sure its active and worth while, for us and them. We need more positivity in the world.

Chunka

Someone's always going to whine, just make them available to as many people as possible.

BiasedTulnar

When it comes to the reputation of Intrepid, I think the "500$ for alpha 1" with the 0's as OMEGALUL comments were far more damaging than whatever is to come if they decide to sell alpha 2 access minus all the cosmetics, embers & game time at a lower price point. Also, they mentioned before ending the sale of pre-order packs that you might have the potential to potentially gain alpha 2 access even after the sale has ended.

Furthermore I think a decreased cost for alpha 2 would be an overall benefit. "60$ for alpha 2" sounds a lot better than "250$ for alpha 2", given that your average viewer doesn't take all of the other valued items into consideration, which is proven by the sentiment from alpha 1 and in this case there wouldn't be any of those valued items regardless.

If I was Intrepid and wanted to please all parties, just allow people to downgrade their 250$ & 500$ pre-order pack purchase to alpha 2 access key, if it comes with a decreased cost. They said they didn't need the money to finish the game, so there shouldn't be a huge problem.

That being said, I doubt people would have similar energy if Intrepid decided to give for example "Twitch drops" for beta access, even though people paid for the pre-order packs that included beta keys.

Hopefully this topic wont get reduced to "Willing to change my opinion for 250$".

Leonerdo

Regardless of whether it was intentional or not, customers are going to feel incredibly cheated if they release keys for $100 or less.

They triggered people's FOMO, so they would spend $250 on alpha access (maybe not on purpose, but it still happened). Many of those people don't give a shit about cosmetics or cash-shop currency, so it was basically $160 for Alpha/Beta access. And now they are re-opening sales for cheaper? Absolutely, the community with flame them for milking their customers with scummy FOMO tactics, whether there's any truth to it or not.

They can avoid this easily though, just by offering refunds on the Alpha 2 packs. People that only wanted the Alpha 2 keys can refund and down-size their purchase, and people who are happy to have all the extra fluff in the package can keep it.

They already allow refunds up to 3 months after purchase, apparently? They just need to extend that window until A2 launches in earnest.

tautau

Let's see the details of what is included in the package, and the package price, and everyone can opine then.

novercalis

Aszkalon wrote: »

That sounds like :

Jeah dear Intrepid wants to have MANY Testers of Course : but despite the amazing Number they already reached, they need more for some Reason.

Plus the Existence of People who (lololol?) ask since/AFTER January 17th for an Alpha Two Key, is not going away anytime soon, right ?

So how to get more People Alpha Two Keys who might not have so much Money like the former Buyers or do not "want" to pay as much Money as the People before them ?

Easpeasy. Just make them cheaper. x'D

But the true "Win" for these People - if we want to call it that - is that they get to buy Alpha Two Keys later on in the waiting Time - and did not have to wait for as long as the People who partially already bought them Years before. (^3^)

Allow A1 key holders in and/or move up the Beta Key holders then.

novercalis

If they needed more testers, than just move all A1 Key holders up. Still need more? Beta 2 Key Holders up.

But adding more A2 keys is a slap in the face for many who bought into it via FOMO because we were told there wont be more. granted Im a Kickstarter backer - still kinda hurts and knowing its cheaper - at the very least, UPGRADE or give the original buyers something extra for compensation then.

Ripteye

I'll never understand those complaining. The reality is you purchased something from a game that does not exist yet. You have no one to blame but yourself in my opinion.

It would be like me complaining that someone is getting gas cheaper today because I purchased it yesterday, life is not fair. You paid fair market value at the time of your purchase.

Blip

I don't often care about these things, but I got the Alpha 2 pack just so I could help test.The FOMO was real. Now they turn around and say, "Hey, we're going to give you access on the cheap."Can't help but be annoyed at best and pissed at worst.Feel like Intrepid is giving us the middle finger here.

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