Price

Why are the alpha prices so high? I would like to play but there is no way that the average person can afford this. I think that it is an absolutely ridiculous price. Im not sure what the price of the final game will be but if its anything close to this nonsense I will not be playing, which is upsetting because it really does look like an amazing game.....

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Undead Canuck

Prices are not that high. Much lower than the $250 from before.

We pay so that we can test the game (believe me, you are not playing... It is painful right now). Since this is Alpha, you have to make a decision to jump in or just watch others. Intrepid is not looking to have people jump in and immediately complain. They want people who want to help make this game wonderful.
Personally, I just wanted to get into this amazing world and just run around marvelling at all that they have put into it.

Also, we paid and got access until launch. Since subscription is probably $15 US per month, having access for a year+ is a good deal.

Price on release is free. You only pay the subscription (and with a package, you get a month free).

Otr

theonetrueFETT wrote: »

Why are the alpha prices so high?

It is a new trend. You pay to support and test and by the time is polished and released you move to another game to test, together with streamers who need new games to spoil and make their content.

nanfoodle

$110 is not pricy IMO. If this was a live MMO you would be paying $15-ish a month. $110 for a year's worth of testing is cheap. Heck a single player game that's got 30hrs of game time costs about $110. Cost per dollar x hrs of played...

theonetrueFETT

Otr wrote: »

theonetrueFETT wrote: »

Why are the alpha prices so high?

It is a new trend. You pay to support and test and by the time is polished and released you move to another game to test, together with streamers who need new games to spoil and make their content.

thats the problem the prices are set so high just for streamers. they dont want random everyday average ppl in the game just the ones who can avord it and its BS

theonetrueFETT

nanfoodle wrote: »

$110 is not pricy IMO. If this was a live MMO you would be paying $15-ish a month. $110 for a year's worth of testing is cheap. Heck a single player game that's got 30hrs of game time costs about $110. Cost per dollar x hrs of played...

If you think 110 is cheap then u obviously have money and probably no family to take care of. you dont know what its like to have a car with no gas and have to walk 11 miles to get to work. You dont know what its like to eat a few pieces of bread at dinner everyday for a week because u have to feed your children and they come first. Its ppl like u that are the problem...

theonetrueFETT

Undead Canuck wrote: »

Prices are not that high. Much lower than the $250 from before.

We pay so that we can test the game (believe me, you are not playing... It is painful right now). Since this is Alpha, you have to make a decision to jump in or just watch others. Intrepid is not looking to have people jump in and immediately complain. They want people who want to help make this game wonderful.
Personally, I just wanted to get into this amazing world and just run around marvelling at all that they have put into it.

Also, we paid and got access until launch. Since subscription is probably $15 US per month, having access for a year+ is a good deal.

Price on release is free. You only pay the subscription (and with a package, you get a month free).

so u are also part of the problem....

Otr

theonetrueFETT wrote: »

Otr wrote: »

theonetrueFETT wrote: »

Why are the alpha prices so high?

It is a new trend. You pay to support and test and by the time is polished and released you move to another game to test, together with streamers who need new games to spoil and make their content.

thats the problem the prices are set so high just for streamers. they dont want random everyday average ppl in the game just the ones who can avord it and its BS

Yes. You are locked out because other players (not streamers) accepted to pay the high price.
We all pretend we want to test. We complain why there are fewer servers, why login problems delayed access a few hours. We ask servers to be wiped because some got access and leveled a bit... And devs play along and call us testers.
If nobody would pay but would even request money for the tester job, things would happen differently.
Why it happens? Because there are not enough games. If we would get 1 or 2 new fully developed MMOs every year, players would be busy playing those rather than spending their time and money on unfinished games. But here you are, willing to join too.
Right now is not worth the price but it might worth it a bit later.
Start saving money.
Next year you might even have more options and you'll have to chose which you pay for.

Taleof2Cities

Paying $110 isn't the only way to get into Alpha 2, theonetrueFETT. Intrepid still has a few giveaways in the works ... so stay (closely) tuned to the game's socials.

While I'm sure everyone sympathizes with your economic situation, we're still not playing a game at this point.

We are testing an unfinished product and giving feedback. In fact, my Phase II experience so far has been nothing but disconnects from Lionhold.

When the game launches, they are planning certain regions to have "harmonized" subscription pricing ... so something to look forward to.

theonetrueFETT

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

Paying $110 isn't the only way to get into Alpha 2, theonetrueFETT. Intrepid still has a few giveaways in the works ... so stay (closely) tuned to the game's socials.

While I'm sure everyone sympathizes with your economic situation, we're still not playing a game at this point.

We are testing an unfinished product and giving feedback. In fact, my Phase II experience so far has been nothing but disconnects from Lionhold.

When the game launches, they are planning certain regions to have "harmonized" subscription pricing ... so something to look forward to.

if they really wanted feedback they would include all players not just the ones rich/dumb enough to PAY $110 FOR A FREAKING ALPHA!!!

theonetrueFETT

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

Paying $110 isn't the only way to get into Alpha 2, theonetrueFETT. Intrepid still has a few giveaways in the works ... so stay (closely) tuned to the game's socials.

While I'm sure everyone sympathizes with your economic situation, we're still not playing a game at this point.

We are testing an unfinished product and giving feedback. In fact, my Phase II experience so far has been nothing but disconnects from Lionhold.

When the game launches, they are planning certain regions to have "harmonized" subscription pricing ... so something to look forward to.

Theres the other issue.. why are ppl paying $110 for an unfinished product. thats absolutely insane. I will never understand why games cant adhere to a singular price bracket. Prime example compared to this: Star Citizen. The difference is you only have to pay $45 to get into that (IMO) FINISHED game but u have the OPTION to spend more if u want. its not a requirement

Taleof2Cities

theonetrueFETT wrote: »

Theres the other issue.. why are ppl paying $110 for an unfinished product. thats absolutely insane.

That's a much simpler question to answer.

Paying $110 means you: (a) support what Steven and the Team are doing and the direction of the game ... and/or (b) want to help an open Alpha by being a player-tester and giving feedback. That's it.

Intrepid continues to emphasize that there's no requirement to participate in Alpha 2 (or Beta for that matter).

Players can still sit on the sidelines all they want, watch streams, give feedback, and wait until the game launches (to decide if they want to play). No obligation.

nanfoodle

theonetrueFETT wrote: »

nanfoodle wrote: »

$110 is not pricy IMO. If this was a live MMO you would be paying $15-ish a month. $110 for a year's worth of testing is cheap. Heck a single player game that's got 30hrs of game time costs about $110. Cost per dollar x hrs of played...

If you think 110 is cheap then u obviously have money and probably no family to take care of. you dont know what its like to have a car with no gas and have to walk 11 miles to get to work. You dont know what its like to eat a few pieces of bread at dinner everyday for a week because u have to feed your children and they come first. Its ppl like u that are the problem...

A movie where I live for a husband and a wife to watch a movie in the theatre and get a drink and popcorn is about $60 bucks for 2 hours of fun. This weekend I have put about 7 hours of play in. $110 bucks is cheap. A 30-60 hour single player game sells for about $150. Ashes A2 testing is cheap in comparison. It's even cheaper then bowling when you working out the number of hours of play time divided by $110.

Eaglewalker

theonetrueFETT wrote: »

Why are the alpha prices so high? I would like to play but there is no way that the average person can afford this. I think that it is an absolutely ridiculous price. Im not sure what the price of the final game will be but if its anything close to this nonsense I will not be playing, which is upsetting because it really does look like an amazing game.....

theonetrueFETT wrote: »

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

Paying $110 isn't the only way to get into Alpha 2, theonetrueFETT. Intrepid still has a few giveaways in the works ... so stay (closely) tuned to the game's socials.

While I'm sure everyone sympathizes with your economic situation, we're still not playing a game at this point.

We are testing an unfinished product and giving feedback. In fact, my Phase II experience so far has been nothing but disconnects from Lionhold.

When the game launches, they are planning certain regions to have "harmonized" subscription pricing ... so something to look forward to.

if they really wanted feedback they would include all players not just the ones rich/dumb enough to PAY $110 FOR A FREAKING ALPHA!!!

To each his own right. You don't have to pay if you don't want to. and Dumb? People can spend their money how they see fit.

Voeltz

Star Citizen started a horrible trend enabling developers to launch unfinished games because some people are willing to pay hundreds of dollars for it. It lowers the bar for every other game and enables devs to be greedy and lazy. It's like the horse armor that started the snowball of microtransactions that we all have to tolerate now. But people keep buying into it so it's only going to continue and get worse.

At the same time you have to acknowledge the project and Intrepid probably wouldn't exist without the kickstarter and it's supporters, likewise for other indie/early access games. So it's a pick your poison situation basically. Tolerate the slop that AAA studios are putting out these days or fund start ups and indie projects that might never launch or be fully completed. Neither are great options IMO, but Id rather take my chances with Indie devs at this point because the big studios have proven they're never going to learn or change. People have to choose wisely with their wallets or things will never change.

Laetitian

Most of these answers miss the point pretty badly. It's not a great price. It's not meant to be a great price.
It's so simple: You're not meant to participate in the alpha, unless the testing experience and participating in the development is worth the money to you.
Obviously that also helps pay for the developers, which makes it a donation to a project you like as a side benefit, but it does so while minimising the money taken from people who don't care for the experience.

There are only advantages to this:

You don't torture yourself attempting to enjoy the game while participating in an Alpha in development that's not meant to be "played." (No content, tons of bugs, no economy, no persistent world to progress in and pour your time and effort into, and only loosely persistent communities.)
Intrepid doesn't have to bother with your impatient feedback when you're not there to participate in the development process.
You don't have to spend money on something you know next to nothing about and have no involvement in.
When the game is ready for release, you get to benefit from all the feedback the Alpha testers made who liked being part of the process, without you having to pay a cent for it.

In order to ensure that you only participate if it's worth the money for you, the cost is set very high. The prohibitive cost is a perk that helps consumers make better decisions for themselves. You should be happy you're being deterred from doing something you don't want to do. Let it go and do something else that is worth the money to you.

Undead Canuck wrote: »

Price on release is free. You only pay the subscription (and with a package, you get a month free).

Way more than one month in most of the packages up to this point, especially if you include the original Kickstarter.

Otr

theonetrueFETT wrote: »

I will never understand why games cant adhere to a singular price bracket.

I don't understand what you mean by "singular price bracket"
The price right now is a bit above the accessibility price.
Many players buy multiple AAA games and have no problem supporting the development even though they don't spend much time testing.

theonetrueFETT wrote: »

if they really wanted feedback they would include all players not just the ones rich/dumb enough to PAY $110 FOR A FREAKING ALPHA!!!

$110 is already the discount for the poor.
Last year the price was $250 and $375
https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Pre-order_packs

To find bugs, one single server might be enough.
To get feedback if the game heads into the right direction or not can be measured with the current number of players too.

But I think you are right.
They could introduce $45 packs too which give access only for 3 months.
Then if you would want to play more, you would have to pay again $45 and get 3 more months.

Maybe they can do this a bit later as the game gets more features and kicks players out less often.
It will become a subscription based testing.
And when the game is released nobody will play anymore.

Hinotori

Lifetime sub is absolutely worth it.

theonetrueFETT

Otr wrote: »

theonetrueFETT wrote: »

I will never understand why games cant adhere to a singular price bracket.

I don't understand what you mean by "singular price bracket"
The price right now is a bit above the accessibility price.
Many players buy multiple AAA games and have no problem supporting the development even though they don't spend much time testing.

Singular price bracket as in ppl who make more than minimum wage... these prices were not meant for the average player.. only those with "dumb" money. like I dont know what to do with all this money so im gonna blow it on this overpriced unfinished game cuz i can. those ppl make me sick.

Otr

theonetrueFETT wrote: »

Otr wrote: »

theonetrueFETT wrote: »

I will never understand why games cant adhere to a singular price bracket.

I don't understand what you mean by "singular price bracket"
The price right now is a bit above the accessibility price.
Many players buy multiple AAA games and have no problem supporting the development even though they don't spend much time testing.

Singular price bracket as in ppl who make more than minimum wage... these prices were not meant for the average player.. only those with "dumb" money. like I dont know what to do with all this money so im gonna blow it on this overpriced unfinished game cuz i can. those ppl make me sick.

I wish you Merry Christmas

SmileGurney

theonetrueFETT wrote: »

Why are the alpha prices so high? I would like to play but there is no way that the average person can afford this. I think that it is an absolutely ridiculous price. Im not sure what the price of the final game will be but if its anything close to this nonsense I will not be playing, which is upsetting because it really does look like an amazing game.....

You are getting access to a server available at least 5 days a week, and from May 24/7 for at least 12 months long alpha. The beta phase is likely going to be fairly long too. How is that "expensive"?

The current "game" experience isn't for everyone anyway, so if you expect a smooth ride and content rich game time, then think twice before buying in. The "game" is very rough and far from finished.

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