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How do you look at an early access game and not think, "sure this game sucks now, but they promise that the $20 cost will go toward making it totally awesome!!!!!"
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Sep 26, 2014 03:58
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but it's fun with goons
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Sep 26, 2014 04:00
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Sometimes you end up with something cool and with a future, developed by competent individuals with a clear direction and the means to achieve it, like Planetary Annihilation. Other times, you end up with Starbound.
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Sep 26, 2014 04:04
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NakedWithCandy posted:How do you look at an early access game and not think, "sure this game sucks now, but they promise that the $20 cost will go toward making it totally awesome!!!!!" I don't.  Seriously though, I don't do much multiplayer, I'm too old to enjoy paying to beta test/QA/focus group a game that may not survive development, and in general I think EA is a great way to show that games are like the law and sausage: if you love them, you don't want to see them being made. Bieeanshee fucked around with this message at 04:10 on Sep 26, 2014 |
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Sep 26, 2014 04:05
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Nuclear Throne and Prison Architect are pretty great. I think I managed to come out on top with that gamble.
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Sep 26, 2014 04:05
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Also, it's like, I can't believe another indie came up with a unique and orginal use for zombies in their game.
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Sep 26, 2014 04:08
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NakedWithCandy posted:How do you look at an early access game and not think, "sure this game sucks now, but they promise that the $20 cost will go toward making it totally awesome!!!!!" I don't. I only buy EA games that are done enough that even if the devs gently caress off with the money then and there, I'll still be able to look at what I bought and feel like I got a good deal. Doorkickers, Prison Architect, Gnomoria, and a few others are all EA games that fall in that camp for me. I'm also willing to jump in on EA games that have a good update history, or the devs have a roadmap they are sticking to. Full Mojo Rampage, Crypt of the Necrodancer, or Book of Unwritten Tales 2 are in this catagory. Sometimes I'm willing to buy off name alone. I know Klei has delivered on EA games before, and works well with a budget, as such I can likely trust them with Invisible Inc, even if it's not quite done. Gaslamp is goonrun, and they've been pretty open about everything, so I feel if I bought that I'd eventually end up getting something resembling what they promised out of it. I don't do this often though, because I don't want unfinished games on my account, and by the time I buy them, they'll usually be almost done/show they've got a plan. I've only had one bad case with EA so far and that was Spacebase. Even then it was because I trusted Double Fine as a company, and was willing to buy off the initial pitch. Even then I was slightly disappointed in myself for buying it on day one, because it lacked content even back then. But I learned my lesson from that, so that likely won't happen again.
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Sep 26, 2014 04:12
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karl fungus posted:Other times, you end up with Starbound. What happened with Starbound? I forgot that was a thing that existed until now.
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Sep 26, 2014 04:20
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Rookersh posted:I don't. DOn't use EA as an acronym for early access, I will savagely attack you.
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Sep 26, 2014 04:24
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPYkOMj-3iI
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Sep 26, 2014 15:04
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If36dGoKLr8 yes a company that has made more than 7 minutes of footage of just their logo is an entity i can trust with my money
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Sep 26, 2014 15:09
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Early access was really cool because it allowed gamers (lol) to take the gold in the "Worst Consumer Olympics" Beta test your game for you and also take your word that this game will be finished with all the wonderful features you promised in it will make it in? Sign me up for your survival horror/voxel zombie game, you twenty first century snake oil salesman, you. Edit: hey selling early access to my book over here. Please ignore the typos and the lack of an ending, going to add character development in the next update. That'll be twenty bucks pls Zelder fucked around with this message at 15:13 on Sep 26, 2014 |
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Sep 26, 2014 15:10
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Dr. Fetus posted:What happened with Starbound? I forgot that was a thing that existed until now. The developers haven't put out a new update since March. There are have been unstable nightly builds with new content, but that's about it. I believe the developers also moved at one point. Their blog is updated almost daily with pictures of new content they are working on, but I guess they don't want to release a small amount at a time.
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Sep 26, 2014 15:16
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NakedWithCandy posted:Also, it's like, I can't believe another indie came up with a unique and orginal use for zombies in their game. You should do stand-up comedy brah. What's the DEAL with indie developers?
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Sep 26, 2014 15:24
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Early access had a lot of good intention, but beyond that its total poo poo.
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Sep 26, 2014 15:26
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If Starbound doesn't kill early access, the flood of unfinished, generic "survival crafting" games will.
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Sep 26, 2014 15:29
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Kerbal Space program seems to be working out so far.
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Sep 26, 2014 15:31
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Zelder posted:Early access was really cool because it allowed gamers (lol) to take the gold in the "Worst Consumer Olympics" This thread is going to be pages of idiots sharing their personal stories of wins and losses in the foray of early access titles but in the end it's still just this.
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Sep 26, 2014 15:33
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Since you're new I am going to do you a favor. You should not have made this thread. Your entire OP would have been right at home as a post inside the Steam thread though.
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Sep 26, 2014 15:35
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Dr. Fetus posted:What happened with Starbound? I forgot that was a thing that existed until now. Development has been extremely slow, and they recently announced they are doing another game alongside continuing Starbound. And that new game is being written in Haskell, meaning that not only is development slowed just by having more things on their plate, but the programmers don't any loving clue what they are doing and are probably going to make a lot of mistakes juggling two very different languages.
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Sep 26, 2014 15:36
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karl fungus posted:If Starbound doesn't kill early access, the flood of unfinished, generic "survival crafting" games will. Nothing will kill Early Access because gamers (again, lol) have literally no impulse control.
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Sep 26, 2014 15:41
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Ive kind of stopped buying Early Access games. Its just not worth it for me because they usually change quite a bit, and not always for the better, and who knows how long it will take before it is done or if it ever will be done.
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Sep 26, 2014 15:44
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Some Early Access games (Space Engineers) have had an exciting experience because they have a very active development and community involvement which allows the progress you paid for to be seen on the fly so-to-speak. Other games (DayZ, Spacebase DF-9) have been disappointing and not what someone was expecting and eventually seem to wind down before being at a point where you'd want them to be. Just seems like a mixed bag.
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Sep 26, 2014 15:45
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I think the Minecraft approach was the best one and I'm surprised more developers don't do that. As in "pay an amount that's appropriate for how much content currently exists, keep the game forever", then you just slowly raise the price as you actually finish the game and flesh things out. If Spacebase DF-9 had done that, charged like $10 a copy initially and then only raised the price if they added significant content, Double Fine would be seeing less of a blowback than they are for charging full price ($25) for a game they never completed. The Starbound guys were smart enough to price their game pretty low, there's a lot of frustration from current players but most people who bought the game early on for $15 "got their money's worth" and stopped playing by now. There's something about passing the $20 line that makes your game need to be much more finished and complete than a $10 or $15 game does. Overall though I would say don't buy Early Access games unless they're either very cheap (spend $5-10 and the game's never finished? no big deal) or backed by a developer that's demonstrated they can support this process long-term, either from another project or from the ongoing development of their current one. Prison Architect falls into that group, I think they've proven that this system can work. There's just a lot of ways to gently caress it up.
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Sep 26, 2014 15:48
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Wasn't Nether a Early Access game that was being developed and then all of a sudden one day they said it was done and stopped working on it, despite still being a unfinished game?
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Sep 26, 2014 15:50
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The fact that people are still throwing money at the Day Z developers is a true testament to how braindead most gamers are. Even the assholes that made WarZ (Infestation: Survivor Stories) made more of an effort to update their game.
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Sep 26, 2014 15:54
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Mount & Blade and Don't Starve were two excellent Early Access games that predated Early Access itself. Welp that's my two cents.
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Sep 26, 2014 15:55
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Yeah, Mount & Blade set the bar real high real early for me and almost no games have lived up to it since. I still don't regret my decision to trust a random Turkish man and his wife with my details to buy MnB early on, and watching how they've bloomed has been a goddamn pleasure.
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Sep 26, 2014 16:07
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I am totally okay with people throwing money at early access because it means I get to buy the good, finished ones when they go on sale for 75+% discount a few months after release.
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Sep 26, 2014 16:47
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Rookersh posted:I don't. This, basically. I buy EA games that are cheap and cheerful, if they end up updating and becoming something amazing, that's awesome, but even expensive EA games are cheaper than most traditionally developed games, so even if they have less content, I don't mind paying a few quid for a couple of days diversion. Throwing money on a wing and a prayer is daft but that's not the only thing you can do with EA games. There's good ones and bad ones and generally, finding which is which involves not getting suckered into the hype. Same as with normal games.
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Sep 26, 2014 17:44
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I find I don't return to them when they're released, and if the early access version was broken, I don't even play it much in the first place. So I've stopped paying for early access.
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Sep 26, 2014 17:47
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Early Access is great! I've learned that the widely accepted excuses that many games are terrible because of the publisher is actually a load of crap. Instead it's both developers and publishers that are huge scummy idiots, appealing to the absolute worst people. And basically, Chard posted:I am totally okay with people throwing money at early access because it means I get to buy the good, finished ones when they go on sale for 75+% discount a few months after release.
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Sep 26, 2014 17:50
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Even minus all of that, I don't understand the paying for a game that's all engine that you'll be bored of by the time content is released.
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Sep 26, 2014 17:56
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Carados posted:Even minus all of that, I don't understand the paying for a game that's all engine that you'll be bored of by the time content is released. Well for me, most of the early access games I own update semi-regularly so I come back to each of them as they update, keeps the game interesting as there's new stuff to try out every time. Considering how cheap they were to buy it's frankly something of a plus that they're still adding content. I would probably play them less if I bought them complete.
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Sep 26, 2014 17:59
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Early access would be fine if Steam was a bit more restrictive with what they allow and follow up with those developers. There needs to be some level of accountability for it to work and as of right now there really isn't. With the Starbound and Spacebase DF-9 fiascos they'll probably raise their standards a bit but as of right now it's kind of hosed. They also need to pull all of the early access stuff and keep it in its own section away from the main page/listings. Even if there were an easy way to differentiate between early access and completed games WITHOUT opening the game's page it would be a massive improvement. Just a simple blue border around the game's thumbnail would be fine.
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Sep 26, 2014 18:01
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metricchip posted:Early access would be fine if Steam was a bit more restrictive with what they allow and follow up with those developers. There needs to be some level of accountability for it to work and as of right now there really isn't. With the Starbound and Spacebase DF-9 fiascos they'll probably raise their standards a bit but as of right now it's kind of hosed. You mean like steam keeping them in different lists, or something? Or possibly the ability to filter them out?
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Sep 26, 2014 18:07
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Early access is pretty much playetesters and PR research that pay you
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Sep 26, 2014 18:11
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OwlFancier posted:You mean like steam keeping them in different lists, or something? Either way, really. I'd prefer it be its own list but any way to keep the Early Access stuff away from the rest would be an improvement. At the very least, give us the option to exclude Early Access content. They're getting better about it but we're not quite there metricchip fucked around with this message at 18:17 on Sep 26, 2014 |
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Sep 26, 2014 18:15
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If you search by new releases or release date, it shouldn't give you anything in early access. Early access games also shouldn't show up in the new releases ticker on the homepage, only in top sellers if they're selling really well. Edit: Hmm, apparently release date does still show them but new releases seems not to. OwlFancier fucked around with this message at 18:25 on Sep 26, 2014 |
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Sep 26, 2014 18:19
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It's extremely cool that in 2014 gaming has progressed to the level where we can purchase the skeleton of a video game and then really just pray with our hands held tight that the developer will eventually put meat on them bones and not run off in the middle of the night with our money.
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Sep 26, 2014 18:22
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