alpha for everyone
Racer1
Join Date: 2002-11-22 Member: 9615Members
Join Date: 2002-11-22 Member: 9615Members
<div class="IPBDescription">a bit of philosophy</div>What if UW decided to release the alpha to anyone who has bought the special OR the standard edition of NS2?
Those that ordered the special edition would still be getting everything they paid for.
Those that ordered the standard edition would be getting a bit extra from UW.
Some would say that by doing this, UW is being generous to those with just the standard edition.
Others would say that by doing this, UW is being disingenuous to those that paid extra for the special edition.
What do you think?
Those that ordered the special edition would still be getting everything they paid for.
Those that ordered the standard edition would be getting a bit extra from UW.
Some would say that by doing this, UW is being generous to those with just the standard edition.
Others would say that by doing this, UW is being disingenuous to those that paid extra for the special edition.
What do you think?
Comments
Common sense, really.
Yeah. I don't really care whether the normal preorder gets access, but keeping the promises seems like a good policy in general. They promised the alpha access to special orders, so I guess it's good to stick to that.
this is pretty much the same argument for a liberal arts education ;)
who cares about a free soundtrack CD?
Now that would be awesome.
This, and aside from the obvious incentive for helping out the development team to be able to make the game great through the extra contribution of 20 dollars.
What if they set some refund rules like you can only get a refund up until the day before the Alpha is released (because it's not really fair if you get to play the Alpha, decide it sucks, and fall back to a Standard order like a week before the beta :P).
Then the day of the Alpha release, it's not really advertised that Standard orderers can play... but their keys work just the same! :P
Personally i think we've waited long enough and i to don't care for black marine armor :P
Hmmm one problem with this is they may hope to get more money from the standard orderers in hopes that they upgrade... i.e an exceptionally long Alpha period can be expected. Long enough to make you go insane. Of course.
Then the day of the Alpha release, it's not really advertised that Standard orderers can play... but their keys work just the same! :P<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This is genius enough to gain major facepalm recognition. Hopefully I don't need to explain what's wrong with your suggestion.
Fun fact related to this. Remember when they had that "Special Order" only offer that you get a key to that game with the anthropomorphic wolves and rabbits with your special key? Ya my standard order key was accepted! I don't actually play that game but it was accepted!! xD
I have nothing against the fact that the alpha be released to everyone. It's just that preventing a refund before even someone got to use what he paid extra for is commercial suicide.
As it stands a lot of the pre orders where for the alpha, to change the system now would be deceptive to those customers who paid extra for the alpha access.
Right now as it stands, anyone who PO the standard edition can still upgrade for another $20 if they so choose. If alpha access is given to everyone, UWE is going to have a lot of upset special edition pre-order issues.
Leaving it as is is the best course of action.
Both groups supported Unknown Worlds in getting NS 2 done.
PS - dont , for the love of all thats holy, DONT add paid for DLC... thats the path to the darkside, and may Bobby Kotick buy your studio if you stray down that path.
As customers of UWE, we can accept changes that are necessary or in some way beneficial to us, but arbitrary changes to the system, or those that seem only to be appeasement, would at best be confusing and at worst be frustrating.
The pre-purchase system is what it is, and at this point it works. If its not broken, don't fix it.
I disagree with this statement in it's entirely for a game like NS2. It's entirely possible to add an expansion pack to NS2 using DLC. And improving upon NS2 that way would be a great way to continue to fund UWE, and still give us all content we want.
Not all DLC is bad, infact, DLC is probably one of the best things to hit gaming in a long time as long as it's not abused. Yeah, i think the MW2 map pack was abuse. But I can name a bunch of paid and non paid DLC that have been just fantastic for gaming over the last 2 years.
If UWE ever does decide to add paid dlc, which honestly, it's doubtful anyway, because it's very hard to unify paid DLC models and DLC requirements into MP games that arent regulated through a mutual system such as iwnet.
Instead it looks like we'll have cosmetic dlc? Soundtracks, etc. If UWE took the time to reskin weapons to match the black marine model and changed 2 bucks for it, they'd make great profit, and anyone who whines about how it's not worth money and it should be free, you obviously don't realize it takes time(which equates to money) to make these things.
I like to buy my game and know I can still play it as a equal to all the others moths from now, and not be disadvantaged by players with fatter pay checks than me.
The cosmetic DLC is not as bad but its still distatefull as it basically only rewards fans who have more readlily available funds to spend, and as I am not one of the fortunate ones I need to balance my finances quiet a bit.
Foolish players see DLC as a way to add to thier games, greedy developers see DLC as a way to charge players more for the same ( MW 2 mappack 2 was rehashes, AvP 2010 maps were SP campaign segments that added MP required elements ).
Players also fail to see how much worse things are getting... take MMO's for example, initially the monthly subscription was hated by the players at the time, but was soon taken in by the promise of continously changing games, free updates and maintenance of the software... ie you pay a sub and the devs will keep the game intresting and running.
Now WoW has a sub, paid for expansions and a item shop... the subs seem to be only for the honour of being able to log onto the servers.
Thats why I tend to hang about the indie development scene more these days, the modern mainstream gaming scene is far to expensive even after you buy the games.
Imagine if the beta ended yesterday (the Alpha has been over for months in this scenario). The game is done today. Assuming the devs are still selling the "Special" edition, then what is the reason to buy it other then for black armor... doesn't this by itself represent a form of DLC... i.e. custom outfits.
Not really. A extreme minority would purchase the SE for the black armor alone. Most did it for early alpha access and because they wanted to give extra money to UWE, possibly as a 'thank you' for NS1.
DLC isn't bad at all and it's a great way for developers to continue to add content to their game. The best example I can think of is what Bioware is doing with their DLC for Dragon Age. I think most of us would like every planned feature for NS2 to be in the game, or patched into the game, without added cost. A year after release if the devs decide to add more content I don't see any problem charging for it especially when you consider that NS2 sells for only $20 which is very near the cost of some game's DLC.