Will all of you be discussing the alpha on here?
Rabhimself
Join Date: 2010-06-29 Member: 72198Members
Join Date: 2010-06-29 Member: 72198Members
Exactly as the topic says.
I think I am a member of a large amount of people that really want NS2 to be a success, and want it to bea great gaming experience.
That being said, I cannot bring myself to preorder the game until I know how it is shaping up. I expect that when this game hits alpha or even beta, if the gameplay is running well then UW will rake in a bundle of more pre-orders.
Right now, all I have seen are some videos that tbh, look extremely framey to me. I cannot bring myself to preorder until I hear the positive hype from those who have experienced the game in development. So I was wondering if discussion of the alpha will be taking place on the forum, just so I can see everyones opinions.
Some videos of it in action when the time comes would also help myself (and many others) make their minds up on wether they want to comit to this or not.
Loved NS1, if they get this right, NS2 could be one of the dark horses for GOTY imo.
Thanks in advance.
I think I am a member of a large amount of people that really want NS2 to be a success, and want it to bea great gaming experience.
That being said, I cannot bring myself to preorder the game until I know how it is shaping up. I expect that when this game hits alpha or even beta, if the gameplay is running well then UW will rake in a bundle of more pre-orders.
Right now, all I have seen are some videos that tbh, look extremely framey to me. I cannot bring myself to preorder until I hear the positive hype from those who have experienced the game in development. So I was wondering if discussion of the alpha will be taking place on the forum, just so I can see everyones opinions.
Some videos of it in action when the time comes would also help myself (and many others) make their minds up on wether they want to comit to this or not.
Loved NS1, if they get this right, NS2 could be one of the dark horses for GOTY imo.
Thanks in advance.
Comments
maybe... but we don't know what else may be released in 2029... J/King :P
... and yes, i think it's safe to say that these forums are gonna explode with activity once the alpha is released.
I'm not too sure. I've been a gamer for plenty years now, and for some time I have also been playing Alpha's/Beta's and pre-releases. Most often when I play a pre-release it's sent in order for me to make a review over it, this is, however, a completed game. I just recieve it some time before release date. When I play alpha it's almost <b>_always_</b> under NDA - to mension a few; World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, Starcraft II, Medal of Honor 2010, Battlefield Heroes, and currently a game which is in fact under NDA so I cannot mension it :). When playing alpha with NDA you are not allowed to post screenshots, comments, talk about it or anything. In fact, most of the time people don't know the alpha is actually running (very often it's family and friends of workers at the game studio).
Leaks are bound to happen, and it's up to the company to decide how much they want to enforce the NDA - as for me, I never mention anything from NDA protected titles (this is afterall why you can work up a renomé and become a tester for these kind a things). However normally when the alpha is upgraded to beta the NDA is also lifted, or partially lifted. This is sometimes shown in forums, where the hidden feedback/discussion forums are unlocked for public to view, but not reply to. And maybe only partials.
Normally the NDA are enforced in order to not give away too much information, but especially get troubles with game-stuff(gameplay, mechanics, graphics, bugs etc etc) where players will get a negative prejudice of the game.
That being said (and thinking while writing), UnkownWorlds have shared loads of information. They have included the playerbase in the development process (or some of it atleast) and already taken in feedback. The alpha is released to pre-order players, overall the secrecy of the game is not very great (Which has resulted in posts which adress the issue I wrote about above already). Therefor, I would not be surprised if they actually choose to keep the community as part of the development process.
WRT the topic starter: If there's no NDA I'd probably discuss it here on the forum. Further I'm in the development phase of a website of my own, in which I'll review games, where I'd probably make articles with ongoing information and game review (though this is not as much feedback/ideas/issue discussion, but more a 'is it ######e or good' kind a thing). Afterall discussion of the game is the only way to get it plenty better :)
How many of those games actually promised alpha for pre-orderers and were offered for over 10k people? I can see why NDA is preferred normally but not now. I strongly believe that the alpha was originally engine test (we have now) and beta actually first "playable" version (explains the slow improvement and expectations for fall 2009). However they changed alpha to "engine test" due large amount of pre-orders and added few extra features as if to compensate the delay. Finishing and polishing the product might be a good thing but in couple years the game is going to be outdated (DX11 or whatever) and most of original ns players have finally gratuated from gaming. Very hard to believe there will be NDA but dev can probably answer better to that.
thats kind a the conclusion I came to aswell. Though I do believe the first playable versions would be refered to as alpha aswell. Initially when I played World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King and the introduction of Death Knights was made, there was plenty issues. The most noticeable was that the class was so broken that when the game was updated from Alpha to Beta all Death Knights were actually deleted becasue they were changed so radically. Point being that Alpha is generally low playerbase, and with an enourmous ammount of bugs. Beta is when you feel the game is good enough to ship to a larger test base (often stress tests are done in this phase), but still not complete. You could probably call beta's RC's (Release Candidates) where as the alpha is more of a development process that needs more testing than the game studio can provide them selves (hence they open it for more people), but is still in such a bad shape it sometimes isnt playable.
Wether NS2 will be playable when they actually release the game (I forsee some things being massibly overpowered resulting in huge balance issues, crash issues etc, which later results in people going 'WTF WE CANT PLAY, IT KEEPS CRASHING, FIX OMGZLOLWUTZINTERWEBRAGE'). Funny thing is I have never really thought of the difference between alpha and beta because most of the time it's actually the NDA being the deciding factor. I guess it comes down to how playable the game is when UnknownWorlds release it. Ofcause it can serve as an insurance to them, that they don't say if it's the one or the other. If it's really really bad with bugs etc, then they just say 'hey alpha! go bugger of!' and if it's okay, they go 'yeah well, ofcause, it's beta' :p
I wasn't sure if when you preordered the game you were actually already binding yourself to some sort of NDA or whatever.
I'm still confident (provided that it is looking good), come alpha or beta time that preorder sales will rise provided that information actually leaks out to the potential players somehow.
I'm sure they are already considering their marketing campaign heavily but they really need to get the word out about this game when it is close to release time. I'm not sure how they plan to do this, how much it will cost etc but good advertisement is key. Sadly, having an awesome game alone won't see huge sales numbers, they need the message to be passed on etc.
Here's hoping it doesn't disappoint!
It's definitely a risky move putting out a public alpha, and the reason why almost no games do it, because it will be far from a polished product. Not all the features will be implemented, there will be stand in and unfinished art, imbalanced and imperfect gameplay, and piles and piles of bugs. It's just the way it is. I've worked on a handful of other games at other companies and the alpha stage was never anything we would have wanted the public to see.
However, at UW we always wanted to be very open about the development process, and we committed to putting out a public alpha, so we are hoping that people will view it for what it is -- an unfinished work in progress with a lot of potential-- and not panic and run off posting a lot of negative feedback on other websites.
--Cory
It's definitely a risky move putting out a public alpha, and the reason why almost no games do it, because it will be far from a polished product. Not all the features will be implemented, there will be stand in and unfinished art, imbalanced and imperfect gameplay, and piles and piles of bugs. It's just the way it is. I've worked on a handful of other games at other companies and the alpha stage was never anything we would have wanted the public to see.
However, at UW we always wanted to be very open about the development process, and we committed to putting out a public alpha, so we are hoping that people will view it for what it is -- an unfinished work in progress with a lot of potential-- and not panic and run off posting a lot of negative feedback on other websites.
--Cory<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yay!
I doubt many of us will post negative things about a game in alpha.
I doubt many of us will post negative things about a game in alpha.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I'm sure the more mature of us will be completely understanding of this and negative posts will be for the sole purpose of pointing out bugs / things to improve, however if we already have negative game play feedback from people who haven't even seen an alpha yet imagine when there is. :[
I do have a feeling that a lot of people will understand that it is alpha and won't whine about bugs since those are expected (sometimes fun to have lol). It just seems to be a common trend to bash game play (not to mention it's mainly speculation right now) which can never 100% appeal to everyone anyway.
But hey feedback is a good thing as long as people can be mature about it and not just be negative without explaining reason.
It's definitely a risky move putting out a public alpha, and the reason why almost no games do it, because it will be far from a polished product. Not all the features will be implemented, there will be stand in and unfinished art, imbalanced and imperfect gameplay, and piles and piles of bugs. It's just the way it is. I've worked on a handful of other games at other companies and the alpha stage was never anything we would have wanted the public to see.
However, at UW we always wanted to be very open about the development process, and we committed to putting out a public alpha, so we are hoping that people will view it for what it is -- an unfinished work in progress with a lot of potential-- and not panic and run off posting a lot of negative feedback on other websites.
--Cory<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Reasonable people will see an alpha for what it is and know that we're not really playing the game to play it, but rather to find bugs and impurities. But it would still be safe to have a game launching message to state the obvious for first time alpha/beta goers.
^this
Might be obvious maybe not but this is probably one of the best ways to get the message across to people who for some reason are forgetting that they are alpha testing and should be expecting to find flaws.
<img src="http://susanstuart.me.uk/WebpagesSCATS0809/KieranSheereenInetaDaniel/page2.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
The reading part isn't the problem. The understanding is.
Just wanted to share that lool
(If you don't get it, then just lol...)
Might just want to set the forum up so it auto-deletes anything with the word 'cheat' in the thread title on alpha launch. LOLZ!!!
Natural Selection 1 is a very good game and that is the pure reason why I pre-ordered Natural Selection 2 becuase if the 1st one was amazing then the 2nd will be EPIC, I suppose that is what many other people also think.
I would like the game to come out very soon or for the alpha to be released but I would also prefer a decent game than a rushed one (I am not saying that is what I expect of it) I suggest that making thier own engine for the game was very time consuming but I respect that.
Everyone here probably wants to alpha to come right now and that is what I want as well, I wouldn't care if it was unbalanced or that there are "Piles" of bugs I just what to own some marines and aliens with everybody else like the people who have posted on this forum!
Also, whoever uses cheats on the alpha is kind of lame and there would be no point to it. It is a tester not to make people angry with nooby hackers flying around or whatever they do XD
I wouldn't think that anyone who pre-ordered this game will hack as they what to play the game not ruin for other people!
Well, I hope we are very close to the release of this title! :)
Put it in a corner and I wouldn't care.