Jimquisition: Early Access

[weirdee]

yeah, I can't really equate EA's bullshit issues with early access, even though things do happen similarly. early access has an explicit risk label on it, while EA charges full triple a price for what is supposed to be a full game, and then half bakes it out the door. the procedure seems the same, but with early access, unless you've actually bought into one of those more ridiculously priced games that you shouldn't even be touching until after they're on sale, the process is much cheaper, and you're actually accepting an upfront risk on a small time developer, as opposed to being pushed around by the likes of EA on baldfaced lies, whose standards really should be higher, given their ownership and demand of phat stax

blaming this trend for poor practices is like blaming tetris for being responsible for millions of tetris clones: it gives an excuse to the leeches of the industry for their behavior

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

I stopped buying games that I know will have a shitload of DLC until there's a GOTY on Steam sale, and some people are willing to buy an unfinished product. What the fuck, gamers?

 

[CitySquirrel]

I was relieved by the end of it because we don't have to thank god for Jim until the final version.

I think God for Jim every night anyway.

 

[AnthrSolidSnake]

I have never had any problems with Early Access. I have 3 of them. Call me what you want, I'm having fun. It's nice to watch everything unfold. Technically, it's like a cheap preorder. I can play the game in it's current state if I want, and then when it's actually finished and fully playable, the price will inevitably go up with it, and here I got it for half that price.

I'll admit, 7 Days to Die is an exception. $35? For a game that simply equals basic minecraft with a zombie horde terrorizing you every night? Sorry, we have that game already.

 

[LeQuack_Is_Back]

I'm sorry, but where did I ever say I didn't like Terraria? I said that Terraria had no clear progression curve. Sure, it had one - but you either had to stumble upon it or read a Wiki to find out what to do next. And for Terraria, the progression curve was kind of a big thing. There are countless sandbox games that have clear objectives on what to do. It's what stops the game from going stale. Criticizing a game doesn't mean I didn't like it.

Starbound takes Terraria's laziness in terms of design and shoots it through the roof. The quest system was supposed to be an answer to that - but, considering the paltry number of quests, it doesn't really do anything.

I had purchased Starbound because it had promoted itself as an open source, Sci-Fi Terraria. Because of how murky the progression is(expecting you to jump from planet to planet), there is no sense of flow. The mechanics of Starbound just offer a layer of tedium that Terraria didn't have. Starbounds success comes from Terraria's failures - in other words, Starbound found success because Redigit was a jerk who refused to release the source code to his game, and to update it only when he felt like it.

In Starbounds current state, it should not have been sold. Key features are missing, and the game is poorly optimized. Framerate issues for a 2D game are unacceptable - and the fix require digging through my registry to get it to run. That should be an embarrassment - you would think that optimization would supersede character wipes .That roadmap you linked, while nice, is irrelevant - the average person isn't going to check out the companies website before buying a game.

If you are putting out an Alpha or Beta early access build, you should not be charging money for it - or, at the very least, the title should have been available at a heavy discount. They are selling an unfinished product and expecting the community to give feedback as to where the bugs are or how to make the game better - features that normally a company would have to pay for.

I'm sorry. What? It's the developer's fault that the consumer won't take 5 minutes to look into the product their considering putting $10 (or more!) on? The product that the developer is providing information about upfront, no having to twist their arm about it? What kind of thinking is this? I agree with the guy who argued one should do their freaking research about a game. If you can't even look at what the developers themselves are saying in regards to the Early Access, I'm sorry, but maybe you shouldn't be in this market.

 

[Vault Citizen]

Aaw no "thank God for me?" But we were good, there hasn't been a sexism controversy this week or anything lol.

 

[Scorpid]

I'm really surprised Jim didn't mention Towns. A hybrid of Minecraft and Age Of Empires, that had lots of potential, got released with a full price in a Alpha build, most infuriatingly of all GETS SALES ON STEAM.... annnnd the development team has all but abandoned the broken mess of a game.

But I agree with Jim, releasing a beta build of a game is excusable, it's 90% up and running mostly just tweaking of math like in Hawken, actively being developed for. But Alpha releases make no sense. I mean why on earth would you want peoples VERY first impression of your game AFTER they lay down hard earned money is that it's completely broken and ugly!? How does that do your teams brand name any good at all? Even if the customer goes in with that understanding of it being an Alpha build, you still can only WOW them at the gate once.

 

[Lightknight]

Hah, hilarious parody.

I agree fully. I see games that I really like the sound of and wonder, "Wow, how haven't I heard of this yet" and I watch the video and am impressed again. But then when I scroll down and see "Early Access", I immediately realise I've made a mistake and leave the page. I wouldn't pay for early access to a AAA game either.

I'm very similar. I never understood the concept of buying into a Beta, and I don't get Early Access. I do a u-turn the minute I see that sign. Maybe when it's released and maybe even then not at full price, but definitely not before launch. It seems like a bad gamble.

Exactly. I literally see it as if it's not available yet. Even though I "could" buy it. I'm willing to change my mind if people absolutely rave about the game being great, as is, but then I'm not buying a game because it could eventually be good, I'm getting it because it is good. I've done that before on a little game called Minecraft 4 years ago. But that fit the criteria of people saying it was worth the buy right then.

So for me, Early Access is a hurdle they have to overcome in some way. But I'm like this because I've worked in development cycles. As a QA Engineer no less. I know just how far software can be from ready even up until just before the end of the project. I've also worked on a project that ran into a critical issue after years of work (it couldn't scale up to large numbers of users hitting the app at the same time) and the project was killed even though we had clients.

So no, I know too much and there's too many good games in my backlog to not be able to wait.

 

[Chuppi]

Muhaha.
Try to criticize one of those games on steam or on a popular games-blog and you will have 20 fans on your heels,
screaming : "Nooooooo ! It´s absoutely playable and wonderful ! I have already had millions of billions of hours of fun
playing it !"

 

[rees263]

I just look at early access and think to myself "Why would I pay full price for an unfinished game?" I thought that the deal was you adopted early at a discount and the developer would get funds and feedback in return. What is the incentive to buy at full price?

 

[tzimize]

Interesting views there Jim. I have made a long term investment in The Dead Linger, but haven't tried any of the others you mentioned.

Also

Nice one.

Agreeing with Jim here. I've fallen for the early access trap a few times. War for the Overworld, Starbound, but usually its been games that I just hope pick up and become great. It can be as much about showing the industry I want this kind of game as actually wanting to play the specific one.

That said...yeah....I've got a deal with a buddy of mine to hit me on the head each time I'm gonna pre-order or buy something on early access. There really isnt much point to do it, and it probably sends the wrong signals to the industry. It usually isnt too good at listening anyway.

 

[geier]

Like most problems regarding videogames early access is only a problem for unpatient people. I buy my games only after 2-4 years. I still have not played Skyrim. But now i can get the Legendery edition or even the Elder Scrolls Anthology for a lower price then Skyrim originaly cost. So yeah, being mature and patient pays off.

 

[mjc0961]

Wait, so this episode is next week's episode?

So where the hell is this week's episode?

And what the hell am I going to watch next week?!


I love the little touches on how you made this video "crappy" on purpose with shitty lighting, using the camera's mic, wearing a t-shirt instead of the suit, and having repeats in the voice editing and blank spots in the editing. Very nice humor in that.

I refuse to buy Early Access games. Or at least, games advertised as early access. It's nice that these developers are honest unlike the triple A publishers who keep selling us unfinished drek like Aliens Colonial Marines, GTA V, and Battlefield 4 just to name a few of the worst offenders from last year, but still, I am not willingly going to pay you money for the privilege of testing your shit (and on the subject of those AAA games, no more preorders for me. when the game is proven to be finished is when I will spend money and not a moment before then). I don't know when this shift from "a game tester is a person who works for you that you pay money to in exchange for them suffering through your unfinished games looking for bugs" to "a game tester is the customer who just paid full price for the game and is now slogging through your unfinished game instead of enjoying the finished product they were supposed to be paying for." came about, but I'm damn well sick of it and won't be a part of it any more. I work hard and do a complete job to earn my money, and I'm not going to turn around and spend that money I busted my ass to get on a product that other people didn't work hard on to finish before selling it.

I do wonder how long it's going to take before a game takes the honest admittance of "we are early access" too far and ruins the whole shitty trend for everyone, though. Not too long I hope.

 

[Rad Party God]

I'm sorry Jim, but Starbound, offering a fully realized game that will just get better? You're kidding, right?

The game is horribly buggy, and horribly optimized. It took me hours to get Starbound running on my machine - a machine that has had no trouble EVER playing a game. When you have to look up fucking guides on how to fix some miniscule glitch that stops the framerate from tanking in a 2D game, you don't have a finished product.

Starbound's game is horribly broken as well. There is no pacing or structure to it. After you do the last quest (there are what, 5?) It just says "Alright. Just do stuff." No direction. No goals. No clear progression, like with Terraria. I used to criticize Terraria for being a Wiki game - Starbound takes that idea to a whole new universe.

The thing is, I wouldn't mind that if the game was free. Its absurd when a company expects you to pay them money to do their bug testing. Having a game up on Steam and asking for money on it, when its clearly not in shipping condition is appalling - no matter who or what the company is.

If you didn't liked Terraria, then why the heck did you bought Starbound in the first place?, especially since the devs themselves have been upfront about it as "Terraria in space". The only one's fault here is yours for not doing your homework.

 

[Lunar Templar]

D:

but I like those 'quickie' eps

but yeah, I've noticed that about steam to, and found it very strange they are throwing unfinished products up for sale, but then Steams lack of QC is well known. DayZ was, and still is on there.

 

[otakon17]

I have picked up Mercenary Kings, Star Command and Starbound on the "early access" model. Mercenary Kings STILL isn't done yet, Star Command I can't even play because I had to sell my iPod and Starbound is actually pretty good except for the asshole guards that won't let me defend myself and the complete inability to sell goods so I can actually buy a better weapon because I am so damn tired of being stuck with that shitty sword and shitty bow.

But yeah, way too many "early access" games out there right now, asking for full release prices while you're basically paying them to be a beta tester. It's downright criminally genius/insane.

 

[Stilkon]

...this whole notion of letting people "test" pre-alpha stuff is quite silly because not even the devs will gain anything from that (bar money up front). There will just be too many bugs (which the devs will be fully aware of) and missing features in a pre-alpha stage for any public input to be worth a flying duck to the devs.

Not necessarily. Any player can be a playtester, and playtesting occurs during most stages of the development cycle. Designers often start with a "paper prototype", which is a mock-up of a game using paper, sticky notes, or whatever physical supplies they can get their hands on. Even when their video game isn't digital at all, they still have players playtest their concepts to see if the game is fun or if there are problems with the rules. Input is helpful at any and all points.

 

[mjharper]

So, can we expect the 'Thank God for me' patch any time soon?

 

[Canadamus Prime]

This is why I refuse to buy into Early Access games. No if I'm going to do your beta testing for you I expect to get paid not the other way around.

 

[vxicepickxv]

It didn't start with Minecraft, it started with Windows.