I recently have found myself purchasing Alpha titles ..A lot. Sometimes I feel that they promise a lot but just don't ever deliver it is just like waiting in limbo for them to finally create something similar to the concept that the creator originally wanted. I have played Rust since it came out and I love that game I really do. Recently the developers made rust into Rust and Old Rust. I have a feeling that they are going to get rid of a game I really ended up liking to create something that they wanted. I feel like one party wins in that situation. Hopefully they keep old rust but who knows. That is just one example of playing an alpha game what if you end up liking the game the way it is and they change it. I think alpha has positive effects but at the same time I think it has negative effects. My question is what do you think about alpha and how has it affected you?
Generally Alpha games (especially paid ones) are bad, the devs want your money before the product is even finished. There have been a few games that were successful; Minecraft, Kerbal Space Program, Rust, Terraria?. But a large chunk of them are absolute shit. Its a needle in a haystack with Alpha games. I stay away.
I've bought several myself. I generally will not recommend them to anyone. I think they should only be bought if you are happy with the current content offered for the price offered. Many seem to not fulfill what they said they were going to do: Space Base DF9, Starbound, Pixel Piracy (I own all three). I bought them on sale, and feel i got my "moneys worth for time and enjoyment", but these games, are mostly let downs and broken promises.
I've also played Minecraft, Kerbal Space Program, and Prison Architect, all very good IMO.
Rust and DayZ are somewhere in the middle to me. Though I have not really played "new rust", I just played "classic" back when there was only that version. I've got plenty of enjoyment out of these titles for the money.
What I don't like about it, is it seems to kill the (good) hype for the actual release, and can sometimes be an awkward mix of "Is there enough content after update ___, for me to justify buying this game at this point in early access" vs getting it at release, and 50% (arbitrary #) of the player base has stopped playing it once it got to the release window.
TL:DR-> I like them only if you are happy with the current content offered at the time of purchase (dev's could stop development and you would still get your money's worth, to you)
I absolutely hate early access and I think it should die in a fire.
The only game I've seen which did this correctly was ARMA III. Early access is just a money grab by developers who want a guaranteed return on investment. I get it, I mean developing a game isn't cheap or easy, but there are too many games which are stuck in perpetual alpha now it's a friggin joke.
Save your money, wait for full releases. No pre-orders, no early access!
WARNING: THIS POST IS VERY LONG, READ AT YOUR OWN RISK. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
I remember a time when people paid for a finished game and the developers put their heart and soul into making that game amazing. If they didn't make a good game then they didn't sell and they knew it. Now "Indie devs" can just throw something on Early Access and call it an alpha and be showered in money, then run away to Mexico. I put Indie dev into quotes because there have been so many "games" put on Early Access claiming to be working on a game but just do it to scam money out of people. DayZ standalone, The Stomping Land, Earth Year: 2066, and so on.
People say that "Well if we stop buying it then this problem will stop." While that sounds good on paper and is true for a lot of scenarios it just won't work for Early Access games. There are a few reasons for that.
1: Genre Popularity Explosion. Let's get into our time machine shall we, and go back to the alpha release of Minecraft. Really it's one of the main reasons why Early Access is a thing. Notch released a paid alpha game in promise of future updates and when the game gained popularity suddenly everyone wanted open world survival crafty games. This sparked the creation of hundreds of thousands of clones trying to be "the next Minecraft." Similar to how MMO's try to be "The next WoW." When devs realized that people were willing to buy into an alpha build of a game things started to go down hill from there and sparked the cash grab games.
2: YouTube. This ties into reason 1. Minecraft's popularity came from people like SeaNanners and The Yogscast. Already popular channels that uploaded Let's Plays of Minecraft and people loved the way the game looked so they rushed out and bought it. Same thing goes for DayZ. It started as a simple mod for Arma 2, then it was picked up by popular YouTuber's like FrankieonPcin1080p and JackFrags. Already popular gaming YouTubers that showed people this mod. It seemed harmless to do so but this is where reason 1 comes in. People wanted open world survival zombie games, so WarZ, Rust, 7 Days to Die, and etc. Were released. Most of them broken. But because of the YouTubers who popularized DayZ wanted to try similar games they played Rust, and WarZ, and 7 Days to Die. Because they played it they assumed it was a good game and bought it right away, thus causing the problems we have now with Early Access.
Because popular people play these broken ass games people will buy them and when a game looks vaguely like another that is popular they will buy that one because they want more of that genre. Also it is all Minecrafts fault!
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bad.
+1