Does this not seem to be a paid beta?
You are not paying anything to play the Beta, there are no subscription fee as the game is not complete.
We want you to pre-order our game, because we need to find out how many people will actually buy the game before we borrow ourselves to death. Let's face it, if we knew by now that we would "only" have 3000 players at launch, we would have to redo our calculations quite a bit. If we knew we would have 30.000 players, we would have to do it the other way. We also want you to get in and stress-test our server, and we feel that people that are actually prepared to pay money before the game is finished are in a way similar to our stock-holders and investors: they are taking a chance, and chances must be rewarded. We also think that people actually paying for the game are showing a monetary commitment and will play the Beta not just once or twice, and hopefully care enough to actually report stuff because they want their product to be good (like the long-term active forum members that really show dedication).
All in all, you are paying for the final game. You don't pay any subscription fees. Why should you order it now and not after release? We have to give you an incentive to do so, and that incentive will benefit both you and us in the ways I explained above. The limited edition is another incentive. Money wise, I don't care if you are paying to get the final game (which is what we charge you for) or if you are paying to get into Beta, if you are paying to support us, or if you are paying because you hate us and don't want people to get those spots. Those are
your reasons.
If you don't like it, hell, simply wait for the official launch. I really don't understand the problem.
The newsletter states that the game will be fully functional by Q3, so the people who preorder early technically are just going to pay early to get into beta.
Now, I am as big a fan of the concept of MO as anybody, but if Darkfall taught me anything, it's to be fair when I realize that there is some questionable behavior
I won't comment on Darkfall. But when it comes to MO, what do you really mean by "questionable behavior"? Is it questionable behavior that money is needed to develop a game? Is it questionable behavior that we want to know how many are prepared to buy it so that we can plan our budget accordingly? Is it questionable behavior that we are open with you when doing so?
I'm open for ideas and suggestion and feedback on this, as I'm genuinely confused and honestly can't see past the way this is being rolled out.
I don't believe you. I don't think you're confused at all. You are seeing the Beta as an incentive to pre-order the game, and of course it is an incentive, although, as I explained above, that's not the whole story. What is there to be confused about? We are not hiding the fact that we want to get our bearings straight by finding out the actual interest in buying our game, quite the opposite.
You say we are making a paid Beta and you sell that argument by saying "why would you otherwise pre-order". But there's an important difference here: you are not paying
anything for Beta at all. In fact, nothing prevents you from pre-ordering and
not play Beta. You have still made the same purchase. Even if you reverse the argument, asking: "What's the safest way to get into Beta?" and the answer is: "Pre-order the game." you are still just paying for the product itself, namely the game.
I am very confused. I do not think preorders should be allowed when the game is still being tested. The incentive to preorder is indeed to get into beta. I will be very very skeptical of this game from now on. Flame me for saying it but its my personal opinion. Darkfall failed horribly apparently and i didnt pre order or buy it for that reason exactly. I dont want to pay to get into a beta. Until a demo is out or a number of good reviews come out i will not be buying this game.
I would never flame you for being careful, that's perfectly understandable. But I don't understand why pre-orders shouldn't be allowed when the game is still being tested? For what reasons? It's entirely up to you to pre-order or not, why would you want to restrict people that actually support what we are doing - thereby making development a lot more difficult to us as an independent company?
In general, game development is a very weird business. The vast majority of AAA games (and even web-based games) need to borrow a lot of money for developing a product that's based on speculation. That money usually comes from a publisher, who in turn takes the majority of the income, leaving the developers in a spot where they either fail to sell (and are left with large debts), or succeed (and the publisher takes all the money except for their daily salary). What's worse, the publisher will want to "guide" the development of the game, and of course almost always aims for the mass-market. The publisher may show up one day and say that "Recent focus-tests are showing that vikings are out and cowboys are in, you have to change the game and all your models to be about cowboys instead. And by the way, we must release it in time for the christmas sales, so you'll have to really cut corners here." (That is actually a true example.)
We have chosen to not go the publisher-way, meaning we are funding the development ourselves, and with the help of investors. We are not backed by a publisher that can pump in money because the project is looking promising, or boost the sales with millions of dollars in marketing, while at the same time we have a lot of freedom. In fact, the only reason this kind of niche game will be released is because we aren't forced by any publisher to follow the cookie-cutter casual style.
This is a different way of developing a game, and we are very dependent on the support of our community. Publishers may not have believed in our project from start, but as long as
you do, we are confident we're on the right track. However, we are not running on welfare, and we need to make certain there is a demand.
In other words, it's up to you. We are not forcing you to support us, and we're not forcing you to pre-order. You have all the right to be sceptical. But please try to understand the reasoning behind all this. If you forbid pre-orders our development would be even more difficult. My personal opinion is that I hope MO can show other developers, as well as the gaming audience, that there is indeed an alternative way of developing games, for the future. That alternative way includes an interchange of money, interest and dedication from both parts. More games being developed this way would indeed benefit us all, developers and niche-gamers alike.
I don't have a problem with a paid beta..if it's called that. If I remember correctly there was a HUGE to do about nothing back mid April with a HUGE thread where the entire community contributed to solve a puzzle..all in hopes that being active in the forum community would result in beta invite...
1 1/2 months later we are told that beta is still coming..but is guaranteed for those who pre order. Just call it what it is..please don't jerk me around.
That is not true. First and foremost Beta is already running, with people from the community. Second, Beta is not over yet, we are accepting more people every week. Third, "the entire community" is a huge exaggeration, actually a very small part of the overall community contributed in that thread. Please don't jerk people around.
Another way this could help is if they sell out all 10K with many still wanting to buy. They could increase the number of servers at launch. They would have the money to do so with the pre-order dollars. Possibly having a NA server depending on how many NA players purchase the pre-order.
That's more like it. Good thinking.
Where is it a paid beta ? You buy the game earlier and got access to the Beta, you will not have to pay a subscription for the beta. And if you buy the game end of June or end of August, where's the problem ? It's YOUR decision.
Yes, but doesn't that look very suspicious to you? Don't you get that feeling of a possible conspiracy? For me, it's this kind of strange stuff that makes me very skeptical about this game. It might be some kind of trap, or scam. I don't know how the trap would work, or why it would be a trap, just keep your eyes open and be vary.
MO devs have clearly said what you buy is a preorder for game that will be out Q4 and till then you will be playing beta.
So its up to you. If you want to support MO then buy a preorder and help testing the game.
If you are too scared becouse DF made you loose faith in game devs then just wait till Q4.
How about..."Give your support to an awesome game thats being developed by a small studio with limited resources" ?
Thanks, exactly my point.
The thought comes up "Why should I trust a small studio with limited resources with my time and money?"
You don't have to. You don't have to like our business-model I talked about earlier, maybe you like the "standard MMO" publishing better. The solution is very simple: don't pre-order and wait for the game to be finished instead.
Hell, even if they want the cash injection for Limos, strip clubs, whores and bags of cocaine, I'm still pre-ordering.
Lol. Thanks, but I can think of a thousand other things to do with that money, related to MO, instead