What would you do ?

Easy solution for you isayhelloagain... *drumroll*


PRETEND YOU DON'T KNOW THAT BETA OR ALPHA ACCESS EXISTS.

There, now the game costs $40 and you can go back to your happy little life knowing that at the end of the year you will have a wonderful RTS to sit back and enjoy with your favorite beverage, pinky extended for extra self righteous attitude-iness.

Now, pretending that your analogies and conclusions make any sense at all (loooooooong stretch there; seems that reasoned and logical arguments are a lost art), I'm pretty sure this is a very minor infraction among a mountain full of daily infractions against our collective better judgment. So, taking that into account, if you are going to pass inane judgement, at least do so while acknowledging that you are being hypocritical in the process.

I personally have zero issue with the pricing. Why? Because no one forced me to spend $90. I was perfectly capable of clicking the mouse a few more times and only spending $40, or $60, or $8000000 (cha-ching; I now own half of the game rights). Anyone willing to READ had EVERY SHRED OF INFORMATION ABOUT WHAT THEY WERE BUYING IN FRONT OF THEIR FACES... so... yeah... who really cares?? Go make a large monetary investment. Go get some pets. Buy a house. Have some kids. Have a GF or wife... all of those are worth worrying and moaning about. Supporting an up-and-coming gaming company to have direct access to the makers and a chance to influence its direction for a measly $90... let me repeat that... measly NINETY FREAKING DOLLARS is not worth your time arguing or moaning about.

To OP:
First of all, if the book you are talking about will never come out and I want that kind of book than it is totally a valid model.

Here is the MAIN THING, that you and most other people don't seem to get. This modal won't work for every title / game. Modern warfare series wouldn't work on this modal. The reason people are supporting this game and willing to pay these prices is because they recognize the value of the game and that it wouldn't exist nor be as good if we didn't have uber making it for us.

To UBER: don't listen to these guys. We have rid our selves of the middle men and all the crap I hate about the gaming industry. You guys are building the game I want and you are letting us give input and make game play decisions. I fully support your endeavors both in spirit and with my backing of your game.

B. There is additional content, at least I know I get additional commanders and other things.

I think what most people don't realise is that a possible slippery slope from the price is not viable. As uber has said, it would be more monetarily sound to release the alpha at $40 rather than $90, which has already been proven true by people not buying the game because it is $90.

If this is happening, what makes people think that other companies won't realise this as well?

There is no reason to worry about this becoming the norm because this isn't viable from a business or PR perspective for it to become the norm.

I'm glad people took the time to respond to this... I'm surprised the devs don't lose their patience.

I too thought illogically like this at first. ZOMG the price for alpha product blahblahblah, But then instead of ranting and raging as I did, (Which I apologise for). I did some research and found out the reason for the price on the alpha bundle and felt like a complete douche.

When you actually put it in perspective its quite a bit different than what you have described OP. For starters no-one is obliged to pay for a product they think is too expensive. You are not privileged to anything.

Secondly, the only reason this game exists is because of the kick starters, some who payed a bit, and some who payed a lot of money for the alpha access. Why should everyone else pay less than what the kickstarter folk,who basically funded and founded the game? That's like saying "Hey guys, thanks for getting our game going! Now we are gonna give everyone else the exact same package you payed all that money for, for half the price." Because that is NOT poor marketing no?

Whatever, I already plan on saying sorry to Ubernet and the rest of the awesome community by buying the alpha bundle as soon as I can. Why? Because A.) I was a douche who instantly hopped on the rage wagon, and proceeded to flame the crap out of everybody as soon as I saw the price up on steam. And B.) Because Ubernet are an awesome hard working bunch of guys, who are getting a lot of unnecessary crap atm from raging idiots. (ME Included) I'd like to play a part in shaping the game into something awesome. As I'm sure most of these other guys do too. If you don't agree with the alpha program then don't buy the game until its released. Simple

/End wallotext (Also Hi Uber o/)

The question is who is feeding who in this discussion.

I have enough money to buy the 90$ version, but for the same price i maybe can get two other good games. I buy games only if im totally convinced that it will be fun as hell for a very long time to play. And as interesting as the concept of this game sounds, i am not totally convinced, that the randomized maps and the lack of micro suit my taste of competitive play.

But from a graphical perspective, the game looks great, i never denialed that.

Absolutely agree with you there.

I would not call myself a fan of Uber, i only have played supremecomander 1 and 2 and there i found their ideas interesting, but i don't liked the execution of their ideas into the finished product.For my taste, there was a lack of finetuning unitwise.So that every unit feels special.Also their forcefield mechanic, where the forcefields could overlap each other, looked not very pleasing ascetically.

But its only my taste, this two games where definitely not bad ether.

You don't understand.The reason why i spend some time here, is not to talk with you about gameplay or ubers price politic.Im interested how other people think and why they do the things they do.In this case i was interested why people pay this price for a unfinished product and what's the reasoning behind that.I want to understand you better.And now i do.See it as a compliment.

I can be both sides at the same time. I understand each standpoint equal good.
Im not interested in one of your standpoints/memes,in particular i am interested in all of them and how they influence each other.

But now i really feel its time to push along , there is so much more to see out there.

What you say is that this writer manipulates people that way, just to maximize the own profit.If you want to be manipulated this way than its your decision , but only if you realize that you get manipulated. Im here to let you know that you get manipulated.
I don't know if uber intends this, i think they just want to realize their product and your starvation and addiction towards sci-fi rpgs serve their purpose well with the high amount of money you are willing to pay.

I not condemn you or Uber . I don't see the world in concepts of good or bad.
As i said many times in this post, i am only interested in understanding the reason behind things, not judging them.And sometimes for that i have to become the part who argues against your opinion to see if you will act the way i have predicted .

Even if i am not interested in this discussion as i explained earlier, i have to say that each of my arguments is very well thought out, the holes in this arguments which you are searching after, don't exist.

Sorry if i extravagate a bit but this particular question you have asked is really interesting.

Ideas can't be consumed
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Ideas exist in some kind of non physical form.If an idea is stored binary on your computer or written down on a page does not mater.
You can copy the idea over the internet on places like steam or torrent sites, just how you prefer , in form of Games.Or you can download them as an eBooks, if you are more interested to play in our own head.

The important thing is that ideas can't be consumed .No matter how often you copy an idea its still there, not like fuel for your engine or food which you eat.

Ideas can't be created, they only can be recombined out of existing ones.
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People can't invent something, they only can recombine things which are already there, into something which was not there in this form before or which was there but was not recognized by them.

-> All the aliens, in sci-fi movies for example are different sized recombination's of things we know from earth, like tentacle of an octopus combined with giant eyes.... .

We can't imagine something we never have seen before, we just recombine things we already know.

Sorry this was kind of oftopic but it was far more interesting for me than the other things.

So if they sell you one idea, they can only sell the same idea once, they can't say we give you 10% of the idea now and the other 90% later if you pay 180 % of the release date price right now , don't you see how unbalanced this is in their favor.

It does not matter if the idea is written down or saved as electrons in capacitors of your computers.If it is a game or a book.

Im not talking about how kickstarter works i am talking about them charging you for the same idea nearly twice just by splitting it up and act like the one part(alpha) is some kind of extra content you have to pay extra for so that you must pay more than all of the content combined costs.


So all have fun playing this game. Im not interested in talking about the game.

Alright well über didn't make sc1 and sc2 that is Gas Powered Games. The price of getting in on this game wouldn't even be a wonder in your head if you ever played total annihilation. There is a reason it is the greatest rts of all time. Every other game regardless of graphics looks so half assed and unfinished in comparison

Sorry im already leaving.

By all.

Hmm, the troll has been fed, but still seems to want more. I hope he doesn't get indigestion. :/

There's no manipulation going on here, this is purely market forces at work in a capitalist system. If supply exceeds demand (eg - in the scenario you posted in the op), prices go down. If demand exceeds supply (as for PA), prices go up. And if you don't like that, you follow one of the other tennets of the free market - Vote with your dollar and don't buy it.

In any case, I'm not sure we are paying more for alpha access. Here's the components of the GALACTIC EDITION, and their costs as I see them.

Retail Key: $40
Theta Commander: $10
Soundtrack Download: $20
Desktop Wallpaper: $5
Digital Artbook: $25
Total: $100

Alpha & Beta Access: -$10
Final Total: $90

Yes, that's Uber paying people $10 to test alpha and beta for them. Pretty sweet deal eh?

I don't understand this sudden trend to hate every company that is motivated to make some money. "Oh my god! your just doing it for the money!"

A little note little boys and girls, everyone is motivated by money! Why do you think your mommies and daddies go to work every day! GET OVER IT!

The troll was fed why did you overfeed him?
If you want to use the example of books. Use George R R Martin. If I could read every early draft I would. I've read the Theon and Arianne chapters and I'm ecstatic about the book.

Again?

Somebody report if this turns into a flame war. I'm not reading those walls of text.

It may not mean exactly all feedback will be of higher quality. Though it will stop people from paying $90 and expecting a big full game. The price FORCES you to make the decision of "is it worth it or not." If it's not worth it to you that doesn't mean Uber NEEDS to lower the price.

While it may not guarantee high quality feedback what it does guarantee is that the user will have to but extra thought into it. Of course there are those who have money to throw away and none of this matters to them at all.

Your comment is boring and meaningless.I have missunderstood you.You are not interesting at all you are boring greenbag.

There is no such thing as overfeeding me. I just did send you a thelegraph from far away.
Here is nothing more to see for me.Sorry if you dislike that but i will not stay.

I am hungry for more interesting conversations.And i will find them somewhere else.

Hey, you're fun to debate: you're smart. Beats most trolls.
(although I could do without the underlined paragraphs - seems like you're angry at me for some reason)

You raise an interesting point about purchasing ideas - that's actually a whole economic discussion in and of itself... but I think you're oversimplifying. When you're purchasing a game, you're not paying for the idea, but for the experience - and the economics of an experience are slightly different and fortunately simpler.

There's numerous advantages to being in an alpha, assuming that you're already sold on the game as a whole:

+ You get to play the game - or at least what parts of it are built - right NAOW. Time is money, and people don't like waiting, so you pay for the privilege. (my turn to underline things)
+ You get to offer feedback on the game - Uber has been very open so far even with backers, so there's a good chance that your suggestions, if reasonable, will wind up as part of the final game.
+ You get a sense of ownership of the game: "Yeah, I've been playing PA since alpha! And BOY that was a rough alpha. Remember when you could select the enemy commander and cause him to self destruct?"

So that's what Uber's charging the premium for. As I mentioned before, they would only discount the game if they were desperate to gain customers - which they're obviously not. They know they have a market, and yes, they're exploiting it.

But are they taking advantage of players? I don't think so. You can pay $90 and get into the alpha, $60 and get into the beta, and $40 to pre-order the final released game. (I'm assuming that the final game will be $50) Your options are very clear on the store page - in fact, it's been an accepted fact for a long time and the extravagant pricing of the alpha edition only came into question when the game was posted on Steam Early Access, which doesn't allow Uber to show the other options.

If you're interested, I pre-ordered the game at the beta, not the alpha level. Seeing all the bugs and unpolished gameplay, I'm actually glad I waited - I think that the first impression of the alpha game would have tainted my experience with the final game, which I'm sure will be fantastic. I just don't have the guts to be an alpha tester.