Planetary Annihilation @steam 82.99 Euros

I don't think it was unwise, I just think that it is unusual and will become more normal over time, cause a lot more games are being funded via Kickstarter and Steam Early Access... Also, I never called anyone names! ^^

To be honest, I really don't understand the fuss about all this. If you read the description on Steam you can easily understand what is going on. If other people have the time to be upset over these things, I don't. Over and out.

Yes I stand corrected about Star Citizen, Alpha is $40... but they have many higher tiers as well and you can pay for a monthly news subscription, game not included... where are the people crying about that?

To be honest, I was a Kickstarter pledger, if someone should be upset than it is us, cause late joiners can get alpha access for the same price. But... am happy for Uber and have not a problem with that...

We're talking about game TESTING here, if you can't look at an issue in a calm manner and explore it's deeper meanings, causes, side effects and more, what makes you think you'll be productive in a testing environment?

Mike

May I add that my opinion or Mikes or anyone elses opinion might not reflect the whole community nor does it stand for Ubers opinion...

Also, you are not a slave, correct... again, a slave is being forced into something... you are not...so what is the problem?

This is a bit getting out of hand here...

Yeah, I just had a discussion about this...

1) Kickstarter, which is logical, as, well, they have to give some reward for more money spent, right?
2) It's an alpha! You're testing the game! A privilege!
3) If the alpha would be cheap, a massive amount of people would get it, and the servers would collapse
4) You can always wait half a year and get the full game for 40 - seriously, what's the problem, besides entitlement?
5) Uber is awesome. Awesomeness must be funded and spread. Shower Uber with money. Do so now.

It frankly baffles me how much rage I'm seeing...

The problem is this concept of "testing" then. Traditionally, game "testers" were actually *PAID* to do *WORK.* If you offer a game for sale as an early release and say that then, as a consumer who just made a purchase, I have to do work for your company, then that's even more ridiculous. Since when does anyone pay their employer to do labor?

My understanding of how developers in these situations are referring to testing is not that I'm actually doing real work for them. It's more for the developers to test their servers, perhaps get a little light feedback, and PRIMARILY to market their games!

More kind of like *wink wink* "testing" than "We need real computer science types to do code analysis for us, who will have to pay us to do so for the privilege."

Fairness has its place, but not to the point where you risk future sales. You don't want to offend past customers as they are more likely to buy your future products, (since they already bought one) but you have to avoid offending potential customers at all costs if you want your business to grow.

It's an especially dangerous time for someone to generate a heap of negative publicity. Its E3, new and exciting games are being announced daily, other RTS games which may not be exactly comparable to PA, but will have several orders of magnitude more PR money behind them are coming out soon.

It all comes down to money, Uber may like to make the best and funnest games they can, but they need to eat, pay mortgages, buy nice things, and pay off investors. To accomplish this they need to sell games, and its difficult to do that when you offend people. Even if those people are illogical morons you hate and wish would die in various fires they have the money that Uber needs to keep making games.

Well then you don't understand how Kickstarter funded games work. We already located dozens of bugs in the alpha. Uber is patching every single day, sometimes several times a day. We help to make this game awesome. Uber cannot afford a huge Q&A department for bug testing. In this stage we have a heavy influence on how the game will turn out... They do listen to us.

If you want a game, cheap, enter the BETA just for fun, please go to EA and C&C...
I don't want to push you to another game, you are more than welcome here, but I really don't think you understand what Uber is doing with PA... and this is the future for many many games to come.

Lol...it's this exact attitude that just kills me. I understand small, new companies need help and are underfunded, and I applaud you for the assistance that you've given to them. I think it's a great thing, and I do understand Kickstarter and think it's also a good thing.

But there's this crazy gray area that's starting to emerge with Kickstarter-funded games, and is exemplified by this "alpha release," that somehow as a consumer I'm expected to do work for, and to finance in advance, the development of games.

That's just a whole level of insanity that I don't understand, and if you see something that I don't (I'm not so arrogant to assume my view is absolutely correct), then maybe you're right.

I would have no problem with *NOT* having pre-release games on Steam, having only Kickstarter backers given early access to betas, and all of that. What I'm absolutely against is the implication that, if I didn't invest my own money and time in a developer's risky venture that I'm somehow the bad guy. THAT'S NOT MY JOB!

EDIT: The clarify my point further; the whole concept reminds me of a kid who offered to rake the leaves from my lawn one time, but expected to be paid before he'd done the work. It's just so nervy...

To make it simple and short...

Are you a big fan of TA, SupCom and so on... are you willing to "pledge" not buy... "pledge" for a successor... Yes or No.

If yes... you will buy it... If no... walk away.

To be honest, if you think this is insanity, than this is simply not for you... why do we even discuss it?

I have no idea what those things are. So I can't say. [Edit: My apologies...it was the acronyms that threw me for a second.]

But, now that I understand, you're still missing my point, so I guess I'll just stop trying to teach you how to see the world for a perspective other than your own. Sigh...

Wait, did somebody force you to buy the game? How horrible, somebody should arrest those uber goons.


Wait what, thats not what happened? You could just wait until the game is released and pay the normal price then? But you can't do it because you have to get it right now this instant? Well, though luck.

People call you the bad guy because your demands are ridiculous. The steam early access is not here for you to hunt bugs. Its for people who can't wait and want to have it right now. Uber isn't expecting to get alpha testers who pay for having to alpha test for them. Its there because people wanted to get it through steam, no other reason.

By releasing it on Steam, the company is implying that yes, I should buy the game.

And I'm not trying to imply that early backers shouldn't get early access. What I've been saying now, in several posts, is that you shouldn't have the audacity to release a game on Steam, then, which is a place that should be, in my opinion for *FINISHED* games, for an exorbitant price! Am I speaking Chinese? It seems like a pretty simply concept to me.

And you, as a good consumer, can't resist that.

Well, where's the problem then?

TA= Total Annihilation, the game PA will be kind of based on...

Supreme Commander is another game that was kinda the successor of TA...

Ah, so you buy literally every Steam game, like a braindead zombie who can't resist?

Well, carry on then. But I'm sure that's completely wrong.

What? That's ridiculous, by releasing it on Steam they are giving OPTIONS, it's already been available directly from Uber on thier Site since shortly after the Kickstarter, people wanted steam thought, so they gave it to them under the same terms they were already using on thier store, that's all there is to it, you are NOT being extorted into buying anything ever.

Mike

You are totally missing my entire point, clearly, and I didn't expect to really communicate to the fan boys, anyways -- it's the developers who need to hear this stuff, not you.

As I said in my first reply to this post, it's a matter of *PERCEPTION*. It's what the very act of them releasing a game for $90 on Steam implies about how this company perceives me as a consumer.

You keep saying they're releasing a game on steam, they haven't done that yet, they made Early Access Available via the Steam Early Access System.

It's different form a proper release, which won't be happening until December.

Mike

As for the difference between a "Steam Early Access" release and an actual "release" (both of which are consumer products, anyways) I'd simply refer you to this video from "My Cousin Vinny"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVjbf-dHjW0

"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry...the YOUUUTTTHHHSS!"