The best way I can describe the value of Alpha access.

I've seen some people try to argue that consumers should be paid to have alpha access, or at least get a discount. This works well as a promo for some games (and rest assured that all discounted "early access" games are done in the spirit of promotion), but it doesn't for all games. People are claiming that giving consumers alpha access is just having people pay to do your work for you. This isn't true. Simply having access doesn't come with the long hours, the repetitive work, the detailed reports, or any of the responsibility that a paid testing position comes with.


The way I see it, there are 3 kinds of people who play a game:

The Early Access consumers,
The Launch and Post-launch consumers,
and the Paid Testers.


Analogy time (and cookies).



A game is like a box of cookies.

Paid Testers are people who work all day in the cookie factory.
Launch and Post-launch consumers are people who buy a box of cookies at Wal-mart.
Early Access consumers are people who pay for a tour of the cookie factory.


For the Factory workers (paid testers), cookies are long and hard work. It's work they're passionate about but sometimes it's hard to feel the passion under the long hours and stress of a job. Sure they get to eat cookies, but it's work.

For the Walmart consumer (Launch buyers), cookies are a forgettable snack they casually eat off of their chest while playing WoW. The Walmart consumer couldn't care less about how a cookie was made and would be bored to tears if someone bothered explaining it.

For the Tourists (Early Access consumers), a cookie is an experience. It's the day they went to a factory and were shown around, the day they got to see how the dough was made and how new recipes are invented, the day they got to see and experience what all kinds of factory workers do, the day they got to taste test a brand new flavor of cookie, the day they got to knead some of their favorite brand of cookie dough, the daythey got to see how packages were printed, the day they got their picture taken to appear on a cookie box, and the day they walked away from a factory with a fresh-baked box of the best cookies they'd ever had in their hands. The tourist got to do some of the stuff a factory worker does, but they didn't do their job for them.

As you can see, everyone technically got a box of cookies, but the Tourists got the most out of those cookies.

If there was a like button...I'd spam it. +1 to This.

good post, I can't help but feel the lack of $40 preorders led to most of the controversy

Having the pre-order available on Steam certainly wouldn't have hurt.

Steam wouldn't allow PA to be both an Early Access Title AND allow for Pre-Orders.

Mike

Specifically Steam doesn't allow pre-orders this far out from the release date. There are a handful of games closer to final release in the early access program that offer pre-orders or special pre orders that include beta access for games not explicitly part of the early access program.

Thanks for the Clarification.

Mike

Nice post! +1

Now I'm hungry

(+1)

+1

And since I have Almond horns right in front of me I don't even feel bad reading about cookies.

Just checked. No cookies left in my pantry. :cry:

+1

I bought the Alpha just now as I only learned about this game a few weeks despite my being a rabid TA fan. I know that I'd certainly buy it in the beta and when I value the difference ($30 or an hour of overtime doing nothing). I can justify it quite easily. I normally don't preorder games but I would love to see them have a marketing budget at some point that can spread knowledge of this game to all the other old TA fiends.

I'd like magic everlasting cookies. I want alpha, beta, and retail cookies.

I hope you posted this on the Steam forums.

The problem we're seeing over their is that all the WoW players who just want to eat the box of cookies off of the bulge of their stomach are demanding that they get the grand cookie factory tour free of charge - some are even suggesting they should be paid to be taken on that tour, to be given the fancy tour photos, given dough samples, allowed to pour a batch of chocolate chips into the giant mixer, and walk out with a warm fresh batch before it's gotten to the store shelf all cold and stale-like.

If only it was possible to physically knock sense into people, because there are a lot of folks over there that need a good slap.