I'm just happy there is a pre-Alpha for people to argue about. That was never guaranteed. This game could easily have not made it this far. Thank goodness it did.
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
They've said openly this will be very traditional game testing.
I remember when traditional game testing was. Internal testing Friends and family testing sign ups for alpha keys Alpha testing Sign ups for beta testing Beta testing Open beta for everyone Release
Now it seems to be more about no internal testing release early access payment bundles at various over prices prices Have pre alpha testing pre alpha testing 2 New packs and new items for cash announced Micro transaction store announced Beta 1 Beta 2 Beta 3 (all still requiring more than a released games actual price to test) Add more items to micro transaction currency shop Pre order + bonuses Pre order early test Last chance early bird pre orders few days headstart release (usually with half the content promised in the game description dont added yet and will be dlc later)
Actually traditional testing was internal, friends and family, and pro (paid) testers. Players didn't get in until the final phases to uncover elusive bugs, performance issues and server stress testing.
Pantheon has and will have all of that, but as an indie company will not be able to hire a lot of people just to test the game. As someone who knows many of the people who have pre-alpha access, I have not met a single person who pledge for access. It was to make the game a reality.
If you are pledging solely for early access, you are making a mistake.
Pre-this , Pre-That ... and by the time of 2020 , we might have a Closed Beta.
..and people were/are crying over Blizzard development time-frame , lol .
Reporter: What's behind Blizzard success, and how do you make your gamers happy? Blizzard Boss: Making gamers happy is not my concern, making money.. yes!
For example GW1's testing that started back in 2004 I think was - something like - two short (weekend) pre-pre-alpha tests for people who volunteered about a month apart. Then they sold - sold! - pre-launch boxes for $10. These gave people a) $5 discount off the game if they bought it b) access to further "test weekends" that ran monthly. Exact details may be a little different but it was something like that anyway.
At the other end of the spectrum DDO had a single, short stress test and then launched.
With other games falling inbetween.
For those supporting Pantheon this, hopefully, is a good thing. Which, hopefully, will in time lead to people not currently supporting Pantheon to have the option of partaking in it.
For example GW1's testing that started back in 2004 I think was - something like - two short (weekend) pre-pre-alpha tests for people who volunteered about a month apart. Then they sold - sold! - pre-launch boxes for $10. These gave people a) $5 discount off the game if they bought it b) access to further "test weekends" that ran monthly. Exact details may be a little different but it was something like that anyway.
At the other end of the spectrum DDO had a single, short stress test and then launched.
With other games falling inbetween.
For those supporting Pantheon this, hopefully, is a good thing. Which, hopefully, will in time lead to people not currently supporting Pantheon to have the option of partaking in it.
What?
Reporter: What's behind Blizzard success, and how do you make your gamers happy? Blizzard Boss: Making gamers happy is not my concern, making money.. yes!
Pre-this , Pre-That ... and by the time of 2020 , we might have a Closed Beta.
..and people were/are crying over Blizzard development time-frame , lol .
Can't compare apples to oranges. 1 team has hundreds of millions, if not hundreds of billions of dollars and established while the other is just starting out.
I hope they take time to make a good game. Not have it rushed out like Vanguard did from the Publisher cause they wanted money
Pre-this , Pre-That ... and by the time of 2020 , we might have a Closed Beta.
..and people were/are crying over Blizzard development time-frame , lol .
Can't compare apples to oranges. 1 team has hundreds of millions, if not hundreds of billions of dollars and established while the other is just starting out.
I hope they take time to make a good game. Not have it rushed out like Vanguard did from the Publisher cause they wanted money
Ya this tread baffles me. People clearly still can't wrap their head around how crowd funding works and leap on their SJW soap box to berate something that doesn't affect them in the least. These new indie made mmorpgs in development also have roughly the same or even smaller teams than early gen mmorgs had so it's the return to older style game testing where each stage is an important mile stone and should rightly get fans of the game excited.
It doesn't matter what this stage of testing is called ... it only matters that it's a move toward turning the game concept into a more playable product. This is good news.
For example GW1's testing that started back in 2004 I think was - something like - two short (weekend) pre-pre-alpha tests for people who volunteered about a month apart. Then they sold - sold! - pre-launch boxes for $10. These gave people a) $5 discount off the game if they bought it b) access to further "test weekends" that ran monthly. Exact details may be a little different but it was something like that anyway.
At the other end of the spectrum DDO had a single, short stress test and then launched.
With other games falling inbetween.
For those supporting Pantheon this, hopefully, is a good thing. Which, hopefully, will in time lead to people not currently supporting Pantheon to have the option of partaking in it.
What?
Different games have used different types of testing for years.
For those supporting Pantheon this is a good thing; for those not currently supporting Pantheon maybe it will finish and launch one day and then they will have the option of buying it. If it all goes well etc.
It is under NDA, most likely why the price of PRE-ALPHA is high to lower the chance of a leak.
GL with that tho
what classes are avaliable in the "pre-alpha"?
There is a tight NDA, and I would assume, if you did pay $1,000, you're not too keen on getting your access revoked. It's not hard to track players with pre-alpha accounts.
$350 is acceptable for a decent size TV, ridiculous to beta test a game...I remember when we were doing them the favor to test their games for free, now they want to charge an arm and a leg for us to test bad games.
You guys are looking at this all wrong. This is a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for development. VR is not EA. They don't have infinite pools of money. The company has been very up front and exceedingly clear about this. It's essentially a Kickstarter. At $350 one of the backer rewards you get is Alpha/Beta access.
If you don't want to pay it, fine lol. No one is forcing you. Let the people with money to burn pay for the development so that you get a better game at launch.
This is basically a long term kickstarter reward. At the $1000 tier you get access to pre-alpha.
Good job Lasterba,
It seems people are thinking greedy "here's my money, give me everything in return"
By giving a $1000 your saying "I believe in your cause, here's some money, I'll help you make a game"
Access to pre-alpha is a SMALL GIFT in return !!! It's no different than giving large sums of money to a charity and they give you a small red plastic flower that you could pin on your jacket.... meaning thank you !
People here seem to look at it this way "here's a $1000, give me a $1000 back"
$350 is acceptable for a decent size TV, ridiculous to beta test a game...I remember when we were doing them the favor to test their games for free, now they want to charge an arm and a leg for us to test bad games.
You guys are looking at this all wrong. This is a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for development. VR is not EA. They don't have infinite pools of money. The company has been very up front and exceedingly clear about this. It's essentially a Kickstarter. At $350 one of the backer rewards you get is Alpha/Beta access.
If you don't want to pay it, fine lol. No one is forcing you. Let the people with money to burn pay for the development so that you get a better game at launch.
VR also raised series A funding in April 2017
They are going to be doing series B funding soon.
So they are rasing money in addition to crowdfunding
I am glad they are, if they didn't find someone to do this stuff, the game may never get done, and if it did, it would probably be horrible. I just hope they can raise enough to give us a quality finished product that runs good (so it doesn't scare people off, it is hard to fix and keep customers...aka Vanguard).
Comments
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
Internal testing
Friends and family testing
sign ups for alpha keys
Alpha testing
Sign ups for beta testing
Beta testing
Open beta for everyone
Release
Now it seems to be more about
no internal testing
release early access payment bundles at various over prices prices
Have pre alpha testing
pre alpha testing 2
New packs and new items for cash announced
Micro transaction store announced
Beta 1
Beta 2
Beta 3
(all still requiring more than a released games actual price to test)
Add more items to micro transaction currency shop
Pre order + bonuses
Pre order early test
Last chance early bird pre orders
few days headstart
release (usually with half the content promised in the game description dont added yet and will be dlc later)
Pantheon has and will have all of that, but as an indie company will not be able to hire a lot of people just to test the game. As someone who knows many of the people who have pre-alpha access, I have not met a single person who pledge for access. It was to make the game a reality.
If you are pledging solely for early access, you are making a mistake.
..and people were/are crying over Blizzard development time-frame , lol .
Reporter: What's behind Blizzard success, and how do you make your gamers happy?
Blizzard Boss: Making gamers happy is not my concern, making money.. yes!
As to testing it depends on the game.
For example GW1's testing that started back in 2004 I think was - something like - two short (weekend) pre-pre-alpha tests for people who volunteered about a month apart. Then they sold - sold! - pre-launch boxes for $10. These gave people a) $5 discount off the game if they bought it b) access to further "test weekends" that ran monthly. Exact details may be a little different but it was something like that anyway.
At the other end of the spectrum DDO had a single, short stress test and then launched.
With other games falling inbetween.
For those supporting Pantheon this, hopefully, is a good thing. Which, hopefully, will in time lead to people not currently supporting Pantheon to have the option of partaking in it.
Reporter: What's behind Blizzard success, and how do you make your gamers happy?
Blizzard Boss: Making gamers happy is not my concern, making money.. yes!
You stay sassy!
Sorry but No. We are not.
what classes are avaliable in the "pre-alpha"?
I hope they take time to make a good game. Not have it rushed out like Vanguard did from the Publisher cause they wanted money
It doesn't matter what this stage of testing is called ... it only matters that it's a move toward turning the game concept into a more playable product. This is good news.
You stay sassy!
For those supporting Pantheon this is a good thing; for those not currently supporting Pantheon maybe it will finish and launch one day and then they will have the option of buying it. If it all goes well etc.
If you don't want to pay it, fine lol. No one is forcing you. Let the people with money to burn pay for the development so that you get a better game at launch.
Good job Lasterba,
It seems people are thinking greedy "here's my money, give me everything in return"
By giving a $1000 your saying "I believe in your cause, here's some money, I'll help you make a game"
Access to pre-alpha is a SMALL GIFT in return !!!
It's no different than giving large sums of money to a charity and they give you a small red plastic flower that you could pin on your jacket.... meaning thank you !
People here seem to look at it this way "here's a $1000, give me a $1000 back"