🚀 go-pugleaf

On Sun, 22 Dec 2013 09:35:29 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson
<spallsh...@gmail.com> wrote:

>On Sun, 22 Dec 2013 16:33:57 +0400, "Andrew Rybenkov"
><aryb...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>On Sun, 22 Dec 2013 14:53:56 +0400, Andrew Rybenkov <aryb...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Flash-sale games are full of unfinished (so called "early access") crap.
>>
>>now it is even more ridiculous: Flash Sale: a dlc for "early access" game. Really?
>
>DLC for a game that hasn't even been released?
>
>This early access bullshit needs to die, and fast. Essentially, you
>are paying for the privilege of being an employee by beta-testing (or
>even alpha-testing) the developer's software.  It's one thing if they
>allow access to the beta for free (in which point, you are still
>working for the employer, but you are getting paid by being allowed to
>see the game before anyone else), but this is just "double-dipping". 

This has been one of my biggest peeves of the last year or so, this
trend of early access and releasing half-baked games.  

On one hand, small indie shops may not have the financial resources
available to conduct proper alpha testing before going beta.  Even in
beta, I'm generally not interested.  I want a finished game.
Technically they are not finished even when they are, the never ending
patching goes on and on; that is a normal part of the software
lifecycle.  

However, there was a time when games were completed to a state of
stability that amounted to every major bug that was known by
development was fixed, then it went to alpha to weed out any bugs
internal testers could find, then beta to find the more obscure bugs
like installing across a wider range of hardware, server load issues,
etc.

These days, the title just gets thrown over the fence in a state of
50% completion and the customer is told they get the privilege of
helping shape the game.  I guess to some extent the trend is a
response to the incessant whining about how the game should have been
this or that.

All I can hope is that the Steam Reviews feature will help mitigate
this "early access" disease that has been plaguing the industry.  If a
half-baked game is what is presented to the gamer, then let it be
judged and rated on that state.  Buggy?  Then it gets a shitty rating.
Most people are not going to go back and slowly update their rating or
recommendation as bugs get repaired.