Cash-grab?

Lerxst

Marketing 101: A good product sells itself.

 

That right there makes me leery of AO. I've played MMOs for 20 years and played my share of Free to Play games. The good ones market the game, not the investment.

 

Look at World of Tanks. Say what you will about F2P games, but they market like crazy while they putting the number of ways to spend money on it, on the back burner. The result is a rather good game (for what it is) while not coming across as a cheaply dressed, used car salesman in the process.

 

AO looks good form videos, but any and every time I see a posting about the game, receive an email aboutthe game, or simply visit their Web site, I'm inundated with the number of ways I can spend money for the privilege of playing.

 

HUGE red flags, sirens and warning bells going off right there.

 

AO might looks like a game I might want to play, but their desperation makes me hesitate to actually try it when it's released. All of their pre-release marketing so far, seems like a giant cash-grab. And that's usually the first sign of a failed game.

 

vadio123

Well since all mmo in this days dont live more 3 moth after release

its start very common try milk all money before release with founder/lifetime packs 

 

Game itself not wrong , played bit with my mates its decente but not OMG perfect to play with smal groups 

since all contet developed for 5-15 man guild include territory war/gvg

Zarf42

This is every new MMO nowadays.  How are you surprised?

Viper482

It is absolutely just another cash grab. This will end just like they all do, badly. Why people pay up to $100 to test an unfinished game which will be release for FREE is bafffling to me. Here we go again! No doubt you will all be testing their cash shop too in no time.

Azaron_Nightblade

Originally posted by Viper482
 Why people pay up to $100 to test an unfinished game which will be release for FREE is bafffling to me. 

Lack of patience and restraint. :P

The "I want it NAO!" mentality has proven to be a true goldmine for developers.

Korn42

The goal for Albion Online is to be around even 10 years from now, with Eve Online being the stated role model. 

This is also the reason why we take our time with the development even though from a technical point of view, it would have been possible to release the game last year. 

Due to the fact that we are independant and have a clear vision for a game, the last thing we want to do is to repeat the mistakes made by other game developers. We are all gamers ourselves and want to create a game that we love to play ourselves, for the long term. 

 

CrazKanuk

Originally posted by Lerxst

Marketing 101: A good product sells itself. 

This is possibly the most overused cliche ever. If a good product sold itself then why would Activision sink 500 MILLION dollars into marketing a game? 

 

That being said, I don't disagree with your premise. I actually think that developers are pushing the envelope on the value of alpha in recent months or years. At the very least, you've got to give people an equivalent amount to what they spend in in-game cash, don't you? This is where I find crowdfunding campaigns fall down, and where EA programs fall down. It's like, "I give you $50, now you give me $50" Let's face it, it doesn't "cost" them anything and, if anything, it encourages the customer to spend money at the cash shop and, possibly, learn about the advantages of using it. Please don't give me some digital dressing (like clothes and a telescope). 

 

Firefall probably had one of the best values I've seen. 

Dreamo84

Why wouldn't they tell people the purchases are available? I'm not sure why people keep insisting a company trying to make money is some how wrong. Just because you want all game developers to have nothing but selfless and noble intentions of providing games to the public for as little money as possible, doesn't mean they will.

Not for profit video game developers don't exist.

Korn42

Originally posted by DMKano
OP - if you feel like it's a cash grab to you, wait til it's released as a free game. Simple.

Or, as there is no NDA on the game during testing, you can watch a lot of videos about it on YouTube or watch a lot of people stream the game on Twitch once the next test starts on the 26th of January.