Is there such a thing as a more enjoyable alpha than launch?

mmoguy43

It seem like for some MMOs there is talk of PRE-patch when the game was so much better. Is this true with the multitude of barebones early access alphas? See as every game is doing it now, when is the right time to start? Is there a time were the game continues to develop but looses its fun after beta and beyond?

Maybe there is some formula that applies to know. (Willingness to dispose of currency) x (Hype) x (Nothing else to play)...

Pemmin

generally its just a marketing gimmick to make more money earlier in development(instead of preordering for beta access you pay 10 fold for alpha access). its usually not a matter of the game being less fun at a later state....and more of the games aren't that fun in general resulting in them failing(in the case of indie games not getting additional funding and triple A games less interest in the final product).

the only real exception was Archeage because it was amazing before all the pay to win aspects were added.

Battlerock

Ideally the "game" will be more fun at launch. However, it might be more relevanvant at alpha access with respect to hype from media and twitch streamers. This is where you find out if you actually like games, or you're someone that is just caught up in the social hype bubble. Would you be opposed to playing a game that came out last year, but isn't as popular as it was at launch? If you answered yes, then your someone that actually likes to play games, if you just play the flavor of the month, like many twitch streamers, you might not actually like games, you might just be someone that gets caught up in the hype.

Right now some games that are better than they ever were that I am playing, Bf4 and SWTOR, both of those titles have improved ten fold since they launched, it's like night and day. I know who would have thought a couple of EA games, but today both of those games are fine tuned and polished experiences. There has never been a better time than now to play them both, and guess what one of those games is massively discounted, and one is free.

Kefo

Archeage was an example of a game that was fun while it was in "Alpha". I say alpha in quotes because this wasn't a true alpha but more of a marketing alpha. Anyways once patch 1.2 hit the game started it's slide downhill.

Cyrosphere

Champions Online is probably the poster child for this issue.

Alpha and Beta builds for the game involved fairly interesting power combinations you could use to customize your character to a huge degree, then right before launch they completely overhauled the entire system to be more similar to what it is today.

Kyleran

Originally posted by Kefo
Archeage was an example of a game that was fun while it was in "Alpha". I say alpha in quotes because this wasn't a true alpha but more of a marketing alpha. Anyways once patch 1.2 hit the game started it's slide downhill.

This.  Most people who were part of the early launch would agree it was the game's best days last summer, with the decline setting in once the doors were opened to the masses.

 

Mavolence

Originally posted by Kyleran

Originally posted by Kefo
Archeage was an example of a game that was fun while it was in "Alpha". I say alpha in quotes because this wasn't a true alpha but more of a marketing alpha. Anyways once patch 1.2 hit the game started it's slide downhill.

This.  Most people who were part of the early launch would agree it was the game's best days last summer, with the decline setting in once the doors were opened to the masses.

 

Agreed, to a point. I really enjoyed the Korean CBT's but after many things were changed very early on it lost its luster fast and furious.

vadio123

PR/Marketing team   - our team going develop ULTRA MEGA REALISTC game

Dev 1 - "PR team its crazy" 

Ceo - " Dont worrier actual alot stupids customer accepty anything"

Dev 1 - " indeed going devlop some crapy never going finish and move on" 

 

or something like that 

If have stupids people to buy alpha/beta unfinished product why not make it?

if keep going money flow finsh if not , just release fews minor patchs with promises one day going finish

Alomar

I would never have thought it possible to answer yes to this question till I played ArcheAge. The Alpha was way better pre-1.1 patch, in the end I couldn't stand the horribly managed pay-to-win game it was at launch. I played 2 months of Alpha and less than 3 weeks post launch, that's all you need to know. If it had been the pre-1.1 Alpha version I would of played it for months and wouldn't refuse to play all other Trion products in the future, like I do now.

nennafir

Originally posted by Cyrosphere

Champions Online is probably the poster child for this issue.

Alpha and Beta builds for the game involved fairly interesting power combinations you could use to customize your character to a huge degree, then right before launch they completely overhauled the entire system to be more similar to what it is today.

Weird.  As a long time Cryptic fan and early beta (just after alpha) tester of CO, I thought the main problem was always too much choice.

Too much choice leads (paradoxically) to very homogenized builds.  People will choose the couple of aesthetic powers that go with whatever design they want, but after that choose mix/max powers.  Since CO allowed this, virtually everyone had the same min/max powers.

You actually want to restrict build choices in order to encourage diversity.  You want cool power XXX?  Well, how much do you want it?  Enough to make sure you will never get cool powers YYY or ZZZ?

d_20

Originally posted by Kyleran

Originally posted by Kefo
Archeage was an example of a game that was fun while it was in "Alpha". I say alpha in quotes because this wasn't a true alpha but more of a marketing alpha. Anyways once patch 1.2 hit the game started it's slide downhill.

This.  Most people who were part of the early launch would agree it was the game's best days last summer, with the decline setting in once the doors were opened to the masses.

 

This is what I came here to say.

 

AA was a lot of fun before launch and subsequent changes.

Battlerock

Originally posted by d_20

Originally posted by Kyleran
Originally posted by Kefo
Archeage was an example of a game that was fun while it was in "Alpha". I say alpha in quotes because this wasn't a true alpha but more of a marketing alpha. Anyways once patch 1.2 hit the game started it's slide downhill.

This.  Most people who were part of the early launch would agree it was the game's best days last summer, with the decline setting in once the doors were opened to the masses.

 

This is what I came here to say.

 

AA was a lot of fun before launch and subsequent changes.

 

only because it went pay to win, outside of that, the game itself is better.

Raagnarz

SWTOR is another example of this. It had a lot of features that were in the alpha/beta builds that got stripped out for release. I amd my friends enjoyed the alpha nd beta so much more than initial release. Eventually most of what was stripped found its way back into the game in some form. Archeage as others have said is another example.

Battlerock

Originally posted by Raagnarz

SWTOR is another example of this. It had a lot of features that were in the alpha/beta builds that got stripped out for release. I amd my friends enjoyed the alpha nd beta so much more than initial release. Eventually most of what was stripped found its way back into the game in some form. Archeage as others have said is another example.

 

LOL - Swtor is on fire right now, the game is better than its ever been. Go download it and check it out.

Ender4

Alpha and Beta generally has a smaller, tighter community and you get more access to the devs. Generally speaking I've found them to be more fun than games post release. WoW was way more fun during friends and family beta than it was after release as an example.