Ashes of Creation June Alpha One Test Delayed, Other MMO Launches, More For Delay | MMORPG.com

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Ashes of Creation June Alpha One Test Delayed, Other MMO Launches, More For Delay | MMORPG.com

Ashes of Creation's upcoming NDA-less Alpha One test was scheduled to take place on June 1st and run the whole month, however in an update Intredpid Studios has announced that the test will be delayed into July.

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Albatroes

"The team cites a few reasons for this test, but most prominent among them is the timing of other MMO expansions and releases and its affect on the testing playerbase."

So if I'm reading this correctly.....they believe they cannot have proper testing if there is 'release competition' of any kind....? Honestly, that's BS. They could easily still have it now and push the time of the alpha by a month.....and before you knights in white begin to suit up, Same excuse will just follow when Endwalker comes out in fall or Elyon and there like 1-2 other betas. Fk, wouldn't surprise me if they use this excuse whenever Bless Unleashed comes out or whenever Blizzard puts out the PTR for 9.2. Grow some stones. OH WAIT! THEY CAN'T DO IT IN JULY! THAT'S AROUND THE TIME OF NEW WORLD! DELAY IT TO 2022 GUYS!

Slapshot1188

Wow. Who could have guessed.

Vexiusx

Not surprised but even june or even this year would still be to early. The game already is doomed due to the insane expectations behind it.

Slapshot1188

Albatroes said:

"The team cites a few reasons for this test, but most prominent among them is the timing of other MMO expansions and releases and its affect on the testing playerbase."



So if I'm reading this correctly.....they believe they cannot have proper testing if there is 'release competition' of any kind....? Honestly, that's BS. They could easily still have it now and push the time of the alpha by a month.....and before you knights in white begin to suit up, Same excuse will just follow when Endwalker comes out in fall or Elyon and there like 1-2 other betas. Fk, wouldn't surprise me if they use this excuse whenever Bless Unleashed comes out or whenever Blizzard puts out the PTR for 9.2. Grow some stones. OH WAIT! THEY CAN'T DO IT IN JULY! THAT'S AROUND THE TIME OF NEW WORLD! DELAY IT TO 2022 GUYS!

That is one of the most ridiculous things this guy has said, and he has said a lot. Of course the Streamers on his payroll won't call him on it. Isn't the New World closed beta in July?

Markn

Slapshot1188 said:

Albatroes said:

"The team cites a few reasons for this test, but most prominent among them is the timing of other MMO expansions and releases and its affect on the testing playerbase."





So if I'm reading this correctly.....they believe they cannot have proper testing if there is 'release competition' of any kind....? Honestly, that's BS. They could easily still have it now and push the time of the alpha by a month.....and before you knights in white begin to suit up, Same excuse will just follow when Endwalker comes out in fall or Elyon and there like 1-2 other betas. Fk, wouldn't surprise me if they use this excuse whenever Bless Unleashed comes out or whenever Blizzard puts out the PTR for 9.2. Grow some stones. OH WAIT! THEY CAN'T DO IT IN JULY! THAT'S AROUND THE TIME OF NEW WORLD! DELAY IT TO 2022 GUYS!

That is one of the most ridiculous things this guy has said, and he has said a lot. Of course the Streamers on his payroll won't call him on it.

Isn't the New World closed beta in July?

New World open beta should be in july if they expect to release in August still but ya supposed to be some kind of beta in july.

Dhampir

Doesnt surprise me....bad excuse.

KaliGold

They made sure to announce this AFTER they opened access to alpha one again on May 5th for upwards of 500 dollars.

Yes, they extended refunds for up to 90 days, but still...it seems sketchy coming from a company that doesn't exactly have the best reputation in that regard.

[Deleted User]

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Iselin

A crowdfunded MMO postpones a milestone? Lol, what else is new?

However, the reasons given sound legit to me... even the third one when you consider how reliant all games these days are on streamers generating buzz for them.

I don't read that as potential alpha players being busy playing classic TBC or ESO's Oblivion (lol) but as streamers not streaming AoC quite as much because they'll be streaming those other two.

They'll of course have a similar problem in July with the New World beta and August with that release (if they happen on those dates - this is not a sure thing) but I do see that as being an issue for them as an "also this" kind of issue if not the main one.

Neoyoshi

Slapshot1188 said:

Wow. Who could have guessed.

Me, i did, i guessed this.

Has anyone played this game? like, at all? is there a test build that people have played?

RemyVorender

I'm just glad they are still working on the MMO, because I really thought they were going to go all in on the BR and then drop a smoke grenade.

Blackboa

Vaperware. Pure and simply. He (sherrif) has a ponzi scheme past with MLM and this wouldn't suprise me if it was a ponzi scheme again.

mussolini

They didnt sell much pack, need more time to get more money. How much it was 500 to try first alpha? What a joke is today's games.

Markn

Neoyoshi said:

Slapshot1188 said:

Wow. Who could have guessed.

Me, i did, i guessed this.




Has anyone played this game? like, at all? is there a test build that people have played?

Yes.

sk8chalif

Asmongold is probably one of the biggest streamer that will play Ashes of creation Alpha one and on June 1 World of warcraft: The Burning Crusade (Classic) is releasing. Matter of fact, lots of people will stream that. So yes it does make perfect sense here.
its not that Ashes of creation wont be able to compete, it's more because it wont have the exposure that they would have wanted Since all the streamer will be playing wow. So Pushing it 1 month make sense.

sk8chalif

Slapshot1188 said:

Albatroes said:

"The team cites a few reasons for this test, but most prominent among them is the timing of other MMO expansions and releases and its affect on the testing playerbase."





So if I'm reading this correctly.....they believe they cannot have proper testing if there is 'release competition' of any kind....? Honestly, that's BS. They could easily still have it now and push the time of the alpha by a month.....and before you knights in white begin to suit up, Same excuse will just follow when Endwalker comes out in fall or Elyon and there like 1-2 other betas. Fk, wouldn't surprise me if they use this excuse whenever Bless Unleashed comes out or whenever Blizzard puts out the PTR for 9.2. Grow some stones. OH WAIT! THEY CAN'T DO IT IN JULY! THAT'S AROUND THE TIME OF NEW WORLD! DELAY IT TO 2022 GUYS!

That is one of the most ridiculous things this guy has said, and he has said a lot. Of course the Streamers on his payroll won't call him on it.

Isn't the New World closed beta in July?

Closed Beta will begin on July 20, 2021 for New World.
Ashes will have plenty of time for their creators/streamer to make video and all.

Kyleran

What I learned the most from this thread is the ridiculous idea / fact I guess that social media streamers can influence business decisions and gamer's opinions so heavily.

Where's a good apocalypse when you need one?

Scot

There I was thinking I needed to actually learn something about Ashes so I can sound insightful when the Alpha started. Ok, pushing that back a bit.

Alomar

Just be honest, that's a garbage excuse because New World's July Beta has more hype behind it than ESO's 5th/6th and declining in quality expansion in June.

Greatsword

"Please pay me $500 for closed alpha next week".

...

"LOL thanks for the money. See you in 4 months. Or never."

koyutakota

personally it doesnt make sense to me. i get it if it was the actual game release but its a test so either they have a lower population than what they make us think they have or they dont believe in the product they have to show but anyway im also pretty sure people who spent alot to have access to the alpha will play it over any other mmo expansions that are fully releasing. a limited release vs permanent release pretty sure people will jump into the limited one before something they know they will have access to at any time

Babuinix

Kyleran said:

What I learned the most from this thread is the ridiculous idea / fact I guess that social media streamers can influence business decisions and gamer's opinions so heavily.

Where's a good apocalypse when you need one?

For the better or worse they do influence. More so than the reviews on gaming magazines did in the old years.

Unfortunately the general gaming population still has very little knowledge about how game development so getting mega-hype and knee-jerking reactions are a common occurrence.

At first this news rubbed me in the wrong way as it clearly showed that the "open alpha" main focus is marketing and not sharing the development process as I'm used to but @sk8chalif post put things in perspective and it makes perfect sense in that way.

Asmongold, along other streamers became a huge driving force of attention and consequently hype  for Ashes of Creation so it's only natural that they want to preserve that momentum.

Pushing an highly unpolished build at the same that the big players release expansions would indeed a bad move as it would put them into direct comparison and Sharif shows with this move that not only he's willing to adapt plans for the sake of a long term vision but that he's not afraid to take the heat of the disappointment of it's fans or the scorn of it's critics while at the same time giving is team more time to work on the build and minimise crunch and overall stress of it's employers.

My biggest advice to anyone interested in this game is do not jump to conclusions whenever you read a clickbait headline pointing that  something got off tracks or feels off. Instead, make the effort to get the whole picture and try to be comprehensive of why things happen the way they do. This goes both ways, for critical or praise.

As a disclaimer, I haven't backed AoC but say this as someone who's quite familiar with the roller-coaster that is game development and it's constant changes of plans as many here will very well know

Slapshot1188

sk8chalif said:

Asmongold is probably one of the biggest streamer that will play Ashes of creation Alpha one and on June 1 World of warcraft: The Burning Crusade (Classic) is releasing. Matter of fact, lots of people will stream that. So yes it does make perfect sense here.
its not that Ashes of creation wont be able to compete, it's more because it wont have the exposure that they would have wanted Since all the streamer will be playing wow. So Pushing it 1 month make sense.

This is a true development alpha. This is not a marketing alpha; and what that means is as you know part of the process here in developing Ashes of Creation is being open with that development so you guys can see that progress; and it is a double-edged sword. [2] – Steven Sharif

Which one is true?  because they cannot both be.

Babuinix

Slapshot1188 said:

sk8chalif said:

Asmongold is probably one of the biggest streamer that will play Ashes of creation Alpha one and on June 1 World of warcraft: The Burning Crusade (Classic) is releasing. Matter of fact, lots of people will stream that. So yes it does make perfect sense here.
its not that Ashes of creation wont be able to compete, it's more because it wont have the exposure that they would have wanted Since all the streamer will be playing wow. So Pushing it 1 month make sense.

This is a true development alpha. This is not a marketing alpha; and what that means is as you know part of the process here in developing Ashes of Creation is being open with that development so you guys can see that progress; and it is a double-edged sword. [2] – Steven Sharif

Which one is true?  because they cannot both be.

They are both true. Showing the game to the community is the closed NDA testing, when you open it to the world it is done to entice more interest/backers and to get feedback and data along the way.

It's also true that when you're developing indoors things can be broken and look/feel bad enough because you're dealing with people in the industry who understand why things are the way they are.

Showing a game in the open you'll need an extra level of polish because you'll have an army of general armchair developers, naysayers and trolls scrutinizing mostly the surface stuff while ignoring all the important back-end work that's behind it.

That's why you'll get mostly useless and superficial basic feedback like:

- "Animations look stiff"

- "Render Distance is awful"

- "Spell is too noisy"

- "Performance sucks"

Because general gamers will compare the alpha with what they are costumed to play, finished and polished games while ignoring that those things will iteratively be slowly worked as the game evolves.

Slapshot1188

Babuinix said:

Slapshot1188 said:

sk8chalif said:

Asmongold is probably one of the biggest streamer that will play Ashes of creation Alpha one and on June 1 World of warcraft: The Burning Crusade (Classic) is releasing. Matter of fact, lots of people will stream that. So yes it does make perfect sense here.
its not that Ashes of creation wont be able to compete, it's more because it wont have the exposure that they would have wanted Since all the streamer will be playing wow. So Pushing it 1 month make sense.

This is a true development alpha. This is not a marketing alpha; and what that means is as you know part of the process here in developing Ashes of Creation is being open with that development so you guys can see that progress; and it is a double-edged sword. [2] – Steven Sharif

Which one is true?  because they cannot both be.

They are both true. Showing the game to the community is the closed NDA testing, when you open it to the world it is done to entice more interest/backers and to get feedback and data along the way.

Incorrect. His quote continues to specifically describe the test as the open non-NDA testing.

But at the end of the day what's important for us and what yields the best possible product is for us to include as much as possible the community in that development process with no NDA so that you guys give valuable feedback; and as we go through the iterative process in further defining the game and fleshing out that content

So again: both are speaking to this same NON-NDA test.  Which is true?  Is it "not a marketing Alpha" as stated by Stephen?   Or is it as sk8calf says and the delay was due to "it's more because it wont have the exposure that they would have wanted Since all the streamer will be playing wow "

Both cannot be true about the same non-NDA test.