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Massively soapbox article: "The Soft Launch Scam"
edgenw
Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 124 Bounty Hunter
Excerpt:
Continued in article: http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/06/11/the-soapbox-the-soft-launch-scam/
Interesting read that is clearly referring to Neverwinter (and other games). Discuss!
"Back in the golden days of video games, there was no such thing as a soft launch. Nintendo didn't send out test copies of Super Mario World to special "backers," and Sega didn't ship half-finished Sonic games with promises of further content updates. Games, for the most part, were played only after they were finished, printed, packaged, and shipped. Even on PC, beta testing was more of an earned honor exclusive to players that showed dedication to a title and its community.
Here in these modern times of Internets and always-ons, however, things are different. It would seem as though developers need only make enough game content to shoot a reasonably convincing trailer before the publishing team can begin collecting money by slapping a "BETA" sticker on the webpage and offering fans early access.
Over the last few years soft launches have become increasingly common -- especially for creators of online games. The line between "in testing" and "done" is becoming blurred, and publishers are reaping the benefits while players suffer."
Here in these modern times of Internets and always-ons, however, things are different. It would seem as though developers need only make enough game content to shoot a reasonably convincing trailer before the publishing team can begin collecting money by slapping a "BETA" sticker on the webpage and offering fans early access.
Over the last few years soft launches have become increasingly common -- especially for creators of online games. The line between "in testing" and "done" is becoming blurred, and publishers are reaping the benefits while players suffer."
Continued in article: http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/06/11/the-soapbox-the-soft-launch-scam/
Interesting read that is clearly referring to Neverwinter (and other games). Discuss!
Post edited by edgenw on
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Comments
Why shouldn't they go with it if the market will bear it? No one forces people to spend money on the games.
There are lots of industries that have lots of questionable practices. This practice should be stopped IMO, and the only way it's gonna happen is if gamers stop paying for half baked <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> products.
Arguments for what?
The Beta / Not Beta arguments that regularly pop up?
The argument that it is / isn't a scam for this or that reason?
Arguing against an opinion or editorial piece is a like arguing with the wind...
It's someone's opinion, let them have it, read it if you want, then move on with your existence.
D&D Home Page - What Class Are You? - Build A Character - D&D Compendium
No.
On the contrary, i would say Rifts launch was the smoothest I have ever seen. So I dunno, some companies just suck more than others I guess.
I just hope the money spent to support the "beta" or "early stages" are developed further, unlike games such as "minecraft."
To be fair, Perfect World Inc. has several reputable games, and have been around for quite some time, I doubt they would make something half-assed such as "The WarZ."
Keep in mind you also have 75% of a community asking for a the full game, so rather publishers just create something such as "Alpha/Beta" to give the community what they want.
As a company it's difficult to please the consumers, because you have 50/50 of those who enjoy it and are fine, and the other whom seem to "dis-like" it, yet they still play it.
Of course everyone is entitled to their opinions, that is a glimpse of mine.
Your complaint about WoW is really not in any way fair, however (and trust me, I am beyond tired of WoW at this point and not jumping to their defense, but I am trying to be reasonable and realistic).
When WoW launched, EQ was holding the North American subscription records at 500,000 users. Blizzard was ready to handle that. What they were not ready for (and what nobody could have predicted) was how the userbase insanely exploded beyond all expectations, and practically overnight.
The truth is, WoW worked just fine by the end of beta. The reason so many players put up with WoW's horrible launch was because they had played through until the end of beta, and by the end of beta the game worked wonderfully, and so they knew deep down that the game was good - when it worked. But as impressive as the population in beta was, it was a drop in the bucket to the flood that came at launch. Thus, WoW's growing pains were understandable.
An example of what's not understandable is a statement made recently by Gazilion's support regarding the launch problems of their "Marvel Heroes" MMO. In it, they wrote:
And that, I feel, is a good example of a cop out. There isn't an MMO that releases today, now, post-WoW, that should "not be ready for the issues". There have been more than enough examples of MMO launches out there to take note of. W
hile Blizzard's problems with WoW were more understandable, when is the last time an MMO had truly unpredictable problems? These days, it's more like problems that developers choose to ignore with the hope of addressing them later, a decision made all the more attractive once you convince users to start throwing money your way.
No one forced you to play or pay before 'launch' day, or did they? So?
Ah OP, WoW had bugs (like getting stuck while looting or gathering) for 6-7 months AFTER release, that should have never survived beta.
Exactly like today
Super Mario Brothers shipped "feature complete". Good for them.
But we've come along way since then. Any argument that starts out with "back in the golden age..." is pretty ridiculous. It's like arguing that horses were far superior to cars because your new car got a flat tire on the way home from the dealership, and that NEVER would've happened with a horse.
And that problem was fixed within the first month? 6-7 months is total hogwash.
Anyway, not really interested in playing Blizzard Ancient History, so back to the main topic.
I think you're completely missing the point if you're allowing yourself to get hung up on the opening comment in the article. You might want to read the whole thing. Or not, up to you!
No, the bug happened only with particular nodes (you'd learn to avoid them), it was a bug and lasted months. You are thinking of the stuck-while-looting-lets-wait-for-the-server-to-catch-up problem, that was for the issue you mentioned. But really, I think you are looking to the past with rose tinted glasses, like all humans do
Unfortunately nothing will change as long as eager fanboys with more money than sense continue throwing money at publishers/developers for the "privilege" of testing.
Always some ignorant fanboy with no brain trying to spout off BS, lol.
Yes, there were definitely resource nodes that were broken and got you "stuck", and that bug did persist for a while. But you had mentioned "looting" in addition to gathering, which was a launch issue (crafting items had the same problem.. basically anything that was going to introduce "something" into your inventory). And that was a database overload issue that was resolved quickly.
The bugged resource nodes did go on for a while, though. I'll never suggest any game launches bug free, but while WoW had some pretty bad issues at launch that made it extremely difficult to play, they were a result of its ridiculous success that couldn't have been predicted beforehand. Newer MMOs no longer have the luxury of making that mistake.
When they start selling goods.
Well then, we're just arguing meaningless semantics in that case.
What is a nespresso?
The point is, today there are games that would never be able to launch and survive if they didn't do this sort of 'soft launch'. They gather more money for more development time, all the while offering some 'service' to eager fans. No one forces them to pay for it, they can easily wait for 'launch' to play. One good example is STO:launch was awful but already a year later was quite a good (in its subgenre) and today is an excellent game.
I don't mind putting up with the bugs, if you do, well, you can always wait for launch. Or 3 months laters, like it would be wise with a MMO.
No one is forcing anyone, it's just an opportunity to play early and help economically a game you enjoy
The fact you are asking makes you instantly likeable by me. Whatever you follow up with
Everyone knows World of Warcraft was only good in Alpha; soon as it went Beta it turned into casual gamer <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> with everything dumbed down for the n00bs.
They were not prepared for ANYTHING but still send you emails with bonus zen offers for future PURCHASES,while tickets remain unanswered FOR WEEKS.
We all got scammed. Delete game and move on.