new player wants to play

[casius]

so i found project eternity and want to play the game 

i know game is not yet out

is there some payment model wich allows me to play instantly in beta?

thx for answer

[Messier-31]

<deleted>

Edited November 11, 2013 by Messier-31

[Sensuki]

Game won't be out until next year probably around July-August-September.

 

When the Backer website is up (end of November) you might be able to purchase beta access.

 

 

I don't see it in this screenshot but it might be further down as they were available during the Kickstarter for $25 (on top of the price of the game).

Edited November 11, 2013 by Sensuki

[casius]

sad sad day for me

[Lephys]

Just so you know, beta access most likely isn't going to be "here's just an early-yet-complete build of our game. Play away! 8D!"

 

It'll probably just be specific system-testing scenarios, such as encounters and combat with various weapons/equipment at your disposal, or dummy dialogues and miniquests to make sure dialogues and quests are working properly.

 

More functionality than actual "yay, I'm experiencing the P:E story with the P:E characters and all the abilities and such! This is AWESOME!"

 

More science lab with a clipboard. Less party with glowsticks.

[Osvir]

^Alpha (What I think they are doing now when they are testing the game).

- Closed Beta = Company Beta (I suppose). Quality Assurance~ Employer Only Testing. In-House "Is this 'fun'?" kind of thing. Kind of like Alpha but more complete and functional.

- Customer Beta = Early Access (What we see on Steam nowadays). This is what we might be able to play. It might even be as much as a single Chapter. I think Blackguards (On Early Access right now) does this model a la "This is Early Access, right now we only have Chapter 1, we'll release Chapter 2 late November, Chapter 3 early 2014..." etc. etc. don't remember the exact details.

These are the 3 states I think. Early Access should be out a couple of months before release, and for all I know could even delay the full release a bit.

Why?
A) Release Early Access = Lots of more revenue that Obsidian didn't have before
B) Can now make more stuff with more money which equals more time
C) Better final game for a larger audience (Or so I believe), at least more polished

The rather long question/analysis I have is:
Planetary Annihilation released their Early Access on Steam with a $80 (or so) pricetag. Will Eternity appear on Steam with a $110 pricetag? Or will Obsidian release a "Kickstarter Backer Early Access" early (only those who pledged during the Kickstarter/possibly the Fulfillment Site?) and then later release an Early Access on Steam with a lower pricetag?

Planetary Annihilation was successful in doing this, and was at top of "Most Bought Item" for a while on Steam (even at $80!). Can the same thing be said about Eternity on a $110 price? Psychologically, lots of kids/parents/people-in-general might feel cheated on it "Oh what's this? $110! Must be good!!!" and then later complain about it "It's not finished!!". But $110 is also 3 decimals (1, 1, 0) and $80 is only 2 (8, 0). I am not too knowledgeable about "shopper mentality" but I've read some articles and seen some documentary about it in the past and it does matter. Stuff like "Only $99! Buy!" matters. More people buys stuff when it's $99 compared to $100 for example.

The Planetary Annihilation debacle was quieted down pretty quickly though, with the reasonable explanation "Hey! This is what we gave the Backers during the Kickstarter, $80 for Early Access, and we wanted to make sure they didn't feel cheated out of a deal". The Devs were just honest about it, and people like TotalBiscuit helped out and were reasonable about it.

[Walsingham]

Two responses to Osvir:

 

1) I shan't be looking for early access. I want the team to have a chance to get the baby out before I start holding its hand.

 

2) Where I work we recently had the problem where demand for a certain item/service was causing conniptions in the business. So we raised the price in an attempt to cool demand. This in fact meant we sold twice as many, because people assumed it was worth more. Bloody meatbags.

[Osvir]

Two responses to Osvir:

 

1) I shan't be looking for early access. I want the team to have a chance to get the baby out before I start holding its hand.

 

2) Where I work we recently had the problem where demand for a certain item/service was causing conniptions in the business. So we raised the price in an attempt to cool demand. This in fact meant we sold twice as many, because people assumed it was worth more. Bloody meatbags.

1. I do want the early access though. I want to look for bugs and give early feedback~

 

2. Yes. There's a tale of a toothpaste company here in Sweden that had a similar problem (though, they weren't selling well at all). So they raised the price. Suddenly they were the most sold toothpaste. However, there's a difference in releasing a product with a raised price compared to progressively raising it. The product you have was released cheaper then raised, right? "People are buying a lot of this = There's a big demand = Raise the price = It's worth more", can't speak for everyone but that's what I'm thinking.

 

With Planetary Annihilation we have the reverse, people were complaining about the product being worth less "$80!?!? It's not even finished!! How dare you!" etc.etc. it was in respect to the backers ofc, and to the beta backers the game was worth $80. Eternity's beta backer tier is $110.

[neo6874]

(actually ... ignore me) 

Edited November 12, 2013 by neo6874

[Lephys]

(actually ... ignore me) 

 

Do I acknowledge your command to ignore you, thereby doing the OPPOSITE of ignoring you? Or do I pay attention to you, thereby obviously not ignoring you?

 

AHHHH!!! *rips out hair*

[Walsingham]

 

Two responses to Osvir:

 

1) I shan't be looking for early access. I want the team to have a chance to get the baby out before I start holding its hand.

 

2) Where I work we recently had the problem where demand for a certain item/service was causing conniptions in the business. So we raised the price in an attempt to cool demand. This in fact meant we sold twice as many, because people assumed it was worth more. Bloody meatbags.

1. I do want the early access though. I want to look for bugs and give early feedback~

 

2. Yes. There's a tale of a toothpaste company here in Sweden that had a similar problem (though, they weren't selling well at all). So they raised the price. Suddenly they were the most sold toothpaste. However, there's a difference in releasing a product with a raised price compared to progressively raising it. The product you have was released cheaper then raised, right? "People are buying a lot of this = There's a big demand = Raise the price = It's worth more", can't speak for everyone but that's what I'm thinking.

 

With Planetary Annihilation we have the reverse, people were complaining about the product being worth less "$80!?!? It's not even finished!! How dare you!" etc.etc. it was in respect to the backers ofc, and to the beta backers the game was worth $80. Eternity's beta backer tier is $110.

 

 

Well, I won't pretend to having special wisdom on that question. I would guess that putting such a high price on it would undermine allegations of conning people. It marks it out clearly as something for fans and afficionados.

[BruceVC]

 

(actually ... ignore me) 

 

Do I acknowledge your command to ignore you, thereby doing the OPPOSITE of ignoring you? Or do I pay attention to you, thereby obviously not ignoring you?

 

AHHHH!!! *rips out hair*

 

funny

[Osvir]

 

 

Two responses to Osvir:

 

1) I shan't be looking for early access. I want the team to have a chance to get the baby out before I start holding its hand.

 

2) Where I work we recently had the problem where demand for a certain item/service was causing conniptions in the business. So we raised the price in an attempt to cool demand. This in fact meant we sold twice as many, because people assumed it was worth more. Bloody meatbags.

1. I do want the early access though. I want to look for bugs and give early feedback~

 

2. Yes. There's a tale of a toothpaste company here in Sweden that had a similar problem (though, they weren't selling well at all). So they raised the price. Suddenly they were the most sold toothpaste. However, there's a difference in releasing a product with a raised price compared to progressively raising it. The product you have was released cheaper then raised, right? "People are buying a lot of this = There's a big demand = Raise the price = It's worth more", can't speak for everyone but that's what I'm thinking.

 

With Planetary Annihilation we have the reverse, people were complaining about the product being worth less "$80!?!? It's not even finished!! How dare you!" etc.etc. it was in respect to the backers ofc, and to the beta backers the game was worth $80. Eternity's beta backer tier is $110.

 

 

Well, I won't pretend to having special wisdom on that question. I would guess that putting such a high price on it would undermine allegations of conning people. It marks it out clearly as something for fans and afficionados.

I made a mistake regarding this analysis of mine btw. So...

 

I want Early Access because I want to help out but... the Early Access might not have to be the same price as the Kickstarter Beta Tier.

 

These are the lowest "specs" of the "Beta Tier":

 

Pledge $110 or more

 792 backers

COLLECTORS DIGITAL ONLY TIER - All rewards from the previous digital tiers + SPECIAL THANKS IN GAME CREDITS + THANK YOU POSTCARD FROM THE DEVELOPMENT TEAM (sent physically) + VIP FORUM BADGE + EARLY ACCESS BETA KEY + all the other digital rewards of the $140 tier available now and added during the Kickstarter campaign. If you are looking for all the rewards of the Collector's Edition, but you don't need the physical goods, then this is a great reward tier for you.

Estimated delivery: Apr 2014

 

I am personally not looking for anything but the bold & underline, so if there's some way to just up the pledge for "Early Access Only" I believe the price could go down a little bit from $110. Possibly?

[AGX-17]

I don't understand the appeal of beta access. I'd rather have the finished product and deal with the minimum possible bugs than to be an unpaid QA tester. It's a clever scheme on the economic front, but I'm not looking to give away my time and labor for free unless it'll pad my résumé. Yes, that is the only appeal volunteerism has for me.

[Osvir]

I don't understand the appeal of beta access. I'd rather have the finished product and deal with the minimum possible bugs than to be an unpaid QA tester. It's a clever scheme on the economic front, but I'm not looking to give away my time and labor for free unless it'll pad my résumé. Yes, that is the only appeal volunteerism has for me.

 

I want Early Access because I want to help out

Obviously I can't speak for everyone but this is why I want it and why it appeals to me. Early Access allows me to help out. As for resume stuff, I think if you are ambitious enough you could probably climb a little bit on some tiny ladder which could potentially lead to a bigger ladder. I know I'm being vague but it's for several reasons. All I'm saying is that if you put in enough effort and show you are reliable enough (which can be quite a large amount of "enough"), why couldn't you put it in a resume?

[motorizer]

 

 

Do I acknowledge your command to ignore you, thereby doing the OPPOSITE of ignoring you? Or do I pay attention to you, thereby obviously not ignoring you?

 

AHHHH!!! *rips out hair*

 

 What are you talking about? ignore who?

[Messier-31]

 

 

Do I acknowledge your command to ignore you, thereby doing the OPPOSITE of ignoring you? Or do I pay attention to you, thereby obviously not ignoring you?

 

AHHHH!!! *rips out hair*

 

 What are you talking about? ignore who?

 

Oh... my... GAWD! He suspects something!

[neo6874]

 

(actually ... ignore me) 

 

Do I acknowledge your command to ignore you, thereby doing the OPPOSITE of ignoring you? Or do I pay attention to you, thereby obviously not ignoring you?

 

AHHHH!!! *rips out hair*

 

 

[Mr. Burns]

excellent

[/Mr. Burns]

 

Last games I bothered to get Beta access to were:

 

NWN 2 (although, it was only +30d to use the editor; but since programming bits for a PW...)

DUST 514 (because I play EvE and it was like 4 seconds and ~free~ to get the access).

 

Beta access for this will be fun (95% sure I have it), though not "mandatory" by any stretch of the imagination.  I'm just hoping I can afford the "artbook" tier once the backer portal comes around, since I couldn't when the kickstarter was running.

[Lephys]

What are you talking about? ignore who?

The person I quoted. Neo6874.

 

It appeared as though he had posted some other response, then pulled a pseudo-delete edit (the closest thing we can do to deleting our own posts) by posting "(actually... ignore me)"

 

 

Also, I very much agree with the bewilderment as to people wanting beta access simply to play the game early. I'm interested in beta access, but I also acknowledge that I wouldn't be playing the game for entertainment purposes (no matter how nice it might be, in a way, to experience first-hand some of the systems before the game comes out), but instead for actual feedback/testing purposes on technical and creative design facets.

 

I've done some beta testing before, but mostly only on MMOs, which are typically just big stress tests and early play, with a "Meh... *shrug*... tell us about bugs if you feel like it" thrown in.

Edited November 15, 2013 by Lephys

[Hassat Hunter]

Yeah, the title 'wants to play' doesn't really reflect perfect beta material.

 

I wouldn't mind testing PE, but $115 (or $25 ontop my current pledge), yeah, too expensive for poor student me...

Edited November 15, 2013 by Hassat Hunter

[motorizer]

 

What are you talking about? ignore who?

The person I quoted. Neo6874.

 

It appeared as though he had posted some other response, then pulled a pseudo-delete edit (the closest thing we can do to deleting our own posts) by posting "(actually... ignore me)"

 

 

 

 

I was ignoring him, It was a joke...

 

ho hum...might try another one someday....

[Lephys]

I was ignoring him, It was a joke...

 

ho hum...might try another one someday....

Ohhhhhhh!!!

 

Sorry. Text... made it look super sincere (the reason I typically put smileys at the end of my sarcastic/serious-looking joke comments... not that you have to. Just explaining how I handle that).

 

That, and I'm blond. 8P

 

Good one! 8D