This game raises too many red flags

[Darkfire]

Most Early Access games are abandoned by the developers before they are completed. Which is why most people stay away from EA games these days, but especially so when games raise red flags.

RimWorld raises a lot of red flags:

1- I've read reviews by players who say they have been playing the game for two years. That's a unreasonably long time for it to remain in early access, but there are exceptions to this general rule. So by itself, it's not that big a deal. However, combined with the following issues, it's becomes a big deal.

2- It's an EA game that is a top seller - which is bizarre because it's an incomplete game that is undergoing a massive popularity boost.

3- The developer is selling this game with packages that give people a "name" in the game or a story, which stinks of an attempt to lure gamers via their vanity rather than through making the game actually good and interesting. Furthermore and perhaps more importantly, it raises serious legal questions because Steam's EA policy expressly allows developers to abandon games without consequences. Yet some of the versions of this game expressly promise that your name will be in the game or your story will be in the game if you buy it. What happens when those promises are not kept? How will the dev be held legally liable?

4- The devs have expressly stated on their store page that they may never complete the game - they could keep it in EA for as long as they like. :/


_____

Thanks for all the replies, guys. I wish the developer has answered, but after watching some youtube videos and reading reddit about this game, I think it's worth buying even in its current form. I'll be unsubscribing for this thread as its purpose is over. 7o.

[Isilith]

Its a top seller because it is a fantastic game and worth every penny. Generally I dislike EA games, but having played this one for hundreds of hours its a great buy. Even if despite its slim chance the game isn't worked on ever again it is pretty much a fully fledged game that has alot of content.

[Eretnek]

did you ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ read the store page of the game?

“The game is already fully playable, balanced, and generally free of bugs. Over 120,000 players have been enjoying it since our Kickstarter in October 2013. However, we want to add more value before calling it done. We're doing Early Access to indicate that we still intend to add more content to the game.”

"To be clear - we might end development soon, or we might continue it for years. Please buy the game only if you want to play it as it exists now - not based on what it might some day become.”

[Enano]

Please note that even though it is tagged as early access it has a ton of content, it has been in development since 2014 I think, and the game has only grown since then. You shouldnt be alarmed by it being a top seller, it has a huge fan base who already owned and played the game.
The packages were from the kickstarter I think. And since it is a small group of developers (I would say one person only) the plan is to update a new version of the "alpha" when there is a good quantity of content to make it worth it.
So as I said (and it is on the game description at the store), the game is fully playable, balanced and enjoyable in this current state.
Hope this helps you. :)

[Gaige]

Well I can tell you as someone that has played this for about 6 months it has none of those issues and is updated regularly.... Also read what Eretnek said pretty much answers everything you just said...

[Darkfire]

Originally posted by Gaige:

Well I can tell you as someone that has played this for about 6 months it has none of those issues and is updated regularly.... Also read what Eretnek said pretty much answers everything you just said...

not at all.

[Hydre]

How dense can you be..

1 - Even though the game could already be considered a finished product, 2 years of development is little compared to what a lot of other games go through.

2 - It's a damn good game, you probably haven't thought of that but that could be why it's the top seller. Just a thought.

3 - 100% cosmetic and mostly just for supporting the devs

4 - Sorry but I haven't seen a deadline on EA games ever, this just puts the devs under serious stress having to get the game done by a certain date.

[Wolfen]

Don't feed it. It will die then.

[Mokona]

K don't buy it cya, ill keep playing this game that I was glad I paid for.

[BlueDragonXD]

Multiple things here. The developer waiting six months before posting the game on Steam because he felt it was not ready yet. Even though it's on Steam the Devs and Tynan the main developer still would rather us support the game from the main website. Steam is not the full picture. Finally all the store page said was the development could end soon or go on for years. The developer of Terraria sort of said the same thing. Tynan could have walked away many times. But most developers end a game because it was beyond there skills or budget. Rimworld is clearly making a lot of money and it's already nearly a full release game. In my opinion Rimworld could be 1-3 alpha releases away from a stable full release game. More like 1-3 alpha releases with contiuned bug fixes over the months after full release.

The developer NEVER said about ending the game in EA. But more so means that EA could come to an end soon. And the game may not be developed that much longer after EA.

[Jhitts]

I think all the people who owned the game prior the steam release got a steam key to get the game here, maybe thats why the game got in to the top seller (awesome game anyway). dont quote me on that tho.

the Dev wants to keep adding stuff so, in his eyes, the game isnt technicaly finish.

[ApatheticExcuse]

It hasn't been in "Early Access" for two years. It's also not like Tynan has taken people's money and then run.

Yes, the game has been available throughout most of the very active development, but has never been pushed by the dev or had it's continuation depend on actively selling an unfinished product. If you spend any amount of time on the Ludeon forums, you'll quickly realize he doesn't care that some of the people there have pirated the game. Does that sound like the kind of dude who wants to push crap on you to make a buck? I sincerely doubt he cares if people who don't think he will deliver buy the game right now.

Beyond that, lots of us have been playing the game for two years because it's genuinely a fun game. Right now, it's at a state I think most devs would call "complete" anyway. The only reason it's still called "Alpha" whatever is because the dev doesn't feel that way, not because most of the playerbase does.

This game was at the "done" state (by the standards of both EA games and some recent major AAA titles) well before it hit Steam, and I'm honestly suprised it even carries the early access title. Thusly, you maybe shouldn''t confuse Steam's mostly garbage EA system with true indy games development (which has been how the game has been developed over the last few years), or apply it to games like this. It makes it look alot like you haven't bothered to look into anything on your own.

[Eretnek]

Originally posted by Jhitts:

I think all the people who owned the game prior the steam release got a steam key to get the game here, maybe thats why the game got in to the top seller (awesome game anyway). dont quote me on that tho.

the Dev wants to keep adding stuff so, in his eyes, the game isnt technicaly finish.

activating a steam key does not count when steam calculates the top seller list.

[Serthy]

Originally posted by ApatheticExcuse:

It hasn't been in "Early Access" for two years. It's also not like Tynan has taken people's money and then run.

Yes, the game has been available throughout most of the very active development, but has never been pushed by the dev or had it's continuation depend on actively selling an unfinished product. If you spend any amount of time on the Ludeon forums, you'll quickly realize he doesn't care that some of the people there have pirated the game. Does that sound like the kind of dude who wants to push crap on you to make a buck? I sincerely doubt he cares if people who don't think he will deliver buy the game right now.

Beyond that, lots of us have been playing the game for two years because it's genuinely a fun game. Right now, it's at a state I think most devs would call "complete" anyway. The only reason it's still called "Alpha" whatever is because the dev doesn't feel that way, not because most of the playerbase does.

This game was at the "done" state (by the standards of both EA games and some recent major AAA titles) well before it hit Steam, and I'm honestly suprised it even carries the early access title. Thusly, you maybe shouldn''t confuse Steam's mostly garbage EA system with true indy games development (which has been how the game has been developed over the last few years), or apply it to games like this. It makes it look alot like you haven't bothered to look into anything on your own.

+1

[Draylynn]

The store page just reaffirms that whilst the game is fully playable and they hope to keep it going they cannot 100% promise that it will (but, judging how things have been going for them, they'll keep chugging on), even if they stopped development right this moment, it's still more than playable and moddable (to provide more content) in it's current state.

Being in EA isn't that much of a problem, it's just a tag to warn people that there 'could' be problems. Generally on any game, read the reviews, watch the streams and you'll get a clearer picture of how well that game performs and a rough idea of it's development plan.
Rimworld by far, supasses a lot of EA games on Steam that are often in such a terrible state.
FYI, I've played a game thats been in Alpha/Early Access for 10+ years and perform well, but then seen released games on Steam that really should be Pre-Alpha/Early Access, at this point I really don't hold anything to the 'EA' tag and really don't see the point in it or QQ'ing over it.

The reason it's getting such a popularity boost is because it's now on Steam, most people wern't even aware it existed prior to this. Steam nowadays is one of the few go-to places for games, popularity boost was kind of expected.
People don't need to worry about the development stopping, or that it's been in EA for soo long.

The extra packages are just that, vanity packages, support DLC's.
When you buy them, you get a 'small' reward for offering a "cash injection" into the project that has practically no impact in gameplay functionality... not sure what you expected here, a lot of EA games have these 'vanity packages' or 'founders packs' that offer no real significant bonus's to owning the game at a much higher cost. More cash into the game = more incentive and resources to develop further.
You could make your own mods to essentially do the game thing if you really wanted (people already have for ages now) if you can't afford to grab a DLC.
If you have the cash and want to support, go for it, but don't expect your cash to offer you any advantage over any other player.

Chill guys~ Not that many red flags really.

[MP]

The game is 100% playable. The developer is continuing to add updates and fixes, thus the development is not dead. However, even if he stopped supporting the game right now, the game is fully playable and moddable to boot.

As for cosmetic flairs, they do not affect the gameplay in any way, so I don't see why should you concern yourself with vanity of other players with deep pockets.

What concerns me however is your unwillingness to reward the developer for his brilliant contribution. That is a major red flag there. Are you per chance upset that you won't get steam keys for your pirated copy?