Has Alpha and steam early release ruined gaming for you guys?

[Maj.Morgan]

After spending riduclous amounts on money on early realeases and Alpha state games i feel that i have wasted my money,should steam change there stance on forcing developers to release earlier. i wish to hear the gamers opinions on the way there indusrty and steam has changed in the last few years.

[Zefar]

NOPE because I don't buy in into clearly crap games that looks bad and got awful reviews. Unlike a lot of people who goes out of their way to buy some of the worst Early Access titles and then act surprised that they are bad.

The few EA games I've bought have been from good to quite fun.

[supertrooper225]

No.

[Faolchu]

Ruined? No, don't buy into all of those without the proper research. If people wouldn't buy into them they wouldn't be so succesfull.

Should they chance their stance? In my opinion yes, there is no quality control anymore and anyone can drop a half finished game into greenlight, hopes it makes it through and dump it in early acces.

However, you should know what you pay for. I have a couple of them myself; one has even dropped from the store page because they couldn't finish it and now one guy is finishing it alone. The others are still being worked on and are seeing a good development. There's always a risk involved but you can easily avoid this risk by not buying them and wait for them to get released.

Just do the proper research first and a lot of problems can be avoided.

[Dick "McLarge" Huge]

there are good alpha games. check the reviews before you buy an unfinished game

[Maj.Morgan]

i check the reviews the problem is they can be misleading and also everybody has different tastes, i guess the problem is with hackers in the early MMO or multiplayer games released i.e rust and reign of kings etc. these kind of games should not be released with out some sort of vac banning system or similar tools in place to stop these potential great games losing players and getting bad reviews.

[僕の名前 (仮)]

No it didn't, I rarely buy Early Access games, but I follow many of them. I have few of them, the best one in Early Access (in my opinion) was Don't Starve, which is now released.

[Tito Shivan]

Early access has me happy as a little bunny.
Bought Prison Architect. I only wish i could devote more time to it.
Bought Unturned. 64 Hours so far and still kicking.
I plan buying KSP and Besiege on the near future.

If you do your homework and know what you are buying, you get burned with Early Acess games as much as with buying AAA titles.

[Smugass Braixen-Chan]

If you find Early Access too risky, don't buy it...

Oh wait, never mind. That's a stupid idea because it would ACTUALLY INVOLVE USING COMMON BUCKING SENSE!

[VisciousFishes]

I avoid all early access games on principle that I don't buy anything that isn't in a "finished" state. I don't buy a half prepared burger, a half built car, a half built house or half a pair of trousers so I don't buy half finished video games either.

I'm not against others buying them if it makes them happy and they get their "money's worth" (which is purely subjective btw) but I have been fortunate enough to beta test many games and that's the deal that suits me. If I am spending my time working for these companies testing their games and reporting back to the devs the good/bad/ugly of their game, they can at least supply the code for free. That's how it used to work and (in my opinion) is the better way for the system to work.

My real bugbear is that there is no way to stop all the early access games being shown on my store feed when I look thru the store. I have half of my queue listed as "early access" because they are popular but the problem is popular doesn't mean good. Nor does good mean popular. If other people want to buy them, fine by me and them, just please give me a chance to remove them from my "queue".

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by FluffySnuffy:

Ruined? No, don't buy into all of those without the proper research. If people wouldn't buy into them they wouldn't be so succesfull.

Should they chance their stance? In my opinion yes, there is no quality control anymore and anyone can drop a half finished game into greenlight, hopes it makes it through and dump it in early acces.

Greenlight is the quality control. It's based on consumer feedback. so if it gets through Greenlight.. well.. a lot of people must have been interested in it to vote for it. So yeah... there is Quality control, also the system is sort of self correcting. Crappy games don't usually get a lot of sales anyway. Good games usually will.

However, you should know what you pay for. I have a couple of them myself; one has even dropped from the store page because they couldn't finish it and now one guy is finishing it alone. The others are still being worked on and are seeing a good development. There's always a risk involved but you can easily avoid this risk by not buying them and wait for them to get released.

Just do the proper research first and a lot of problems can be avoided.

Research or patience.. Either will work.

[Hi-Torque]

NO.

This is like saying a newly released movie has ruined my visiting theaters.

A newly released book sucks, I will never read again.

So tired of ignorant folk.

I am beyond pleased with Early Access. I have supported several titles while they were in Kickstarter or other funding prior to being Greenlit.

[Smugass Braixen-Chan]

I don't buy a half prepared burger

But they don't even make the burger until after you've already payed for it. I know because I work at Maccas... Also, some really prestigious cars like Ferrari are made to order.

I do agree with your last point though, and I'm somebody who does support Early Access (Even if I rarely actually buy them, which is how it SHOULD be done). When Early Access first started, all the early access games had a big green label on them. Then the big green label was replaced with fine print. Then the label disappeared entirely and now you can only find out if a game is early access or not by clicking on it if the menu you are on does not display the tags.

[Smugass Braixen-Chan]

I think the other problem people have with early access is that not all Early Access games ever get finished. But people never ever stop to consider how many (Or more specifically, how few) games actually get finished in the first place, Early Access or no. In fact, there seems to be a tendency for Early Access games being more likely to be finished than games that never see the light of day until the release date.

Also, Early Access games can't exactly have the final release date delayed...

[«Gғм» Kid Of The Century]

No, the only E.A. game I actually bought (others I own are from indie bundles) was Carmageddon: Reincarnation and I'm ok with it.

Looking back maybe it hadn't the development I wished for, the ~6 months of silence before going beta made me worry a bit, and in hindsight waiting for the Beta would've saved me those worries and would've given the perception to spend the same € 25 I paid a year ago for a better game (Alpha was -well- an alpha, after all).

Nevertheless, every bit of it was part of a deal I agreed to - and I'm fine with it. Game's now a ton of fun, and I'm glad I helped a little to bring it to its current state.

TL;DR I might not be the E.A. enthusiast n° 1 around, but I fully support it. Just because something doesn't suit perfectly my tastes doesn't mean it's a bad thing either.

[rojimboo]

Yes, I believe Early Access is ultimately harmful to the industry as it encourages poor practice and business decisions on the part of the developers.

Personally my gaming experience hasn't arguably changed that much (apart from the inability to filter out Early Access games as I don't play them anymore) that I can prove, as I've avoided most buggy titles.

If I had bought some more, I could argue at least about the opportunity cost of never experiencing the game (for the first few times) in its polished state. I would have always forever lost that ability and would remember the game as buggy (even after fixes). But that's not so relevant maybe for non-story based games.