So, a game called Shadowrun Chronicles was released on Steam today...

[kane_magus]

...and while perusing the Steam forums for the game, just to see what was what[1], I happened along this little gem of a thread (OP dated March 17, 2015, i.e. a little over a month before the game's release today). If you can ignore the OP's atrocious and repeated misspelling of the word "beta" and make it down to the developer's comments (the second reply, and then some more later), then what you will find is a textbook example of exactly what the fuck is wrong, at least in part, with the video game industry nowadays, in a nutshell.

In case the comment or thread later gets deleted, I will copy/paste it here:

"primetide_dev [developer] Mar 17 @ 9:59am

"Beta has become an ijcreasingly [sic] meaningless turn. [sic] Online game [sic] usually launch into 'open beta' when they appear. End of Alpha technically means feature complete - which we are not yet - so while some of the game has 'Beta Quality', it still is in Alpha or even pre-Alpha depending on how you define that.

"Let's just say I am sure we will want to do more for the game after release :)"

And so, the developer freely admits that their game is still "in alpha or even pre-alpha" state at the time of his post, probably not even realizing how much of a complete imbecile that makes him sound, at least to me. (Though he also says that "some of the game has 'Beta Quality'," whatever the fuck that is supposed to mean. ō_ô The game either is or is not feature complete. You cannot have only "some" of the game be feature complete. It's all or none.)

Just to restate this and make it absolutely crystal clear: the above post was made a mere fucking month before release. And he is freely admitting that the development of the game will continue after the game is "released," too. So, yes, in what is increasingly being called the "paid beta" (which is actually a misnomer, because it's really more like "paid alpha" or "paid pre-alpha" in most cases, this one included), this game, as with so many other of its contemporaries, will be released unfinished and (if the gamers who foolishly buy this game are extremely lucky) will be bugtested and maybe even completed at some point, well after its so-called "release."

Needless to say, I will not be purchasing this Shadowrun Chronicles game.

(EDIT) Yes, I am fully aware that Minecraft did (and is still doing) the exact same thing, i.e. "released" the game as 1.0 and then continued development and bugtesting on it long after that point, while still charging full price for it (though luckily for me, I managed to snag Minecraft for relatively dirt cheap while it was still in so-called "alpha"). Hell, I wouldn't call even Minecraft "finished" to this day. I bought into the scheme then, because it was a relatively novel new concept at the time, but I didn't realize then what I realize now, which is that such development is, by and large, an incredibly idiotic way to go about the business of making video games, because more often than not it leads to broken shit that never gets finished, due to the devs either running out of money, realizing that they don't actually have the skill required to finish, or simply losing interest in continuing to work on their game, etc. The novelty of "early access" has worn off for me. Now, I am so done with that bullshit (though this Shadowrun Chronicles game isn't even considered to be "early access" anymore, and is considered to be "released," despite actually being "early access" still, in everything but name). Either give me a complete, finished, bug-tested video game, or fuck off. Hell, that's part of the reason I stopped playing Minecraft as well. The game just kept changing after "release," and sometimes not for the better. (/EDIT)

[1] - Mainly to see what, if any, connection this game might have to the previous recent Shadowrun games. And I found out that there is apparently no connection whatsoever, thankfully, aside from them all being in the Shadowrun setting.

Comments

[owsf2000.livejournal.com]

While I agree Minecraft does it, and in fact I'll go one further and say they probably STARTED it. But I will say there's still a difference between Mojang's tactics and how the entire industry mutated it.

Notch started off with a free pre-alpha. When it moved to alpha, they charged only 9.95 or so. When it was nearing "release" they moved to Beta and charged 19.95. These days, post-release, they're still charging only 29.95. (or less. PC version is at that, other versions are cheaper.)

The only reason they keep adding stuff is because it keeps the install base interested, and attracts more purchases. They really do need a lesson in bug fixing though. :P

The way other companies have twisted this approach is that they now charge full retail price (49.99+ at times) for the earliest betas. And some charge hundreds of dollars for perks during those things. And that's assuming they even finish the game, as some popular games like DayZ ended up being shelved by the publisher so they could do a different game. And they wonder why they aren't nearly as popular as Minecraft despite "using the same sales model." etc.

I got minecraft from a friend, that's pretty much how I ended up playing it. I don't know if I'd have bothered with it otherwise, especially since my computer couldn't handle it at first. All these other early access games? Both from the way they handle it and how they charge for it, I ain't interested in them in the slightest.

[kane-magus.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's the same as it was with a lot of other things to come out of the video game industry in the past decade or so. This early access concept didn't necessarily start as a terrible idea, and I agree that the way Minecraft did it was somewhat more palatable than how it's done now (which is essentially to charge near or at full price for the game no matter what stage of development it's at). It still isn't inherently a terrible idea, if it were done right. It's just that it has become yet another thing that a bunch more johnny-come-lately devs and publishers have mindlessly jumped on the bandwagon with, because money, and as such are implementing in a much more egregiously terrible, blatantly moneygrubbing way than how it was done before.

I'll just repeat what I said in the post itself: as far as I'm concerned, from now on, video game companies can either give me a complete, finished, bug-tested, not grievously broken video game to buy, or else they can fuck right off. No more of this early access bullshit. No more of this intentionally cutting pieces out of the game to be sold later for extra money as DLC or "expansion packs" or whatever. No more of this layering broken DRM or unnecessary and unwanted "online features" (i.e. DRM) on top of potentially otherwise halfway decent games.

It's sad. I used to like video games. It may not seem that way based on looking at my LJ posts from the previous years but, I really, truly, honestly enjoyed video games at one point. And I still do, on the rare occasions I can find games without the above mentioned bullshit, but, for the most part, the video game industry has moved on and left us behind, and we quite simply can't buy video games without at least some of that shit anymore.

[owsf2000.livejournal.com]

The funny thing is that a few years further back, before the industry finally added the last straw for you, we use to talk about all the stuff going on in the industry on IRC only it was me that was doing most of the bitching. ;)

I'd probably bitch about it more if I wasn't content with just boycotting the assholes by and far. They may not notice the lost revenue, but I certainly notice the freed up cash to spend on other hobbies. Of course, I do still end up buying the occasional game that has a lot of DLC whoring going on despite my efforts to avoid them. (The whole slow-drip DLC release BS I'm sure I've mentioned at some point.)

But by and large they're suffering a net loss in revenue from me thanks to their greed and inability to budget. The biggest hit by my boycotting has probably been NIS America. I was just starting to buy their games direct, collector editions to boot, just as they started to show their colors. (Ar Tonelico 3 and Hyper Dimension Neptunia) and just as quickly I stopped giving them money. In fact it was those two games that pretty much intensified my boycotting efforts when they forced me to say to myself "So this is what my 90 dollar purchases DIDN'T buy me." as I looked at the fucking pages of DLC.