Death Inc

Well I lemming'd myself into sheeping with the DayZ crowd. I cam honestly say, I think I killed my better judgement and contradicted myself badly that I need DK to slap me back to reality. But DayZ Alpha is really an Alpha I should not have bought. For $30 I could should have waited till it was in the bargain bin like the rest of the things I buy for under $10.

I know I may need some pointing in the right direction, but that was an alpha test I would like to forget, maybe come back when its in beta or closer to release. I would like to thank everyone for the help to point me in the right direction on getting use to the game for the stage it was in, but the alpha is just that, a taste test of things and it sat unwell. Hopefully it wont be long till the cook up some new patches and its more appealing to me. Till then, I feel a bit bummed I paid for it, and am getting bummed with the amount of "early Access" shit on steam. Will now stick to what I like.

Love yas.

Too many games these days are charging rediculous amounts at Alpha stage.

Back in the good old days, aka a couple of years ago, Kerbal Space Program was US$15. Which was reasonable for the content.

So you posted a rant in the shoutbox about unfinished games on steam then went and paid for one even said on the steam store page that it was unfinished? ???

I know I know - I listened to Damit and Alucurd and a bit of Splints. Please OH PLEASE forgive me. Why did I listen to those when you are the most wisest amongst us all. Please show me the path of light again DK ! !

You sound sarcastic, but DK is gives consistently suprisingly good advice.

Try not buying 'early access' games on steam?

Unless they're $5 and you like the sound of them.

I am actually glad you posted this... was toying with buying the alpha.. will buy a bottle of something instead...and wait for the release...

Bwwhahaha..you guys crack me up!  I feel for you Syk....they encourage piracy these mobs I tell ya

what if Damit, Alucard and Splints talk again ? What should I do? What if Chalice whispers something into my ear ? What if?

It's an Alpha yes but it's still the best game I've played in years.

What issues are you having Syklone?

I'd like to say this. Yes it is an alpha, yes it is buggy, yes I will get annoyed at it, but the potential already that it has is so far superior to all the arma zombie apoc game mods so far, hell even as the very very very early alpha that it is so much less buggy than zombie mods that have been out for months. I must say that anyone who wants a survival game with intricate detail(ie. blood types, you need to have the correct blood type for trouble free transfusions) this is either a must buy or a put on the to buy list.

I'm going to take a stab here, that Syk isn't upset that he paid for a game that is still so early in Alpha, it's that he paid $30 for it.

Usually games that charge at Alpha charge a very small amount, and as the game gets more content/playable, they increase the cost of it. Think Minecraft, Kerbal Space Program, etc. They mostly started at $10 with a playable, although bare game. Studios have started adopting this Early Access system, but are charging near full game prices for buggy shit.

$30 isn't full game prices, it's 1/3rd of what you would pay for a physical copy of a game down at your local game store.

The things is with minecraft and Kerbal is that they are small studio's, who when they released their game at $10 they would have had no idea that their game would be so big a few years later, hence the nominal fee. Had any of the developers or the lead personnel known they would sell so many copies, my bet is on the game costing 2 to 3 times more than it did. Now people are charging 30 bucks in the hope they become the next big thing like minecraft, so they can capitalise on the success.

I think this logic is a little flawed. Maybe 5-10 years ago this would be true, but these days only AAA games (excluding special/collectors editions with useless bundled crap) are around that price range. Most games are around the $50-$70 range last time I was in a games store.

And Day-Z isn't a big budget AAA game, and he didn't buy a physical copy of the game in a store - he bought a digital version on steam. Compared to other games on Steam, $30 is very much full game price.

I haven't played Day-Z so I don't know how good or bad it is, but I see nothing wrong with 'early access' itself. The games are clearly labelled as being in an unfinished state. The devs are releasing it a little early to fans that will be willing to put up with the bugs, in order to raise a bit more cash to finish the project. If you don't want to put up with an unfinished game and want to wait until its finished, don't buy the damn game until its out of 'early access'.

There is always the risk that they will take your money and not finish the game, but that's the risk that you, as a discerning buyer, must decide to accept if you buy the game. Caveat emptor.
(Much like nearly all those kickstarters that took heaps of cash and never delivered, but at least this one has made it to beta stage.)

/rant

The price is set to DISCOURAGE purchases as much as anything. I can't find the exact post now - but Dean Hall was talking on Reddit at one point about pricing and how the price they set will effect the demand for servers that they have to provide for the Alpha. If he set the price at $0 - demand for servers would be more than they could supply. So the $30 is a happy medium that they've decided on - cheap enough to be considered fair for an unfinished game - yet expensive enough to keep out the riff-raff so as to have a reasonable pool of players for the Alpha/Beta testing.

The game is a victim of its own success. They've done almost zero advertising, they've slathered the Store pages with warnings about the game, the team has been repeatedly reminding the community for the last ~12months that the Alpha WILL be shit. Yet - they managed to sell 200,000+ copies of the game in 48hours.

The fact is that it's a wildly popular entirely multiplayer MMO(ish) game being developed by a relatively small studio. They need this ugly, buggy, painful Alpha + Beta testing to be open to the public for them to be able to develop a complete product. They've done everything that they possibly can to discourage sales for the Alpha - I think the price tag was an excellent way of discouraging people uncommitted to testing. Just remember that something is only worth what you are willing to pay for it. They've been open and honest from the start about the quality of this game, unlike others (WarZ anyone?). To be perfectly honest - if a $15-20 difference in price is a deal breaker for you - then maybe you need to re-evaluate your decision to be purchasing games.

This isn't a jab at you Syk - I've just read too many threads of a similar nature on Reddit/Steam/Dayzmod.com over the past couple of days and I've apparently chosen this thread to blow off some steam.

woah woah woah, i don't remember saying anything about this game hahah. TBH it does not appeal to me i will leave the promotional stuff to Damit and splints.

and JT people will always not read it fully about what it is, i know dem feels.
i have this feeling that this conversation is going to happen again when star citizen comes out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snP1OR0JV-Y