In retrospect, I would not have given money for this game due to how money grubbing it seems. No matter what they claim, I feel screwed over paying up front for a game to later see those benefits, with the game far more solidified, for a similar price. Combine that with the pay-to-access features and the whole game just stinks from that standpoint.
Exactly.
And part of the problem was that initial price. An absurd $90 to get into the alpha! 30-40, I could see being a bit better, maybe. But 90? Good grief, no. Particularly if there's going to be more paid content down the line. That makes it even more greedy and stupid.
Well, what you've really said is that you don't like Kickstarter. That's basically how it works: Line up the fanboys early, charge 'em a premium for something minor (like early access, or a costume), and then sell most-or-all of the bonuses later a slightly more pricey DLC.
Of course, we're all spoiled here by Arcen and that whole "Hey guys, we actually listen to your feedback!" thing, where we get for free the same benefit that PA was selling for $50.
Actually, I do like Kickstarter. I back things on there frequently, all of which are in-development games that I often then get involved in testing with. I do alot of testing in general.... gives me something to do with my absurd amount of free time... and I like supporting devs that I think are good at what they do. KS makes it much easier for me to find the games in question, and then do both.
The difference though is that the prices usually arent bat#(%& insane. If you look on the Planetery Annihilation KS page, the "get the game when it's done" price is $20. Just.... 20. So what was the alpha? 70 freaking dollars more! That's.... no. Just no. Of all of the ones I've seen, not ONE of them has come even remotely close to that level of price increase between "get game when done" and "get to try it early", wether it's beta or alpha. In addition, there wasnt exactly a whole lot else given with that monstrous price. Two exclusive "commanders" (and how much THIS means is debatable... the devs have stated during their streams that they dont intend on having the different commanders have different special abilities) and alpha access (in other words, the most hyper-buggy and unknown version of the game), and finally the soundtrack.... that's it.
Typically, a $90 price point gives you WAY more than that, because most devs acknowledge that yeah, this is bloody expensive as all hell (and in this economy, too...), and yeah, the privilege of trying the game early is tempered by the realities of alpha/beta testing, which could include hilarious fun things like the game not working for you for quite some time after you get it, until the devs reach whatever point they need to in order to fix the issue. Among a bazillion other possibilities, particularly in alpha as compared to beta.
Now, if part of the reasoning is something along the lines of "Well, if we DONT do this, we wont be able to cover our expenses!" then you need to increase the BASE price of the game, not just make one or both of the testing options more absurd. This likely would have been alot more acceptable to people. A higher base price, and then a dramatically lower amount of difference between that and the test options wouldnt have been nearly as difficult to afford, wouldnt seem as greedy, and it makes those buying into it feel like they have more options. "Do I want to pay an extra $20 to jump into testing right now?" is alot more of a tempting question than "Hmm, do I want to pay an extra $70 to test it right now?". And then of course you scale up from there: "Well, if you pay *40* more to jump into testing instead of just 20, we're going to give you all these cool things with it!" Give players options that ENTICE them to pay you and get them to WANT to pay you, options that make them feel like they're really getting a pretty cool deal, even if it costs a little more. Not options that JUST seem super-pricey to help them bug test a game that nobody really knows much about yet. Heck, if beta is at 40 with this one, a more reasonable price for alpha might have been 50 or 55. "Just 10-15 more and you get to play it even earlier!" is much better than "more than quadruple the base price and you get to play it even earlier! It's only 50 more than beta (a number which in and of itself is more than twice the base cost), come on, that's nothing!"
That people were pretty ticked off about all this is reasonable... it seriously does seem to be an idea born of pure greed, regardless of the actual reasons behind it (which is ANOTHER thing they're supposed to consider, is the consumer's probable perceptions of whatever they decide to do in terms of pricing and marketing). In addition, those people that are permanently pushed away by what they perceive as greedy are now handing them ZERO dollars.... instead of just choosing a lower option and paying a bit less. That ALOT of people were ticked about this is also a sign that, yeah, something really WAS wrong here, regardless of how some might try to reason it out.
They end up doing pretty well anyway because the game itself is seriously THAT promising... but there's still lots of derp that happened here.
Out of curiosity: did any of you think the Kickstarter money would actually completely cover the developer's expenses in developing and promoting PA? Did they say that it would do so?
I personally havent heard anything from them on this, but my own natural assumption would be that no, it wouldnt. All sorts of reasons for that, beyond just my default negative views on everything.
And on that note, to clarify a bit: I dont believe that there was anything wrong with the total amount overall that they were hoping to get. What was wrong was the way they went about trying to get it, and that's the bit that mattered enough to many to push them away from it forever.
