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almost 5 years
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Nar'Gall
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So far, I've been mostly replying to people's questions, adding more detail where we can, but the EA issue seems to be one in a lot of people's minds at the moment, thus I'll address this here with a perspective I think it's worth thinking about.
The 'MMO on Early Access is a bad idea' concept is such a red herring.
The majority of MMOs, regardless of where or how they were released, had a bumpy launch and only found their feet a year or so later. This applies to MMOs small and large, from indies to large corps, the list is long.
These games, they all went through huge changes, fixes, exploits, rebalance, you name it. They dramatically evolved over time, particularly in the early days, just like Worlds Adrift did.
Most of them are no longer around regardless.
How's that any different from Early Access?
By the time Worlds Adrift hit Early Access, people could play it for hours on end. Today, average playtime exceeds 20+ hours, with some players clocking more than 2,000 hours in it.
How is this different from an MMO launched outside of EA, that underwent a lot of changes (because every MMO does) and in the end doesn't work and goes offline?
Worth thinking about it in this manner.
Despite all its shortcomings, Worlds Adrift is a game one can play today, and has been so for a long while. Case in point, players with more than 100+ hours of play are the majority.
If you bought an MMO outside of Early Access, then paid monthly subscription, what happened when it was shut down? It was announced it was going down in X months, and so it went. No one asked for their subscriptions back, or the price tag of the initial game. Some even came in discs, and yet these discs are no longer playable.
How's that any different from Early Access?
It isn't.
Worlds Adrift went into Early Access fully playable, more mature that some 'fully released MMOs' I got to play in my time. A lot of people had a lot of fun with it (their posts are here in the forum to be read), and it evolved over its two years. So, if we took it out of Early Access a few months back it would be all right? Would it be any different? No it would not, because we would keep on updating the game regardless of it being in EA or not, just like every other MMO.
The EA label was to keep away players who couldn't put up with instability, with wipes, with ongoing changes to the core of the game. It has nothing to do with commercial models.
The 'MMO on Early Access is a bad idea' concept is such a red herring.
The majority of MMOs, regardless of where or how they were released, had a bumpy launch and only found their feet a year or so later. This applies to MMOs small and large, from indies to large corps, the list is long.
These games, they all went through huge changes, fixes, exploits, rebalance, you name it. They dramatically evolved over time, particularly in the early days, just like Worlds Adrift did.
Most of them are no longer around regardless.
How's that any different from Early Access?
By the time Worlds Adrift hit Early Access, people could play it for hours on end. Today, average playtime exceeds 20+ hours, with some players clocking more than 2,000 hours in it.
How is this different from an MMO launched outside of EA, that underwent a lot of changes (because every MMO does) and in the end doesn't work and goes offline?
Worth thinking about it in this manner.
Despite all its shortcomings, Worlds Adrift is a game one can play today, and has been so for a long while. Case in point, players with more than 100+ hours of play are the majority.
If you bought an MMO outside of Early Access, then paid monthly subscription, what happened when it was shut down? It was announced it was going down in X months, and so it went. No one asked for their subscriptions back, or the price tag of the initial game. Some even came in discs, and yet these discs are no longer playable.
How's that any different from Early Access?
It isn't.
Worlds Adrift went into Early Access fully playable, more mature that some 'fully released MMOs' I got to play in my time. A lot of people had a lot of fun with it (their posts are here in the forum to be read), and it evolved over its two years. So, if we took it out of Early Access a few months back it would be all right? Would it be any different? No it would not, because we would keep on updating the game regardless of it being in EA or not, just like every other MMO.
The EA label was to keep away players who couldn't put up with instability, with wipes, with ongoing changes to the core of the game. It has nothing to do with commercial models.