I don't know how many of you have been following the game Love, but for those you haven't, head over to http://www.quelsolaar.com/ and check it out. The game itself deserves it's own blog entry, not to mention some attention from this site in general, but that will have to wait.
Recently it was announced that Alpha testers will have to pay a very small fee. As you can expect, there was plenty of outrage, but I was also impressed at the great number of people who were more than willing to do this. Myself included.
This game is unlike any other out there, and is being produced by a single person. His vision is amazing, and he has managed to draw many of us in. Simply put, he cannot afford enough servers to accommodate the thousands who have expressed interest in testing the game, so rather than limit the numbers, there will be a small fee, barely enough to cover the cost of servers and bandwidth.
This is not like paying $50.00 bucks to test Mortal Online, or paying full price and a monthly premium to play a game like Fallen Earth that should clearly still be in beta. If these games were more open about what they're doing, like "Love" currently is, I'd be all for it. The honesty is very appreciated.
I believe that more indie developers will adopt this sort of model, and I'm looking forward to it. It ensures that testers are invested into the game. It allows "niche" games to get the support they need to get off the ground. And as fans of less "mainstream" games, I think offering a little financial support is a great way for us to encourage the industry to support our needs.
If i had even 1% of the talent of this guy i'd be making my own MMO instead of just talking about it to my wife.
Pay for an Alpha, in this case and in the case of other indie, small team, original and inventive games, HELL YES!
Tue Sep 29 2009 6:50AM ReportIt's not so much paying for alpha. He said he doesn't need any more to test the game other than what he can cram onto his single server (about 200 players). He's offering the ability for more to play if they foot the bill for the extra required machines. It's completely rational and understandable. He's giving that choice to the community. He's offering it due to the large amount of interest. He's not profiting from this. He's worked 3 years on this project without pay.
The people complaining don't really have a solid grasp of the reality and are irrational.
Tue Sep 29 2009 11:18AM ReportMMORPG.com writes:
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