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[Interview] Camelot Unchained: Mark Jacobs on the Alpha Delay and Progress
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Now that the Camelot Unchained alpha is underway, we had the chance to ask Mark Jacobs a few questions about the process leading up to alpha and about the game's progress.
Read more of Rob Lashley's Camelot Unchained: Mark Jacobs on the Alpha Delay & Progress.
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Its a true old school alpha, not a marketing tool.
A true old school alpha, is where you apply to join and do or do not get accepted as a tester.
These "buy to alpha / beta" are not those.
It gets problematic though when people that fund the game dont get access to the alpha earlier than someone who just signed up for it.
A true old school alpha would use paid testers, I would think. People who's job is specifically to test functionality and attempt to break things in addition to providing feedback.
Yes it comes down to the fact that this game is largely funded through public funding. Nobody is forcing anyone to pledge the amount needed for alpha entry. Those who chose include some extremely educated people who provide great feedback due to their knowledge of programming and networks. This is clearly displayed in Shroud of the Avatar where alpha testers (who paid to test ... are not being paid) have developed systems that are actually going in the game.
I have no idea how Mark could be any more clear about this test. Saying it is old school is the opposite of a marketing pitch. It is nowhere near what the completed game will be. Only those educated on what they are getting into should apply. You are not being paid to contribute but educated feedback and suggesting heavily shape the direction this game takes.
I myself only had to pay roughly what a retail "silver" package is in order to get into beta. At that point I hope we start seeing the massive world being developed through the outsourcing the latest stretch goal. The game will likely go from a small world with very functional systems to a whopper of a large one likely in one patch. Should be crazy.
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We've been friends with Mark since DAOC days, if not earlier. Trust me, as there's more to talk about with CU, we will be talking about it all.
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I don´t see wording as aggressive at all (and this is coming from big CU fan), but intrigued by your remark I went through the text again. The closest to aggressive I could find is:
"MMORPG: A lot of developers say their game is in alpha and it really just feels more like a marketing tactic than a true alpha. How is CU different?"
...and even so that could be seen even as a potentially friendly question - Mark used it as a good intro to explain why this is thousand miles away from typical modern hype/cashgrab alpha.
PS This is as close (and then one step closer) to the old school alpha as one can get from kickstarted (and probably any other today) game. So, we could dance the night away debating on how old school it is (or is not), but if you excuse me - I have some other things to do tonite
I couldn't agree more, and the Molyneux interview is a perfect example. I believe he also did another interview shortly after the RPS interview, and he was rather aggressive in that one as well.
Mark Jacobs is one of the most down to earth, stand up guys in the industry. I find nothing aggressive about his wording or responses in the MMORPG.com interview and enjoyed reading every bit of it.
Looking forward to alpha and eventually streaming the alpha and beta
I wish more articles by game journalists were a bit more critical rather than the PR pieces we usually see. That being said the criticism should always be grounded.
And in this case I wouldn't even call it close to aggressive. A journalist should always be allowed to ask a harder question without the assumption that its being aggressive.
Well, before alpha/betas were sold, there were players who didn't taking the testing so seriously and saw it as a chance to play a game for free for a while. From that point of view, I can see some suit thinking "Well, we might as well try to monetize the testing process".
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I think this is because the softball questions and over the top coverage crowfall has received, has rubbed a lot of camelot unchained backers and CSE (not speaking for them) the wrong way.
When CU was ramping up for their Kickstarter I interviewed Mark on our Twitch channel and then had about another hour off camera chat with him. During the Kickstarter we gave them ample coverage. We also ran 5 interviews with them during their Bat Shit Crazy days. We've covered what their is to cover on CU and CSE.
As far as these questions are concerned I'll ask Crowfall the same thing if they run behind. They are legitimate questions. I can't imagine that Mark has any problem with these questions. I think people are trying to create controversy where their isn't any.
Also so when did it become CU vs. Crowfall? We can talk about both.
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It looked like a legit interview to me. The questions were fair. It was fair of the interviewer to ask Mark Jacobs to explain 1) the deviation from the Kickstarter schedule and 2) access to Alpha spots. I didn't think the interviewer hit those issues too hard. He certainly didn't keep circling back to these issues and digging for more.
In fact I wouldn't mind if the media would be a little more aggressive with Mr. Jacobs and his ilk. Gamers have been fed a lot of lines lately and have been served up a lot of half baked games. I'd like to know just what makes these people believe that they are going to reverse the trend. In other words, I want them to sell their product to me, rather than selling me an alpha spot and having me sell it for them. I got burned by Cryptic and Star Trek so after that no pre-orders for me. The people who make games have to sell them just like people who make any other commodity and that means sometimes having to answer some questions. If we as consumers don't ask the tough questions then we get what we get and we have no right to be upset.
As far as CU v. Crowfall I don't see that either. People fiercely defend their online games of choice and now that they've been asked to put their money where their mouth is prior to the game even being produced they're going to be that much more sensitive to any perceived slights.
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Camelot Unchained just achieved another stretch goal, Hug the World . I wonder what the next one will be!?
PS As I already noted elsewhere, their pledge-meter is accelerating significantly recently, and I believe that the overlap with Crowfall hype is not accidental.
PPS Edit: The new stretch goal is Programmers, where art thou programmers?
Surely most, if not all companies have in-house/contracted QA testers. I'd be somewhat sceptical to believe that buying alpha/beta access means that's the only form of testing a game company would use.
eg. You could buy alpha/beta access for Frontier's Elite but a look at their job page shows - http://frontier.co.uk/jobs/vacancies/cambridge_vacancies/?artid=262&pageNum=0&blk=232
I don't think the interview was overly aggressive...at all. Frankly I'm tired of the softball interviews that seem all too common.
I do wish there were more articles on CU,but i understand that the game is still being created.