I personally think the whole kerfuffle brings up a good question. What launch state is acceptable for a early access game? I mean is this considered to be an alpha, beta, what exactly?
No state is acceptable if they are charging for it. Or maybe put a limit on how much a EA game should be like $10 for Alpha $15 - $20 for Beta. Being able to charge what they want is only encouraging "throw away" games for a quick buck.
It makes zero difference that this game is early access. Just watch some of the videos to see how primitive it is. As survival games go, this one is bottom of the barrel. Combat is a joke as is gathering. I feel sorry for the dev team as failure was there only option.
Stopped playing the official servers. On our own private cluster now and the difference is night and day. If the official servers played like small user privates the game would still be mixed on steam reviews. To many people who didn't like Ark or Survivals thought this was going to be dramatically different from other survival games. That's partly the Devs fault with trailers that made it look different and partly consumers fault with not paying enough attention to the survival tag.
I've played full conversion mods with less content and less fleshed out mechanics .. so Atlas is working nicely for my Holiday.
more developers are joining this business of release unfinished games and use people as alpha or beta testers, yes they are patching the game but i do not understand the motive behind releasing your game unfinished because you will loose a lot of customers, people will move on and they might never come back because the game left bad taste in their mouth, how about lunching your game much more polished and keep many of those players/customers, which one is better for business??
Its Ark Survival Evolved:Ocean. If people are expecting the game to be something other than it is, then it is a 'research' issue. I think the ones who have the largest grounds for complaints are those who bought the season pass thing that meant they should have got all the future DLC's for free. Instead of being asked to buy the game again just because its got a different label on the box, the contents are the same after all. Sounds a lot like a Scam to me honestly.
Check in a year from now to see if this is truly an EARLY access game with much to come or simply a con job.You can bet if there is anymore incoming to this so called EARLY game,it will be in form of DLC's.
Some website/media outlet should question this team as to what the pipeline is for future content/game build,i mean being EARLY and all there should be something in planning.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Don't fool yourselves, this is from the same company that released a DLC when ARK was still on Early Access. They are as scummy as ever so I really don't expect much about this game in terms of improvement. They used the hype from a deceiving trailer to sell you all a mess of a game and as soon as they can't milk it again it will be bye bye until next scummy proyect. It was supposed to be a DLC but they figured they could just sell it as full fledged new game as people are too dumb to notice.
It's a company that have no respect for players so I have zero respect for them.
Sad to see that they managed to even fool this author into thinking more is coming.
By now i would hope most understand this was a dupe job to undermine the season pass people and should be looked at by the law.
It was quite obvious and i brought up the subject matter of how this game just popped out of nowhere.I believe money has been slow since they started to work on the dlc and decided to try and scam all their season pass paying customers.
If i was one of those people i would 100% send this in to whatever government agency it applies to like the FTC and ask them to investigate.I mean the game is pretty much a copy paste of ARK with a new skin and nothing more.
Then on the topic of "season pass"some people must be very dumb to buy into something like that blind folded.It really seems in the last 5 years the developers have managed to cover all the bases on customer scams and seems to be flying right over most gamer's heads...zoom whoa what was that !!.
So before anymore people even think about mentioning "early access"this is NOT EA,this is a SCAM and will do so AGAIN with a DLC or an attempt to sell season passes for this game..ahem i mean ARK mod.You think this developer and it's investors are going to sit idle and just complete this game for FREE moving forward...lmao,not a chance in hell.I bet they are already working on how to pull off the next dupe,maybe like FO76 and claim they will offer you something for free to make amends but then make up for it with another scam/dlc.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Stopped playing the official servers. On our own private cluster now and the difference is night and day. If the official servers played like small user privates the game would still be mixed on steam reviews. To many people who didn't like Ark or Survivals thought this was going to be dramatically different from other survival games. That's partly the Devs fault with trailers that made it look different and partly consumers fault with not paying enough attention to the survival tag.
I've played full conversion mods with less content and less fleshed out mechanics .. so Atlas is working nicely for my Holiday.
Wasn't that the way ARK went, though?
Private servers generally result in a far better experience (both in terms of griefing and game performance)?
If so, I think we can agree that WildGrapeCard brought it on themselves by focusing on the "massively multiplayer" shift they were making and advertising with this title.
If all the folks go off to their private servers to maintain performance, it kinda defeats the primary design goal the team had in making Atlas.
EDIT- for what it's worth, being able to build forts and such is something that I wish Sea of Thieves had now that I've tried it. However, as far as creating epic sailing adventures, Sea of Thieves is still pretty darn good right now. I was playing for less than 4 hours total by the time I had joined a crew full of mic users and we were in a 3 ship battle that got joined by a Megalodon Shark, creating a 3-way game of cat and mouse trying to sink each other's ship while avoiding the Megalodon and bailing water every time we took a round or a bite. It was kinda nuts.
I'm not sure why people are concerned by the fact that it was going to be a DLC of Ark. So what? Why does that lesson their project?
Everyone knew these developers came from Ark, the game design was going to be like Ark. They didn't hide that fact did they? Who cares that it was going to be a DLC then evolved into its own separate game? what's that got to do with anything?
You don't see any red flags in a company copy/pasting a poorly structured, small scale, survival game, into the "most ambitious mmo of all time"? Lol.
The original game's network code is so bad, the little servers run like ass, and this is what they decided to use for a mega mmo?
I wish as consumers we demanded more than shitty Reskins of games that have piss poor engines. First Bethesda, now Wildcard. Spending money on this crap is only going to open the gates for other developers.
I'm not sure why people are concerned by the fact that it was going to be a DLC of Ark. So what? Why does that lesson their project?
Everyone knew these developers came from Ark, the game design was going to be like Ark. They didn't hide that fact did they? Who cares that it was going to be a DLC then evolved into its own separate game? what's that got to do with anything?
You don't see any red flags in a company copy/pasting a poorly structured, small scale, survival game, into the "most ambitious mmo of all time"? Lol.
The original game's network code is so bad, the little servers run like ass, and this is what they decided to use for a mega mmo?
I wish as consumers we demanded more than shitty Reskins of games that have piss poor engines. First Bethesda, now Wildcard. Spending money on this crap is only going to open the gates for other developers.
typical of the "market" these days in our crony-style "capitalism" expectations for the would-be consumers to pay for the development of the "product" before there even is a viable product (and then pay still more for updates, "accessories", add-ons, etc., etc.). Looks like it might very well be very nice if the promises actually come to fruition. If.
I'm not sure why people are concerned by the fact that it was going to be a DLC of Ark. So what? Why does that lesson their project?
Everyone knew these developers came from Ark, the game design was going to be like Ark. They didn't hide that fact did they? Who cares that it was going to be a DLC then evolved into its own separate game? what's that got to do with anything?
You don't see any red flags in a company copy/pasting a poorly structured, small scale, survival game, into the "most ambitious mmo of all time"? Lol.
The original game's network code is so bad, the little servers run like ass, and this is what they decided to use for a mega mmo?
I wish as consumers we demanded more than shitty Reskins of games that have piss poor engines. First Bethesda, now Wildcard. Spending money on this crap is only going to open the gates for other developers.
Wider. Open the gates wider.
We're certainly encouraging them. How can they resist us waving money at them without any standards on what we want?
Gates very much wider.
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
I mean .... just to be sure. Im not an ARK player. Is it modable like minecraft? This somehow seems, if you would go to some modded minecraft forum and PAY for a modpack release. (TBH there are so many mods in minecraft that change the gaming experience 100%.)
Im happy for everyone who can find joy in this game, but I wouldve appreciated a bundle for ARK/ATLAS or something else. I mean its not an entirely new game?!
Do we have come down to getting hyped /about a modded version of a main game / about a 14 year old game which brings back memory - aka WoW Classic / wanting a remastered version more than a sequel - WC, Diablo ?
The question is, did we get more entitled to what we want/need with the experience we get as gamers of the years, did the whole industry moved away from what we want/need or are they serving the right thing we need.
Im quite unsure about all of it. If you had asked me 4 years ago, I wouldve preordered that game and would be hyped about it. If you ask me now, even if that game is 100% what I want, you would get "yeah ... lets wait 1 month after release and Ill buy it".
Games doing well ... on private servers at least. Got our Galleon up last night and went exploring. Some of the islands and mob types are really neat. Cyclops swimming from shore to pound our Gal. You have to shoot the Cyclops in the eye to blind it, which debuffs him so he actually takes damage. Besides taking increased damage he also swings wildly and seems to lose track of his target for awhile. The customization on the Gal is amazing too... damn things our mobile base, can't survive completely of it as it has limited weight and anchor points though.
We still have NO idea how to get gold ... that's a large chunk of progression we haven't even begun yet. Need to find that perfect island with the resources needed to tame and build a base so that we can begin alloy production. No Alloys .. no cannons. Yes our Gal is currently defenseless.
Haven't figured out the diving mechanics yet either.
For folks saying this is just a simple Ark Reskin ... I think there is a critical misunderstanding of the new mechanics in the game. It's Ark at its heart .. but it'd be more apt to call this a total conversion mod and the best one I've played to date. Worth every penny of that $25 @ 39 hours in. Granted not everyone has access to a private server, nor should one be required to enjoy the game... so YMMV.
If you go into this with the mindset you are a Alpha tester and you are getting a 60 dollar game for 25 bucks but it wont be a really playable game for a another 12 to 18 months than I would suggest buying it. If you are looking for a game that is stable and more than 50% finished and playable STAY AWAY. If the thought of throwing 25 bucks at a game that isn't finished bothers you STAY AWAY.
Not that I've played or purchased it, because I haven't, but this is what the mindset should be. Steam could benefit by changing how early access works as well. For example, instead of having player reviews they have a feedback loop so everyone actually treats it like early access instead of a complete game.
A good idea. Reviews of early access are not being treated by the general public the way they should. They are also not indicative of the final product. I LOVED 7 Days to die. .then they added level gated content and messed some other things up and my view changed drastically. Other games get bombed in reviews and turn into decent games but the review history likely hurts sales.
I say, just leave the forum. . if you want to buy EA. . read those to see what it is like.
just to give you a heads up about 7days, they have removed level gateing.
would it be better if you where paying for it as a DLC? i dont understand this argument.
If it were originally a DLC, it would've been better if GrapeCardsGoneWildonShots had been up front with gamers about it, instead. Signs point heavily to the idea it was originally just a DLC. Seeing as they sold a season pass for ARK, now ARK users have double the reason to be miffed.
Comments
This site has become troll heaven. It’s sick. It’s like the GameStop guy, if he says it’s bad.... you should probably give it a try.
It was horrible 24 hours ago but I appreciate the effort they have made so close to Christmas to make it playable.
I've played full conversion mods with less content and less fleshed out mechanics .. so Atlas is working nicely for my Holiday.
Some website/media outlet should question this team as to what the pipeline is for future content/game build,i mean being EARLY and all there should be something in planning.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
It's a company that have no respect for players so I have zero respect for them.
so say we all
By now i would hope most understand this was a dupe job to undermine the season pass people and should be looked at by the law.
It was quite obvious and i brought up the subject matter of how this game just popped out of nowhere.I believe money has been slow since they started to work on the dlc and decided to try and scam all their season pass paying customers.
If i was one of those people i would 100% send this in to whatever government agency it applies to like the FTC and ask them to investigate.I mean the game is pretty much a copy paste of ARK with a new skin and nothing more.
Then on the topic of "season pass"some people must be very dumb to buy into something like that blind folded.It really seems in the last 5 years the developers have managed to cover all the bases on customer scams and seems to be flying right over most gamer's heads...zoom whoa what was that !!.
So before anymore people even think about mentioning "early access"this is NOT EA,this is a SCAM and will do so AGAIN with a DLC or an attempt to sell season passes for this game..ahem i mean ARK mod.You think this developer and it's investors are going to sit idle and just complete this game for FREE moving forward...lmao,not a chance in hell.I bet they are already working on how to pull off the next dupe,maybe like FO76 and claim they will offer you something for free to make amends but then make up for it with another scam/dlc.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Private servers generally result in a far better experience (both in terms of griefing and game performance)?
If so, I think we can agree that WildGrapeCard brought it on themselves by focusing on the "massively multiplayer" shift they were making and advertising with this title.
If all the folks go off to their private servers to maintain performance, it kinda defeats the primary design goal the team had in making Atlas.
EDIT- for what it's worth, being able to build forts and such is something that I wish Sea of Thieves had now that I've tried it. However, as far as creating epic sailing adventures, Sea of Thieves is still pretty darn good right now. I was playing for less than 4 hours total by the time I had joined a crew full of mic users and we were in a 3 ship battle that got joined by a Megalodon Shark, creating a 3-way game of cat and mouse trying to sink each other's ship while avoiding the Megalodon and bailing water every time we took a round or a bite. It was kinda nuts.
You don't see any red flags in a company copy/pasting a poorly structured, small scale, survival game, into the "most ambitious mmo of all time"? Lol.
The original game's network code is so bad, the little servers run like ass, and this is what they decided to use for a mega mmo?
I wish as consumers we demanded more than shitty Reskins of games that have piss poor engines. First Bethesda, now Wildcard. Spending money on this crap is only going to open the gates for other developers.
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
Im happy for everyone who can find joy in this game, but I wouldve appreciated a bundle for ARK/ATLAS or something else. I mean its not an entirely new game?!
Do we have come down to getting hyped /about a modded version of a main game / about a 14 year old game which brings back memory - aka WoW Classic / wanting a remastered version more than a sequel - WC, Diablo ?
The question is, did we get more entitled to what we want/need with the experience we get as gamers of the years, did the whole industry moved away from what we want/need or are they serving the right thing we need.
Im quite unsure about all of it. If you had asked me 4 years ago, I wouldve preordered that game and would be hyped about it. If you ask me now, even if that game is 100% what I want, you would get "yeah ... lets wait 1 month after release and Ill buy it".
go to twich etc and before spnding penny, stay in front for 30mn
^^ ALL OF THIS ^^
We still have NO idea how to get gold ... that's a large chunk of progression we haven't even begun yet. Need to find that perfect island with the resources needed to tame and build a base so that we can begin alloy production. No Alloys .. no cannons. Yes our Gal is currently defenseless.
Haven't figured out the diving mechanics yet either.
For folks saying this is just a simple Ark Reskin ... I think there is a critical misunderstanding of the new mechanics in the game. It's Ark at its heart .. but it'd be more apt to call this a total conversion mod and the best one I've played to date. Worth every penny of that $25 @ 39 hours in. Granted not everyone has access to a private server, nor should one be required to enjoy the game... so YMMV.
just to give you a heads up about 7days, they have removed level gateing.
GG self-inflicted dev wounds.