Beta Burnout

[Forbiddenwar]

With open and preorder beta more common, and Steam's Early Access, more and more people are playing unfinished games and, more often, paying for the privillege.

My experience with playing games in beta is that I usually never play them again after release. Yes, once I finish a game I typically drop it, but this burnout is different. Games undergo so much change between Beta and release that sometimes the drastic change puts me off of the game. Or I get burned out on the buggy or broken or just not feature complete games, and don't have the will to play them again.

What games have you experienced Beta Burnout to some degree or another?

My list:
Minecraft - I played this game in Alpha and Beta. I played mods I played adventure maps. I played Zelda. I played survival. Then after release, I've tried to play it, and just couldn't do it. I couldn't adjust to the changes and it just wasn't fun anymore.

Starcraft 2 Multiplayer - Ditto. I would queue up everyday for a ranked ladder. I got to Platinum once. But then release and with it some balance changes, and I just left.

Hearthstone - Yes this beta is still going on, but I can tell right now that though I've been playing an hour or two a day that I won't touch it after release.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Interestingly, this seems mostly to apply to online games. I think that the beta phase is a chance for people to try the game early, and decide whether or not they're going to invest further into it. That's not necessarily a bad thing.

[AdmiralCheez]

Yeah, I'm getting pretty tired of all the early access/beta games too. A lot of times, I'll see a game that just sounds amazing, but then I see the early access tag, and then I have to start researching. Most of them are charging full price for a game that doesn't even have it's core features finished.

Incidentally, the only games that I actually have bought while in beta are Minecraft and Kerbal Space Program. Both of those, however, at least had all the major gameplay elements in place at the time, and you could still have fun playing it. Additional updates basically just added more blocks/spaceship parts to play with.

[Rallicus]

Never bought a game in development besides Minecraft, back in its Alpha stage. Only played for a few months but it was worth the measly $15 I spent, no doubt.

I still remember when they added mobs to multiplayer. The server I played on was utterly destroyed from the ground up. Hours and hours put in by the players was reduced to nothing. I can't imagine something like that ever happening on that game now, given how the fanbase might react.

Ironically, I think MC is one of the few games that was worth playing in development only.

Still - I have no problem with early access or pay-to-play still in development games, so long as the person gets the final product in doing so. I'm not sure I agree with charging full price, though; you should reward your customers for believing in your product at such an early stage, by giving them a discount. In that sense I think Minecraft handled their development very well... I mean, I could still hop on the game at this very moment if I wanted to -- a game I spent $15 on like 5 years ago -- not that I'd want to.

[warty goblin]

I have a very simple rule for buying games: I don't unless I think what I'm getting at time of sale is going to be worth what I'm paying. Or shortly thereafter in the case of preorders. Point being, the thing I download needs to be worth whatever I paid for that download, regardless of whether it gets better later.

This has some (maybe) interesting ramifications. I don't Kickstart games, I'm not going to buy a product that does not yet exist*. I will preorder a nearly done game, since that exists and I have some ability to assess its quality. I will buy into an alpha/beta, but only at less than the release price, since I'm buying a by-design inferior product. The alpha/beta also needs to be in a playable and enjoyable state with the fundamental gameplay systems already in place when I pony up my credit card. Mount & Blade and Blackguards are good examples of this; since both were already substantially complete by the time I hopped on board.

I'm also happy to pick up a beta release, play it a little, and decide it's worth more time when it's done. Blackguards is case in point here; the early access version was the first chapter or so, at a basically complete stage. Upon sampling, I decided it was really good, and to return when the rest of the chapters were done, even though what I had was completely playable.

The upshot of all of this is that even if I play a game to death in prerelease, I've still gotten my money's worth. Why should I care if I never touch the thing again?


*I apply this rule to other crowdfunding projects in general as well. Although I made an exception for Heather Dale's Celtic Avalon project, because frankly she's brought enough joy to my life already that I'm not particularly fussed if the whole thing falls through. I'm supporting her because I appreciate her craft, not because I want swag.

[factotum]

Probably the only games that I played to any significant degree while they were still in alpha or beta are SPAZ and Minecraft, and indeed, I haven't really played either since they were properly released--however, only Minecraft was due to burnout; I don't play SPAZ these days because I discovered Starsector (previously Starfarer), which has much more satisfying combat. (Having said that, I stopped playing Starfarer because it's in beta and I want to wait for release, and at the rate things are going, I'll be drawing a pension before it gets to that point!).

I'm coming to see early release games in the same light as I do pre-orders--e.g. they're something I simply won't do anymore. The way I see it, there are literally thousands of games out there that are both finished and have some reviews on the board so I can make an informed decision on whether to buy them, I don't need to buy early access stuff.