Why should I pay 150$ to play beta now? Question from a 'Star Citizenite'

[LuxAngel7]

I have a genuine and sincere question, preceded by a brief preface.

I, as everyone else here I presume, am a huge sci fi / space sim fan and am incredibly grateful for the amazing work Frontier is doing. Watching some yt vids of people playing this game literally made me giggle in excitement, something that only Star Citizen has been able to do so far.

My question regards the pricing of the Beta. I would absolutely LOVE to play the game already, in whatever form it is, and keep playing it until release, and maybe contribute with a few polite forum suggestion/feedback threads, but I feel quite..."intimidated" (? don't know if that's the right word) by the 150$ buy in.

I am not comparing this game to Star Citizen, but just to help understand why I am so hesitant, I will allow myself to make this one comparison:

I caught on to the Star Citizen craze very very slowly at first, and since from what I could understand it looked like a worthy project that I thought I would possibly end up loving to death I "pledged" or purchased a 40$ game package that came with a basic starter ship, alpha access, beta access, and obviously the single player and MMO game.

The more time passed on, the more I became absolutely enamored with the project, team, potential etc etc. Long story short, I have know purchased a 275$ game package and have been a 20$ /month subscriber for the past year and some months, including gifting several 40-60$ packages to close friends.

So when I find out about Elite: Dangerous naturally I'm like "Star Citizen AND Elite?? DID I DIE AND GO TO HEAVEN!?"

However, I find myself very very hesitant to plop down 150$ for a "premium beta"

(which by the way, isn't very clear as to what's different than the standard beta apart from one apparently starts before the other)

Why is there no price that at the very least is as much as a normal game? Every early access or beta / whatever price I have ever seen (with the exception of the sheer lunacy that was the Planetary Annihilation alpha) was never priced so high, much less more than the final product release price.

Yes, I understand that it includes future "expansions" (again, kind of vague, the store only mentions general game play mechanics they plan to add) but to me it doesn't make sense that it costs WAAAY more to show my support now as someone who believes in a game and a team when there isn't a final product available yet, than it does for someone to just wait a while and then go "oh let's give this a try".

My question and concerns are sincere, I am not trying to say Star Citizen is better than Elite, just like I wouldn't say it's better than EVE or that puppies are better than kittens.

I'm just genuinely very very excited for this game and would like to ask anyone to help me understand exactly why the apparent backwards pricing model and why I shouldn't just wait.

Disclaimer: I work in Marketing in an extremely demanding and unforgiving environment for the world's largest logistics and shipping company, so I might just be expecting more communication as to what / why I'm buying at such a high price, so keep that also in mind before anyone jumps to the conclusion that I'm just hating on Frontier or whatever.

 

[Patrick_68000]

I think that the answer is in the level of passion that you have for Elite

 

[bend_r]

I have backed both ED and StarCitizen. First of all I see no conflict of interest, ED you can (sort of) play now, StarCitizen in 2016 or more likely 2017.

As to your question, the premium beta includes access to the expansion packs as opposed to the standard beta, which does not. Quote from the premium beta store entry:

• All major downloadable expansion packs as they are released

For me that was the tipping point for going premium. Any boy did I regret that, 'cause now I'm hooked and waste too much time here an in the game It really feels like the Elite games with Tie Fighter and Wing Commander-esque action on top. I love the way the ships handle and just flying around is a blast.

see you all out there,
Commander Benderson

 

[Phoenix_Dfire]

A similar query was put forward by Lazy Gamers ;-

Lazy Gamers.

Here was my response to it. ;-

The alpha and beta backers are helping to get the game written. They paid that cash because they wanted Elite Dangerous because no publisher would touch it or they demand so many changes that it would not be the game the developer wanted. When was the last time you saw a decent space sim? That would have been the X series before rebirth and that's because publishers think we all too dumb to handle a game with a little complexity.

No one is asking you to pitch in at the level and if you wait a few months the full game will be available at a much reduced price. Frontier are a small (in size) independent development house so the have to use this kind of approach if they're going to get a game which models the 400 billion or so star systems in the galaxy.

Am I being unreasonable?

 

[tothebridge]

just to support the developing and the game as well as the community and last but not least to have some fun with E right now

 

[Uridium]

I caught on to the Star Citizen craze very very slowly at first, and since from what I could understand it looked like a worthy project that I thought I would possibly end up loving to death I "pledged" or purchased a 40$ game package that came with a basic starter ship, alpha access, beta access, and obviously the single player and MMO game.

The more time passed on, the more I became absolutely enamored with the project, team, potential etc etc. Long story short, I have know purchased a 275$ game package and have been a 20$ /month subscriber for the past year and some months, including gifting several 40-60$ packages to close friends.

Sorry, I'm missing something here, you've paid 275$ and 20$ per month for SC, which as far as I understand is early alpha? But you are questioning paying $150 for ED?

Maybe I'm uninformed, i don't know too much about what is available in SC or its pricing model, but it seems to me that ED is better value.

Anyway, the posters above me have explained, Prem-Beta gives you all future expansions, which sold it for me!


EDIT: Ive just read the post 2 above me by Phoenix_Dfire. Completely agree with his statement. We are supporting this game because we believe in the development team and want ED to be made. If you want, just wait for release, and buy it at the 'normal' game price.

 

[Bobbydylan]

Each to their own. My interpretation is that Frontier can't handle a few hundred thousand players all at once, the infrastructure just isn't set up for it. The high Alpha price (£200) ensured the pool of players was relatively small, and populated by players who have the game's best interest at heart.

As the game stabilizes, the cost comes down, and more players join.


If you don't want to spend £100 on a game, then I totally understand that. I can not rationally argue that it's good value for money, cos it's not.
But it's Elite 4, the game we've been waiting for, for almost 20 years. To me, that's worth £200.

 

[Bobbydylan]

Sorry, I'm missing something here, you've paid 275$ and 20$ per month for SC, which as far as I understand is early alpha? But you are questioning paying $150 for ED?

Maybe I'm uninformed, i don't know too much about what is available in SC or its pricing model, but it seems to me that ED is better value.

Anyway, the posters above me have explained, Prem-Beta gives you all future expansions, which sold it for me!

Well, SC uses (not so)micro transactions. Most players pay that much for the ships and justify it as a donation with the ship as a reward. Elite doesn't give ships as reward, so people are less likely to throw money at it.

It's sad that being ethical is bad for business.

 

[stephen_usher]

First of all welcome.

The Eliteangerous "Premium Beta" stage is really a bit of a misnomer. The current state of play is that the "game" is a test harness for modules being developed on the main line development stream. There is, what David Braben said, a game loop but it's rudimentary at the moment.

By buying into to access to this part of the development cycle you're essentially signing up to be a guinea pig and bug tester. As long as you recognise this then I thing that you won't be disappointed.

Whether you wish to pay to be a bug hunter is up to you.

The current test harness (Beta 1) is mostly still trying to sort out networking, now with many more players, and has started to test trading. There are problems with the peer-to-peer code, especially when some clients have limited bandwidth and/or latency as the clients effectively run as mini-servers for the set of players in an instance. There are also problems with crashes and loss of progress when this happens. Oh, and a myriad of other glitches too.

Myself, I would not call this beta testing yet, it's still too early in the development cycle. But that's marketing for you.

I hope that information has helped you with your decision. It's always best to go into these things with your eyes wide open.

 

[Foyle]

I'm into SC for about $300, and recently I'm suffering from buyers(pledgers!) remorse for such a long wait and the forums devolving into an inhospitable moan-fest.

I started with a basic £40 pledge for E: D and recently upgraded for the Premium Beta which cost me about an extra £60.

A couple of years ago I'd never have dreamed spending this kind of money on a game but I guess MWO began my conditioning for the new PC gaming landscape.

I played the single missions a few times and while very impressed with the game, I never felt like replaying them over and over.

But now I'm on the multiplayer a whole new world of possibilities has opened and I was up far too late last night desperate to make my first credits in the universe.

Flying around in my sidewinder feels great. I can only hope that SC's AC feels anywhere near as visceral and immersive.

I believe that Elite Dangerous turning out to be so impressive is one of the main reasons why Chris Roberts has had to delay the dogfight module - The bar has been set high.

 

[Grav]

The premium beta currently lets you fly around between five different systems of varying economies and governments, dock and undock at stations, do a little combat here, a little trading there. It's a lot of fun, though not without its issues, a beta is a beta after all.

Basically if you're "$150 excited", then jump in now. If you're not quite there, then jump in later.

 

[Fromhell]

It's sad that being ethical is bad for business.

having interesting rewards for pledges is ethical

 

[Walltar]

Like in Star Citizen ... I pledged for Private beta because I care for space games. I love space sims and so I gave them my money. I think that it is not that hard ...

And even though i can't play this Beta, I am not angry, because my motivation was helping to get the game made and not getting in early.

 

[nats]

I cant see there being much of an argument for paying £100 for the Premium Beta nor £50 for the standard Beta myself other than 'helping Frontier develop the game more' - but I think they have got more than enough money and staff to do a good job on it now and I dont think more money would make any difference to the way the game comes out now anyway.

So you are left with free expansions and playing the incomplete game early for £75 (as it costs £35 for the base game) and you have to weigh up that value yourself. For me its not value for money, I will stick with playing the gamma release in September.

But for many people it is good value considering how passionate they are for Elite. For me Frontier was an important game in my past in that I enjoyed it more than many others but I didnt enjoy it more than some other games so I am not overly passionate about it. So for me £35 is a good purchase considering I got access to other Kickstarter things when I paid that money.

If I was coming to the game now and not overly passionate about it I would wait for release and buy it then because its almost certainly going to be a lot cheaper that way. And just buy the expansions as they come along. Nothing wrong with that at all.

I havent paid anything into Star Citizen yet because the whole thing about that Kickstarter and the money being bandied around seems all very dodgy to me at the moment. I quite liked Wing Commander but I never liked Privateer much. The whole premise of Wing Commander (hand coded missions) was far stronger than Privateer, in which the hand coding never really produced a truly open world feeling for me. So I will probably buy the SC game eventually but probably not till well after Elite Dangerous has been played out a bit, and possibly not at all based on how good the final SC product is - at the moment it all looks a 'little bit flaky' so I am not willing to invest anything into that game yet.

Also I am going off paying for unfinished games and Early Access games generally. I am trying to stop that completely now, its just too frustrating waiting for the final product to come years after you paid for it.

 

[Rashoumon]

Well i backed the ED P-beta and i'm also a Concierge tier backer of Star Citizen (went abit overboard there). Now that the Dog Fighting Module was delayed and is about to release, i thought well what the heck, let's back this game too. And i do not regret one second of it, it is really cool! stop your monthly sub and put it in ED P-beta i'd say ^^

 

[Ixnatifual]

Participating in the beta would devalue the experience of the game for me, so I'll probably preorder the standard edition. Only reason I haven't done this long ago is that I couldn't be bothered making a PayPal account.

But I must say it seems very mysterious you've poured over $400 into a game which you have yet to play, whereas Elite is only $150 to get the game in your hands now, and you somehow need to justify this and not the $400? Does not compute. I mean, just paying $20 every month to have advertising fed to you seems insane to me.

It tastes like microtransaction brainwashing, like my friend who thinks paying $40 for a great AAA game is too expensive yet he gladly forks over $175+ to get a few more virtual cards in a supposedly "Free-2-Play" low-budget title like Hearthstone. This makes me sad on so many levels, that people so easily by into this. It looks cheap because you pay in small amounts, but in the grand scheme of things you get almost nothing for a huge amount of money.

(And this is not to say Star Citizen is a low budget game or anything. I think it will be good. I think your head is just getting spun around by microtransactions. Which is why that model is becoming so popular. Also not to say Hearthstone isn't a very fun game - it is.)

 

[fireFly1000]

Sorry, I'm missing something here, you've paid 275$ and 20$ per month for SC, which as far as I understand is early alpha? But you are questioning paying $150 for ED?

He did that because he believes that eventually SC will be great.
He doesn't know much about ED so that's why he asked here.

So, LuxAngel, I would advise you to read the Design Discussion Archive with proposed game mechanics.
If you like what you see then maybe 150$ will not seem much for a great game.
Also, now we are way past the point where people could still wonder and be uncertain if the game will ever be finished, so you money will not be spend in vain.

 

[Thygrrr]

I backed SC with twice as much cash as ED, mostly because back then the ED kickstarter wasn't as promising. I admit I was completely mistaken in my assessment.

ED has constantly over-delivered and gives me a feeling of a vast universe in a "fun", dystopian future. It is challenging and I live my own story, and I can call my own shots every time I get into the pilot's seat. I think the Beta is already a lot of fun and offers Trade, Outfitting, Exploration (in a limited scope), encounters, Battles, and PvP dogfights galore!

Star Citizen has so far gotten me a Hangar and a Towel. (not trying to be too bitter about this, but they need to deliver something of value instead of "The next great starship" episodes.)

So, if you want to scratch that space game itch, and want to scratch it good, sign up for the Premium Beta.

 

[deusx_ophc]

really all the good points have been made

to me without going into any selling pitch it comes down to one issue:

$150 is nothing compared to being amongst the stars again in a cobra mkIII. to me that experience nearly 30 years ago remains priceless.

i have spent upwards of EUR 100k on FDEV to date (some of which might or might not bring financial returns) and it comes down to this: i want to do my bit to help get this game made.

everyone has their own limits, it is up to you to decide how far you want to go

 

[Robert Maynard]

i have spent upwards of EUR 100k on FDEV to date (some of which might or might not bring financial returns)

<chokes on coffee!>

You can obviously afford to buy me a new keyboard then to replace the one you just caused to be ruined....!

That's a serious financial commitment - I would expect it to start to bring financial returns when gamma is released....