Opening the Engine Test to the Public
Evil_Sheep
Join Date: 2005-03-15 Member: 45345Members
Join Date: 2005-03-15 Member: 45345Members
Hey there, so I was just cruising Blue's News and see a headline about a engine test for Natural Selection 2. And I'm thinking to myself, whoa, I loved the original NS and played it obsessively back in the day, and was waiting for NS:Source since the day HL2 came out. But after a few years, you know, you lose hope and resign yourself to the fact that this is probably going to the same place in heaven Duke Nukem Forever and all those other HL mods are...so imagine my surprise to see an actual engine test! So I jump on the torrent without a moment's hesitation (obviously I hadn't read beyond the headline) and, damned if I don't have it on my desktop in ten minutes flat. So I install it, turn it on and...to my great disappointment, learn that you need to have pre-ordered the thing.
Well I really feel like the NS developers are missing a golden opportunity to promote their game here by locking the public out of the engine test. Doesn't it make sense that people might pre-order the game after getting their interest stoked by an engine demo, rather than the other way around? I mean, when you're talking about pre-ordering, most people like to know it's a sure thing, and NS isn't exactly Call of Duty 7 here, it's more like, as I mentioned, near-vaporware. So any chance of giving a bunch of potential customers a good reason to shell out their $ and letting us see what's inside? :)
Well I really feel like the NS developers are missing a golden opportunity to promote their game here by locking the public out of the engine test. Doesn't it make sense that people might pre-order the game after getting their interest stoked by an engine demo, rather than the other way around? I mean, when you're talking about pre-ordering, most people like to know it's a sure thing, and NS isn't exactly Call of Duty 7 here, it's more like, as I mentioned, near-vaporware. So any chance of giving a bunch of potential customers a good reason to shell out their $ and letting us see what's inside? :)
Comments
Yes, Engine Test is horrible. It's not the game. It barely has anything in it. Pre-orderers can see past it because that it IS a slice of in-development cake ripped out from mid-way production and they just want to see some of their darling, but for everyone else it's just a note saying "Don't buy this game".
This is just a application to help UWE squish bugs and improve the tech.
Yes, Engine Test is horrible. It's not the game. It barely has anything in it. Pre-orderers can see past it because that it IS a slice of in-development cake ripped out from mid-way production and they just want to see some of their darling, but for everyone else it's just a note saying "Don't buy this game".<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Well put.
I personally love it to play around with the Lua code and stuff. But for anybody else it would really be just a bad turnoff.
It may only keep your attention long enough to notice if there are severe bugs. It is not fun to "play". It would scare people away rather then make them buy the game if they didn't take the time to read what this is all about (and I'm pretty sure: Most people won't!).
Yes, Engine Test is horrible. It's not the game. It barely has anything in it. Pre-orderers can see past it because that it IS a slice of in-development cake ripped out from mid-way production and they just want to see some of their darling, but for everyone else it's just a note saying "Don't buy this game".<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
It's smart to only have pre-orderers since they're funding a good chunk of the development, and have been following its progress. The average "joe plumber" downloads and would say "wth is this, there is nothing to do?" and forget about it. Maybe once the full release comes out they could do a free week promotion on steam to get many new players.
Too dangerous and will backfire with bad publicity...
Yes, Engine Test is horrible. It's not the game. It barely has anything in it. Pre-orderers can see past it because that it IS a slice of in-development cake ripped out from mid-way production and they just want to see some of their darling, but for everyone else it's just a note saying "Don't buy this game".<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
well spoken.
I've been pre-ordering to games before, but this service UWE gives us is just great!
To see the development in action and able to help :)
For me its the time to believe that this game never becomes released...
and yes my english sucks ;P<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Example 1 of people not understand what an engine test is
PS it's a quote from<a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=109248" target="_blank"> the news item thread</a>
It may only keep your attention long enough to notice if there are severe bugs. It is not fun to "play". It would scare people away rather then make them buy the game if they didn't take the time to read what this is all about (and I'm pretty sure: Most people won't!).<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
How would a potential buyer of the game currently have an engine test?
the last version of the BETA will more then likely be an OPEN BETA to all... why? because then they have a mostly functional game that will bring people in to BUY the full game.
-Matt
the last version of the BETA will more then likely be an OPEN BETA to all... why? because then they have a mostly functional game that will bring people in to BUY the full game.
-Matt<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Unless they already have enough people who bought it =P. Maybe they will do something in the future with steam and have a 1 week free NS2 or something (like how steam has a lot of free 1 week game trials)
1. It's giving back to the people who have ordered. You guys have stuck through and deserve something for ordering so far ahead.
2. The average joe might not understand what an engine test is and write the game off as slow, boring, crappy, won't even load, etc. The engine, let alone the game, is not 100% ready for the masses yet.
3. Combining the above two thoughts, this method allows a large base of people who are dedicated fans to this game and know what the engine test is to give the team a large sample of computers to test on. You guys have already been fantastic in your modding, bug reporting, suggestions and other feedback. While we could get a little more of this from an open test, we would also scare off a lot off potential customers.
Why? You people seem to want everything for free and easy.
Besides the point Natural-Selection 1 is a fully converted Half-Life modification you get for free, which can give you an idea of what to expect in NS2.
Ya, but either way the dumbest thing to do would have open alpha. To many people would judge the game THEN and never buy it, damn stupid people.
Besides the point Natural-Selection 1 is a fully converted Half-Life modification you get for free, which can give you an idea of what to expect in NS2.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Because Demos are a good way to raise hype for a game and some people are reluctant to buy before playing?
Concur, demos and free weekends are essential, though I don't see what single-player aspect they could make a demo out of with NS2. Maybe just a lot of free weekends?
Besides the point Natural-Selection 1 is a fully converted Half-Life modification you get for free, which can give you an idea of what to expect in NS2.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
What the hell does having a demo have to do with free and easy, it's a demo ffs. NS1 was released like 7 years ago lol, sure people that played the original game a lot will be interested but people who only played it a bit, people who only heard of it, and people who have never heard of it will like to see a demo.
Multiplayer demos and free weekends will win. A <i>good</i> MP demo with separate dedicated server support on day 1 (eg server providers needing to buy/install the game to run servers is stupido) will sell copies. A ###### demo or lack of a demo at all will not sell copies (hi AvP).
You're basing this off what evidence?
Take a look at a few Indie games. Killing Floor, for example. Tripwire Interactive never released a demo for the game. In fact, what they did was make the full game, and then released it. It saved money, it saved time. It didn't even score that well on Metacritic, yet the word spread around by mouth: "Hey, this game is fun! Come try it!"
And people did. And they liked it, and consequently bought it. It reached the Top 10 in sales figures during the Valve Holiday Sale; rather impressive by the way.
You did indeed mention free weekends, however. I'm sure UWE can arrange that. After the game's released, that is.
However, I honestly don't see any easy way to release a demo without the consequences being detrimental to UWE.
Bad Company 2 and AVP - two very high profile games. BC2 is currently the top seller on steam and they had a very popular and fun demo even when you take into account the server browser issues. AVP had a very unsuccessful demo due to no dedicated server software, clunky console style feel to the game and a terrible lobby system. AvP's life is over already. BC2 is going strong.
Why would a battlefield style single map MP demo with limited in-game upgrades be bad for ns2? You could even do it like Valve do for L4D and shut down the demo say 2 weeks after the full game has been released. After that rely on free weekends and steam specials.
Anyway I just hope this game turns out to be a solid title, a worthy sequel, and that people actually buy it. NS1 had the benefit of being a mod for the most popular game ever at the time.
Yes, Engine Test is horrible. It's not the game. It barely has anything in it
<!--coloro:red--><span style="color:red"><!--/coloro-->IT's a TEST ENGINE NOT FULL OR BETA GAME, ONLY PURPOSE OF THIS IS TO TEST YOUR COMPABILITY WITH YOUR BUCKET OF BOLTS YOU CALL PC<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->
. Pre-orderers can see past it because that it IS a slice of in-development cake ripped out from mid-way production and they just want to see some of their darling, but for everyone else it's just a note saying "Don't buy this game".
<!--coloro:red--><span style="color:red"><!--/coloro-->By these words you seem to be very disapointed with ns2, just ask for money back and forget about this game, while it is in pre-order state you can ask for money back, atleast steam refunds pre-orders<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
as for me, i'm very happy about ns2, not bad test to see what engine can do and what to expect.
If you've pre-ordered any version you get a beta. If not, tough luck.