Early Access is a SCAM.
There I said it, end of post…. If only it was that simple. Early Access is something that I have been against since it first started. Don’t get confused, I’m not talking about Early Access games where you can buy games in it’s Alpha and Beta phases, but rather games that as a pre-order bonus give you X amount of days of early access to a game before its actual launch.
I’ve been thinking about making this post for a while, as it is something that I feel very serious about, because in my eyes, as the title of this post says, I think it’s a scam. But what really pushed me to make this post was seeing people like @Pusen and @kaelci post about the new WoW expansion and their experience in early access. And this isn't a dig at them. Don't think for a moment it is but rather seeing their posts brought my feelings about Early Access up to the surface again.
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Ahí lo dije, fin del post…. Si tan solo fuera así de simple. El acceso anticipado es algo a lo que he estado en contra desde que empezó. No te confundas, no me refiero a juegos de acceso anticipado donde puedes comprar juegos en sus fases Alfa y Beta, sino a juegos que como bono de reserva te dan X cantidad de días de acceso anticipado a un juego antes. su lanzamiento real.
Llevo un tiempo pensando en hacer este post, ya que es algo que me tomo muy en serio, porque a mis ojos, como dice el título de este post, creo que es una estafa. Pero lo que realmente me impulsó a hacer esta publicación fue ver a personas como @Pusen y @kaelci publicar sobre la nueva expansión de WoW y su experiencia en acceso anticipado. Y esto no es una insinuación hacia ellos. No creo ni por un momento que lo sea, pero ver sus publicaciones hizo que mis sentimientos sobre el acceso anticipado salieran a la superficie nuevamente.
World of Warcraft - The War Within (no spoilers)
Forgive Me Gamers, For I have Sinned
This post isn’t just going to be me rambling like a madman, or at least it isn’t mostly going to be me rambling like a madman, but instead, I’ll be talking about the “benefits,” the “cons,” and why I am overall against this idea.
The Pros
Pre-order bonuses have always been an interesting concept to me. In exchange of putting a deposit down on a game before it comes out, you can get some goodies. I remember in my teenage years I used to frequent the local GameStop (EBgames back then in Canada) and see what games were offering posters as a pre-order bonus. I would then place the minimum deposit down to get the poster, and the next week I would cancel the pre order.
But most pre-order bonuses came in the form of DLC for the game, whether that was some extra missions, cosmetics, etc. But a recent trend has started. A trend we can see with many MMOs and all of Ubisoft games, and that is if you pre-order the game you can play the game early before its “launch”.
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En esta publicación no solo voy a ser yo divagando como un loco, o al menos no voy a ser yo divagando como un loco, sino que hablaré sobre los “beneficios”, los “desventajas”. ”Y por qué estoy en general en contra de esta idea. Los profesionales
Los bonos de reserva siempre han sido un concepto interesante para mí. A cambio de realizar un depósito en un juego antes de que salga, puedes obtener algunos obsequios. Recuerdo que en mi adolescencia solía frecuentar el GameStop local (EBgames en ese entonces en Canadá) y ver qué juegos ofrecían carteles como bonificación por pedido anticipado. Luego realizaría el depósito mínimo para obtener el póster y la semana siguiente cancelaría el pedido anticipado.
Pero la mayoría de los bonos de reserva vinieron en forma de DLC para el juego, ya sean misiones adicionales, cosméticos, etc. Pero ha comenzado una tendencia reciente. Una tendencia que podemos ver en muchos MMO y en todos los juegos de Ubisoft, y es que si reservas el juego, podrás jugarlo antes de su “lanzamiento”.
The pros for this is pretty obvious, you get to play the game early before everyone else. When it comes to MMOs this means that you don’t have to worry about waiting forever in a Queue or having to worry about the game crashing on you. You can experience the game before its actual “launch” before everything becomes chaos.
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Las ventajas de esto son bastante obvias: puedes jugar antes que los demás. Cuando se trata de MMO, esto significa que no tienes que preocuparte por esperar eternamente en una cola o tener que preocuparte de que el juego se bloquee. Puedes experimentar el juego antes de su “lanzamiento” real, antes de que todo se convierta en un caos.
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I can understand early access when it comes to MMOs. But when it comes to everything else, like single-player games, I think “Early Access is a scam.” And I'll explain why later down in this post.
The Cons
Boy are there a lot. Or maybe “Cons” would be the wrong word. Let’s talk about the $ point. Usually in order to get three days “early” access to a game you need to pre order the second tier which in todays times cost $100+. Activision Blizzard is famous for offering this benefit, not only for WoW, but also for Call of Duty. Another offender for this is Ubisoft. Ubisoft have started offering an “early access” pre order bonus for their games.
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Puedo entender el acceso temprano cuando se trata de MMO. Pero cuando se trata de todo lo demás, como los juegos para un jugador, creo que "el acceso anticipado es una estafa". Y explicaré por qué más adelante en esta publicación. Los contras
Chico, hay muchos. O tal vez "Contras" sería la palabra equivocada. Hablemos del punto $. Por lo general, para obtener tres días de acceso “anticipado” a un juego, es necesario reservar el segundo nivel, que hoy en día cuesta más de $100. Activision Blizzard es famosa por ofrecer este beneficio, no sólo para WoW, sino también para Call of Duty. Otro infractor de esto es Ubisoft. Ubisoft ha comenzado a ofrecer un bono de “acceso anticipado” por compra anticipada para sus juegos.
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Usually when it comes to these pre-orders the only real thing of “value” that is offered is the early access. Most pre-order bonuses are just kinda BS, and it is the same with the early access. These developers are pretty much saying, “Give us an extra $20 bucks and you can play the game 3 days early.” And sometimes those “early access days” don’t even work.
How could anyone forget the masterpiece that is Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League. It was just an amazing game that rightfully deserved its place as the next installment in the Arkhamverse…. Okay, I can’t even type that with a straight face. The game was a complete, excuse my French, fucking disaster. The game was horrible and there were a lot of moments in it that were notably “woke,”. Like when Boomerang asks Deadshot “Aren’t you supposed to be white,” referencing the fact that previously in the Batman Arkham Games Deadshot was white. But don’t worry because the reason why Deadshot is black now is because the White deadshot was from another universe. Yeah, that’s WB and Sweet Baby Inc. explanation on the whole thing.
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Por lo general, cuando se trata de estos pedidos anticipados, lo único de “valor” real que se ofrece es el acceso anticipado. La mayoría de los bonos de reserva son una especie de tontería, y lo mismo ocurre con el acceso anticipado. Estos desarrolladores prácticamente dicen: "Danos $20 dólares adicionales y podrás jugar el juego 3 días antes". Y a veces esos “días de acceso anticipado” ni siquiera funcionan.
¿Cómo podría alguien olvidar la obra maestra que es Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League? Fue simplemente un juego increíble que merecía con razón su lugar como la próxima entrega del Arkhamverse…. Vale, ni siquiera puedo escribir eso con cara seria. El juego fue un completo, perdón por mi francés, jodido desastre. El juego fue horrible y hubo muchos momentos que fueron notablemente "despertadores". Como cuando Boomerang le pregunta a Deadshot "¿No se supone que eres blanco?", haciendo referencia al hecho de que anteriormente en Batman Arkham Games Deadshot era blanco. Pero no te preocupes porque la razón por la que Deadshot es negro ahora es porque el Deadshot blanco era de otro universo. Sí, esa es la explicación de WB y Sweet Baby Inc. sobre todo el asunto.
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But I’m getting off track here. SSKtJL was also plagued by another problem. It was an only online game that offered a week of early access to those who pre-ordered a certain tier. The problem with this is that for the first four/five days, there were server issues meaning even though people paid for Early Access they were not able to play the game because they couldn’t access the servers.
Early Access is just another way to kill the physical gaming market. Back in the day, when I was a youngster of 14 ( 13 years ago) midnight launches for video games were all the rage. This gave the player early access to a game. The lineups for games like COD were completely unreal. But now that early access perk is only being given to digital versions of a game. It’s a way to try to coax people to go digital. And if you know good ole GamerGeek you know that I am completely against digital ownership because it simply does not exist.
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Pero aquí me estoy desviando. SSKtJL también se vio afectado por otro problema. Era el único juego en línea que ofrecía una semana de acceso anticipado a quienes reservaran un determinado nivel. El problema con esto es que durante los primeros cuatro o cinco días, hubo problemas con el servidor, lo que significaba que, aunque las personas pagaban por el acceso anticipado, no podían jugar porque no podían acceder a los servidores.
El acceso anticipado es solo otra forma de acabar con el mercado de los juegos físicos. En aquel entonces, cuando yo era un joven de 14 años (hace 13 años), los lanzamientos de videojuegos a medianoche estaban de moda. Esto le dio al jugador acceso temprano a un juego. Las alineaciones de juegos como COD eran completamente irreales. Pero ahora ese beneficio de acceso temprano solo se otorga a las versiones digitales de un juego. Es una forma de intentar convencer a la gente para que se vuelva digital. Y si conoces al buen GamerGeek, sabrás que estoy completamente en contra de la propiedad digital porque simplemente no existe.
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Final Point
You might be wondering why during this entire post that I used quotation marks around the world “Early”, well the reason why is that “Early Access” is a lie. There is no such thing as early access. What these developers are telling people is that if they pay X more amount of dollars that they can play the game when it launches, and those who don’t want to fork out that extra money will have to wait 3 days until after it launches to play it.
Because let’s be clear here, the day a game comes out for consumers to play is the day that it launches. It’s not “3 days before it launches,”. No. It’s the day it launches. But video game companies don’t want to say this. They want to spin the pre-order bonus as a positive thing, and a lot of people, especially gamers, are too stupid to see through their lies and gobble it all up.
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Punto final Quizás se pregunte por qué durante toda esta publicación usé comillas en todo el mundo como "Early", bueno, la razón es que "Early Access" es una mentira. No existe el acceso anticipado. Lo que estos desarrolladores le están diciendo a la gente es que si pagan X cantidad más de dólares podrán jugar el juego cuando se lance, y aquellos que no quieran desembolsar ese dinero extra tendrán que esperar 3 días hasta que se lance. juegalo.
Porque seamos claros aquí, el día en que sale un juego para que los consumidores lo jueguen es el día de su lanzamiento. No son "3 días antes de su lanzamiento". No. Es el día de su lanzamiento. Pero las empresas de videojuegos no quieren decir esto. Quieren hacer que el bono de reserva sea algo positivo, y mucha gente, especialmente los jugadores, son demasiado estúpidos para ver sus mentiras y engullirlo todo.
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Are you for Early Access or against it? Let me know down below!
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¿Estás a favor del acceso anticipado o en contra? ¡Cuéntamelo abajo!
My opening line - a practice a don't particularly agree with, but took advantage of nonetheless. xD
If it were a singleplayer game, nah, there's no way I would bother with early access. Also: Day One DLC? Fuck off. Lol. While that didn't affect me with Mass Effect 3 because I bought the collector's edition, for such an essential character and lore to the overall story to be locked behind yet another purchase the first day of launch? No.
Sort of a segueway, but I feel that was still relevant. If it's Day One, include it in the damned game. DLC/Expansions are for months down the track.
But 'early access' for an MMO... honestly, eh. If I hadn't bought in, I wouldn't have cared about the others who had. A friend of mine did because she was working and this enabled her to play over the weekend while she had days off. I did it because I'm a greedy biznatch and wanted to farm all the things and earn all the gold before the masses came to steal all my nodes. XD
Bahaha gotta get a head of those bots! And day 1 DLC especially if its something that is cut from the game is complete BS!
Forgive me gamers for I have sinned!
LAUGHS! What A pro line!
Anyways I do agree but that Assassin Creed Shadows looks absolutely wild my guy!
Eh I gotta disagree. It looks like a wish version of Ghost of Tsushima. Also I don't have very high hopes for it considering Sweet Baby Inc is a "consultation" firm for Ubisoft.
Might be it hits different for me... I am a big fan of anything Japan related... Now I've never played Ghosts Of Tsushima yet (I do want to very badly though) so I can't really compare it to anything I've played before.
I can also add that the franchise has gotten boring with all the releases over time and this one got me hyped up actually. Maybe I'm wrong?
Ghost of Tsushima is the frigging bomb!
I use to love AC but since Valhalla I've been off that train.
I think I've been off the train since before Black Flag... it got too much...
However you might be ruining it for me because I bought Valhalla on a massive sale 😅😅😅😅 and now this....
Sheeessshhh!
I'm just waiting for tsushima to go on a sale xD
Valhalla is too big for its own good and takes a drastic step away from what AC should be.
Its like someone over at ubisoft wanted to make a vikings game but it had to be PG13
I think the cases where Early Access could technically be considered as...well, a proper EARLY Access, would be mainly if not exclusively with indie games that have yet more content to create and presentation polish to add, but still are launched for players to finally take a shot at it, give them a fair slice of what's done currently while there's more planned to come later [in the ideal scenarios], and when the full game launches, anyone that bought Early Access would be able to see the proper full launch of the game with the stuff that was promised...free of charge.
And that's because if you bought Early Access, you basically already bought the game- so you get the right to the full thing when it's out.
I know this at least from a few examples, such as BallisticNG being in free Early Access years ago when it was still quite on the smaller size and on development [and I got it] then could later on see the full priced launch and big changes while still having my copy at hand, and Aero GPX which not too long ago launched in Early Access and likely will get a full launch near the end of the year if not at the start of the next one with more content...but currently does have fifteen tracks and around ten vehicles, so there is at least quite something there already that you could grab for cheap and then enjoy a bigger version without re-buying the game at a higher price tag.
For AAA games though, I get how often there's always a chance of there being a slippery robbery- mainly if the only incentive there is for Early Access is getting some preorder bonus or such [rip Fallout 76 early adopters waiting for their canvas bag].
Early Access such as Steam Early Access I can get behind. I'll be making a post about that sometime in the future! But my main gripe is the "early access" to already full games.
Hay que estar pendiente de esa !DOOK