What's going on here???

[wgray0126]

I agree that Planeshift is absolutly visually stunning.  The graphics are smooth and extremly detailed.  I have been playing EQ for about 3 years now, and I think on some levels it is equal or even better.  What I don\'t get however is why they would release something that has absolutly no gameplay value what-so-ever.  I spent about 3 hours in planescape just wondering around and nothing at all was accomplished.  I love the fact that this game is free and I think that the possibilites are endless.  I personally think that it should be a closed beta (or only released to certain people) that way they could work out the bugs, get the gameplay system down, and work on getting the game more playable.  This is why we have game developers.  In my thinking alot of the game lust will wear off by the time this game is ready for full game play.  This game looks too good to be out right now.  They should have held off in its release untill it was at least 90% and then let the players finish it.  It seems to me they have a LONG way to go.  What does everyone else think?

[Zeus]

I think that you should realize that this is a pre-alpha tech demo and nowhere near completed.  I also think that it\'s great that they give the gamers a bit of a feel as to what to expect.  I also think it\'s great that the developers are going to be using some of the ideas and wishes of the gamers in the finished product.  If you stick around with the game til the end you can proudly say \"I helped make that\", but that\'s just what I think and we are all allowed to have our own personal opinions.

[Xordan]

Nah, it helps people to get to know each other well before the game starts properly, making the community more stable. I also think that by doing this, the players can put alot of what they think makes a game good into it, making it better than most other games.

[Nairan]

another thing is we have influence on the creation of the game...make  porposal post idears

[Moogie]

The answer is very simple. The tech demo was released in order to show that the developers wern\'t just sitting twiddling their thumbs- it is physical proof that they\'re hard at work.

[elscouta]

Is there really a cost of releasing too early a game? not really.
 the only one is that they need to administrate the forum but now that the Post Queen Moogie has been promoted, that drawback will be even smaller.

Is there advantages of releasing early a game? Yes:
 - more feedback (look at Wish List forum...).
 - more attractive to devs (Although i\'m not really sure this is a so-good advantage since as i heard many of candidates were not really good :-/)

And the final advantage: Players have more fun! because if you don\'t like hunting crystals, you can always browse guild forums and fight the Cabal or chatting or

[edit]huh... i\'m tired... four people answer in the same time as me. need sleep :-([/edit]

[druke]

..besides, the way they keep things bottled up till release is suspenceful, i love the way venge averts all thosae questions and just leaves you in the dark

[Grakrim]

Closed testing of an open source game? Is it just me or does that make absolutly no sense?

[Xalthar]

Originally posted by wgray0126
I spent about 3 hours in planescape just wondering around and nothing at all was accomplished.

bah, blasphemic ignorant

try reading some of the threads in the forum, or doing some research about the game before posting something like this.. It makes you sound like a moron...

[Saphire]

LOL he think it\'s supposed to be released now... any gamer worth their salt will always read the desription on the game...

\"PRE-ALPHA TECH DEMO!\"

is what i saw when i read it. the next version will actually have some gameplay elements and game-rules implemented... if we\'re lucky maybe even some monster-bashing.

but for now, it\'s too early to judge. stay here and help develop the PlaneShift game in about any way (suggesting a idea) or go on your merry way. doesn\'t really matter...

[acraig]

Game projects like these are notorious for not producing anything of value.  Some projects may have a few screen shots, some may have a few models.  In PlaneShift we have a true game.  I\'ll grant that it is not much at the moment but it shows a couple of things:

1)  It is possible
2) We have somewhat of a clue of what we are doing
3) People can get a basic idea of what the world will look like and get familar with the races
4) offers players a chance to help refine things early like GUI controls, possible locations, errors in maps etc.  
5) It gives us instant credibility when talking to potential developers.

The last is the most important.  There has been a shift to the type of people we are attracting to the project. People with PhD\'s, people who have worked on large game mods,  professional game artists etc.  If we never released anything then people would write us off as \'another one of those projects that will go nowhere\'

If people are expecting a full \'game\' with Molecular Blue then they will be disappointed.  Even Crystal Blue will not be near to what a \'full game\' will be but will represent another milestone in the PlaneShift life.   The act of making the game and sharing it with others is more fun then the game itself.

Edit: Typo fix

[Davis]

It\'s \"write\", not \"right\".
I agree with your last statement for the reason that: We don\'t have any stupid people (or not many)! That adds a lot, even if the game doesn\'t exist yet.
See? I knew acraig would post, because he has infinite patience for those of lower intellectual power. Or maybe I can see the future.

[Vengeance]

Excellent answer acraig, as usual.  :-)

There is another reason that in some ways is the most critical of all, along with #5 on acraig\'s list.  Rapid releases are by far the preferred way to deliver any significant development project.  Pro games would do this too but rely so much on secrecy that they cannot really do it.  Rapid or interim releases have several benefits:

a) Testing by the public is much tougher than testing by devs, because of all the h/w permutations and \"dumb\" users doing things we never thought of.

b) The general public testing means the server is stressed much more than if a private test is done.  We are close to 100,000 player accounts now, and have generated > 1 million crystals in MB.

c) Giving people the opportunity to hack and cheat here early lets us detect and catch their exploits earlier when there is less impact.

d) Finding all these flaws now means there is less lag time between when a feature is implemented (and bug caused) and when it is detected.  With the revolving door of Open Source developers on this or any project, this shortened time means that the dev who made the error is more likely to still be around than if we waited 2 or 3 more years for the final product.

Hope that helps.
-Venge