ARK: Survival Evolved Has Restored My Faith In Early Access
Early Access has earned a questionable reputation in many gaming circles and it's easy to see why with the wash of blatant scams that hinder an otherwise great idea. One game however stands above the rest as embodying the true nature of the Early Access process and it has completely restored my faith in the entire concept, ARK: Survival Evolved. Let me first take a few minutes of your time to explain why, over many many months, that my faith in Early Access was at a point where I would instantly discard any potential interest in a game bearing the Early Access banner. Dozens of games with fantastic concepts crop up on Steam under Early Access on a weekly basis. Featuring a description wall with massive boasts, impossible promises and usually a price low enough to convince the average Joe to invest their money in little more than a pipe dream with a demo. Now, I understand the concept of the Early Access program so I'm not hating on those that genuinely make the effort to deliver on what they promise, but seldom is this the case. The infamous Stomping Lands seems to be the perfect target to explain my previous lack of faith in the concept. A game that sounded fantastic on paper and a feature list that would rival that of the biggest AAA releases, The Stomping Land promised to break the mold of online gaming and introduce players to innovative concepts, bold new ideas and the opportunity to interact with an environment only home in the Jurassic. Adding to the beautiful concoction of innovation and quality was the backing of thousands of Kickstarter users to the tone of a staggering $114,060. So through a single glance at the Steam page and a bit of Google-Fu I found a game with survival, PvP, dinosaurs and over $100,000 in support. Like many, I made the decision to buy the game. I won't really go into details on the rest of the utter mess that was The Stomping Land. Forgoing all the drama, politics and garbage that followed the outcome was simple - the top guy made off with the cash and left everyone with an unfinished demo. Thankfully it's not all too common for $100,000 in funding to disappear but for lesser amounts, it happens a lot. Eager gamers browsing Steam's endless library of Early Access ideas, throwing down $20 here and $30 there, often finding a game stale and un-evolving over a period of months. I still consider this to be the norm for Early Access but I can understand at least some of the reasoning why. If you were asked by a friend to mow their lawn in a few weeks and they'd be willing to give you $50 now, how excited would you be to do the work come the day? Would you put as much effort in as you would without being paid until after you'd completed the work? A lot of people wouldn't, and I see the same issues with Early Access. As a developer you sell 1000 copies over the course of the first few weeks, when all the big websites cover your game and social media is abuzz, but what happens after that? What happens when the sales die down and you're still expected to push out update after update. Take the money and run? I can understand the appeal of that concept to the morally challenged. However, there are occasions when this isn't true. I mean sure, ARK: Survival Evolved probably hasn't struggled to make enough money to motivate the team but still, there's very little stopping these developers from upping their gear and riding into the sunset. Again, this is where ARK: Survival Evolved stands heads and shoulders above other games under the Early Access banner. Jesse Rapczak and his team over at Studio Wildcard have not only delivered on practically every promise they made, they've blown most expectations out of the water. Despite some initial teething problems with bugs and technical hiccups the teams response was good and its been nothing but a joyride ever since. A fantastic concept, a great game, some masterful control of social media and Twitch coverage have resulted in an Early Access title being one of the most played games on Steam. Compare your typical Early Access' game page to ARK's and it's clear the developers are an entirely different breed. Instead of endless news posts about unexpected delays, poor performance and lack of content, there is instead awash of fantastic quality updates with new features, changes in mechanics, new modes, new dinosaurs, the works. I won't pretend for a second that ARK: Survival Evolved is the perfect game, it's far from it. There's bugs with PvP combat, the dinosaurs walking animations could do with a few tweaks and the typical survival problem of attack vs defense is present as always, but THESE are the elements of Early Access we sign up for. Teething problems, technical hiccups. To Jesse Rapczak and his team, I thank you for once again giving me the faith that some developers still care about the art game development.Leave a comment
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