Devin Pribyl
Straub
Economics
Feb 2, 2015
Is Buying an Incomplete Game Worth It?
Video Games now a days are everywhere from your new generation systems of PS4 and XboxOne, to your phones and laptops. Everywhere games can be bought and played anywhere or everywhere. But most of these games are completed games, where everything is entirely fleshed out and working. More recently, games have been coming out that have Beta or Alpha tags on them. This meaning the game is purchasable, but has not been fully finished. So is an incomplete game worth buying?
A good majority of people believe buying a uncomplete game in not worth the money spent. A company should not push an unfinished game when it's not done, its like buy a product that is missing half its pieces. Companies should fix and finish their games before presenting them to their consumers, us. Paying in advance for a product is okay, but selling a Beta or Alpha product with the intention of “eventually” adding the rest of game is not the way to go. Like currently today, a new game designed by Sony call H1Z1, was designed to be a multiplayer zombie survival game. It released its Alpha to the public to get tested and improved, but what was released was not anything close to a complete game. A zombie game with no working zombies is not a zombie game at all. Games like these that are not finished are not worth purchasing.
On the other side of things, there are positives to Alpha and Beta games. Smaller companies and game creators that don’t have the funding to create a game may get the money to make a game. You give the producers money in the hope that they will eventually give you the game you want. Without this trading of money for said product, you may never get your game. If more people supply the creator(s) with funds, then the demand for the game is very higher, making it more likely for the game to be finished. As H1Z1 is one of the examples of why beta and alpha games are received negatively by the public, there are some good games that turned out fine. Cave Game was released by a small company that could not complete a full game with proper funding. So they released their game as an Alpha game slowly getting funding from there customers. Eventually with enough funding and a name change, Minecraft was created now with over 18.5 million sales and being one of the top selling games ever to be created. Without the funding they received this game would not even be close to the current scale it is today. Each side has there own goods and bad examples. Game creators and companies will continue with this system, but what is your opinion on uncompleted games. Would you buy an incomplete product in hope of it getting finished?
Works Cited
"Face Off: Does Calling It a "beta" Justify Selling an Unfinished Game?" PC Gamer. Web. 9
Feb. 2015.
"Games in Beta for 2013 – The High Tech Society." The High Tech Society. Web. 9 Feb. 2015.
"Opinion: Why Are People Buying Unfinished Games And What Could Go Wrong?" Game
Rant. 15 Jan. 2014. Web. 9 Feb. 2015.
"Statistics." Minecraft. Web. 9 Feb. 2015.
Not only are games marked as "beta" or "alpha" games being released too soon, it is becoming increasingly popular for large video game companies to advertise exciting extra content for people who preorder their games, with the sole intention of getting more money for a game that hasn't even been released yet. When companies do this, things can go one of two ways; the company can invest this earned money into polishing the game so that it is as bug free as possible, or they can just leave the game riddled with bugs that either don't get fixed until a patch comes out or just go unfixed. Sadly, many companies have chosen the second option in the last few years. It has become incredibly common for companies to try to get costumers to buy their unfinished product before they actually can see the game and know that it is unfinished. There has been a revolution as of late of those who calling companies out on this and flat out refuse to preorder games that have no guarantee of working as advertised. If game producers keep these trends going, they will soon see a large drop in sales that can easily be prevented by giving the consumers what they said they would.
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ReplyDeleteAlso with the fact that when you buy a beta or alpha game they tend to be much cheaper then the final product and they wont try and charge the beta owners for the final version. Other than that the rest sounds good.
ReplyDeletethough I do agree with you that companies releasing the beta way too soon is just irritating and not worth the money I think the the overall idea of the beta is well worth the consumers time. With a beta the consumer can tell the company what he or she would like to change about the game while it's still in development giving the company extra work but also making the consumers much happier about the final project. You did a good job on writing the article and incorporating supply and demand
ReplyDeleteAs with all intellectual property it is hard to distinguish a completed product form an incomplete product. If we all followed the GNU General Public Licencing, all software would be free and easy to edit. This would enable members of the community to fill the gaps left by the primary developers, therefore allowing for a better final product. Reasons such as these have lead to the popularity and efficiency of programs such as Linux, KiCad, and many softwares used to program for example Eclipse and Netbeans. If the same concepts were applied to games, the current games could be further developed into better versions of what they are now.
ReplyDeleteI think when you buy into early access you have to know what you're getting. I'm sure some of our favorite games were virtually unplayable at one point or another and if you're buying a game that isn't done, then you have to accept that. Plus if games like Minecraft can spawn from early access then it is important to have this avenue available, and just keep a "buyer beware" tag on all of the products.
ReplyDeleteWould YOU buy and incomplete video game? You spend time on Minecraft (or used to) and helped everyone else create more animations towards the game. However, did you enjoy doing so? Yes more people won't purchase incomplete games, because it is pointless, but to others it can be "complete" to them. Certain games you can easily fill in the gaps at hand to make the game a better efficiency and worth the money, while others are a waste of money and trade. More people will buy these games because they cost less, didn't know they were incomplete, or want to put their own flavor into it all. More money is spent on advertising and letting the people know about this new amazing game, yet it may not be finished and the companies may not earn their profit back.
ReplyDeleteIt's a sad state in gaming where buyers and consumers are being swindled with the promise of a holistic and complete experience only to be left in a purgatory of unfixed glitches and less than stellar graphics. As a tool for testing game mechanics and overall quality control, an alpha or beta should be designed to be used as such and shouldn't be a product trade-able only through coinage for that the trade off between gamer and game designer is the finding and overall patching of glitches or problems found. Along with that, the choice in waiting for a complete and polished game can also build suspense and overall demand for said product among the consumers if advertised properly rather than simply flinging it out and succumb to the short attention spans of the twenty-first century society.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the creating and marketing of alpha and beta games. They help smaller companies get the money to finish or improve there game. This also allows the creator(s) to get some reviews and suggestion on improving the game. I don't agree with a company saying a game is finished when it isn't or doesn't have all the parts it should. Assassins creed came out and was missing textures on many characters. This was a huge bug that creator(s) should have noticed all it took was playing the campaign to see this. This game was said to be finished, but wasn't. Also there are games like Sims 4 and evolve Sims 4 says they won't include pools when ever Sims before has. Instead it is downloaded able content that will be added later. Evolve is going to have DLC on within the first week of release which shows that they have this done, but are going to make you pay for this added pat of the game.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of this before. It is interesting that people would almost “gamble” their money in hopes of having a game produced but also having a chance of the game being terrible. I personally would not want to risk the money. It is cool that some companies push the games out early and are able to get feedback to improve as a whole.
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