 Hello, this is born from one dot TV and today I want to talk about a topic I've been kind of putting off for a while and it has to do with the state of video games and the notion of kick starters a while ago we came up with this the industry came up with this idea of early access and early access Permits us as gamers to support video games in the middle of their development cycle These games are typically in a pre-alpha or alpha state and the developers asked for our our money basically to fund the development of the game and also as a As a bonus, I guess you can call it we can provide them feedback and kind of guide the direction of the game It sounds like a very very good thing on paper I think early access and even kick starters really were noble in their in their humble beginnings and They had a really good I Guess the word I can think of is just it's just pure at a pure beginnings But today we're kind of in a different situation. We've seen a lot of companies kind of abuse the notion of Kick starters and the notion of Early access and I think it officially has gotten out of control I'm kind of on the under the opinion that I think it's time for early access to go It really had a good beginning and it was a lot of exciting projects that came out I think the one everybody can relate to is Minecraft Which was one of the big big stars of that that premise also Kerbal space program Which really shined throughout the whole process But today, I mean a couple of stories a couple of news articles came out and just things that kind of sickened me Number one, I guess I'll just talk about the big one. It's arc Arc survival evolved. This is a game that I backed and I purchased early access. I Had a little fun with it wasn't all that to me But I could respect what the devs were doing and back then I was willing to commit to the money to do this kind of Stuff and actually the streaming and show it off as well. That was another primary motivation so Arc announced that they Are going to release an expansion To an early access title I Sometimes I think I'm living in a twilight zone because there's a lot of things in this world that happened. I just go Huh? What? I Does anybody else see this and that that was kind of the idea and that was a that was a mindset I had An expansion pack to an early access title early access means you're not done with the game It means that the game still has more features It means that you are in early access you are you pay the developers to help them get the game done And they release an expansion pack now expansion by definition means that you're extending to something. That's already there If it's expanding From an early access title Then what is it? I don't know what it is. It's that's why I was a little bit shocked that it happened It was so bold and just out there that I didn't know how to react and people ate it up They they bought it. I mean that it was a top seller on steam And even one of the the QA testers was like, yeah, we're a top seller on steam That doesn't excuse it in my opinion So I I really am shocked that this has been allowed to happen number one by valve That an early access title can release a paid expansion. It's a paid expansion back to an unreleased game now things that I can understand are like if you're gonna if you have an early access title and You have a microtransaction cash shop as part of the early access program I don't mind you charging for that stuff because most times what happens is that you're testing that system You're you're testing the prices Even though sometimes you're giving up all the time you're giving up real money and the devs what they do is that when the game comes out They reset you they reset all of your monetary, you know values They they give you all the tokens or whatever or gems or gold that you bought So that when the game comes out, you can start a fresh I don't mind that too much. I got problems with it, but I don't mind it too much a full on expansion To an unreleased game Early access is out of control guys. It's completely out of control. I mean you got people Changing from free to play to paid. Okay, we're going to go paid now. We're not going to be free to play the launch We're going to be we're going to be paid when we come so all these all these these major decisions Are happening in early access And people who invested in these In these games and trust to these developers are feeling burned Now gamers are kind of weird because there's this group that That will support the devs no matter what because gamers are loyal to games. They love They are they will they will accept and excuse and be apologetic for anything for any game that they love Because they don't want that to go away It's human nature. It's like they're clinging to it and then there's people who Who feel burned who legitimately want to support the developers but feel burned but don't know how to express it So they're silent. They don't say anything And then there's people who are very very vocal Against it to the point to where it's extreme I think I'm somewhere in that middle ground I I'm making this video to kind of express my thoughts on it But I feel burned. I trusted these developers with a lot of these early access titles and What they're doing today is not matching The spirit of what it started with the spirit of what early access started with is not matching what's happening today I don't mind supporting developers. I don't mind Giving them money to help them complete the project because I know how tough the industry is But I don't like greed. I don't like dishonesty and I don't like deceive deceiving your users and I'm seeing a lot of that I'm seeing a lot of I'm just questionable behavior from these developers so As an agent season gamer I can recommend that I can say that I'm gonna really I've already started cutting back on early access titles. I just don't I'm not going to even deal with them anymore I'll just wait. I'll follow the developers but There's going to be very few exceptions of developers that implicitly trust that have released games in the past that have not burned me in the past One one game that comes up is a battle right from stunlock studios. I played a ton of bloodline champions I trust those developers. They handled their transition from I think it was funcom the publisher that bought them out very well And they were very true to what they said what they said and I trust them implicitly. So that's why I had no No problem backing battle right Which is their early access title which comes out today september 20th I don't know if I'm going to be able to do that for a lot of other developers because the trust has been broken it's led to a lot of controversy if you will to where If a developer makes a minor mistake. I'm looking at you. No man's sky If the developer makes a minor mistake or miss tail or misjudgment or miss quote Sees and and just waves and waves and waves of negativity are going to come from the internet because all of that pent up distrust is building up and gamers will let it out on whoever gets caught red-handed This is one from one dot tv. This is my thoughts on early access and why I think It really needs to go