FINALLY: Valve updates Early Access Guidelines and Rules - Polidicks

[URL="http://www.pcgamesn.com/theres-a-new-sheriff-in-town-valve-updates-its-steam-early-access-rules-and-guidelines"]http://www.pcgamesn.com/theres-a-new-sheriff-in-town-valve-updates-its-steam-early-access-rules-and-guidelines[/URL] [QUOTE]Valve starts by taking on the unenviable task of defining what an Early Access game actually is, something that many developers and customers still aren’t quite sure off. Here’s the rub: “Steam Early Access is a way to invite customers to get involved with your game as you develop, so that you can get the feedback you need to make better informed product decisions and to ensure the best outcome for your customers and fans. When you launch a game in Steam Early Access, there is an expectation by customers that you will continue development to a point where you have what you consider a 'finished' game.” Valve does acknowledge that mitigating circumstances might lead to a game not being finished, however. “We know that nobody can predict the future, and circumstances frequently change, which may result in a game failing to reach a 'finished' state, or may fail to meet customer expectations in some other way. We work hard to make sure this risk is communicated clearly to customers, but we also ask that developers follow a set of rules that are intended to help inform customers and set proper expectations when purchasing your game.” With that explanation out of the way, it’s onto the rules. These are etched in stone, at least as far as developers should be concerned, and have to be adhered to. [/QUOTE] Holy shit they did it

Half the problem with Early Access is consumers with zero knowledge of the game development process being exposed to the game development process and having expectations far too high. The other half is shitty moves by devs, which Valve's new rules should mostly take care of. I'd like to see some education to consumers on [I]how long[/I] a game takes to make and why they shouldn't expect late-beta quality for everything. If there was ever a moral to be learned from the Rust subforum, that's it, right there.

[QUOTE=elixwhitetail;46537012]Half the problem with Early Access is consumers with zero knowledge of the game development process being exposed to the game development process and having expectations far too high. The other half is shitty moves by devs, which Valve's new rules should mostly take care of. I'd like to see some education to consumers on [I]how long[/I] a game takes to make and why they shouldn't expect late-beta quality for everything. If there was ever a moral to be learned from the Rust subforum, that's it, right there.[/QUOTE] This should be stickied in the Rust subforum

now all thats needed is some quality control

These "rules" seem as much of a guideline as the guideline. What counts as a reasonable price? Avoid promises of future but do show future plans? How is that not the same thing?

[QUOTE=itisjuly;46537105]Avoid promises of future but do show future plans? How is that not the same thing?[/QUOTE] The difference is that one is a [b]promise[/b] and that the other is not. Promising features does nothing but mislead potential customers into thinking said features [b]will[/b] happen no matter what, where listing features as planned gives no guarantee and simply means that it's something they'll do if they can.

Early access (and funding before a game has complete in gerneral) has changed the meaning of a "finished" game. It's hard to tell where a game is in its development cycle because everything now are just updates expanding the game. And at any point, the developer can say it's finished and stop working. I really don't know what to do about, but Early Access only promotes that behavior. Changing the rules won't fix that.

This just gets me thinking about the death threats the Paranautical Activity lead dev sent to Gabe... douche.

Killing Floor 2 looks like the only EA game that is actually going to be fucking fuctional.

Still want a SpacebaseDF9 refund

-snip retarded-

[QUOTE=Furnost;46537043]now all thats needed is some quality control[/QUOTE] That's why stuff like tags, more prominent user reviews and curators are being implemented. It's being "outsourced" to the community.

[QUOTE=Overdrive_;46537374]Killing Floor 2 looks like the only EA game that is actually going to be fucking fuctional.[/QUOTE] Space Engineers is a pretty good Early Access game. And wouldn't anyone think all these rules and guidelines should have been common sense long before now? It's already caused so many problems that it's soured how alot of people see EA, Valve noted that some of what they have added now is common sense, yet it took over a year and a half after it started to actually add these? That's kind of pathetic.

[quote]Don’t launch in Early Access if you can’t afford to develop with very few or no sales.[/quote] Hey Double Fine I think this one's for you. [QUOTE=Tomo Takino;46537920]Space Engineers is a pretty good Early Access game. And wouldn't anyone think all these rules and guidelines should have been common sense long before now? It's already caused so many problems that it's soured how alot of people see EA, Valve noted that some of what they have added now is common sense, yet it took over a year and a half after it started to actually add these? That's kind of pathetic.[/QUOTE] Well you see when something is common sense it's expected that everyone knows it, that it doesn't need to be stated, hence Valve never stated them. Unfortunately people lack common sense.

[QUOTE=Overdrive_;46537374]Killing Floor 2 looks like the only EA game that is actually going to be fucking fuctional.[/QUOTE] I had to double take while reading that. I thought you meant Electronic Arts

[QUOTE=Marik Bentusi;46537892]That's why stuff like tags, more prominent user reviews and curators are being implemented. It's being "outsourced" to the community.[/QUOTE] Shame half of Steam reviews are either memes/joke-related or extremely vague. Like, it's great you and many others think the game is awful, but no one is really saying why and it's kinda confusing!

[QUOTE=NiandraLades;46538200]Shame half of Steam reviews are either memes/joke-related or extremely vague. Like, it's great you and many others think the game is awful, but no one is really saying why and it's kinda confusing![/QUOTE] what are you talking about reviews are great, just look at this fantastic review for L4D [IMG]http://puu.sh/cQsIn/da8a977750.png[/IMG] [sp]aka im lying and a lot of steam reviews are shit[/sp]

[QUOTE=Megaman1811;46538148]I had to double take while reading that. I thought you meant Electronic Arts[/QUOTE] no, you read right the conspiracy is out.

[QUOTE=Overdrive_;46537374]Killing Floor 2 looks like the only EA game that is actually going to be fucking fuctional.[/QUOTE] Don't Starve is a great game and it came out of Early Access fully.

[QUOTE=Excalibuurr;46538272]Valve needs to add a line somewhere telling users to do research on the product before purchasing early access.[/QUOTE] Would very likely be pointless, Early Access is the perfect example of people not reading what they're getting into. I mean how many times has Facepunch Studios stated that Rust isn't even close to being finished, that there will be problems and yet there's constantly people bitching about the state of the game. People will buy games without thinking because some cool Youtube cat played it, or because it follows some famous formula, in this case the fame of Rust came from following the DayZ + Minecraft formula, the perfect bait honestly.

[QUOTE=Marik Bentusi;46537892]That's why stuff like tags, more prominent user reviews and curators are being implemented. It's being "outsourced" to the community.[/QUOTE] I think that solely relying on the community to do all the work of quality control is a bad idea. This community is the same that goes "I can shoot a guy ded 10/10" to a shit game and voted that gender bender game onto Steam. There needs to be "some" quality control by Valve. I don't want to see shitloads of shit games like you get on iPhones with reviews that are a sentence long and are negative because something was not added that was never promised but the reviewer wanted it. Changing Early Access guidlines is a start but unless you get those rules in strict defined legalese people are going to skirt around it.

[QUOTE=jonnymad;46537026]This should be stickied in the Rust subforum[/QUOTE] because the rust forum is totally going to read any rules HA good joke ...wait... is your post serious? [editline]20th November 2014[/editline] it seems that early access games attract 2 major things (upon other things) for legitimate and effective, patient, hard working developers who deliver 1. money to fund their legitimate business and get things done 2. Caustic assholes who think you are a scam but purchased your game anyways. and the third thing which would be 3. Good, dedicated [U]beta testers[/U]. People need better education on what "Not released" means. It means literally the game isn't made yet. Do these drooling knuckle draggers care though? No, they want the game [B]NOW[/B]. "NOW. It has to be NOW. I PAID 20$, I WANT THE GAME NOW! Or else! I'll get a refund!" or they attempt to "Educate" people who know what they're doing on what they should be doing instead.

[QUOTE=Electrocuter;46538102]Well you see when something is common sense it's expected that everyone knows it, that it doesn't need to be stated, hence Valve never stated them. Unfortunately people lack common sense.[/QUOTE] One of their jobs is to protect their users from issues that have plagued Early Access, and Steam in general actually. Common sense it might be, but they should have covered all bases instead of assuming it would all be fine and not bothering to protect against obvious problems.

[QUOTE=Keychain;46538301]Don't Starve is a great game and it came out of Early Access fully.[/QUOTE] Drunken Robot Pornography was an Early Access title that launched fully, as well. You can rate me disagree, Marphy Black, but [URL="http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-02-20-drunken-robot-pornographys-full-release-cums-to-steam"]it's true[/URL]. It was [URL="http://thebitpulse.com/2014/02/dejobaan-on-drunken-robot-pornography-hitting-steam-moving-on-from-early-access/"]one of the first titles in the EA program[/URL] after having a private alpha that used Steam to distribute downloads.

[QUOTE=Marik Bentusi;46537892]That's why stuff like tags, more prominent user reviews and curators are being implemented. It's being "outsourced" to the community.[/QUOTE] They also need to stop shitty devs blatantly censoring negative criticism.

I think I've only got Prison Architect in my EA list. Only because I felt it was progressing and the game was mostly there. I didn't even opt into Wasteland 2, and that game is fantastic.

It would help, if each Early Access Request was reviewed by dedicated staff, in order to prevent shit from flooding steam. Just a basic background check on the developer, what they already have accomplished, or if they are completely new to game development. Insurgency is one of very few examples, how an early access game turns out very well. They already had a very solid base for the game, most of the base functionality was finished and most of what they had to do was polishing. You cannot rely on bloody user reviews, since when those come out, the game is already out in early access.

Doesn't really look like this will change anything, it just makes it seem like Valve actually cares. If they really cared they'd put some people on the job policing this shit.

And here's some of the rules, from the article: -Don’t launch in Early Access if you can’t afford to develop with very few or no sales. -Make sure you set expectations properly everywhere you talk about your game. -Don't launch in Early Access without a playable game (tech demos don’t count as playable games) -Don't launch in Early Access if you are done with development.

Fucking Finally Im really sick of devs where their game is clearly finished and ready to be fully launched (All features are done, bugs have been fixed ) but nope they launch into early access to "Get feedback and evolve based on the community feedback" If your game is finished then there is no reason to launch on early access for feedback, just launch the damm game and take a peek at the forums