Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Make sure you leave a steam review.

I mean no one forced you to pay for early access, Sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn't.

Is this your first alpha game? Because it is not up to the "community" to try and define what a developers vision of their game should be. We are accessing early content for a game we may, or may not be interested in. Also providing bug reports for crashes etc. Or letting them know about bugs. Besides that, we have the freedom to make the decision of whether we want to play the game, or not if it doesn't suit our play style. But we are not entitled to assume that we are some kind of shareholders that can dictate the direction a game goes. This isn't Burger King, you can always get it your way.

The entire point of Early Access is a higher level of communication during development between developers and players, Pandemonica. Larian is severely below expectations on that front.

I doubt that. EA was just a way to get some early revenue out of the hype without having to show anything.
If you want to see real EA you have to look at indi games or what Amplitude does.

+1

+1

And this is why disappointment is defined as unmet expectations.

I go into EA with minimal expectations - simply that the game with gradually morph and change during the course of EA, that the period will likely last 25 to 50% longer than estimated, and that I will receive news regarding such changes as they develop.

I have no expectations as to when, how often or in what manner such information will be provided.

Therefor, I do not find my expectations to be unmet, four months in on what is likely to be an 18 to 24 month EA period.

Early access, also known as early funding, alpha access, alpha founding, or paid alpha, is a funding model in the video game industry by which consumers can purchase and play a game in the various pre-release development cycles, such as pre-alpha, alpha, and/or beta, while the developer is able to use those funds to continue further development on the game. Those that pay to participate typically help to debug the game, provide feedback and suggestions, and may have access to special materials in the game.

We are here for debugging, giving recommendations and feedback. But no where in any alpha game is there some agreement that we get to try and enforce changes that we personally want. In the end, that was the point of this thread. The OP wanted to try and extort a response to get the "game" he thought they should make by possibly starting a review bomb (sorry Scribe, that is how I see it). In any alpha I have ever been a part of, there may be 1 out of 100 recommendations from community forums that may get baked into the game. I think people need to realize that we are customers, not shareholders. We are players, not developers. Our only real power, is to not financially back a product we don't believe in. But that is the risk of being in a paid alpha, sometimes we don't like what we get and then people move on. At the end of the day, the only meter to measure the success of the game is its sales when it goes live, an player retention.

Just curious but how many hours over the 2 hour time limit are some of you? You can't expect to play for a lengthy period of time and then expect a refund. That's not the way Steam's refund policy works. It's not just with this game but all of their games. As for the charging of $80, I only paid $60 but nobody forced me to do it. Nobody forced you either. If you didn't know what EA was then that's on you. What do you think EA is anyway? It's certainly not the finished product. It's a game still under development. Either pre-Alpha, Alpha or Beta. Most people go into EA understanding that.

That's the reason I came down so hard on you for what amounts to a review bombing campaign. Nobody is saying you can't have a negative opinion of the game. But this is a game still under development and subject to change many times before final release. Review bombing a game that is in what amounts to an alpha or pre-alpha stage just because you don't like the way the developers implemented certain rules or changed things is pointless. The game has a long way to go before release. I can see people posting opinions, positive and negative, about what they see. It was fairly obvious that your intent was for people to post negative opinions only. For what purpose? You don't like the game. Fine. Post a negative review and move on. Urging other people to post negative reviews, which is what you were doing, comes off as a spoiled brat throwing a temper tantrum because they didn't get their way.

So does claiming that it's suddenly criminal to be charged $80 for an Alpha Tech Demo. That's what EA is and it's your fault if you didn't understand that before spending your money. Be honest too. If the game were going to your liking it would be the best $80 spent even if it still was an Alpha Tech Demo. Good luck with your refund but I'm pretty sure you aren't going to be able to get one. Steam has a pretty good refund policy. The two hour limit is more than enough time to know if you're going to like the game. You can't play for more than two hours and then expect a refund. It doesn't work that way.

Well over. How else are you going to test and then provide feedback? 2 hours of work? lol

That's why you're not going to get a refund. They apply the same refund rules to EA so you only had 2 hours to test and provide feedback. Seems dumb but it is what it is. I just went through the same thing with a different EA game and I was only over the limit by an hour. I spent 2 hours trying to get that game to where I could actually read the in-game writing and labels. It didn't matter. Steam wouldn't give me a refund. So good luck. Especially if you have a significant amount of time played as you say you do.