Tag: Towns

About five years ago, Mojang popularized a form of pre-purchase known as "early access" with their game Minecraft. By allowing players access to the most current build of the game, back during the Alpha and Beta build days, Mojang opened the door to player's direct feedback, letting them essentially playtest the game through development. This system worked pretty flawlessly for Mojang, and since then, countless independent developers have understandably followed suit.Early access releases are now a pretty normal way for developers to release their games to players anxious to get into the latest build. But, this method of direct developer-to-player feedback has begun to develop a dark side.Within the past year I have observed a number of player bases lash out at development teams, going so far as to call the developers scam artists regarding their early access releases. The buyers of these early access titles feel like the developers have abandoned them, essentially making a prototype of a game, selling it as is while promising more, and then taking the money and running.