I've been following this game since it's quiet announcement a year ago or so, and with good reason. 40k has always been one of my favorite fictional settings since I was introduced to it a decade ago with Dawn of War, and I've even dabbled into the TT aspect a little because of that. When Eternal Crusade was announced, I was just as excited as I'm sure many of you were. Little information was posted other than a few sparse articles, but that was OK. An MMO type game that was just announced will not have much going behind it. So for a time, I was hyped about the possibilities the game could have, and got behind all of the proposed ideas so far. However, as time passed, warning signs began to pop up for me. For instance, there was and to my knowledge, still has been no OFFICIAL publisher announced for the game (I'm well aware of the rumors of Square Enix being thrown about, but nothing official has come of that), and that just means that I feel this game will have poor marketing ability. It's great to have a good, solid fanbase behind the game so far, but I've found it somewhat worrying that when I want to find out information about the game outside of the forum, I have to pour through obscure and really minor journalist sites to find out any sort of information, all of them I've never heard of before. You might be reading this so far and think, "Why does it matter if big news sites report on EC or not? We don't want stupid uninformed people to be jumping in!" That's what everyone ideally wants in any community - full of people who only enjoy that one thing and lacking in the swarm of casual players who just pull in bad ideas. However, this game has little money put in marketing to the point where none of my friends have heard of the game, when generally even at this point we'd have SOMETHING. A CGI trailer shows nothing of the game itself, but it does generate excitement from your Average Joe consumer, who might look more into the game. Even Dark Millenium, the 40k MMO that was cancelled at some concrete gameplay trailers, whereas Eternal Crusade has... well, two pre-alpha gameplay videos with unfinished textures in small arenas that may as well be a poor mans version of Space Marine. What am I worried about? I'm worried that this game is going to just be another way for GW to grab money without really looking into building a new MMO. I've seen the developers talk with the community, give back from what they've learned from our feedback, and generally are far more communicative than any major developer would be. Which is a good thing. However, this game can't succeed without players, enough content generation, and some actual polish. Right now, this entire project feels like some glorified fan-made mod that has been given the thumbs up by GW and a little cash to get started but basically are otherwise left paddling in the ocean and hoping that their promises can keep them afloat for now. Maybe I'm being a little pessimistic - it is still early, afterall. However, E3 has come and gone and only today have we learned some actual, substantial news that hasn't been reworded old news we've known for months in regards to each faction's classes. In two days we will be able to pre-order the Founders Pack, but why should I? I want to love this game and get more excited, I really honest to god want to, but everything thus far feels quite iffy to me. No real gameplay, no awareness in the general public, and just a bunch of hopeful talk by the developers. This feels like a poorer version of Planetside 2 so far, which had SOME medium of hype but not much, and that game is struggling to stay relevant right now. Will that happen to EC when it comes out? Simmering and dying? Or will it surpass my expectations and actually make enough revenue to not only live but thrive a year after it comes out? Who's to say, but I know that until I see otherwise, I'll be keeping my money in my wallet.
dude you cant be so negative so early the game is in early alpa and so much could change even before beta, there isnt going to be news because there is so much uncertainty at this point in a development process. look at world of Warcraft expansions you wont hear anything until beta, blizzard are a good developer and they know what they are doing so wait till beta to decide on anything for certain
Your not alone. Alot of people are wary. For many of reasons: - Tons of early access scams going on these days in the industry. - We know more about founders packs than actual gameplay. Founder packs available 1.5 years ahead of game release. - Little/no in-game footage available atm. Eldar/Ork gameplay completely unknown at this point. - Behaviour has never made an MMO before. - GW business practices are extremely shady. - Population balance mechanic undefined. Tyranids attacking highest pop race is great & all, but we need more information. Don't get me wrong, I want this game to be the best MMOFPS ever. That said, I'm being cautious.
A lot of those "scams" I have taken a look at. Early access gives player access to a game way earlier than they are use to getting it. They don't understand that the game is still being made. They think it is stuck as is. Of course games that been canceled may not of been scams too. Failed concept or not enough money can cause this. Things happen and the devs mostly likely didn't set out to scam people. I feel The War Z is to blame for the scam thing that is going around being that they were pretty shady.
I would like to comment on this one. True, they run under the name Behaviour. But the team who working on the Eternal Crusade are not the Naughty Bear veterans, but the team Miguel gathered from the Secret World project, which is pretty much an mmo in my book. The majority of the team are The Secret World veterans. They are working on the game. More or less agree with the rest of your post. Though I might add. When you get gameplay, trailer, ingame or CGI, usually other companies are already working on a project for years. We are here since the beginning which is little more than a year. I accept that the Founders Program seems a little early, probably they did it, to appease the fans, and they have poor marketing. But let them work for now, they have to put the promised content into the game. If we have as much info as we have at the moment from half a year in the future for example, I would say that is a reason to be concerned. At the moment, I dont like the amount of what we know about the game too, but I can understand why is that.
Personally I feel the Founder's Program may have been a bit premature in it's release, maybe they should of waited post alpha phase but that's just me. However in BE's defense, how many games released a bunch of content before alpha even began. And also with BE not having any mmos in their resume. I think it's quite refreshing having a new company take the helm on this. Warhammer is a major franchise i'm sure they're getting a bunch of offers from well known companies. They're just keeping us in the hush hush until they have official confirmation.
BE as a studio dont. The people who are working on the game, do. The Secret World veterans are working on EC.
Oh very nice! There you go! Thanks for that info. It's good to know they'll have experience in the mmo genre.
I was more referring to stuff like this: http://kotaku.com/unfinished-steam-game-abandoned-after-thousands-bought-1572931721 While most game creators don't openly "abandon" a game, they do behind closed doors. They may continue to release content, but a pace where the game will never be completed. Only as a means of placating existing players until enough have left the game. The problem with the early access model is once a game has made its money, it has no incentive to continue development. Again, I am very excited about this games development & I hope its success knows no bounds. That said, right now there isn't enough information available for consumers to make an educated decision.
