Uuuuughhh Zombie Games, and early access
 

I got to say, I'm starting to get really tired of all the darn zombie games. Don't get me wrong, there are some really good ones imho out there (dead rising 2, state of decay, left for dead, the walking dead from telltale, etc.) and being developed (project zomboid looks really cool, and then there is DayZ). But with them there is a veritable ocean of utter garbage, and there is an insane number of them being developed or recently released (look at steam greenlight and all the early access games). Seems like everyone is making zombie games, particularly on the indie scene.

I'm also getting really fed up with the early access games. In games like minecraft or Kerbal space program, the concept worked really well. But those games were already complete functional games, that were just being continuously added to and improved, and they didn't charge a whole lot. Most early access games on steam on the other hand are charging larger sums (sometimes more than AAA titles), from unproven developers, and the game is at best an early alpha (barely playable, almost no content, and riddled with bugs that are often game breaking). This isn't early access, this paying for the privilege to alpha test a game with the hope that you will end up with an actual game! There have been a number of these early access games on steam where the developer dumped the game entirely, only completing a few builds over several months, or jumped to a new game or new version and demanding people buy it again.

I don't think I can stress the old concept of caveat emptor enough when it comes to steam, early access, and crowd-funding like kickstarter. A lot of people have been getting burned by this. What is even more disturbing is it looks like the big companies are moving in this direction to (along with in game purchases like with mobile games, except you are paying full price for the game on top of it).

Anyhow rant over :)

I think zombie games are getting to the position that World War II games were about ten years ago. TV shows like The Walking Dead probably have helped in this or been spawned from this.

I wonder what the next fad will be... :hmmm:

Ya in some ways it is similar. Difference I think though is the indie scene's impact on all of this, as the bulk of these games are coming from there, and a lot of them seem to be formulaic garbage and/or cashins.

I am a little concerned about the indie scene as a whole because of this and the early release system. I don't think the early release system is a bad idea per se, it can bring in much needed cash for a project to finish, and a scaling price where it increases over time can be good for rewarding early adopters. But like i said, you need a functional game to do this right, and from what I've seen and read, most early access games do not have that. There is just this deluge I think of utter garbage games from people who should not be developers as they do not know what they are doing, and take on more than they can possibly handle, or are trying to rip people off from the start.

It worries me as there are a number of indie gems out there, but it is hard to spot them amongst all the refuse. People get burned to much and they will stop trying to invest in these games in the hopes of getting a gem. This is why I don't think I like the greenlight system or early access on steam or elsewhere, because far too much rubbish is getting through. Devs should be required to at least have some presentable product resembling a functional game before being greenlit or going to early access.

http://courtneyhouse.com/wp-content/...e-ht8u61bv.jpg

EDIT:

This is exactly why I stay clear of the Indie Genre as much as I can.

Most of it is crap anyway. There are very very very few indie games that I can actually say I enjoy. The indie genre seems to me like a bunch of people standing around, stealing each others ideas and arguments while begging in a never ending chain of beggars.

Art only makes money if it's good art

The Zombie genre is completely oversaturated. I would be more than happy to see it buzz off for about a decade so there will be enough time for it to die down, pun intended, so as to promote creativity and innovation again. The same thing goes for the Vampire genre. Since that hack produced vampires that sparkle, it too has gone straight into the bilge. I, personally, would like to see some good Lovecraftian horror pop up. That would shake things up a bit, but only if done properly.

Yeah I bought I few of those early development zombies games and I probably played them a few times. They sounded good on paper but when I played them, I was bored.

The one that comes to mind is 7 Days to Die. It sounded like a good idea to play and I watched some Youtube videos on gameplay. So I got it but played it once. The whole time I was playing the game, I wanted to play DayZ mod.

The concept of 7 Days to Die was a zombie survival game that a player could craft things like in Minecraft. The basic receipts were similar to Minecraft. This made me want to play Minecraft and not this game. Minecraft was more fun to me.

There was another one I can't remember name, it was around when DayZ mod was popular. It was like a standalone of the DayZ mod with like stolen ideas. That one had some many problems, that I didn't play it either. It was early access.

The more I look at the DayZ standalone, I am not that impressed to pay more money for something I had free. I already had the Arma II game from years ago, I played it like crazy. So when DayZ came it brought life back into the game again, plus I didn't have to buy anything.

There are pros and cons to Dayz Arma II, this is from the game Arma II bugs.

I sometimes go back to play a little DayZ, not much. I got other games that keep me busy. I play more of Minecraft FTB DW20, so thats my zombie survival game.

Yeah I agree these early access game are getting out of hand. Some of these early access games are tiny companies, a few one man crew. They use a simple idea and pitch it. If the gamers like it and play a early version of game, they want more. They buy it, it funds the Dev and he or she develops the game more. The bad side to this a game could take a decade to finally come out or less.

Kerbal Space Program is one of those games that keeps rolling out new editions all the time. I love the game, I've bought it a very long time ago for like $9 when the edition I had just added the Mun. It gets tiring when every new edition that comes out, that I have to update all my mods again. KSP is also one of those game, like SH5 that uses a lot of mods. Those mods though aren't to fix a broken game, but to make a good game better.

Rimworld and Prison Archtect are some other games that are rolling out piece by piece. They are good games though.

I just wish I could just buy a finish game and play it, like in the old days of gaming.

I think with games that have early access they could stay that way for a long time. They don't have deadlines, they can get obsessed with making game perfect, that there it will never be good enough. It may not start out that way but could end up that way.

With that also games that have to have access to the Internet to play also piss me off to or create some account to play game, like Ubisoft. This is what upset me and a lot of people about Simcity 5 and with the Origins stuff. Simcity 5 is a whole other discussion.

I just want to buy a game, install it and play it. Simple idea, everyone wants personal information now-a-days.

Zombie games are just an excuse for survival games and survival games are hot these days.
I rather see a good survival game without zombies.
For me nothing wrong with early access when a game continue to evolve as they say ( most of the time you know what you get ), it's always better than a "finished" game full of bugs that never is going to be fixed by the devs.
I can name a few related to this site :arrgh!:

I agree, but some of these early access games are far too expensive.

I hear ya, I've seen 80$ on Steam for some kinda space game..... insane :nope:

And yeah I've made a few edits in my original post hehe

If I recall, KSP was like $5 when it first came out and it has steadily increased in price as it nears completion, which I honestly don't think they'll ever be finished with it. Now the game is $23 and worth every penny.

I think the reason we're seeing a lot of overpriced alphas has to do with a mass money grab. I honestly believe some of these studios are making a half hearted game that looks good in screenshots but is really just there to get a flood of people to buy the game and pocket the money with no intention of finishing it. Some of these guys are asking full retail for an unfinished game which is crazy, that's why I think a lot of them are just fishing for quick cash.

The other thing that bothers me is these free to play games that are anything but. When you have to pay money to finish playing a game, or make the game play at a reasonable pace that's not a free game. That's a way to leach money from people that I just think is completely immoral. I also think its a bad idea to give premium players an unfair advantage, where they pay for the items that make them a god in multiplayer settings, but sadly that's what companies like Ubisoft and EA are rushing to do.

As far as zombies, I knew the genre was being overplayed when games like Call of Duty got zombie versions. Give it a break, its a cop out make a game with some soul not just going around shooting dead things.

7 Days to Die was definitely one of the games that was on my mind when I wrote this thread. They want $35 dollars for that game, and it is hardly worth playing. Last I heard it is still missing most of its promised features and there is no real reason to play it. All of the zombies magically home in on your position at night no matter what. Even if you are 30 meters under ground surrounded by solid rock, they will tunnel down and get you. There isn't much to build, and not a whole lot to do.

I like the progress that Project Zomboid is making as it seems to be trying very hard to be a realistic zombie apocalypse simulation, where you play some ordinary person trying to survive. Last I saw it is still rather rough around the edges but it is coming together rather well.

I am guessing by $80 space game, the game is Planetary Annihilation. That one is actually rather interesting, as it was made by the same people that made Total Annihilation, and Supreme Commander (one of my top favorite strategy games of all time). This game is the successor to Supreme Commander, They are actually following a reverse pricing scheme that matched what they offered on kickstarter with the same pricing scheme and bonus content. The game is going down in price (I think it started at around 120, and it is now only $60, and might drop further), but doesn't have the same bonus stuff that the people that payed more get. I will say though that the game is an AAA game, and not your typical indie game.

Of course if you want a game people are pouring in crazy pants amounts of money, there is Star Citizen, which has raised nearly 40 million dollars and it is not even a a playable game yet and probably won't be for a while still. A game where you can spend hundreds to thousands of dollars if you like.

I think the worst money leaches though are the free to play tablet/smart phone games. They want things like $5+ for a simple reskin of an 12x12 pixel game character, and try to leach hundreds of dollars out of people via micro transactions, for utter garbage. I honestly hope the market smacks the ever living crap out of these guys and they go bankrupt, as most of those transactions are crazy ripoffs.

Star Citizen is one of those games that I hope lives up to all the hype. Its billed to be essentially Eve Online on steroids. I really hope they can deliver otherwise this is going to ruin crowdsourcing for video games.

The thing that bothers me about early access is that by the time the game actually releases, you're already done with it. If there's a monthly update and you actually keep up with it, there's really not much to pull you back in in the end.

I'm experiencing it with Prison Architect for example. Played it a fair bit when I just got it, figured out how to play it well, and since then really just tinkered a little with the newly added content every month. KSP is going the same way; haven't really played with the latest content yet. As a result I've been holding off playing these games (much), which just results in a library of unfinished games that I can play in a year...

I appreciate what crowd-funding makes possible, what it enables developers to do without relying on the big evil publishers, but as a consumer I'm not really enjoying the experience.

Ya the endless updates does get a bit annoying, especially if they keep regularly breaking the mods you use, or changing everything. I have been trying to get caught back up with KSP but it takes too damn long to tweak all the mods I use (most mods are not very well balanced with stock, and I tweak a lot of the stock parts too and have a pile of scaled parts). By the time I've finished, half they time they are about to come out with a new version which screws everything up again. KSP's tech tree irritates the ever living heck out of me and is a gigantic pain in the ass to fix, and incorporate all the mods I use.

Rhetorical, if the dev team from the last SH series want to make a new sub sim do we pay lets say 30$/40$ or even more for a early access?
You start with 1 sub, no campagne but just a few missions and free roam.