Do you play games in Alpha?

I had a kind of argument with a friend. He was trying to prove, that it is a waste of time, as you mainly get frustrated by bugs and there are always fewer players. I can get the point, but isn't it cool to be pioneer?

What do you think?

Depends, but yeah there have been games in Alpha and other stages that I've played. Since you mentioned player count, I take it you mean more multiplayer oriented games. I can only speak about my experience with single-player stuff. The bit about bugs is kinda inaccurate since Alpha or any other early stage doesn't necessarily mean plenty of bugs (they are to be expected) and more often than not it means the content is incomplete. I don't think about being a pioneer much but it is cool.

The games I've played in Alpha or super Early Access were games I was super hyped for and just wanted to financially back a dev and/or help them with bug reports/feedback. There were more, but Pillars of Eternity 1, 2 + Divinity Original Sin 1,2 come to mind and while the former was called "backer beta" it still was a fairly early version but they were fun to play and my hype/interest didn't diminish once they fully came out, still played through them all, multiple times in some cases. Early versions are not for everyone and it is totally reasonable that someone wants to wait for the full release.

Depends on the game and person. It's impossible to prove as it's entirely subjective.

I like playing Alphas when they are actually Alphas. When the playerbaseis limited, servers are up to test very specific issues, server states will constantly be wiped. The "Early Access" era of Alpha's is just obnoxious and so greedy.

@hansbak: Depends on what sort of Value you are getting from trying out the game. If you are expecting to fully play a polished feature complete game from start to finish Alphas' value is worthless. But if you are there to see how complete a game is, to see if has a working proof of concept. If the mechanics and the promises made by the dev seem to jive with the builds you tried.

Also if you are one of the many people who like to bug squash and send input to devs as a way to either be a part of the process or to steer the development as a way to make the game more in line to your own liking. If any of these apply then it has some value.

Of course that value is also dependent on if you had any desire to pay to do this or if the alpha is free to try. One of the nice things about Steam Greenlight when it was still around was that many devs on there had games that were in the process of being completed or in different build states and had no problem just giving away alpha or beta versions of their game.

No sign ups or NDA. Just a good faith attempt at getting some input from players before it hits Steam. In my opinion they can have a immense value to those interested in the future product but I personally don't intend to pay for the pleasure of doing so.

i wont play super early versions of persistent world type games (the forest, Long Dark, some of them survival MMO types) but for a competitive shooter/racing game im always down to duke it out with people and help the devs find a balance.

I mean you both can be right

just depends on what sort of experience you enjoy.

I don't like playing Alphas of single player games because I generally only playthrough a game once and would prefer to have that experience be as complete as possible when I do.

Multiplayers games I don't mind as much, because they tend to be fluid things anyway.

Never, I wouldn't want to waste my time. Another reason is because I have the patience to wait for games to come out and for me to buy them when I'm ready.

In before a joke about No Man's Sky. But no. Outside of some Newgrounds-esque games that artists that i follow on tumblr put together with RPG Maker and Unity, I'm not a early access person.

Sometimes I do, depending on the price.

I really prefer not to though. It just ruins the game for me before it's actually in a state that can be fully appreciated.

I also think that some developers take advantage of the early access method in a really gross way. I feel you need more than ambition to make a great game, and some games are too ambitious for the skills of the people involved, or the budget.

A recent example is Escape From Tarkov. I bought it because it looked interesting, but the game is utter dogshit. I will never play it again. On top of that, the community is quite toxic and the developers have no idea how to handle PR.

It's cool, but I don't have that kind of time now. If I'm gonna play a game it better be in its final state. If it's a multiplayer beta then I might only due to the group nature of playing a messed up game, but single player games nah.