I received an invitation to join the Spyparty beta this morning. Which apparently is actually an invitation to give Chris Hecker 15 dollars. Am I the only one who is supremely uncomfortable with this trend of games being released to the public, ostensibly to be BETA TESTED for a fee? Used to be, video game developers would pay YOU to help sort out the bugs in their game (quality assurance). Now Minecraft, SpyParty, and Overgrowth want you to pay for the privelege.
Ok, I understand why they are doing it. Without publisher support, the game just wouldn't be made in the first place. It's basically kickstarter, just less formalized. And Spyparty, and Overgrowth, actually look pretty damn cool. But I'm still weirded out by it. I'll happily beta test your game. I submitted over 50 bug reports to the Tribes: Ascend devs. And unltimately, I've put a decent amount of money into that game. But I'm not going to pay for some half-finished work.
What are your thoughts?
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