  
  
This week, Valheim releases.



Why post about this in a Star Citizen reddit? Because Valheim was an alpha release.



It was a "real" alpha release.



I've played many Alphas at this point, Rust, Aska, Valheim... others... and none of them were anything like what CIG has done.



All of these games:



* Released a fun, working game as an alpha. It was incomplete, but mostly playable in all cases, and fun from the start.
* Were missing content, but the releases weren't like completely broken messes. All the game's features mostly worked even when in early alpha.
* The team's picked achievable goals. They didn't promise to be revolutionary and do things that they couldn't deliver. Valheim didn't promise to re-define gaming forever.
* Asked for your support, with a discount for you the player, to make up for you buying an incomplete game.



That's how "alpha"'s work in the game industry. That's how early release is supposed to work.



What CIG did, is bastardize this process to their benefit.

* Instead of releasing a working game, they released a game which is broken and buggy. Star Citizen is the MOST broken game I know of that's ever been released to the public.
* They excused the broken nature of their game with the fact that its early access. You were not supposed to complain about it, you were supposed to shut the fuck up about it, and live with the game being a broken mess.
* The teams goals are entirely unachievable. Even now, 14 years in, there's this massive gulf between what has been delivered, and what has been promised. Release isn't on the horizon, and can't be on the horizon without deep cuts to the game's scope.
* CIG has not offered you a discount for getting in early, instead, they've jacked up prices for their game to many times the cost of a normal game.



This is why, I call Star Citizen, an r/AstroturfAlpha.



Its a game that abused the normal early access "alpha" release system to its benefit. They gave you less, and asked for more, and delivered a product that's never really worked. They used the "alpha" status of the game as an excuse to fuck you. They left the game broken, and said its okay that its broken, its an alpha. Its okay if the higher than normal amount that you backed doesn't allow you to play a game that works. Its okay if you handed them your money but can't play the game properly, because they told you its an alpha. Legally, they're covered, so their backers can eat a bag of dicks.



An r/AstroturfAlpha is a game that abuses the "early release" system. Generate massive hype, deliver little, make huge promises, charge vastly more. Star Citizen isn't the only r/AstroturfAlpha, Ashes of Creation was a r/AstroturfAlpha too, and there are others besides these two, but Star Citizen is the original r/AstroturfAlpha.



Valheim, is an alpha the way that alpha released games were supposed to be. Cheap, working, fun, with a solid concrete set of goals. I think Valheim's team deserves praise for that.



If Valheim's team knew as much about game development as CIG does, they'd have sold $700 packages with loxes in the meadows and a flamewalker sword. If they understood game development like CIG does they'd have left the game buggy and broken for years, instead of delivering a delightful experience from start to finish - from release to completion.



Some of you will point out that Valheim is a simple game in comparison to Star Citizen - and you're right - but Valheim was developed with a team of 5 people - not 1000. I feel like that's a wash.



If I did not absolutely love the design of Star Citizen, I wouldn't play it. I play it despite all this because I don't see anyone else making a big budget PVP sandbox MMO. I hope the project succeeds.



But today Valheim releases, and I think comparing what it has been - as an alpha release - to what Star Citizen has been... is the right thing to do. Games that follow CIG's path should be called out. Their business model of placing all risk on backers shouldn't gain acceptance in the industry. The casual disregard for the playability of the game they release shouldn't either.



Valheim was an ideal alpha game. I'm glad I backed them, and I'm glad they're releasing and doing well, and I only wish CIG could be more like Iron Gate Studios.



EDIT: Oh, one final point. You know who didn't flinch and claim to need to reschedule the release of their "complete" game because of GTA6, fucking Valheim. Valheim saw GTA6 and said "No problem, I can launch too". SQ42 shit the bed and ran off.



Also, I just saw that they got a 10/10 review from IGN.

What a real "Alpha" looks like.