For all the criticisms that Early Access games face – especially since they demand money for playing a game full of bugs or that may not even work – the onus still lays on gamers. If you know the game isn’t going to be fully playable, would you still spend money on it? Fans did just that for Bohemia Interactive’s stand-alone version of DayZ.
However, despite the support, some may feel that the game hasn’t been improving past enough. Producer Brian Hicks addressed those concerns in a recent forum post questioning whether players had lost faith in DayZ.
“You are not playing DayZ, you are playing development builds. Early development build. DayZ is 11 months into principal development, on what should be a three-year standard development cycle. I can’t force you to be a fan of DayZ, but I can call this out: Defining or judging what DayZ is by a build so early in its development is much akin to judging a painting within the first few brush strokes. Hell, even Bob Ross’s paintings didn’t look great for the first few minutes (until you realized what it was he was making).
“I can promise you none of your favorite AAA games played, or even resembled the final product that early in their cycles. Take a break, and come back in beta or even the full release. The Early Access period of development will have many peaks and low, low valleys. This is the nature of software development. Yes, it is stressful as heck – for all of us, but you get to be part of shaping the DayZ experience.
“For me, it’s worth it – for some of you, it might not be. No one can fault you for that.”
Hicks also explained that the current development process was looking to “effectively do a three-year standard cycle in 2 to 2.5 years. It might be a lofty goal, but as long as I have something to say about it–you will all be kept updated as to what is going on.”
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