Tag Archives: Path of Exile

Why I’m Not Upset At GGG for Selling Beta Keys

I’m not personally upset at Grinding Gear Games for selling beta keys for $10 over at Chrono.gg for the new Path of Exile… note by the time this post is actually read, odds are the sale will be over as it was for 24 hours only, and I didn’t buy one, and I’m not in the beta myself, though I wish I were.

I’m first going to say that I’m in no way judging anyone for being angry, just noting I personally not upset in this particular case at GGG.

I fully get the anger at the way there are too many developers selling beta access. I get that betas are for testing, and many people feel GGG, or any other developer, shouldn’t charge for beta testing their game for them. The problem with that though is 90% of the people who get in betas on any modern game, don’t test, just play… now I don’t have any figures to back that up, but I doubt I’m that far off. I wager that very few people who get chosen for a beta provide the quality feedback that the developer is looking for. Most test forums, at least on the NDA games I’ve done, are generally the same group of players providing feedback, and I know the playerbase is much larger. Now there’s no NDA in place here, but I still doubt that many of the people in the beta are providing the kind of feedback that helps GGG test, balance, and otherwise make the expansion as good as it can be. Continue reading Why I’m Not Upset At GGG for Selling Beta Keys

My Dream ARPG and Upcoming ARPGs

One of my favorite genres of computer games are ARPGs, especially of the loot and grab/hack and slash style. Typically people think of Blizzard’s Diablo series. There are a couple strong other entries out right now. Path of Exile, an excellent free to play ARPG which would really take a full article to detail how amazing and in depth it is. Marvel Heroes 2015, an ARPG set in the Marvel universe. Torchlight 2 and it’s older sibling Torchlight are both nice light hearted takes on the genre, and good entry points for more casual gamers while still offering a good deal of depth for more serious players. As an added bonus the guys who made Torchlight are making a new game called Rebel Galaxy which I got an early look at, and it was full of win. Gauntlet is somewhat in the same vein, though it’s a bit more arcadey…

Anyhow, it’s among my favorite genres. There are a number of games coming out soon(ish) that I’m particuraly interested in. This is a very quick run down of some of my favorites that I’m looking forward to.

Devilian is an open world MMO with ARPG combat that is already out in Korea and Thailand, among some surrounding areas. The game is being brought to the west by Trion, who brought us ArcheAge (which I’ve covered extensively before overdosing on it). Now plenty of people out there feel upset at Trion for the way ArcheAge was handled at launch, but I for one am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and more than a fair chance to prove themselves with Devilian.

I’ve already covered Devilian to some degree:

Continue reading My Dream ARPG and Upcoming ARPGs