Rule Of Three - or - Measure Once, Cut Thrice

 

The Stars Reach Kickstarter kicks off for real next week. I know this because I'm being deluged with emails from Playable Worlds about it. 

It's not the fault of PW's marketing department. It's a problem all of my own making. It goes back to the multiple times I signed up for the pre-alpha and/or followed the Kickstarter.

That makes it sound as if I was trying to leverage access to the testing program or something shady along those lines but it's the exact opposite. I was just trying to make sure I had one application that met all the criteria. I would love to have just one email account linked to the whole project so I'd get just one email every time. It would strip away at least one layer of confusion in what I've found to be quite a confusing process altogether.

At this stage, I'm not even clear myself how I came to be signed up for testing three times, if I even am. I'm not even sure about that. I have multiple email addresses that forward all their mail to a master address and every time the PW marketing department sneezes, all three of my addresses say "Bless You!". 

Or I thought that was what was happening. Until I took a close look at the send/receive details today.

I certainly am getting those three identical emails every time. I'd been assuming they were going to three different addresses, all of which I presumably gave PW at some point in the process. When I examine them closely, though, it's not as plain as all that what's going on.

Two of the emails are coming directly to my main email address but one has a note appended by googlemail that reads "Yes, this is you."Apparently this is something Google adds if the email used by the sender has some punctuation or variation added that doesn't materially alter the address, like extra dots.  I can't see anything like that in the address that's been used, though. It looks identical.

What  the implications of that might be I have no idea but even if I am only signed up twice as myself it doesn't help much because the testing program requires a Steam account and my Steam account isn't liniked to that email. When I joined Steam I specifically didn't want people to be able to find "Bhagpuss" there, so I am not "Bhagpuss" on Steam and never have been.

Awkwardly, though, I am Bhagpuss on Discord and a Discord account is also required for the testing program. When I was first filling out all the forms, I made a new Discord account under my Steam identity for consistency. Which would have been fine had I not then gotten an invite as myself under the Creators program...

All of that then repeated itself when I needed to "Follow" the Kickstarter launch page . At this stage, about all I can really say is that I am in the testing program as someone but even I'm not sure who I am there.

That is all going to change soon, I think, as Stars Reach transitions from pre-alpha to alpha. Or maybe not. Honestly, I'm not at all clear on what's going on. The emails I'm getting at the moment aren't clarifying anything because either they're still too wooly or I am. It's probably me. 

I got one that made me uncertain whether I was still in the test or not but then I got another with some dates so it seems I am. It didn't help that I also got additional invites off the back of Following the Kickstarter, one of which I foolishly accepted. I was really very muddled about what I was doing at that point. 

I still am but I'm hoping all will be magically revealed when the Kickstarter opens and we get to see the pledges and rewards. 

We're very close now. This morning I woke up to another clutch of emails that had some actual detail on the Kickstarter offers. It's vague but it's something and I'll share it with you now.

There are going to be four tiers, called Citizen, Scout, Reacher and Titan. I could paste the whole lot in but I'll just summarize for brevity. And make comments as I go, of course.

Citizen: Introductory level to let everyone feel involved. Rewards along the lines of titles and wallpapers. Out-of-game stuff or very minor cosmetics, basically. Does not get you into testing.

Scout: For people who want to play. Rewards of some practical, in-game use, such as emotes, outfits and starter gear. Does get you into testing.

Reacher: Tempted to call this the first pay-to-win Tier although that's probably unfair. Most Kickstarters offer stuff like this. You get better tools, "special pets" and a Grav Mesh so you can start flying from the moment you log in. You also get four passes to invite other players to join you (Which you can also trade to other players if you prefer.). It's unclear to me what you'll be inviting them to join you in, though. The testing phase? The live game? Obviously, this tier also gets you into the test program.

Titan: aka "Whale": the usual stuff every mmorpg kickstarter puts in to try to hook a big one. Party with the devs, get your own planet (Phrased somewhat incomprehensibly as "direction on your very own planet", which could mean anything from advice on how to set it up to co-ordinates on where to find it.). There's even the bait of a "1:1 with Raph Koster himself", which could sound more like a threat than a reward.

As is standard with these things, each tier gets you all the stuff in the tiers below.

It's still very loose although it does appear to answer the question of whether pledges will include anything as concrete as a copy of the game or subscription time. And that answer would be "No."

I don't have much else to say about any of it at this point, other than that I think "Reacher" is a really bad name for a tier, since it so strongly implies failure. Someone who's reaching is generally considered to be out of their depth or even trying to be more than they are. If I was till wearing my marketing hat from long ago, I'd have thrown that one out at the spitballing stage. 

If they really wanted to link the tier with the name of the game - not a bad idea - why not go with "Star"? Citizen, Scout, Star, Titan. Doesn't that sound better?

The main things that remain to be revealed, apart from the granular detail of the specific pledges within each tier, are the grand total the Kickstarter is looking to raise and the price points of the pledges. 

I'm going to guess the Citizen tier will be the traditional $5-$10 dollar "Thanks for your support, here's a badge". Never really sure why anyone bothers with those.

The interesting one to me is Scout. I plan on backing the project but I'm not looking to invest in it. A buy-in around $20-$30 would suit me. If it goes to $50 I might opt out. I'd pay that sort of money if it equated to a pre-order with a box price thrown in but nothing like that seems to be on the table. I don't think we even know what the payment model for the live game is going to be yet.

Then there's the question of access to the test program. Here, once again, I find myself both conflicted and confused. The paragraph describing what you get for Scout includes this sentence: "...we're going to let as many people in from the pre-Alpha signups as possible, but after the Kickstarter finishes, we're limiting testing to folks that have contributed at the Scout Tier and above." (Their emphasis.)

I think that means they'll clear the testing program completely at the end of the Kickstarter, including everyone who got in by Following the Kickstarter but also anyone who was in the Friends and Family pre-alpha, even before the Kickstarter was announced. The testing program will then begin anew with only people who pledged at Scout or above invited. 

At least, that's how I read it. I'm ambivalent about being in the tests anyway, mostly because I can barely manage to get any time in any of them. In a practical sense, it wouldn't be that big a deal for me if I was dropped because mostly I'm asleep when the tests are on in any case. For example, I got an email this morning with this week's schedule and both tests run from 11pm or midnight to three or four in the morning. I go to bed at 9.30pm these days so that's a non-starter.

If I pledge at Scout, though, I'll stay in the program and hopefully the hours will extend so I can actually get in for long enough to do something. And for all I know I might still be in the testing anyway, as part of the Creator program, even if I don't pledge Scout. It's all so fuzzy still.

I wonder just how much of an incentive access to the alpha is going to be, anyway. If the game really is going to go into Early Access this year, it probably isn't going to make a lot of difference for anyone who's not already pretty much obsessed with the idea, like the individuals and premades planning on carving out a space empire. 

They're going to want to get in as soon as possible so they can learn all the exploits for when the time comes but it would really make more sense for anyone who's only casually interested to sit it out until EA arrives. Unless you really can't wait because you have the patience of a five year-old or you have a genuine desire to see the development process up close (Or a blog that consumes content like a coked-up wolverine), the quasi-persistence of Early Acess would seem like a more attractive prospect. And it's only going to be a few months according to Raph.

Whatever your plans, the indicators are looking favorable, at least. The Kickstarter currently has just over 5,000 followers, which seems like a good number. Plenty of projects fund with far fewer pledges than that. It all depends how much they plan on asking for, I suppose. 

And that's something we'll find out next week. It's going to be interesting to watch. I'd start popping your corn now.