So, here's a thing. I was wondering a while back whether my moldering Kickstarter pledge for Ashes of Creation would get me into the upcoming Early Access release, which is scheduled to start tomorrow. After a bit of digging I found it probably would, even though it was originally only meant to open the doors for Beta Phase 2.
At the time I wrote the post, it seemed as though Intrepid was suggesting the Steam release would be a walled garden, only for new purchases made through Steam. Existing active accounts and incoming Beta Kickstarter pledges would have to download the client from the game's website and presumably play on separate servers.
I read some reddit and forum threads about it but it wasn't all that obvious how it would work. I was pretty sure I'd be able to play during Early Access, somehow and somewhere. What wasn't clear was the where and the how.
All that's been sorted out now. It's in the recently-revised FAQ. I'd quote the appropriate sections only
Somewhat inconvenient when I'm trying to write a post about it but
I'll persevere.
Whatever the old plan was, Intrepid has now done a one-eighty and ruled that from the start of EA Ashes will only be playable on Steam. To that effect, I received an email today marked "Action Needed" telling me I ought to link my Intrepid Account to my Steam Account.
It was news to me that I had an Intrepid Account. I guess I knew at some level I must have something registered with them or they wouldn't have been able to send me all these emails for years but if I ever thought about it at all, which I don't think I did, I would have assumed it was all being generated from my Kickstarter details. It does all come through the email address I use exclusively for Kickstarting.
Apparently it "only takes a moment" to link the accounts so I clicked on the link provided to see what would happen. Not much did. The website was "undergoing scheduled maintenance".
Can't really blame Intrepid or their Marketing Dept. for that. The reminder email arrived around two in the morning. I just didn't get around to reading it until nearly tea-time.
Since I was there anyway, though, I thought I'd take a look at the "Support Channel" to see if I could find out any more details.
The buttons work. Er... that's about it.
There's another button at the bottom for Ashes of Creation Apocalypse. That puzzled me. Didn't they officially and finally terminate that misguided project years ago? (Looking into it, apparently it was never officially cancelled. They just closed it down, stopped working on it, promoting it or talking about it. They basically ghosted their own spin-off. Is that any better?)
I clicked on the button out of curiosity. This is what I saw.
The most recent entry on there is five years old. Is any of the information remotely relevant any more? Doesn't look like it.
The FAQ is much the same, though. Full of answers to questions that relate to things that happened years ago. It's as though once the information's been posted it just sits there forever. Forgotten.
I can't say any of this inspires much confidence.
If it looks like I'm spinning this out to get a cheap post, well, yes, I am. But I was also hoping that by the time I ran out of things to say, the maintenance would have ended and I could have added some practical advice on the actual linking process, not to mention confirming whether I do really have an account and if I do, whether it is really set to go with tomorrow's soft launch.
Except I've had my tea now and watched Monday's Only Connect quarter final and it's gone six o'clock and the maintenance is still going on, so that's not happening. I'm going to leave it at that for now and come back later, or more likely tomorrow, to see if I have better luck.
If I do, I imagine there'll be a First Impressions post at some point. I do, for once, have a couple of days with not much planned so the timing isn't too bad. [Edit - Oops! Forgot Rage of Cthurath launches today! So maybe not such great timing after all.)
Let's hope the game isn't, either.
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