Neverwinter: Closed Beta Dates, Founder's Packs and More
I have good news and (I think) bad news for anyone following Perfect World Entertainment and Cryptic's upcoming MMORPG Neverwinter. Let's start with the good news. Closed Beta dates have been announced. Cryptic will be running with the all too familiar "beta weekends" format. Here's a breakdown of the dates and who gets to participate directly reported on by the Neverwinter forums:
Beta Weekend 1 - February 8-10:
Hero of the North Founder's Pack purchasers
Guardian of Neverwinter purchasers
Beta Weekend 2 - March 8-10
Hero of the North Founder's Pack purchasers
Guardian of Neverwinter purchasers
Torchlight 2 pre-orders
RaiderZ Elite Pack purchasers
Beta Weekend 3 - March 22-24
Hero of the North Founder's Pack purchasers
Guardian of Neverwinter purchasers
Torchlight 2 pre-orders
RaiderZ Elite Pack purchasers
Other Beta participants - Information to be revealed
PC Gamer promotional keys.
PAX / GenCon / Keys from game conventions and events.
Lifetime members of Champions Online and Star Trek Online.
Community Beta key giveaways through Facebook and Twitter.
Promotional Beta keys on partner sites.
And more!
So I hear what you're saying. "Magicman, it looks like everyone that bought something is getting in and if you didn't you're likely left out in the cold." True my friends. I'm looking at my PAX key still not knowing when I get to take a peek. All I know right now is that I have "Phased Level" access which means if they need me on weekend one I get in... if not, maybe in weekends two or three. Maybe you'll get VERY lucky on some giveaway, but as it is at this moment you still don't know when that lets you into the game. Granted I can't really blame them for taking care of people that DID purchase things even if I don't like the idea of buying into a beta in general. They opted to cater the weekends to those that shelled out money. Fine, I get it. Let's move on to what I think is the "Bad News" (feel free to disagree as always though).
Let's say you want into beta BUT you have not given PWE or Cryptic any of your hard earned cash yet. Yep! Enter the trusty "Founder's Pack" pre-sales that are quickly becoming common place. Neverwinter will have three Founder's Packs available for you. However, only Option 2 and Option 3 actually include Beta access!
Here's the breakdown on what you get:
Option 1: Starter Kit: Cost $19.99 USD (Valued at $49.99 USD)
-Adventurer's Helper Pack - Contains Six Different In Game items
-Small Bag of Holding - 12 Extra Inventory Slots
-Amulet of Protection - In Game Item
NOTE:This pack does NOT include guaranteed Beta access!
Option 2: Guardian of Neverwinter Pack: Cost $59.99 USD (Valued at $149 USD)
-Access to all three beta weekends
-Three-day head start access to Neverwinter Open Beta
-Unique ‘Gold Moonstone Mask Regalia' head piece
-Unique ‘Armored Horse' mount
-Unique ‘Direwolf Companion'
-In-game and forum ‘Founder' title
Option 3: Hero of the North Founder's Pack: Cost $199.99 USD (Valued at $549 USD)
-Access to all three beta weekends
-Five-day head start access to Neverwinter Open Beta
-Beta Weekend Friend Invite code
-Exclusive access to ‘Menzoberranzan Renegade', a Drow playable race like the legendary ranger Drizzt Do'Urden, complete with unique racial abilities and tattoo
-Unique ‘Armored Spider' mount
-Unique ‘Panther Companion'
-In-game and forum ‘Founder' title
-VIP Game Access to skip-the-line and get priority log-in access
-Immediate Access to "The Foundry" (as opposed to only getting access at Level 15)
You read that right my friends. $60 and $200 gets you into Closed Beta, early access to Open Beta, and a bunch of extra goodies including a unique playable "race" (not technically a race but you do get special abilities) if you shell out for Option 3!
Think about that for a minute. $200? Here's a few other Popular MMO items that cost less than $200:
1) EVE's absurd $70 monocle was a bargain compared to this price.
2) Guild Wars 2 Collector's Edition was $149.99 at launch.
3) A $15 monthly sub for a game for a year is only $180 if you paid monthly. Most games offer you an additional discount off of that price when paying for 1 year up front.
By now, most of you already know from watching the Free to Play Cast or Ask MMOBomb that the idea of "Founder's Packs" that include beta access bugs me. I remember a time when I was PAID to beta test games, not the other way around. These choices have drastically changed my positive outlook on Neverwinter.
Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with a company offering packaged goods, even if I think the "Valued at" numbers are just made up figures. If you like a game enough to want to throw down $200 for a ton of goodies after you've played for a bit, more power to you my friend! However, shelling out money (and a LOT of money at that) for goodies AND to TEST a product that may or may not be in a truly playable condition is just a cash grab, and Cryptic/PWE's decisions here now make me question how much of the rest of the game will be a cash grab as well. What kind of quality testing does a game actually receive when the bulk of your testers paid money for access?
Cryptic keeps saying that information can and will be updated and changed as things are added to the packs so if you're interested you may want to keep your eyes on their forums here for the most recent Founder's Pack additions.
The Neverwinter forums are full of confusion and are a bit of a mess right now as these packs hit the market, but I'm sure I'll have more to say on this topic on the Free to Play Cast we record on February 2nd.
What do YOU think? Am I just nuts? Leave a comment below, I'm gonna get off this ledge now and go get a drink.
-Magicman
EDIT: We got some feedback from Perfect World Entertainment stating that all the information available is actually just a work in progress and they will be updating the official forum posts with revised information. So attention, the information available is likely to change.
EDIT 2: Founder's Packs are now available here.
Discussion (103)
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This is incorrect, if this were something like WOW was at launch, you pay $60 for the game(one month free play) and then $15 a month(for 11 months) would be $225. But if you take this $200 and if you play for a year, that would be $16.67 a month, if you play for 2 years, that means it cost you $8.34 a month, while WOW will cost you $180 every year played(if you pay the example $15 rate)
Not to mention all of the bonuses you receive for each character you create. So in actuality, it’s a much better deal than any other MMOs in that price range.
To every one who's even thinking about paying for this game DO NOT PAY ANYTHING! Ignore this game, it's a failed game already thanks to the publishing company.
I know it's Dungeons and Dragons but PWE is an evil company.
Don't believe me?
Do some reasearch on their games like War of the Immortals and Battle of the Immortals you'll see what I'm talking about.
This company has also been taken to court for fraud and is being investigated.
Do yourself a favor and stay away from this game and publishing company.
MMOBOMB staff, please do not promote this horrible company.
For many of these people who are paying, it seems the general attitude is as follows;
"I'm getting to play early! If you don't like the founder's packs you're too poor to afford it", etc.
It's sending the wrong message. Tons of people are treating it as early access instead of a beta. As a result I'm banking on the game being a bit unstable come release because many of these people are looking at what they get for their money instead of taking it as a testing period. This is why you don't charge for beta access, PWE. It is not a finished product. Don't treat it like one or people will treat it like one. Bad results.
Personally I wouldn't be caught dead paying for this founder's stuff since I'm opposed to the idea of paying for an unfinished product. That aside, PWE seems to be pushing this idea of the cost being factored by its contents, including the game's cash shop currency "Astral Diamonds". Let me ask you if you REALLY need to sink over $100 into an F2P game. Just stop and think about this for a sec. If you really need all that currency, the game is far from being free to play.
What's even more shady about all this is there's zero mention of the cost of items in the cash shop or even what the conversion rate of real world dollars to astral diamonds is. Outwardly this seriously looks like a big scam. It's being handled poorly and I hope that many of these founder's buyers find the game is not to their liking. Yes, I hope people get swindled out of their money.
Why? Because it'll sting them good and leave a lasting message that beta for an UNFINISHED product should not be charged for, let alone $60! I can buy a FINISHED game nowadays for that price, why in the heck would I pay upwards of $60 for something that apparently isn't even done? Unless of course this "beta" is nothing more than a sneak peek, in which case PWE has yet more pie on their face for charging outrageous prices for early access.
In short; bad business practices and just another day at PWE. Yes..I'm biased but if you've watched them over the years you'd know just as well.
The sad thing is that mods/ devs are shamelessly ignoring all of that and not even showing the courtesy to reply to those. If you are against all this and are excited about this game, i request you NOT to give into these founder packs. I want this game to be good and i'm pretty sure alot of you action mmo fans want it to be good too. PWE is a shameless company and the best way to be heard is to not support this retardation (if it is a word). If you do give in you will only justify their actions and we will end up with a half finished product that will fail.
We've waited almost a year, what's a few more months gonna do? Let them feel the sting a bit too.
Chunky out
Even if paying for betas was something every company did these prices are ridiculous. It's like PWE doesn't understand basic math i.e. 1,000 people paying $20 is less money than $3,000 paying $10. To make it worse we literally have next to zero information regarding this game (Path of Exile only did donation for beta at the public's request and had already been in beta for months and months) so we have no idea if this game is worth ANY money. Way to f** up like usual, Perfect World Entertainment.
I already am guaranteed beta access (bought Torchlight 2, worth every penny of that $20 for just the game, the beta guarantee was just a little gravy, that's all). I think the "founder's packs" are silly too, but since it doesn't look like there's going to be a subscription option or lifer option (my husband is a CO lifetimer... bought at launch, when it was cheaper) this looks like a logical variant to them.
A "free to play" game has to be free enough that plenty of people will pile in, while having some reason to actually plunk down money. They don't HAVE to monetize every player -- warm bodies means you have more people to group with, and even if you don't pay any money, your friend might.
What the f**. It's almost criminal.
btw i got trinity and rhino in warframe :D the new update is awesome :P
These Founder Packs games have been putting out focus too much on buying beta access and not enough on long term play. :-/
Why there are all that USD $ crap? Who gives a s*it !?!
This is going the same way of mmohut... shame on u
Example 1
3 or 4 years back i was playin a chinese game which pwe published called Heroes of the 3 Kingdoms.It was fun at start but at end game it was pretty much p2w.People gave A LOT of money in that game and played although gms rarely went inside that game or there was almost never a small/big update for that game by pwe.Results:1 year later game close.PWE gave ONLY 15%(or 25% not sure)of the money people spend in the game BACK to them and kept everything for themselfs pretty much cause as i said no updates at all whatsoever
Example 2
My 2nd example would be raiderz.Good game,good combat not pay to win hopefully but no updates at it as well at all.Max lvl is still 35 although the game is being live for some time now(by some time i mean some months)and as said from 1 of the comments above there were NO changes to the bugs since game was open beta(yep u read corectly they changed NOTHING when game went live exept make some events cause game was going live.Events that lasted like 1 week or so like if u grind u would get sometimes soem special drops which were pots technecly healing u.Oh and game was technecly quest grinding till lvl 30 and lvl 30-35 was dungeon grind)that would be my my 2nd example of how "good" pwe is.
AND EVEN THOUGH i knew both of these things i still had hope on pwe and neverwinter ofc.BUT after this i am giving out all hopes on this game i believe this will be p2w(hopefully not but i lost all hopes anyways on pwe)and sorry inflictious and no offense to u but YES after this just like snail games i hate pwe as a company.I WILL try this game when it goes open beta(probably like june-july or maybe even later)but i got no hopes of it whatsoever i am sorry for all those who were dissapointed like me for neverwinter and i apologize also if i said "too much" but i really wanted you guys(for whoever follows pwe like i did till now)to know what kind of company PWE really is and for those who knew kudos for u my friends.
Thats all i had to say and its MY personal opinion.Thanks for reading and have a nice day
The items/privileges are nowhere near worth that. You would expect lifetime status, including a monthly point stipend ala LoTRO for that price.
Honestly, this makes me concerned about Neverwinter. If this is the first where hearing of their monetary ethics, I believe they are in for a rocky ride (including the player base nevertheless).
Regards,
Toyin
Somethink start stinking before is release ????? is my imagination???? Dont know the only think i know is the good felling i had before of the game , it was the most anxius game of the year cause there were showing us a lot videos a lot things that now i dont care.... i mean i dont wanna play it, cause i know now what Cryptic and perfect word are made of ... they only will want the money ....so imagine how much money they will ask once ingame???? . I was expecting other thing to be honest.
I was expecting more player care from they but lets see how finally is.
I m starting to piss of the FTP titles is all the same now once you are ingame you HAVE to expend more money a year to fell good playing a game than before .
I just got in for free, it took me 10 seconds of googling and about 5 minutes of work.
PC gamer is giving away keys like candy.
The incentives are in no way worth the price. They should offer the 60 for 20 and the 200 for 50. That'd make a hell of a lot more money.
It makes no business sense AT ALL to gamble your new games reputation, and a bit of cash cowing possibility, by setting extreme prices and get a few sales, whereas you could set the bar lower and get a ton.
Hell i'd pay $20 for beta access and some goodies and i'm not afraid to admit it.
$200 for an UNFINISHED product????? you have got to be f**king kidding me. Go back to league people only true f2p model :)
fk you PWE go to fking hell you motherfker.
i will never pay for a CB of any game be it p2p or f2p, wat the fk is this bullshit.
I am not mad at PWE (although this is typical) OR cryptic although some of there products are less than what they claim. I am upset with the fact that CBT is not CBT anymore, I use to think that Devs Like Cryptic or any other for that matter took great deal of time and effort in SELECTING players for closed beta testing. It used to be saying something when you got into a beta now 60 bucks will do I guess that is the american dream though and suckers are born every minute just have to find a way to pick them up flip them over and shake the change out of their pockets.
Are you all just mad at PWE or The foundry pack's?
The Main reason i ask this is When the foundry Pack for Beta to FireFall was set .. Thier was No where near as much hate full comment's and that game is still in CBT for over a year now.. You could have bought a Founder pack for 50 - 125 $ , but no one seemed to care about that at all... For one of the better game's to come along last year. ( Probablty better than this .. FireFall stated Not P2W ----- Neverwinter (90% chance P2W).
Don't get me wrong i am bias on this. Just wondering about all the hate!
Inflictious
Again, you're TESTING a product.
It's like you're going to a mall and then a perfume salesperson approaches you and says they have the best perfume. Interested, you stop and ask for a sample.
You're then asked to choose between smelling the
perfume test paper thing or one spray directly from the bottle.
You're in the process of taking whichever you chose
when suddenly the salesperson tells you, that TO TEST IT,
it's 59.99 for the paper and 199.99 for the bottle.
Then she offers you a brochure
You thought you're gonna get something out of it for free
but it turns out its 19.99 for the brochure.
DAMMIT!
I also agree with your last f2p cast comment where the setup is better if the game is in beta (and is free) and then offers founder's packs to players like Warframe.
-Unique ‘Armored Spider’ mount
-Unique ‘Panther Companion’"
Great, as if there weren't enough Drizzt wannabes out there already... now you get to pay to be a special kind of wannabe.
It really shows what kind of company we're dealing with when the folks with the deepest pockets (and willingness to use their money on a product they know next to nothing about) are the ones chosen to try it out. Not even going to pretend the playing field's not going to be even between payers and free players, huh?
I remember when CBT's were about players willing to help the developers find bugs and give suggestions to improve things before release and then get a token item (a cosmetic or a title) as a reward for their service... Nowadays we gotta pay to betatest. And those who pay the most get actual advantages that others won't be able to get. Ever.
Hilarious. Pay2win from the beginning.
Tnx magicman for article
Pay to win. YEP! Perfect World knows how to screw things over...GG....GG.
I'll keep my eye on beta key promo's otherwise open beta or live for me.
I mean this have progressed naturally from years past when you got beta access for preordering a game. They are just looking to get some early cashflow injections for the F2P equivalents. Although I can't quite shake the feeling that I am playing them to test their game, but if you want it badly enough you'll pay and thats what they are banking on.
For instance, Warframe. Loving it, having a blast (I ignore the bugs and glitches, it's beta afterall and most I can do is report them), but I'm seriously hanging in the balance about picking any founder's pack. I want to help the game I'm enjoying, but it's really hard making gambles at this packages for things in such early stages.
Most things are still subject to changing and balancing, so how do you make an informed decision about spending your money if you don't know how the end product will come out? Always hard to put cash into beta (regardless of what beta stage) games because of that. Yet it seems that beta turned into a pre-sale kind of arrangement if not a "fund my game please" stage of production.
I understand that people want to support the game, there's nothing wrong with that. But in this stage when it's not even released yet I think they could've settled for just a paypal donation button on their site or something like that.
A HUGE let down and to be honest the anticipation and wait just got a whole lot bearable now :P
And I also think that is huge time diference between founders and rest of us who got keys other way.
Well that's PWE