Topic

Alpha Rewards

I know this wouldn't be anywhere near the top of your priority list, but I think there should be some sort of reward for alpha players, like a certain type of house only we can buy, or something cool like that. I know we should be thanking you for letting us play, but it would be nice to have something to show our involvement in the alpha once the game is launched.

Posted 23 months ago by Kai Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

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  • I was kinda hoping we wouldn't lose our Glitchmas Yetis even with the reset...
    Posted 23 months ago by Cefeida Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yes - I agree! I'm sad that I'll be losing all that I've worked for thusfar. :(
    Posted 23 months ago by blogkitten Subscriber! | Permalink
  • i don't want a reward.

    i hate it when games or websites have special doo-dads that only vets can receive.

    it engenders a sense of entitlement and creates an arbitrary division between older and newer players.

    anyone who was on flickr during the "old skool protest movement" will know what i'm talking about. just awful.
    Posted 23 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • OK, you don't need to keep your Glitchmas Yeti, but it would be sweet if those of us who would like to keep it got to do so.
    Posted 23 months ago by Eleanor Rigby Subscriber! | Permalink
  • oh, i want to keep my yeti.

    i just think it should be available to new players each christmas, that's all.
    Posted 23 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'm the only person I've ever talked to that has two yetis. I'd be heartbroken if I lost them.
    Posted 23 months ago by Aldaris Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Taking a leaf from KoL, there should be different Glitchmas gifts each year.
    Posted 23 months ago by Eleanor Rigby Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Stoot or someone said we'd probably get some sort of reward or mark or designation or something for all our donated labor. I don't remember if it was for alpha specifically or just pre-release in general.
    Posted 23 months ago by Tingly Claus Subscriber! | Permalink
  • There were Yetis?! How did I miss that? *sob*

    Regarding the assumption we want a "reward" -- I don't want anything of monetary value, however, I want a horribly gaudy trinket to commemorate our toils as alpha testers! ^_^
    Posted 23 months ago by blogkitten Subscriber! | Permalink
  • What about a stupid cheesy t-shirt.

    Yetis were the christmas gift, kitten.
    Posted 23 months ago by Ani Laurel Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I would hope that alphas get an alpha trophy and a beta trophy as well if they play the beta. Of course, betas could get a beta trophy. After the game is gold you can show off how you helped make the game what it is on your trophy shelf.
    Posted 23 months ago by Johnny Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I think it's player attitude rather than prizes which causes divisions.

    If I get to keep my yet, I intend to rub it in every n00b's face. Devs, can the yeti have a face-rubbing feature? Kind of like the kiss from the emo bear, but more obnoxious.


    ;)
    Posted 23 months ago by Cefeida Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I think it's only human nature, and not such a terrible part of it, to want some kind of marker that establishes you in whatever way you see your status as different or separate from others.

    People will find ways to indicate their self-percieved status even if the game doesn't provide it. They already do it now and the game is in alpha. Danny gave me a cool music block the other day and hell freakin' yeah I showed off that sucker. That and my holiday yeti are worth more to me than all my trophies combined.

    But they are also things for which I have to take pains to show off. I really don't think alpha players should get little alpha symbols by their names, or some indicator that appears on their profile page that automatically confers some kind of status. And I think I would prefer a crappy virtual t-shirt that I could choose to wear in game or even give away, better than a RL t--shirt, since they tend to come in hideous baggy man sizes. The staff avatars have a staff t-shirt but they don't all wear it, so there ya go.

    As for RL rewards, that's easy: Fly all the alpha testers up to Vannie, put us up in a hotel and then re-create an end of test party.
    Posted 23 months ago by Nanookie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Im with Nanookie with the test party. I want to actually meet these people.
    Posted 23 months ago by Ani Laurel Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yay for real life spinach jumping and no-no powder! :D
    Posted 23 months ago by Hburger Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Dare you to explain to my dad that im using no-no powder.
    Posted 23 months ago by Ani Laurel Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Mmmmm ... no-no powder, spinach, and a room full of Glitch players? That would be fun-tastic. :)
    Posted 23 months ago by Lelu Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Maybe alpha players could get avatar t-shirts that say, "I have no life!"
    Posted 23 months ago by Plurp Subscriber! | Permalink
  • "I think it's only human nature, and not such a terrible part of it, to want some kind of marker that establishes you in whatever way you see your status as different or separate from others. "

    yes but there is a difference between distinguishing yourself through actions that everyone is capable of but you actually did and hanging onto a hollow badge that separates you from others based on just happening to hear about the game first.

    and it isn't like setting up this stuff it benignly irrelevant - see example a, flickr old skool protest. these totally arbitrary things can create a very real and serious sense of entitlement that's can be a bitch to deal with down the road. mostly for the developers.

    .. but maybe this is just something to file in the "told you so" file for a couple years from now.

    if you want to reward testers, give them a free subscription for a period of time. it'll keep people around to invite friends, is worth actually worth something, is essentially invisible and irrelevant to status .. and BEST is that it expires so that once it is gone it is clear you've used up everything you were entitled to.

    thus a much reduced sense of entitlement, inflated impression of status and so on.
    Posted 23 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I don't see it, striatic. What harm, exactly, would such a reward do? What will happen to cause you to say 'I told you so?' Honest question, because I don't see the evil coming.

    If the reward is hollow, then it's meaningless, and the only meaning ascribed to it is the one people give it. So, if someone feels they have a right to gloat because they have an alpha badge, they will maintain that even without the badge- they'll just come up with comments like 'Well, I'm here since 2010 so I'm better than you'. And if someone who wasn't in alpha is upset by the fact that someone else was in alpha, then that's just silly.

    And honestly, the badge wouldn't be hollow. Those of us who participate in the alpha test will probably be good sources of help and information for new people once the game starts. We will know more about the game, even if it changes a lot between now and the release. We might even allow ourselves a moderate sense of satisfaction from having helped the devs find bugs and test gameplay. Entitlement? Not appropriate, but I don't see why we should be afraid that all alpha testers will become entitled and act aloof just because they might get a reward.

    I think also that even if there are no rewards, you can never ever prevent a divide between oldbies and newbies. Date joined, wealth, experience, those are all ways in which we can distinguish how long someone has been playing- ergo, who found out about the game first. It's not a foolproof guide but it's something people will look to, unless you make people's levels, join dates and all those little hints hidden.

    (I don't recall the Flickr old skool protest exactly, I'm aware there was a fuss but I'm not sure why. I have an old skool badge through a glitch- I had a yahoo album which I was forced to migrate to flickr when they merged, and that turned out to be so old that it earned me the badge even though I was a late adopter. Anyway, might be helpful to understanding your point if you explained what happened there.)
    Posted 23 months ago by Cefeida Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Spinach, no-no powder, and—wheeeeeeeee!

    Sounds like fun. :)
    Posted 23 months ago by Herp Derp Subscriber! | Permalink
  • "What will happen to cause you to say 'I told you so?' Honest question, because I don't see the evil coming."

    1] user protest, revolt, general pissed-off-ed-ness. lots of "glitch has gone to suck" talk.
    2] "noobs are doing it wrong" attitude.

    the stuff that's generally unavoidable in a web product.

    but just because you can "never prevent a divide" between newer and older players doesn't mean you have to go out and willfully exacerbate it. there can be little divides and there can be massive canyons. saying that a noob/vet divide is 'inevitable so why bother even thinking about it' is .. defeatist?

    if anything, the game should be pro-actively structured to minimise such an outcome, rather than lamely submitting to its total inevitability and even encouraging it.

    the more "special" you treat your initial fan-base, the more alienated they somehow fail to meet their expectations, and the more acrimony between segments of the user base. none of that stuff is fun.

    lastly, and probably most importantly, there is the basic psychological trick of under promising and over-delivering which is critical for most businesses to keep their customers happy. in the case of glitch, handing out gold stars and officially parading the alpha as a special exclusive time creates the sense of a "golden age" which immediately sets the bar way too high for almost all subsequent development.

    new players should always feel like they're on the cusp of something, coz that's fun, and if the game goes to great lengths to celebrate how awesome the past was it is prematurely dating itself.
    Posted 23 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Hm. I thought it'd be something more than that.

    Number one and number two are both dependent on player attitude. Users will only protest if they think the badges are bad, not BECAUSE the badges are bad. So the badges might become bad because the users protest against them, I guess? If an alpha badge which doesn't affect anyone's gameplay is enough reason for people to claim a game has gone to the dogs, I think maybe they need to check their perspectives.

    To be honest, I don't think an alpha reward will make the divide any worse, or exacerbate it, as you put it. It's not so much a defeatist attitude that I'm sporting as suggesting that eliminating the rewards is nowhere near the solution to the (hypothetical) problem, because the rewards won't be the cause of it. People's (hypothetical) bad attitudes will. And gold star or none, an oldbie who wants to act aloof will act aloof and point to his joining date. I'm not saying 'let's not bother even thinking about it.' I thought about it and I don't think it's a necessary or in any way helpful step :)

    As to the golden age- that is also in user's minds only. Even in practice, how can this alpha be considered a golden age when it's so incomplete, so full of ideas that will probably only be fully developed once the game goes live? Glitch is great, but it's not a finished game, not in the form we're allowed to play it right now. If people reminisce it will be about social things, such as the parties and the pig fountain, and those are a community's memories- each subsequent glitch community can create their own.

    " if the game goes to great lengths to celebrate how awesome the past was it is prematurely dating itself."

    I don't think a small reward for an alpha, even a gold star, is great lengths or anywhere near it. Of course we have no idea yet what, if anything, the alphas will get, but I don't think it will match that description.

    Mountains out of molehills, I'd say, or maybe barking up the wrong tree. Or both. But I guess we'll have to see what happens to see who was right, and that based on whether devs choose to give alphas special things, or not.
    Posted 23 months ago by Cefeida Subscriber! | Permalink
  • The worst blowups I've seen over that type of issue on various sites were by a tiny sliver of the users and didn't last too terribly long. It'll be ok. This is including rewards which gave people a tangible advantage.
    Posted 23 months ago by Tingly Claus Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Just seeing semi-Tingly in satyr pants will be ALL the reward I will ever need.
    *dab*
    Posted 23 months ago by Nanookie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I want to buy one of those t-shirts that some of the Tiny Speck team is folding up and putting in a box as seen here: bit.ly/dJjBn0
    Posted 22 months ago by Yeoman Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Nothing amazing nor game-changing, but just a little token! Maybe a hairstyle or something.
    Posted 22 months ago by RobotGymnast Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I was just about to revive this actually. I really hope that whatever we get to show for alpha will be something viewable. I mean, I don't want a giant flashing "A" above my head wherever I go, but maybe some decoration in our houses would be cool. A yeti is cool, but it doesn't really cut in in my opinion. In a couple years, people likely won't even know what it is.
    Posted 22 months ago by Aldaris Subscriber! | Permalink
  • As a newbie alpha I'm not expecting anything-- but alpha I am. So how about a T shirt that just says it was "Worth the Wait" :) lest face it, anyone here and certainly anyone older than me test wise has learnt to wait! :)
    Posted 22 months ago by Misha Subscriber! | Permalink
  • In my opinion, *the best alpha pressie ever ever ever* would be a signed poster (by the Tiny Speck team) of the Humbabian man, cropped ( i.imgur.com/FaZWf.jpg ) :3 ... honest!
    Posted 22 months ago by Hburger Subscriber! | Permalink
  • It isn't important that other people know what it is, as long as we know. "Where'd you get that?" They gave it to testers. "What's it do?" Gets players to have this conversation with me. A little graphic on profiles may even work.
    Posted 22 months ago by Tingly Claus Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Alpha players get 200 credits for purchasing things in the wardrobe/vanity - thank you Glitch Gods!
    Posted 22 months ago by Xupa Subscriber! | Permalink
  • it's not necessarily saying we're better, or more loyal, or anything. also, as someone said before, we'll definitely know a lot about Glitch so it'll be useful for newbies, as they can stop and ask an alpha player questions.
    Posted 22 months ago by Cupcake Subscriber! | Permalink
  • and even if this doesn't happen, we can still hold an occasional Alpha Players party :)
    Posted 22 months ago by Cupcake Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Perhaps an Achievement... or a trophy that can't be sold. I liked the idea of a tee-shirt (that we could all wear to our annual party!)... something that's easily replicated for the Beta testers, but isn't 'always present'. I hate the idea of something by my name in the Game world. Even if we never act differently, *some* people will treat us differently. I DO like the idea of having something.

    Biggest 'reward' to my mind - give us a couple of days (a week) in the Live world before opening the floodgates. It'll give us a chance to get our ducks in a row after a reset, so we're better equipped to help new folks along the way.
    Posted 22 months ago by Travinara Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Ditto to the above posted by Tavinara. I think if we are going to test stuff and know about the game, then a few days/week or playing so we can help newcomers is a good idea.
    Posted 21 months ago by Holly Waterfall Subscriber! | Permalink
  • is a good idea reward for Alpha and Beta i to
    Posted 21 months ago by AlexAlpha19 Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Ok, so I'm a n00b. But I'm with Hburger on the sketch. It would be spifftacular.
    Posted 21 months ago by Mistress*of*Fishies Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I didnt read nearly this whole thing but i cant wait til they start making custom plush glitch characters :) Or at least character tshirts and mugs ;)
    Posted 21 months ago by Cap'n Bob Subscriber! | Permalink
  • OHHH!! I'm w/ Hburger on the poster!
    But seriously, who here *wouldnt* spend money on real merch?
    Posted 21 months ago by Cap'n Bob Subscriber! | Permalink
  • In a previous MMOG I played, which had badges (like this one), Beta testers got a special badge to show that they had been in at the start. It did not have any power or use, just for recognition.

    Just a thought.
    Posted 21 months ago by riscy Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I think a trophy that can't be sold or donated, or a picture we can put in our houses would be great.
    Posted 21 months ago by Tradescantia Subscriber! | Permalink
  • -1 on the pre-opening for Live. For so many reasons, but primarily because I think the playing field should be even for everyone, alpha or not.

    If there has to be a reward, I suggest a neon pink "I went to Alpha Hell One and all I got was this lousy tee" which when worn, gives a -10 mood every 30 seconds. This should ensure that all alpha parties will end in some form of drunken revlry. LOL.
    Posted 21 months ago by ping Subscriber! | Permalink
  • :)
    Posted 21 months ago by AlexAlpha19 Subscriber! | Permalink
  • There's already a senior tester group. Really, senior tester? Why? It's that hipster sense of "I knew it was cool before you even heard of it" bs.
    I don't need a badge or reward for testing & playing -- and when the game opens officially i hope i don't hear people tossing about the "i was a tester" bit. It's a beautiful, fun game. But it's a game. It's not even a "win" type game, it's a joyful adventure.

    That said, i would like a big badge after my name. A special shirt that ONLY testers (alpha only please, none for the lame beta testers). And a special subdivision of awesome for testers only. Not.
    Posted 21 months ago by Niknik Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Nuknuk, I made the Senior Testers group as a way for us testers who have got to know each other very well during the 2010 tests, to stay in contact as the game gets bigger and bigger.
    Posted 21 months ago by Hburger Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Rock on Hburger, rock on.
    Posted 21 months ago by Niknik Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Personally to keep in touch with 1st alpha testers is Hburgers preogitive. But I do think the name Senior testers suggests self importance. It irked me when I first read the name [just saying] :)
    I am comfortable with who I am and where my place is in alpha testing. I am proud to be a alpha tester, that's enough for me. Never been a bragger never felt the need..........off to work now in my Porsche wearing my diamonds :P......
    Posted 21 months ago by Misha Subscriber! | Permalink
  • For sure, i can understand keeping in touch with the first bunch.
    Careful not to scratch the paint ;)
    Posted 21 months ago by Niknik Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I personally want a 'Mentor' sign hovering above my head- I like helping people out.
    What about, we all get a mentor sign option and let newbies come to us when they need help? Sort of like greeters. Only just in game in general. Also, if wearing the mentor sign, you must not be awful to newbies- Mentor is a status saying you have been playing since alpha AND you are willing to help.
    Posted 19 months ago by KitkatCat Subscriber! | Permalink
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