Pay to Play, but refundable?

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Ryszarius
 
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Joined: 21 Jan 2018, 06:27

Pay to Play, but refundable?

Post by Ryszarius » 21 Jan 2018, 06:55

Like the subject heading says, is this game Pay to Play yet willing to do refunds if its not what its cracked up to be?

Because I'm rather confused. I've read that the game is in Open-Beta, but to me as an older gamer myself, Open-Beta means free to download and to test, and that's what I did for a large part of my youth, beta-tested games and bought the ones I enjoyed.

I wouldn't call this an Open-Beta, as that implies its a public beta which is testing open to any user, not any user who pays cash. If you're paying out cash, its either for Early-Access or a completed game, not for testing purposes.

However, back to my original question: I want to know if I fork out the cash to 'test' whether this games any good, I'll have issues with claiming a refund if its poor/not what's expected, because I've just got through with a PayPal dispute on a similar matter with Albion Online, and I'm not paying out money for something that turns out to be not what I paid for.

This is/was why Beta-testing was a good thing, it gave people like me a chance to decide if a game was worth the investment of not only money, but time too. That or limited access trials. Saved so much issues in the past.


IamHe
 
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Re: Pay to Play, but refundable?

Post by IamHe » 21 Jan 2018, 08:53

game is in EA and while Open Beta usually means free access its not part of its definition

game is buy-to-play model not pay-to-play (there is optional sub)


Ryszarius
 
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Re: Pay to Play, but refundable?

Post by Ryszarius » 21 Jan 2018, 09:53

IamHe wrote:game is in EA and while Open Beta usually means free access its not part of its definition

game is buy-to-play model not pay-to-play (there is optional sub)


Thanks for the reply. And you're correct, it isn't part of its definition. But neither is paying for it, or indeed anything else beyond software being available for public testing.

For the 15 years I was deep into MMO gaming, I was also a dedicated tester, and I don't mean like those guys who just played in open beta's for the fun of them.

Open Beta was considered exactly that, open to all. Paying to access something you are effectively testing is something of a new, or rather more common, occurrence in this day and age, far to common for the liking of many I'd say, but it does give dev's another source of income, sadly in some cases its ill-deserved.

It used to be software devs paid people to test the software (Alpha/Beta Testers) and used Public Beta's for controlled stress testing, last minute bug testing and fine tuning.

If anyone can actually answer my question in full though, that would be appreciated, as I really want to know where the dev's stand on refunding. Thanks.

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Arrakis
 
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Re: Pay to Play, but refundable?

Post by Arrakis » 21 Jan 2018, 12:39

You will be entitled to refund in about seven days from the time of purchase, but only in the case where you did not use any of the items (Ticket to Abella etc).


Ryszarius
 
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Re: Pay to Play, but refundable?

Post by Ryszarius » 21 Jan 2018, 18:14

Arrakis wrote:You will be entitled to refund in about seven days from the time of purchase, but only in the case where you did not use any of the items (Ticket to Abella etc).


Thank you, that is most helpful.

It's nice to see that there's a degree of intelligence in play here. Allowing people to play/test out the game in a limited fashion, and permitting a refund if they don't use of any the items acquired along with access to the game itself is sensible, and what I wish certain other games would have the sense to do, it would save week long contesting of payments and money conflicts via PayPal and the like.

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