Goblin Squad Member
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If this were in another industry, it would be called a "soft launch". It's something that's kinda-sorta open, but still has some gate to prevent things from getting out of hand. A dress-rehearsal of sorts.
I really like the idea of it being labeled as "Kickstarter Launch" or something similar to let people know that it's launched, but only for the people that helped it get off the ground in the first place.
Edit:
Sorry, the following also popped into my head based on other comments.
Pilgrim Era
Colonization Launch
Exploration Launch
and similar.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Key being that it's launching sans one of your most tauted features (player settlements).Ideally, it's a scale up phase, and you could call it that. Though I'm not sure why you'd want beta phases with less than 10k or so people. What do you actually gain by doing this rather than adding seven months to your beta phase, and charging for beta access? Certainly not new, and GW2 seriously suffers from a lack of a large-scale, extended public beta.
You get the potential (but not guarantee) for slightly more revenue at the end of those seven months, as opposed to getting most of that money right away. You risk a more disastrous reaction if something bad happens because of higher levels of concurrency, and you are confusing people to the point where even you aren't sure what to call this phase.
1) They won't have the code for player settlements, because players won't have the skills to build them for months. It would be like giving a treatise on nuclear arms to stonemen. They don't have a need for it.
2) They gain a chance to build a community. So that when the game goes to an open enrollment period, players will have a world with organizations in place, rivalries to discovered, merchants to work with.
3) It lets them start the community on the right tone. If players are anti griefing, it lays the societal groundwork for years to come. With fewer players, bad behavior can be rooted out quickly. A good launch is something you can only do once. By making it small scale, they can keep the quality high.
If you have any further questions, feel free to ask! I'm also sure Ryan Dancey can answer with far more detail and eloquence.
EDIT: CEO's can't take ninja levels. I read that it is an unwritten rule somewhere....
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Goblin Squad Member
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EDIT: CEO's can't take ninja levels. I read that it is an unwritten rule somewhere....
Nah, we decided to home rule it.
I really can't think of a name for the blog post. Delta is the best I've seen.
Just a big disclaimer saying this game isn't finalized, and is subject to change... Dunno.
At any rate, really excited, and I eagerly await the tech demo.
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Goblin Squad Member
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"The Kickstarter Launch", sounds good, mainly because of the associations and connotations it suggests:
1. Crowdfunded for the people who were most amped for this mmo, first priority.
2. Highlighting kickstarter platform's ability to design a game targetted to a particular niche of people who put their wallets where their mouth was.
There's definitely a vibe that these ppl helped make it happen and it's a game for them. People can see how it turned out for "them" and that the feedback is about making the game very targeted to these people. Not some mainstream effort to cater to 100% of everyone!
I dunno if there's any problem with using KS label, if anything just promotes the platform more. Perhaps the next launch,subsequently could be "The Riff-Raff Launch"! :p*
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Goblin Squad Member
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hmm "genesis" sounds pretty good, although i'm not a big fan of christian ideology and a lot of people are gonna make that connection.
not sure if someone already brought "origin" up
Origin
1350–1400; Middle English < Latin orīgin- (stem of orīgō) beginning, source, lineage, derivative of orīrī to rise; compare orient
Synonyms
1. root, foundation. 4. birth, lineage, descent.
it fits in my opinion very nicely.
on the other hand i think PFO.75 is awesome aswell :D
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Goblin Squad Member
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I think some people may be missing the point that I at least took from this. This is not meant to be a part of PFO's lore and roleplay. They are trying to coin a new term that we can use with people outside the PFO community to explain this launch. A new industry standard term like Alpha or Beta.
Any term we coin here should make just as much sense if this was a game about mechs and spaceships, or a modern military based MMO, or an MMO where you play an animal in the wild, or any conceivable MMO. It shouldn't be exclusive to PFO. It should be able to summarize any MMO that lets the players into the game progressively via small blocks of people, building up the game around them as they do.
So far the best terms I have caught are:
- Delta Launch
- Limited Release
- Founder's Launch
- Progressive Launch
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Goblin Squad Member
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And while "wave testing" works with the River Kingdoms water theme, but not so much it can't be used generically.
What I don't like is tides rise and fall, there are high tides and low tides.
And as other people are making nice comments about mine let me return the favor and mention my favorites so far: spearheading, colonizing, and honorable mention to seeding.
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Goblin Squad Member
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And while "wave testing" works with the River Kingdoms water theme, but not so much it can't be used generically.
What I don't like is tides rise and fall, there are high tides and low tides.
And as other people are making nice comments about mine let me return the favor and mention my favorites so far: spearheading, colonizing, and honorable mention to seeding.
Wasn't aiming that comment at you Ajaxis. You're ideas are good. I'm pretty sure you came up with one of those 4 terms on my list didn't you?
I honestly think pilgrimage works on those levels. It's a lofty term for sure, but it at least is not genre specific.
It's less of a simple generic and simple term than I would vote for, but it certainly is better than some alternatives I've seen. Some of which mention River Kingdoms and Golarion in the name.
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Goblin Squad Member
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I honestly think pilgrimage works on those levels. It's a lofty term for sure, but it at least is not genre specific.
Pilgrim/pilgrimage is just barely too "religious" for me, but it may be what Ryan wants to indicate the testing is special or magical. For that matter, avatar is a religious term used in video games quite perfectly.
Level Zero
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Goblin Squad Member
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I think "Wave Implementation" with "1st Wave", "2nd Wave" etc. is a good term. It conjures the idea that is trying to be conveyed without being overly complicated or genre specific.
The other idea I was just thinking of is Gradual Release. It's a simple term anyone should be able to understand that quickly summarizes the entire process to a level anyone should be able to gain a rough understanding right in the name. Very non-genre specific as well.
To me it's a slightly easier to understand term than progressive even though they are both good terms, and conveys the message that this will be a process that takes place over time better than even a term like Gradual Launch would. Launch just seems to have an air of suddenness about it like. "I launched myself at him with a strangled cry." and release more like "I'm going to start releasing hostages two at a time now!"
I have two suggestions:
Living Playtest, and Incremental Launch (or Ongoing Launch)
Daron Woodson
Abandoned Arts
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Goblin Squad Member
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I have two suggestions:
Living Playtest, and Incremental Launch (or Ongoing Launch)
Daron Woodson
Abandoned Arts
I really like "Living Playtest"...nicely done!
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Goblin Squad Member
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What do people think about "The Pilot Program", like the pilot before a series starts...
I like it. When there's a Pilot TV Show, I think people are accustomed to realize it might not get picked up, or it might get picked up with a significantly different cast, etc.
I also think it rolls off the tongue more naturally than "Delta Launch".
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Goblin Squad Member
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What do people think about "The Pilot Program", like the pilot before a series starts...
Pluses.
1. Generic.2. Everybody knows what a TV pilot is.
3. Years of network advertising gives the word "pilot" a positive image.
4. Pilot is reminiscent of pathfinders and river pilots (depending on the amount of Mark Twain you read.)
Minuses.
1. I don't grok "pilot", because like immortal Highlanders, you can have only one. You talking about a special preview, or a limited release. Month six is not a pilot.
2. Why wouldn't pilot testing apply to alpha or beta testing?
3. When I hear someone is involved in a pilot test, I think they're trying it out (like a school board trying ipads, somewhat applicable) or they are thinking of buying an airplane.
My 2 copper.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Pilot is good as it's identifiable (being widely recognizable in tv media). Yet, could be pointed out it's then just a synonym for beta?
I still like the idea of "Kickstarter Release" ('launch' sounds inauspicious!). It's for these specific people and it's actually a release THEY'LL be happy with (& early too) and further developed with THEM in mind. Takes the emphasis off the state of the game and onto where it should be: The community. Also doubles up as: Reward for investing trust/cash while the project is/was still a vision.
Or,
"Pathfinder Online: The Primer"
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Goblin Squad Member
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@Ryan, yeck! The Pilot Program doesn't hit any of what comes to my mind whenever you described the way the game would be upon launch... whichever name we end up with.
The term Pilot makes me think that the actual launch could be a different game. Also, it leaves the possibility that the game may fail.
I think Doggan nailed it.
Core Launch.
Most Theme Park games are what they are once they're in public beta. You can see how they'll work and the only real questions left are scalability and balance. Maybe there are systems that are too ragged for deployment, or systems that are stubs waiting for future development, but by and large, the game you see is the game you get.
We hope to be a little different in that regard in that we'll have a lot more stubs than normal when we get to that point, because we want to build those stubs out in consultation with the community.
Paizo released the Core Rulebook. The basics... then they said, "This is what we would like to do," and gauged fan/customer reaction. They utilized fan feedback, just like Goblinworks is now.
Like the saying goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
Core Launch
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Goblin Squad Member
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Ryan, I'm not sure what message you want to send out, or how you define this phase.
My take is that it is not a test/rehearsal but a release of the actual game to a smaller group in order to start building the world and setting the seeds and direction for further development. This phase yet to be named will presumably last until capacity catches up with demand at which point the game is de facto open to all.
-Delta launch etc catch the essence that this is a different kind of launch somewhere between beta and full public release.
-Trailblazing, first wave, pioneer launch, etc catch the essence of a select few starting out in an 'empty' world.
My issue with 'Pilot' is that I see the Tech Demo as being a pilot. Pilot smacks of "we made this to see if you like the concept enough that we should develop a full game". It feels the wrong name for a phase where 5000 people are playing the actual game and starting to shape the persistent world.
A name that covers both the world-shaping, player base growth and game development could be "buildup phase"
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Goblin Squad Member
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I like that the ephasis on "pilot" because it gives a general idea about how what phase of development that you are in; however, im not sure if it will stick specifically because the term "pilot" carries with it negative conotations of having the possibility of being unsucessful.
I have done a lot of thinking these past few days about what I think would be a good name for this type of release, specifically oriented around the idea that players will be basically building the infastructure for other players to enjoy while working within the lines of the developers rules and using player feedback to strengthen the experience. That being said, here's what I came up with.
"Player SPAWN Program/process/test/etc..."
I took this one step further and came up with an acronym for SPAWN that I think really encapsulates what you guys are trying to do.
Sandbox
Population
Adaptive
World
Network
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Goblin Squad Member
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@Ajaxis
But its not a theme park. At least not in the traditional sense. I think what Ryan was looking for was a name for the process of implementing players into the world to help develope parts of the game that are going to be mostly "sandbox" components and provide feedback that will help provide a more polished experience for players later on. As to the part of your question about what it should be called. Thats kind of part of this naming process and is something that could be left up to the developers to determine or the players. Ultimately I think it just comes down to who thinks what sounds best.
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Goblin Squad Member
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Pulsing subscription model.
Condensation implementation.
Granulatied infinity.
Magnetic implementation.
My 10 year old son likes spearheading the best of the ones listed so far. He wasn't fond of pilot testing. He thought wave testing was a middle of road choice, but liked it more when he found out it was my suggestion and he wanted dessert.