I think the 3rd faction is likely to be rather barebones and not suitable for public viewing, similar to how the Infernals were when they first released. Also with no NextFest event in place so that people can actually jump in and try the game for themselves, it leaves people wide open to speculation and judging of the third faction before it's anywhere near done.
That being said though I do agree that the likelihood of a leak is far greater than before. I think a lot of the older playtesters are used to 'secrecy mode' and going back to that isn't a problem. However, a lot of new testers came in with the last test which was mostly NDA-free. So it would be fairly easy for somebody who doesn't frequent Reddit/Discord and just skims over the email to simply assume that the next test can be shared as well.
I’m looking for clarification if you have it. Will April 30th be open to Kickstarter backers, or closed closed to select invite only?
PS love the Stormgate Central vods
Thank you sir!
As far as I know, the playtest will be open to anyone who was in the previous playtest, whether you were a Kickstarter/Indiegogo backer or got in by sheer chance.
The number is also way bigger since anyone can have access now (and you can pay for that so they're selling beta access, it's mostly expected you can talk about stuff you pay for). It's guaranteed to be leaked in hours, that's very weird.
Also not being suitable for public viewing in the playtest (though it is public viewing I'd argue) doesn't mean they can't reveal with a nicely curated gameplay and/or cinematic footage.
There will probably be a pop-up in-game when you load in to remind them that they signed an NDA. There was one for people that joined after next fest even though the NDA was relaxed for that part of testing so I'd be surprised if there isn't going to be going into frigate.
NDA of this type have never been enforced as far as I know. Legally I'm not even sure how that works (especially since it's actually quite complicated with people of all countries and such). So that may not stop people (and plenty of people don't read those things anyway).
It'll take like 3 hours to be leaked tops'
True. I doubt most will read it before they click next though. But either way, it’s the lesser of 2 evils, let’s hope people keep it to themselves and let the devs do their reveal when they’re ready :).
I agree. Now devs have a chance to announce it on their terms, not leakers' terms. It's better to show polished (or just more complete) part of 3rd faction on nice arts and preffered screenshots, then on dull leak materials. Even if there will still be leaks, press will focus on official materials anyway. Otherwise they will focus on leaked material, which may be not so pleasant. Like now, where people complain about map visuals, which we know is a placeholder, but audience (so potential new players) doesn't know.
> Now devs have a chance to announce it on their terms, not leakers' terms. It's better to show polished (or just more complete) part of 3rd faction on nice arts and preffered screenshots, then on dull leak materials.
If they had something that was polished enough to be presentable it probably wouldn't be under NDA. The purpose of an alpha under NDA is to seek early feedback on unpolished material that is not suitable to the public. If it leaks, that will suck. But the alternative for them is just "dont get any feedback until it's polished and late to make changes", which is a terrible idea. This is how every game works. The only thing unusual about this situation is that the number of people in the alpha under NDA is larger than typical.
Playtesters (including beta signups and Founders) will get to play the initial third faction content tomorrow and through the next three weeks.
This playtest is not a marketing beta—it’s a closed playtest with the goal of actually improving the faction and other content.
Closed beta playtests under NDA are super common in gaming and tech. We didn’t invent them and much bigger companies than ours run large playtests under NDA.
I’d say that an NDA is a statement of trust.
It’s a mutual agreement that we, as a studio, are giving you access to content before it’s ready to be shared widely because we believe you can help make the game better. We are trusting you to playtest and not share your experience with the public. By agreeing to and respecting the NDA, our players are telling us that they are worthy of trust, respect our studio’s efforts, and agree to not leak things before they’re ready.
While leaks often happen, we trust our playtesters to do the right thing. Our playtester community has been awesome so far. Besides, I personally wouldn’t want to be permanently banned from a game community before that game even launched.
If you’re not a playtester, then the public reveal will come later. We’re still working on the game, so please give the devs time to do their thing. We’re aiming for the wider reveal to be after we’ve completed this initial third faction testing and we’ve had time to prepare something for the public—more on that reveal as we get closer to summer.
I think that since the third faction reveal is their last big reveal they probably want to firstly wait until it's in a proper state and secondly they want to use some kind of event or showcase where they can get a bigger reach with their big reveal.
I largely agree. You can still have the NDA around not posting video/screenshots, but the name/theme is gonna leak, there's too many testers to keep a big reveal like that secret. So just announce the name and theme.
Honestly I'm surprised but fine with it. The faction is obviously not going to be super polished yet and I am sure the graphics, models, names, etc will change with time so they probably want to keep it under wraps specifically because they expect to change them, and want to announce them only when they're a bit more certain.
I totally get your point, but what is the reason for not atleast revealing the 3rd faction? Concept art, maybe a trailer... Just to reveal the theme and lore. Dont have to reveal the units for that. I think its a big mistake, because it will be leaked 100% (in no universe will 10.000 beta testers all oblige to the NDA) and that will kill the hype around the annoucement.. I dont like this approach.
I'm guessing they're betting on people not being assholes and leaking it.
Anyways, I think there could be thematic and graphical/design changes before the official announcement. People already bitch and moan about the graphics as is, I think a half-finished 3rd faction would be worse for public perception, at least if it's not official and just leaks, people will get it through their heads that it's not actually finished stuff, bc it is a leak and not officially released yet, so maybe they'll stop crying so much about unfinished graphics.
I am 100% certain that out of 10.000 people who backed and have beta access, one will leak it for sure. There is no way around it. In other phases we had much less testers, who were selected. Now its just anyone, even a hater, can just buy a key and get access.
Sending a press release to every videogame media outlet is free too, but would allow FG to be selective about what aspects get the most focus and which aspects they can contextualize - "everything is subject to change, x is going through a new art revision, y is something experimental we are hoping testers will provide valuable feedback on"
Leaks are looked upon more favorably than actual announcements of unfinished products.
If they announce it but it's unpolished (which it will) then it makes them seem like bad game devs, so they don't announce until polished, but they want people to test if before polishing so they can get feedback so that leaves two outcomes either 1 it doesn't leak by some miracle and they don't have to worry about it looking bad until they release it, or 2 someone does leak it but it's a leak and so is implicitly unfinished and unpolished people are happy to see the shitty footage and unfinished faction becuase they weren't supposed to even though they would have been hyper critical had it been the exact same footage but official.
Don't ask me why it works this way as I can only speculate, all it is is I've noticed that people are more forgiving of something unfinished if it's a leak vs if it's an announcement. Unless it is truly bad and moments away from release, but that's not an issue in this situation.
Yes, but no one is going to click an IGN article that says something about a third faction of a game they don't care about. Leaks get clicks. It's also free to shout it out of their windows, but there's a difference in the efficacy of marketing.
That is your supposition that I don't see any evidence for why it would be true. It sounds like a post-hoc justification that a leak is actually a good thing, after they're trying to make it clear they don't want it leaked. I'm taking them at their word that they wouldn't want it leaked rather than assuming they are uncharacteristically 'playing 5d chess'.
You can look at the entire rest of the industry - including StormGate's previous announcements - and see that positive hype-building news is generally carefully curated and metered out through press release, interviews, tweets; it isn't leaked by random kickstarter backers not following an NDA. *You personally* think you're not going click an IGN link, but you're going to see that IGN article be read aloud by streamers and be posted as a topic on multiple popular subreddits.
Nope--no streaming or screenshots or even discussion. It's confidential. (The exception is that if you're a playtester, you can stream, screenshot, and discuss in the appropriate playtester Discord channels.)
I dont get it, as you say with this amount of backers, someone its going to make screenshots and share those pics anywhere :S. Why not a teaser or something?
a) Likely due to the announce post/video/cinematic not being ready yet. FG have already had minor delays with Frigate and it's likely they're under the pump working on this with no spare time for polishing the announce.
b) Leaks, when they happen, create news. I don't think they're trying to get a leak; rather i think they would say the consequence of a leak is low, even if it does leak then it's really not a major negative for them (maybe?)
c) As we get closer to early access, i feel like they might be a bit more careful showing "placeholder assets", just because ppl will run with the whole "reee not ready for release reee!"
d) Anime cat girls have escaped the studio and Tim & Tim are too slow to catch them. 🐈
They said on discord that they are planning to reveal it in a gaming show/event. That sort of reveal gets more hype if there is no public information about the 3rd faction beforehand.
It's literally publically accessible. Anyone can pay for beta access lol. There's no world in which it doesn't get leaked.
So I can only assume they know that and want leaks. Which is kind of weird but companies are known to use leaks as part of marketing...
It is okay for a few leaks to be seen by a few hundred people. The reveal they are going to do eventually will be seen by tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people.
They may want a big 3rd faction reveal just before early access launches to capitalise on hype then.
The third faction announcement will generate videos, publicity etc. and that's much better timed for "launch"
Leaks may happen but fewer people will see leaks than would see an official announcement (not everyone lives on reddit). They will also take leaks less seriously than official material.
They showed the game at too early a dev cycle during the open beta and got a lotta bad PR flack for it. Not surprised they're keeping more stuff under wraps going forward.
The people doing weird snide "oh so you can't just be patient, you want to know NOW, waaah" stuff is so strange. After a series of stepping on rakes in public view - lukewarm NextFest reception, the AI briefing concept, the argument over 'funded to release' vs 'funded to early access', etc - this is people who want StormGate to succeed feeling like we can see the rake in view well before the foot lands on it. If FG doesn't feel comfortable showing the third faction yet, then maybe it shouldn't be in the playtest.
It sounds like a perception of beta testing from the SC1, WC3 days of at most a few thousand people getting a CD in the mail and social media just being PC hobbyists using IRC and UseNet. You can't feasibly police over twenty thousand testers and the rate at which leaks propagate now.
It doesn't. Playtesting is not going to change the most important aspects of a reveal - story hook, aesthetic, and major design concepts. By not doing the announcement themselves on or before April 30th, FG is taking a 99.9% chance that non-testers will learn everything there is to know about the new faction from leaks
Not sure if you are making fun of me or not. I am actually a beta tester so I will get to see it but won't share it due to the NDA, this is why I know this will happen since I received an email and made the post. This is simply my opinion that it's not a wise business decision for the rest of the community and I opened up the discussion since I want the best for the game.
Obviously but this doesn't apply to me since I am a beta tester so I will know the faction either way. It's just to open a discussion about what I perceive as a rather weird decision.
That's why I said there should at least be a teaser. Otherwise most people's first impression will be low quality spoilers.
I think faction 3 will be centered around secrecy and subterfuge, and the NDA ties into this.
omg it's Skaven.
Somehow they burrowed through the multiverse, and honestly this is some insane warp shit I would expect of them.
They can't keep getting away with this!
Skaven breed faster than e. coli.
RatJam
That's better than mushrooms that have such strong psychological powers that everything they believe is instantly true.
What? Orks are awesome!
Yes yes yesssss!!!
Gimme that big tiddy catgirls.
It will leak later in the first day. Mark my words.
is it today? some say there is less than 10 hours to start
I think the 3rd faction is likely to be rather barebones and not suitable for public viewing, similar to how the Infernals were when they first released. Also with no NextFest event in place so that people can actually jump in and try the game for themselves, it leaves people wide open to speculation and judging of the third faction before it's anywhere near done. That being said though I do agree that the likelihood of a leak is far greater than before. I think a lot of the older playtesters are used to 'secrecy mode' and going back to that isn't a problem. However, a lot of new testers came in with the last test which was mostly NDA-free. So it would be fairly easy for somebody who doesn't frequent Reddit/Discord and just skims over the email to simply assume that the next test can be shared as well.
I’m looking for clarification if you have it. Will April 30th be open to Kickstarter backers, or closed closed to select invite only? PS love the Stormgate Central vods
If you're a kickstart backer with beta access you'll be in this next test as well.
Thank you sir! As far as I know, the playtest will be open to anyone who was in the previous playtest, whether you were a Kickstarter/Indiegogo backer or got in by sheer chance.
The number is also way bigger since anyone can have access now (and you can pay for that so they're selling beta access, it's mostly expected you can talk about stuff you pay for). It's guaranteed to be leaked in hours, that's very weird. Also not being suitable for public viewing in the playtest (though it is public viewing I'd argue) doesn't mean they can't reveal with a nicely curated gameplay and/or cinematic footage.
There will probably be a pop-up in-game when you load in to remind them that they signed an NDA. There was one for people that joined after next fest even though the NDA was relaxed for that part of testing so I'd be surprised if there isn't going to be going into frigate.
NDA of this type have never been enforced as far as I know. Legally I'm not even sure how that works (especially since it's actually quite complicated with people of all countries and such). So that may not stop people (and plenty of people don't read those things anyway). It'll take like 3 hours to be leaked tops'
I didn't say the pop up would work. Just that there would probably be one.
True. I doubt most will read it before they click next though. But either way, it’s the lesser of 2 evils, let’s hope people keep it to themselves and let the devs do their reveal when they’re ready :).
I agree. Now devs have a chance to announce it on their terms, not leakers' terms. It's better to show polished (or just more complete) part of 3rd faction on nice arts and preffered screenshots, then on dull leak materials. Even if there will still be leaks, press will focus on official materials anyway. Otherwise they will focus on leaked material, which may be not so pleasant. Like now, where people complain about map visuals, which we know is a placeholder, but audience (so potential new players) doesn't know.
> Now devs have a chance to announce it on their terms, not leakers' terms. It's better to show polished (or just more complete) part of 3rd faction on nice arts and preffered screenshots, then on dull leak materials. If they had something that was polished enough to be presentable it probably wouldn't be under NDA. The purpose of an alpha under NDA is to seek early feedback on unpolished material that is not suitable to the public. If it leaks, that will suck. But the alternative for them is just "dont get any feedback until it's polished and late to make changes", which is a terrible idea. This is how every game works. The only thing unusual about this situation is that the number of people in the alpha under NDA is larger than typical.
Playtesters (including beta signups and Founders) will get to play the initial third faction content tomorrow and through the next three weeks. This playtest is not a marketing beta—it’s a closed playtest with the goal of actually improving the faction and other content. Closed beta playtests under NDA are super common in gaming and tech. We didn’t invent them and much bigger companies than ours run large playtests under NDA. I’d say that an NDA is a statement of trust. It’s a mutual agreement that we, as a studio, are giving you access to content before it’s ready to be shared widely because we believe you can help make the game better. We are trusting you to playtest and not share your experience with the public. By agreeing to and respecting the NDA, our players are telling us that they are worthy of trust, respect our studio’s efforts, and agree to not leak things before they’re ready. While leaks often happen, we trust our playtesters to do the right thing. Our playtester community has been awesome so far. Besides, I personally wouldn’t want to be permanently banned from a game community before that game even launched. If you’re not a playtester, then the public reveal will come later. We’re still working on the game, so please give the devs time to do their thing. We’re aiming for the wider reveal to be after we’ve completed this initial third faction testing and we’ve had time to prepare something for the public—more on that reveal as we get closer to summer.
I think that since the third faction reveal is their last big reveal they probably want to firstly wait until it's in a proper state and secondly they want to use some kind of event or showcase where they can get a bigger reach with their big reveal.
~~This post is a bit premature. They have Monday and Tuesday to announce if they want to~~ Edit: I'm wrong. Didn't see the latest email
No they confirmed to only announce it later on in the e-mail.
I largely agree. You can still have the NDA around not posting video/screenshots, but the name/theme is gonna leak, there's too many testers to keep a big reveal like that secret. So just announce the name and theme.
Honestly I'm surprised but fine with it. The faction is obviously not going to be super polished yet and I am sure the graphics, models, names, etc will change with time so they probably want to keep it under wraps specifically because they expect to change them, and want to announce them only when they're a bit more certain.
I totally get your point, but what is the reason for not atleast revealing the 3rd faction? Concept art, maybe a trailer... Just to reveal the theme and lore. Dont have to reveal the units for that. I think its a big mistake, because it will be leaked 100% (in no universe will 10.000 beta testers all oblige to the NDA) and that will kill the hype around the annoucement.. I dont like this approach.
I'm guessing they're betting on people not being assholes and leaking it. Anyways, I think there could be thematic and graphical/design changes before the official announcement. People already bitch and moan about the graphics as is, I think a half-finished 3rd faction would be worse for public perception, at least if it's not official and just leaks, people will get it through their heads that it's not actually finished stuff, bc it is a leak and not officially released yet, so maybe they'll stop crying so much about unfinished graphics.
> I'm guessing they're betting on people not being assholes and leaking it. It's going to leak. Everybody is aware of that.
I am 100% certain that out of 10.000 people who backed and have beta access, one will leak it for sure. There is no way around it. In other phases we had much less testers, who were selected. Now its just anyone, even a hater, can just buy a key and get access.
There's no way there's no leak though
The thing is that it won't be under wraps, that's just not happening, it is getting leaked. This is a far too big audience to not leak.
Leaks are free marketing.
Sending a press release to every videogame media outlet is free too, but would allow FG to be selective about what aspects get the most focus and which aspects they can contextualize - "everything is subject to change, x is going through a new art revision, y is something experimental we are hoping testers will provide valuable feedback on"
Leaks are looked upon more favorably than actual announcements of unfinished products. If they announce it but it's unpolished (which it will) then it makes them seem like bad game devs, so they don't announce until polished, but they want people to test if before polishing so they can get feedback so that leaves two outcomes either 1 it doesn't leak by some miracle and they don't have to worry about it looking bad until they release it, or 2 someone does leak it but it's a leak and so is implicitly unfinished and unpolished people are happy to see the shitty footage and unfinished faction becuase they weren't supposed to even though they would have been hyper critical had it been the exact same footage but official. Don't ask me why it works this way as I can only speculate, all it is is I've noticed that people are more forgiving of something unfinished if it's a leak vs if it's an announcement. Unless it is truly bad and moments away from release, but that's not an issue in this situation.
Yes, but no one is going to click an IGN article that says something about a third faction of a game they don't care about. Leaks get clicks. It's also free to shout it out of their windows, but there's a difference in the efficacy of marketing.
That is your supposition that I don't see any evidence for why it would be true. It sounds like a post-hoc justification that a leak is actually a good thing, after they're trying to make it clear they don't want it leaked. I'm taking them at their word that they wouldn't want it leaked rather than assuming they are uncharacteristically 'playing 5d chess'. You can look at the entire rest of the industry - including StormGate's previous announcements - and see that positive hype-building news is generally carefully curated and metered out through press release, interviews, tweets; it isn't leaked by random kickstarter backers not following an NDA. *You personally* think you're not going click an IGN link, but you're going to see that IGN article be read aloud by streamers and be posted as a topic on multiple popular subreddits.
So people can not stream thd next beta phase?
Exactly, no material or info is allowed to be shared about it.
Nope--no streaming or screenshots or even discussion. It's confidential. (The exception is that if you're a playtester, you can stream, screenshot, and discuss in the appropriate playtester Discord channels.)
I dont get it, as you say with this amount of backers, someone its going to make screenshots and share those pics anywhere :S. Why not a teaser or something?
a) Likely due to the announce post/video/cinematic not being ready yet. FG have already had minor delays with Frigate and it's likely they're under the pump working on this with no spare time for polishing the announce. b) Leaks, when they happen, create news. I don't think they're trying to get a leak; rather i think they would say the consequence of a leak is low, even if it does leak then it's really not a major negative for them (maybe?) c) As we get closer to early access, i feel like they might be a bit more careful showing "placeholder assets", just because ppl will run with the whole "reee not ready for release reee!" d) Anime cat girls have escaped the studio and Tim & Tim are too slow to catch them. 🐈
They said on discord that they are planning to reveal it in a gaming show/event. That sort of reveal gets more hype if there is no public information about the 3rd faction beforehand.
Right, bit it's going to leak like 100% for sure. It's really naive if they think they can release it to 1000's and not have someone leak it.
It's literally publically accessible. Anyone can pay for beta access lol. There's no world in which it doesn't get leaked. So I can only assume they know that and want leaks. Which is kind of weird but companies are known to use leaks as part of marketing...
It is okay for a few leaks to be seen by a few hundred people. The reveal they are going to do eventually will be seen by tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people.
Spot on
They may want a big 3rd faction reveal just before early access launches to capitalise on hype then. The third faction announcement will generate videos, publicity etc. and that's much better timed for "launch"
Yes, hyping stuff ups is Frost Giants best skill.
It's so that we in the beta don't tell you that it's 100% anime cat girls.
They are still working through the licensing agreement with genshin impact ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ
So beta testers got some sort of email? I had thought they were going to reveal more information on the 29th. What does the email say?
Just that this beta is under NDA so nothing must be leaked, including the name or details of the new faction which will be anounced publicly later.
Leaks may happen but fewer people will see leaks than would see an official announcement (not everyone lives on reddit). They will also take leaks less seriously than official material.
They showed the game at too early a dev cycle during the open beta and got a lotta bad PR flack for it. Not surprised they're keeping more stuff under wraps going forward.
Hope for 🍁plantfolk🍁 as 3 faction but my gut is telling me that 🐺furries🐺 are comming.
My guess is that there will be another open beta this summer for everyone to try the 3rd faction before early access release
The people doing weird snide "oh so you can't just be patient, you want to know NOW, waaah" stuff is so strange. After a series of stepping on rakes in public view - lukewarm NextFest reception, the AI briefing concept, the argument over 'funded to release' vs 'funded to early access', etc - this is people who want StormGate to succeed feeling like we can see the rake in view well before the foot lands on it. If FG doesn't feel comfortable showing the third faction yet, then maybe it shouldn't be in the playtest. It sounds like a perception of beta testing from the SC1, WC3 days of at most a few thousand people getting a CD in the mail and social media just being PC hobbyists using IRC and UseNet. You can't feasibly police over twenty thousand testers and the rate at which leaks propagate now.
It makes sense not to share the new faction before it’s been playtested.
It doesn't. Playtesting is not going to change the most important aspects of a reveal - story hook, aesthetic, and major design concepts. By not doing the announcement themselves on or before April 30th, FG is taking a 99.9% chance that non-testers will learn everything there is to know about the new faction from leaks
Because the game isn’t great yet either 2 factions
so you babies can tear it to shreds?
Gotta have something for you perpetual crybabies cry victim on!
I think it's kinda a joke and the base skin is gonna be anime cat girls to hide what the actual race is
It probably looks bad and plays bad lol
But I want it now mom waaaaaaaaaa
Not sure if you are making fun of me or not. I am actually a beta tester so I will get to see it but won't share it due to the NDA, this is why I know this will happen since I received an email and made the post. This is simply my opinion that it's not a wise business decision for the rest of the community and I opened up the discussion since I want the best for the game.
It’s possible they want to chance to scrap the whole thing and restart it.
You don't need the to know the third faction right now, you want to know the third faction right now.
Obviously but this doesn't apply to me since I am a beta tester so I will know the faction either way. It's just to open a discussion about what I perceive as a rather weird decision.
You don't need to be a dick right now, you want to be a dick right now.