Rabid_meese said:
If you are putting out an Alpha or Beta early access build, you should not be charging money for it - or, at the very least, the title should have been available at a heavy discount. They are selling an unfinished product and expecting the community to give feedback as to where the bugs are or how to make the game better - features that normally a company would have to pay for.
I was under the impression that in paying for an Early Access game like Starbound, what you've actually done is
pay for Starbound. As in, the finished product. In that light, you DO get the alpha and/or beta free, because Chucklefish lets you have access that; something obviously preceding that finished product.
I could be completely (and scarily) wrong there; it doesn't seem to be required text or terms, from what I've seen.
Your point on charging intended retail price lands with me, though. Then again, if they're going to give you their completed build in time, then they still deserve their asking price. Even if the game wasn't to your liking, walking away with the experience of the game's skeleton for free or discounted seems a bit unfair, no[footnote]As long as you hold typical game return policy as fair[/footnote]?
Overall, I highly recommend you look at Early Access as a
donation process, or something very similar to Kickstarter (without most or all of the tiered rewards nonsense). The idea is to actively support the
development of these games. That is, with money, so devs can eat and live, and perhaps also your feedback (at a point where it is more relevant, too), which is much more control and input than consumers ever get with a AAA product.
That roadmap you linked, while nice, is irrelevant - the average person isn't going to check out the companies website before buying a game.
Well then...thank you for making clear your sense of mediocrity in shopping discernment.
C'mon, dude, you can even ignore the general internet's advice of 'do your own research', but you can't just ignore the developers' OWN warning of the game's possible status, then turn around and complain. I'm going to bank on you NOT actually intending it that way, but painting the 'average person' in some negative tone just to defend your griping doesn't reflect well when it starts to fit your own actions.