The original post: /r/gaming by /u/AIShard on 2024-04-29 20:52:23.

Obviously, this isn’t a new sentiment. But some context:

I play Escape From Tarkov. With the absolute shit show that recently went on about them charging +$100 addition to a $150 package (or $250 standalone) for content that was promised with the $150 package the community was rightly upset. I was reminded of what a terrible thing it is to buy into an “early access” or “beta test” or whatever unreleased state a game calls itself. Games are a product. You buy the product after it exists. In very, very few cases (maybe fast food or something), you pay for it to be assembled in a specific way for you right now. You don’t give taco bell $50 for a fancy burrito in 8 years.

So, while EFT is reminding us all about the dangers of paying for unreleased games years in advanced and then waiting and coping for their initial promises to come through… a new EFT competitor is going into early access tomorrow - Gray Zone Warfare. Many of the same EFT players/creators that were just taught so explicitly the negative effects of paying companies for games that aren’t released are SCRAMBLING to buy that new game that also is in early access and was proven terribly incomplete with their first alpha test a week or so ago. This not-yet-a-game includes a $100 version.

Alpha/beta testing was a paid position. Pre-orders are to guarantee your physical copy of a game. Public beta testing/early access is a thing that should be free to either invited people (to control population/server load) or everyone to test the game, with scale, for launch.

Not to say I won’t ever fall into the trap again, because hype is real and makes us do dumb things, but I am baffled by the people jumping from one early access fiasco instantly into the next. This new game (or whatever one you’re looking at) might be great and fine and keep all of their promises… but you should still wait until it’s a fully released game before giving them a single penny. Stop teaching companies and rewarding them for keeping games in “beta” or “early access” to excuse bugs and issues for years on end.