It's an odd concept for sure. People pay extra money to be beta testers for a game company. That's an actual paid career, yet people are willing to pay to do it.

[–] skulblaka@startrek.website 5 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Most of the EA games I buy (not all, but a significant majority) are sold for less, sometimes a lot less, than their final sale price, and I get tangible input on the design decisions before 1.0. I'm a big fan. I get to provide funding and feedback to a game I'm excited to see, get it for a good discount, get to see it grow up, and then when it blows up and everyone loves the game I'm considered a source of arcane ancient knowledge about it. It's fun.

Mostly I enjoy being able to go on a game forum and say "this sucks, we should consider changing A to B" and then logging in next week to find B implemented.

[–] Daxtron2@startrek.website 3 points 9 months ago

Yep, it really comes down to knowing you're buying an unfinished project that has the potential to never change from its current state. Never buy a game based on the promises, buy it based on whether you'll enjoy it now. It also helps if the dev has a good track record of releases. Things like valheim and palworld im OK with buying because even if they never change, I still had many hours of fun with them for the price.

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