Erik, my point was that anti-ED sentiments are expressed every time an article about the game is published, instead of simply discussing what the article is about (for that, I guess people would just have to use the FD forums rather than bother with toms). I didn't state such comments came from the same person each time, and no such implication was intended. I used the phrase irrelevant rant because what you're talking about simply isn't relevant to ED, and that should be obvious.
Re your quote, in that regard it is inaccurate, since those who already have the game pay nothing to try the beta. I could download the beta update right now if I wanted to, but I don't have that much time to play the game so I'm content to let others do the testing and wait until the expansion is properly ready.
As to whether paying to test something is unfair, that's a personal judgement anyway. Those who are testing the beta from a starting point of not having the game at all presumably don't think it's unfair. If your opinion is that any such ethos is unfair though, then presumably you think SC is one giant ripoff, given the millions it's swallowed up for what atm really is just a tech demo. I certainly wouldn't opt to spend the kind of sums many have on SC, yet hundreds have and presumably they are content aswell.
As to the alledged trend, again, the argument fails in the case of ED because of the assertion that what is being developed was ever supposed to
be a finished product at initial launch or even in the short or medium term; it wasn't, it's an ongoing venture. I downvoted what I see as spurious arguments; feel free to downvote me if you don't agree, that's the whole point of the voting mechanism, I don't mind.
I understand the issues very well, I've paid money for the game, and the expansion. And your last sentence is a contradiction, you ask where did you suggest ED to be a finished product, but the start of the same para moans about people having to pay to test an unfinished product!
In the case of ED, you're moaning about people paying for something you say is unfinished yet ED is not supposed to BE finished, get it? There will be many more expansions in the future. If you're not specifically complaining about ED though, then who cares? That's a wider issue which isn't relevant to ED.
Thus, with respect to the general notion of what you're talking about, paying for beta testing, one must separate ED from other games which may be using such a regime, and also the notion that there are that many people who would buy the ED beta from a starting point of not having the game at all (very few indeed I should imagine). As I say, most of those who are testing the beta have already bought the game and thus pay nothing extra (all of the people I talked to on TS this week that are trying the beta were people who'd already bought the game).
Whether or not there is an issue with games in general that
are supposed to end up in some sort of finished state but are charging for beta access, well, I don't know about that, I'm not familiar with any other such games. You'd have to explain what other games are doing this; afterall, you refer to a 'trend'. Exactly what trend is this? What other games that have a supposed end point of development are doing it this way? ED is not such a game, it needs continued funding because it's a long term project (10+ years), so I have no problem with their current model. I've paid for the expansion, via the lifetime option, but I don't need to pay for the beta (if I wanted to try it) because I already bought the game and have been playing it happily for some time.
Certainly if you're talking about paid beta testing for other games which
are supposed to be finished products at first launch then I might be inclined to agree, but modern development models are muddying the lines of development cycles. Is it wrong that people who pay for Kickstarter game developments are by definition paying for early access testing? I contributed to the Squad kickstarter (Founder option), because I perceived it as a worthy project, but ironically, despite having access to the Alpha, I don't have time to try it out, so most likely won't even play the game until it's fully ready. I paid into the kickstarter because I wanted the game to succeed in the first place.
For conventional studio-produced games though, that's another matter, but which games are you referring to? There are hundreds of games companies; what proportion of them are currently using a paid beta access model?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_game_developers
To summarise, maybe you have a point about whether paid beta access for games that are meant to be finished products at launch is just a money grabbing way of dumping the bug testing on end users (I genuinely don't know the answer to that), but it's a notion that simply doesn't apply to ED.
Ian.
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