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I'm not mad because I don't pay for early access games. I also don't back games that have not been made yet, like kickstarter. And on a similar note, I don't buy mystery bundles that they have to sell as a mystery because they know people wouldn't buy them if they said what games were in the bundle. Problem solved.

I also don't buy DLC, microtransactions, or loot boxes.

Edit: I do own some early access games because I either won them here or they were part of a cheap bundle that I bought for other games. I refuse to play them until the game is finished though because my backlog is too big to replay a game unless it is extremely good. Why would I want to play an unfinished game? The experience will be better if I wait till the bugs are worked out and all the content is included. I think playing unfinished games ruins the experience. The only game I could see playing before it is completely finished is a competitive multi player game because those are never finished and there isn't much to "experience" in those type of games.

Are you angry on Early Access?

I don’t really mind early access. Some games on there are better than the other indie games out there.
E.g. Factorio

Fartato.

I hot some early acesses for free, but i won't buy undone work. I am just afraid they will never finish it or never fix their bugs (what actually haven't done many games).

This thread reminded me to buy another copy of Bannerlord, thanks OP.

People pay AAA publishers to beta test their games that they don't finish anymore, either; it's not just a Steam problem.

Oh, sorry: they have a "road map".

You're seriously fine with buying some half-assed something that may or may not EVER be finished?

Yes. If the concept is good - absolutely! I think it's wrong to generalize here. Sure, there are many black sheep. But there are also many positive examples. I am happy to have bought games like Wreckfest early. And I think EA is a great concept overall, even if there are some games that lack the expected quality in the end or never get finished.

Potato, as I don't know what this gaming class PC owner said

Nope, I belong to the no-mad tribe, ancient enemies of the u-mads.

Never bothered much with EA, but I backed up Pillars of Eternity 2 and was sad when I missed doing it for 1. I mean Black Isle without some greedy asshole publisher making them put out a beta and then killing the game, there is literally no scenario where that goes wrong.

lol, you're years late with your empty rant that was done sooo many times.

i want to buy chernobylite played the early access it was good :) some games deserve not all of em are bad

I don't mind EA if you can trust them to finish the game. There was a time quite a while ago where there was a huge influx of EA games that never got finished or were "finished" messes or jacked up prices after they "got out of EA". I don't support EA in general but I don't HATE the idea of it, mainly because I usually buy games on sale and that ends up being them typically out of EA already.

There is a simple rule with early access games.
Only buy it it, if you are happy with the content it has right now.

DONT YOU GIVE ME YOUR LOVE AND PASSION big thanks to you and your pfp for getting this very ungloriously weeby shit stuck in my head again

I'm quite mixed on this matter, but to offer you an opposing view,
"You're seriously fine with buying some half-assed something that may or may not EVER be finished?"
if I think I'll get my enjoyments worth, then yes. Everyone assigns their own value to these things. I don't necessarily think this is something that should be judged on in this way. The value of products such as games (entertainment/art) is a very personal thing.
For example a lot of the fun for the people who buy into these early access games is the excitement that comes with each new update, taking part in the very "hyped up" and ever excited fanbase, getting their voice actually heard at a stage where it can actually make an impact on the game, watching it all grow, and so forth. That's a big part of where they get their value/money's worth from, this reactionary nature of it (I know this because I was the same with a game in the past). And what's wrong with that?

Does this really always ruin things for you? Are you absolutely sure NO good has come from this community-developer relationship? (feedback+money)

Yeah it does suck when devs run off with the money and take their quick success as a reason to stop being so dedicated to their product, but if their goal was always to solely produce to make money without much mind for the quality, I doubt that their game was ever going to be that amazing, personally. I don't think anything amazing can come from that ethic, and if the game was multiplayer (like a lot of these early access games are) it almost certainly wouldn't have been. We all know where that goes.

It entirely depends of the game. I generally avoid early access unless there is enough content to get fun. (also prices in early access might be lower than whe nthe game fully realease)
Ill take one example : ARK : survival evolved
The game have been in early access for ages, and guess what ? thats what made it great ! what keep the players playing is discovering new content little by little, and then adapted our gameplay / situation based on it ! you were never bored as there was always something to do, and something new to try / use. If they just realeased the game in full, people would have rushed the higher technology tier and thats it, all the lower content / dino / materials etc would have ben dismissed and treated like shit, though people who played the game early on, would have memories of surviving with a poor parasaur and raptor while it is just meat maker nowadays..
Early access who just show games as a prealpha where it lack not just content but quality, is where i wont' spend money on.

well, I rarely (like, very rarely) buy early access games, and only do this when I want to support developer, that I believe to be doing right things. Wasn't disappointed so far.

Oh no, I own only 33 games currently in Early Access. I must do better and get more "non-products"!
Which one to buy next? Hades? Bannerlord? Risk of Rain 2? Dungeon Munchies? Caves of Qud?

You probably haven't played a good Early Access game like Factorio or Risk of Rain 2? Some developers can do it the right way

Admittedly I wouldn't like to see this become the normal release approach for all games. You get excited about a release, and then see it's some half-assed version.
But I don't see that happening any time soon. There is a risk to the developers by putting out a mediocre early-access release - if it reviews badly because they put it out too early, it may never recover. For example, and I know it wasn't early-access, but look at No Man's Sky - it's a great game now but still hasn't recovered from early bad reviews. And if it is rubbish, you can still refund.
Other developers get the EA model right (Factorio & RimWorld). They put out a functional, good quality game, that may be lacking in content, engage with their community and update it regularly.

As a general rule, I don't buy unfinished games. That includes Early Access, Pre-orders, Kickstarter, or incomplete Episodic games. Unless I intend to play an early access game right now there's just no point adding it to my backlog! I don't understand why people pre-order games, unless there is some valuable extra (and that does not include a forum icon, or character skin). I only back Kickstarter projects where the developer has a proven track record, and the game may not happen otherwise (The Journey Down, Backbone, Everspace 2) - but I do this with full knowledge it may take years, or never happen. Finally, why do people buy incomplete episodic games? I've been sitting on a bundled key for Kentucky Route Zero for about 3 years, waiting for it to be finished - and even though they did complete the last episode 7 years after the first - I'm still waiting on reviews to see if it's worth keeping.

So, I get your point, but either don't buy, or buy & refund. No need to get mad :-)

question is: do you want the game real bad and do you trust them to actually finish the game?

factorio made decent progress over the years and they plan to release version 1.0 near the end of the year.
subnautica was finished a while ago and it's a truly brilliant game.
subnautica below zero is on a good way, too. sadly the story rework will take quite a while by the looks of things.
killing floor 2 left early access years ago and i still play and enjoy it.

on the other hand there are trash developers like the fun pimps / 7 days to die with one or two tiny updates per year at most. the game has been in alpha for 6+ years now and they will never finish it.

"early access" games for 1 or 2 bucks don't count. they're always a scam.

"when did we go that route again?"
About 6-7 years ago, just after Valve decided to forgo even low standards and allow everything on their store, but before they decided they could skim money off of the folks dumping their shit there by charging a $100 submission fee per title.

You don't even play or buy games what are you talking about. :D

IIRC I bought three early access games direclty - Rust, They Are Billions and now MB2 Bannerlord and I don't regret buying either of them, as the first two games are already finished and gave me more than enough enjoyment.

From what I have seen so far from Bannerlord, I probably would keep playing it even if they stopped development right now, despite the bugs (which they are fortunately swiftly squashing), because it's Warband but better and that's all I really need.

E: Uh oh, sorry, also bought PUBG in early access, was not a disappointment either, development wise at least.