a) I think that some of the backlash on early access is due to those games that charged significant $$ for alpha/beta (wasteland 2, planetary...) and were forced to do so on steam (this is not relevant to D:OS)
b) (my concern): beware the vocal minority (but this is relevant to both steam and here. Being vocal does not equate with goodness
c) No matter how many times you state 'this is not a finished' product there will be some backlash to crashes and unfinished areas et all.
d) You might take a peak at m&m legacy X and blackgaurds boards on steam (two recent early access). blackguard response has been very positive and they continue to give update and feedback. m&m legacy x is somewhat more negative with the update stopping after a couple of weeks and the 'beta' tester feeling like they were ?jerked?. - I suspect this will be much closer to the black guards model but given how small your staff is I would think it would be difficult to maintain good communication both here and on steam so perhaps you should direct all the early testers to one place or the other when you go live on steam ? (personally I would just recommend steam forum since that is what the folks on steam will expect).
