Do early access, rename the game BETA, so it will be early access to Beta. Then you can't prevent people from being utterly stupid, and saying they didn't know.
Actually, what I can't understand is why there is this backer kickstarter thing. If you miss the opportunity, like I did, then you are out of the access to the game. Its stupid. less feedback, less money, less support, less everythings.
Just to please some early backers privilege, I should be prevented the possibility to try the game ? Sounds like Old Regime to me.
And you know, there are other ways to try the game than early access or backing. Don't stupidly tempt people. Offer the opportunity to buy so they won't have to steal, just because the stupid one month long kickstarter stuff, or didn't have the money at the time, waited for some feedback first...
A smart move IMHO is devs charging more and more the early access stages. It makes sense. You take the chance to buy/try an unfinished/unpolished game, that might never be completed ("Stardrive"), you should be charged less than buying the full featured game.
Moreover, many backers won't try the beta, because they don't want to spoil the game, or prefer the fully finished/polished product.
So backers are by no mean beta testers.
Then there are also the steam haters, because steam sucks, is not good, is awfull, rots tooth and sours beer. Come on, evolve, people, steam is great. You can play your game out of connections, discounts are incredible, it is an immense boost to indie devs...
And wasteland EA was a mess ? But like Sven said, DAY Z was top of the charts on release, and was full of bugs in EA (This I say
).
And specificaly about DOS, all the beta reviews I read are positive, even given the beta state of the game, so no worries about this subject of releasing bits of unplayable codes.
Release early access. Name it clearly "EARLY ACCESS TO THE BETA OF DIVINITY ORIGINAL SIN", big characters, so that dumbs/whinners/pro complainers ("proplainers" ?) might get a chance not to miss the statement. Make it more expensive than for the priviledged backers, and less expensive than the full release, and it will be perfect.
But don't forget to work on it, like 24/24, and then during the night, because I can't wait to put my hands on it.
Cheers.
