Posting a definition here to clarify the reasons for feedback everyone is seeing on lack of communication and complaints.
Early access, also known as early funding, alpha access, alpha founding, or paid alpha, is a funding model in the video game industry by which consumers can purchase and play a game in the various pre-release development cycles, such as pre-alpha, alpha, and/or beta, while the developer is able to use those funds to continue further development on the game. Those that pay to participate typically help to debug the game, provide feedback and suggestions, and may have access to special materials in the game. The early-access approach is a common way to obtain funding for indie games, and may also be used along with other funding mechanisms, including crowdfunding. Many crowdfunding projects promise to offer access to alpha and/or beta versions of the game as development progresses; however, unlike some of these projects which solicit funds but do not yet have a playable game, all early access games offer an immediately playable version of the unfinished game to players.
By that definition the game is considered in a testing phase to provide funding for completion of the game. With the intent that people will have full access to the content from the game as its developed. Technically its an early alpha version of the game as theres no other definition you can put on it as a beta test would be testing a completed version of the game with debugging to fix issues. However the term itself is very misleading. The biggest misleading concept is the extent in which playability is expected / determined is more or less based on what most companies determine as early access. I could give several examples but most basically are more progressive and interactive with audiences.
The idea and reason people are upset is mostly because the indication given with early access to the game is that people presume that ea is beta testing its generally what the idea is they get but its more alpha state testing however companies are generally more interactive and responsive during alpha testing phases of development to a game. Which is where there is the misleading representation it should have been advertised as Prolong testing. There is a video where larion stated that the expected full release was 1 year after the EA testing. However I personally wouldn't hold them to that expectation with a pre-release purchase for early access as delays do happen and its covid.
Same time the slow release of new content I would hold them accountable for as the way its advertised in ea is alpha testing even by the defninition of early access. Which does indicate your seeing regular content added. However it reflects extremely poorly on them to not communicate. There is a lot of good publicity at the moment from people who just dabbed there toes in to come back and play it at a later time but people who have been actively waiting for content to play it heavily during the early access the publicity is generally much more negative.
Its like comparing people who buy a game for a single play through to comparing people who are going to play your game repeatedly for the next 2-3 years and buy all your dlc content as it gets released. The single playthrough people being the ones giving the positive review vs the active players reviewing it negatively.
There are a lot of poor examples arguing pace of content release - Use the older engine ... em that does not work for a modern game. Not to mention the rights to that software may be propritary to the company that originally designed the software for it. It was semi indicated it would only be the first chapter during release announcements originally that majority of early access would be limited... However if you do read the steam page it does say only chapter 1 will be playable in early access however at the same time it does say that the remaining classes and races would get added in throughout early access checked like 10 minutes ago to validate that. It doesnt really well define chapter 1 / 2 / 3 in the initial play just that its roughtly 25 hours of playable content. However at the same time it indicates the entire game would be playable by OCT 6 2021 which is something in the same perspective they could be held to as they had a clear full release date posted on the steam page.
That being considered the biggest arguement I would be pushing regarding content release periods and early access would be the buy button should say pre-order not buy despite it being early access posting which is something more to argue with steam if you got it on steam rather than larion. However lack of communication and updates during EA is something I think is a reasonable arguement from anyone based on pace of the rival companies responses to similar issues. I personally have submitted feedback on other titles with a much more positive response to feedback and interactive response which is something larion does lack. Without being specific as to what and where because it doesn't really need to be brought up.
With soon being a very relative term as another fault. Saying we should have a new patch coming soon should be more defined in its response time like a this is what were working on with a target date of this which is what people come to expect from companies that want a postive review that I can provide several dozen examples on myself. A perfect example of this is iksar aka dean ayala from the HS community who is the lead developer from HS and interacts once per week with the community on twitter taking feedback and responses from the community and actively responds to questions and comments for about an hour. While not everyone gets a responses you get some general interaction and answers to questions. Similarly with Owlcat, Entertainment Forge and several other companies.
Would I play BG 3 on release still probably would I have bought the ea over a different game with way content has gone during EA no. I would recommend different games instead because of the poor communication and lack of interaction from larion as well as regular updates. When I am asked about it thats exactly what I tell anyone asking if its worth getting I say honestly I would not bother updating it or buying a new copy if you have it as this time I would at least way till you get news about the next patch before considering it if its not a huge patch I would probably hold off and go get something else that will chew up more of your time for the 79.99 your paying for it you can go get more value for what your spending from other companies at this time there are no extra perks or anything your getting with early access to the game currently. Compared to going and purchasing for example ashes of creation early access and getting a unique mount and a bunch of other things for having put into the early access version of the game amongst alot of other perks most companies give out for participating in early access parts of the game. That does not mean I think the game is bad just that I would advise people avoid buying into the early access or any future early access releases from Larion due to poor experience despite a potentially solid game during early access.
