Early Access Games

I've purchased and enjoyed a butt-load of early access games.

I do a little research before buying, though, and am as sure as I can possibly be that the game stands a good chance of going in a direction I'd like. I check the game's website, the forums, a roadmap if one is available, and check to see how often then game is updated. ARK, Darkest Dungeon, Subnautica, We Happy Few, etc all ended up being wonderful games. I've only been burned by a couple, and thankfully they were relatively inexpensive games.

Having said that, I usually buy it within a reasonable amount of time - 6 months to a year - or I remove it.

If they look interesting I'll wishlist them but I'll never buy them in early access state.

I've got so many games to play that I don't bother checking out the progress of wishlisted early access games and I generally won't remove them from wishlist unless there's a clear indication that the developers have abandoned the game.

I don't buy Early Access Games.

If the game looks good I can whishlist it and I will wait and see how things goes.

I want to pay for the complete product not for some part of a product.

Also there are many early access games on steam that are still in early access from 2015...

If I see I have a game that is in early access for 2 years and there was no progress or word from developers it is going out from my wishlist and is going into ignore list.

(i usually buy small/very small games)

EA can be a lame excuse or a clever feature. to spot if is the first case or the latter, i check, pretty much all the times, if dev updates and his timeline. read and check forums/discussions, also.

just yesterday, a dev, wrote (talking about updates) "the beauty of Early Access". "beauty" he said. first time for me hearing such a thing...

so, imo, might be "harder choice", an EA game, little risky, too. but if done the right way, is truly fascinating.

There is one rule, I follow, when purchasing early access games.
I only buy the game, if I am satisfied with its complexity in its current state.
That being said, I like these EA titles, even though I've played great and not-so-great games from this category. I think it's a nice platform for devs to improve their game.

i really happy that i buy and enjoy astroneer when it was on early access , but at same time i'm really sad that other times some other early access games is very abandoned\unfinished , so i can say my experience with early access is mix ,
but this my experience change me in this:
Before i just buy games on early access only by read description or see trailer so if i think i will like it i buy it , but now no , now first i want to see gameplay (i go see other people streaming it or gameplay at youtube ecc.) and i want see it from "not famous" gamers , then if when they play it i see the gameplay and the things that is possible to do in game is for me ok ill buy,vice versa no.

Agree with szabe. I treat Early Access games the same way I do finished games -- if I think I'll get enough out of it now to justify the purchase price, I'll buy it.

What I won't do anymore is buy Early Access games based solely on their potential, because I've learned the hard way that potential and hype and trailers and road maps don't mean anything. (Starforge, Northern Regime, The Stomping Land, among many others).

TLDR = make decisions with your head, not with your heart.

I try to go through my wishlist every few months and remove any Early Access titles that have been abandoned. If it looks like development is still going, I have no problem leaving the game on my wishlist for years. (The Universim has been on my wishlist since December 2015, Subsistence has been on my wishlist since December 2016. Both games are still in development so I'm content to leave them on my wishlist and check on them occasionally).

i still have a few early access titles wishlisted, but i don't trust them at all.
best thing is to wait and see how they develop after getting out of ea, if devs don't abandon them...

I buy EA games from time to time, but it depends a lot on the Developer/Publisher and the progress on the game so far.

I'm not a huge fan of early access and have only taken the plunge a few times.

1. Oxygen Not Included. Simply one of the best games ever made, still in alpha but is better than most finished games.
2. Factorio. See above.
3. Don't Starve. Another fantastic game from Klei.
4. Subnautica. I got bought this as a gift and really enjoyed it, even though it ultimately didn't end up quite how I hoped it would.
5. The Long Dark. My daughter bought this and after trying it on her account I bought it myself, didn't regret it for a moment.
6. Prison Architect. Bought this one really early on, happy with the path they took. Introversion are shit at UI though.

The only other early access games I have came from bundles (such as Ark which I think is a pile of shite or Rust which again, pile of shite) so I don't really count them. I wouldn't go out of my way to buy into any early access game without having faith in the developer.

I have intentionally bought maybe one game in Early Access (the others were through bundles), and although it was pretty much a complete game, it was lacking content based on the price paid for it. It got released with more content, but didn't make up for the main story being too barebones. Since then, it has been given away on at least one occasion.
I have been interested in a few Early Access games, which basically got released half-assed - The Next Car Game, aka. Wreckfest, I'm looking at you! It's helped me to steer clear of EA completely.

As for having them in my wishlist - it all depends if I REALLY WANT them, in the hopes they release the full game at some stage.

Depends on the game, developer and the update schedule. Some are great like Slay The Spire others not so much. Personally i would definitely buy games in Early Access, but only if i have seen game-play.

Usually, i check steam board to see if players complain and steam news about frequency and content of updates.
In hindsight more good experiences. But i read an article once that said 75% are never finished, so i've been probably lucky about that.

Most happy : Grim dawn, PC building simulator (took more time than expected but to add much more content), Hand of fate (there is even an option for arachnophobics), Everspace, The long dark, Subnautica, Curious expedition, Starbound (but i purchased last year of early), Helium rain (very nice devs), Warring states (dev came back after 1 year of silence and serious illness to finish his game, impressive !)

"Most average" : Youtubers life (released incomplete), Stranded Deep (.........)

I have too many games on my backlog to play games that aren't complete. Why play something and only get part of the experience, then when the game is completed you will feel like you missed part of the game and want to play it again. Time is limited and it's not worth playing most games more than once unless they are really good. I probably own and want to play more games than I will be able to in my lifetime, so there is no point in playing something multiple times unless it is really worth it. Also, playing a game in early access basically just means that you are playing an incomplete game as a beta tester and not getting payed for it.

Because of the above reasons, I do not play games when they are in early access. I will still add them to my wishlist to keep track of them and even buy them if I can find them extremely cheap or in a bundle, but I will not touch it until it is out of early access.

When specifically dealing with massive multiplayer games, you may have no choice but to play the game in early access because the games are not actually in early access, the devs are just being dumb. They are using the early access label as an excuse to be able to sell a buggy game that will never truly be complete because they don't want to spend the time and money or actually hire competent developers to fix the issues. Any issues with the games can be brushed off by just saying the game is still in early access and they will eventually fix it.

My general take is never buy them unless they're already well developed( or they end up in a bundle), and to never pin any hopes on them. There's plenty of Youtube gameplay around if you wanted to check in on development. I also don't want to encourage the industry into selling unfinished products or being lazy and cutting corners here and there because they've already gotten their cash.

I don't mind putting EA games on wishlist forever, provided it's still being developed and not abandoned. But I only put games I'm actually interested in on my wishlist, waiting for them to be on sale or in a bundle which is how I use it. If it's abandoned, odds are 99% it'll come off the wishlist, it hasn't happened yet.

bought one that was day z in... 2013 ? then another one boundel that just went abandonned after months of almost non-existent development. even on the principle that's bullshit. they're just getting shitload of money for a work they haven't done yet all while saying they might even just not do it. imagine the same thing in real life. yeah give me 10 years of salary in advance i'll work ! but i might aswell not and that'd be just too bad for you. the video game industry gets away with way too much bullshit scam

I usually keep track of EAs that I think have the potential to be great by checking back in once in a while but I would never buy them unless, like many have said, the games are already pretty good in their EA form and can guarantee me hours of fun (depending on the cost as well), or if I can get them really cheap in a bundle.

That being said, I usually avoid EA MMOs, especially those without any single-player mode, since it can be incredibly hard to find other players to play the game with.

Anyway, since I rarely clean out my wishlist (heh :P), there are probably plenty of EAs from years ago that are still in EA now in there.

Thank you all for the responses. As with most things,
everyone has their own way of doing things. I recognized several things I do and several "head smacking" ideas that make me wonder why I didn't think of that lol. I also had to do a little pause every time I saw EA in the response. Why the hell is everyone talking about EA Games when I specifically mentioned Early Access. I blame my reading comprehension on being between naps. Again, thank you all for your time.