It's basically, pay $1 for a bunch of coupons.

Well, Goliath was a game that was unsuccessful on Kickstarter (they cancelled their campaign when they weren't getting any traction). However, I did pledge, and so I don't mind throwing a dollar at the screen to see what their pre-alpha looks like.
As for the rest of the other builds, there are four that look interesting, one that's meh, and three that don't interest me at all.
$0.20 a build? That's okay for a price in my book.

now we're preordering the alpha to fix up their game for them to help us preorder the preorder?


when is this shit going to shock the system and fuck them right in their ass? cause it stresses til it breaks. that's always how it plays out. they never dial back shit or back pedal a bit or tone it down. they stress it til they break something and then it's worse. when will the break happen?

I'm pretty sure the purpose of this bundle is so the HB staff can go on Spring Break and the interns can handle the problems that all 5,000 weirdo purchasers may have.

Oi! I resemble that remark!

I think you kinda look like a fish. A sharky fish!

On the note of this bundle, they have a Crytek bundle that only backs what I've been saying: HB staff is on Spring Break.

I must admit, if I used CryEngine, I would get it though. Very nice assets in there!

Point is...

1. By buying this bundle, you are buying unfinished games.

2. You are being a free-of-charge beta tester for the game developers. To add insult to the injury, you are paying to be a beta-tester.

3. This business practice is a legal scam. It's not illegal, but developers are hoping that some idiots buy this crap and make the developer's work easier for them.

idiots ARE buying it !
the damn bundle sold 3600 copies already

even if its just for the coupons people are still paying money for this

[sarcasm]
Humble Bundle, I would like to pay you $1 for a knuckle sandwich.

*smack*kapow*

Yes, I enjoyed that. Please sir, may I have another?
[/sarcasm]

Can you really wield the word scam against a company that fully discloses what they're selling?

"Name the price. Because these are early builds and are not the full games, there is no MSRP for these titles. Here at Humble Bundle, though, you can get them for whatever price you want!"

It's a terrible bundle, but nobody buying it could possibly qualify as a victim, lol.

Or people want cheap coupon for monthly bundle.

I wonder how long the coupons last? By the nature of the bundle I suppose they should be useable until the games in question get released.. (if I understand it right)

In which case I could see a lot of people buying this and selling or trading the coupons (or even full games) for a profit when they get released...

I personally wouldn't go for it, but I don't think it's really all that bad..

its more the precedent it sells
because now developers and publisher think they can get away with selling alpha's
and then selling the finished game all over again

getting people to pay them for the dubious honor of being alpha and beta testers

People keep insulting beta testers...

A beta tester isn't someone who plays a game in beta. A beta tester is someone who plays a game in beta and reports problems. A professional beta tester is someone who looks for problems, does his best to find them, does his best to find out how to recreate them, and reports all that in an orderly manner. A professional beta tester will play a game again and again.

When you buy a game in beta you're just paying to get a peek at a game in development. You're not obligated to report a thing. If you want, sure, that's fine, but to say that by paying to get access to games in development you're paying to be a beta tester is ridiculous.