You're not paying for EA, you're paying for the full game... which isn't ready yet. Want a discount? Wait for it.
So what's YOUR point? You don't like the price? You don't like that it isn't ready yet? Simple: wait for it.
It's essentially a preorder that allows you to play an early "demo".

Yes, and like all other preorders, participation is stupid. If you wait, you will likely get a better price as well as the knowledge of what the reviews of the final product say.

I'm probably going to skip this completely until I see it for $10 a few years from now. It sounds like the combat is a mish mash of Divinity's elemental based system with D&D 5e, which doesn't actually sound good to me. Also, it takes up 70+ GB of hard drive space (and download), and I don't know if it will play well on my laptop. I have a gaming PC, but it's set up for couch controller play. I generally play turn based mouse games on my laptop.

So overall, maybe later when it's cheaper than lunch.

You pay now, you get to play part of the game now. If you think that that is "stupid", then that's your personal opinion.

I haven't bought the game myself (yet) because I want to play the game from start to finish, but I feel no need to judge other people for being different.

Baldur's Gate games never had amazing story, just better than average. Bioware was always style over substance, and that comes from someone who likes Baldur's Gate 2.

I really don't enjoy with agreeing with teceem ( ack ack ack you know ) but yea he is right, your basically in the same state as buying the game when it is finished.

furthermore, a lot of people do enjoy to get their hands on a presumably good product as soon as possible. Sometimes they do it as a sign of support knowing they will enjoy the game no matter the outcome, or because of the outcome and other times people do want to be part of a process of delivering a game as good as it gets.

in the end it still remains your choice though i do want to add that with a lot of upstart or young companies early access is nowadays more considered as a must, so they can show their commitment as a dev to the community then anything else.

In 2 early releases i was committed too, Pax Nova and Astra Exodus i was confronted with the final game taking exactly the same path as the early acces path. the final game released contained exactly the same errors for my system as did the first early access version i had on my pc and which errors where resolved during the early access stage

now ain't that weird or whot?

Maybe I have the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia on, I haven't played BG for the last 7 or 8 years, but I think the story was great for both Baldur's Gate games.

And that's why quality is indeed subjective:D If I would compare Baldur's Gate story to something like Fallout, VtM: Bloodlines or even something like Deus Ex; where player has much larger agency in story, Baldur's Gate would come short.

I wish I had the $60 to buy it

I don't know why my brain made that connection (maybe I'm too tired), but there. [screenshot attached]

Dude, chill. We all have opinions, right? I worte down mine, and that's both the beginning and the end of it.
I'm not complaining (especially since I have no intention of buying BG3 before it's finished and patched), I'm just saying I don't understand the rush and that in my opinion this deal is WAY more advantageous for Larian than it is for the customer.
I was a backer of Divinity Original Sin 2, I took the risk but I also paid less than half the full price when it came out. Win-win. This is nowhere near as fair, people take the risk and get no reward; on contrary, they passively work to make the experience better for those who will arrive later. Once this was an actual job, now it's a hype exploit.

+1

I feel the same way as you Enebias. I backed Divinity on Kickstarter and got something (first game) for it and supported Larian.
If it is like teceem says, why not offer a demo or in ealier days one would call it shareware version to see if the game is worth the money.

I love it when people point out the obvious fact that what someone said is their personal opinion, as if that somehow worked as an argument against that opinion.

Look, there are perfectly logical reasons for disliking early access and pre-orders. This likely isn't one of such cases, but in general this idea of selling unfinished games (and at full price) led to plenty of borked releases, or even sometimes to no release whatsoever.

Was it obvious or is that how you interpreted it? Or maybe I did... Anyway, apologies for my bluntness! @barleyguy

I agree. I've never bought a preorder or EA game but this one doesn't look like it can be compared to the worst offenders of the past. There's no way to know a 100% for sure of course.

I'm not a huge fan of early access either and I can understand the complaints people have with it. I remember the 'good old' days where you got to play a demo version of a game for free, to make sure you like it and it works on your system, rather than having to pay full price for the privilege. In a way, it seems typical of the world we live in, where the cost of many things is being front-loaded onto consumers. Sort of like having to scan your own groceries at the store ...

PR-wise, it would have been better if they had provided this as a reduced-content, early access demo, for a reduced price (~$15), and then given those that purchased it and provided feedback a discount on the full release. They would have had a better uptake and fewer complaints.

Off topic, but hey, I like that! The less I have to deal with people, the better (and not just talking of this period).