Early Access has been a heated topic in these forums lately, stirring up some unfortunate negativity on both sides of the debate.
On one side, we have those who purchased the Epic Edition—people like myself who always opt for it. But now, some in the community are labeling us as ‘Blizzard Shills,’ ‘Neckbeards,’ or ‘Tryhards,’ which isn’t exactly fair or respectful.
On the other side, there are those who didn’t buy the Epic Edition for various reasons, and they’re facing comments like ‘the poors,’ or other disrespectful remarks about their financial situations, often without any real understanding of their circumstances. This isn’t a good look either.
Early Access is a reality, and it’s likely here to stay. But the hostility and toxic behavior don’t have to come along with it. We’re all here because we enjoy WoW (at least most of us), so let’s stop tearing each other down and remember who the real villains are: the Corporate Overlords who keep finding new ways to nickel and dime us.
I got 30 days game time and cool griphon pet. I will be a shill. And I get to play thrusday. People will always find reasons to whine and complain. Just tune out the turds and move on.
I like the idea of this, but I’m not quite sure I understand how that would be different from moving the Global Launch from the 26th to the 22nd for everyone regardless of pre-order status.
Would there still be an early access date and global launch date?
People who don’t have any information get mad because that’s what people like to do these days. So they are negative.
Everyone else is negative towards that person because they felt the need to post about it, but not the drive to actually learn anything before they did.
As far as other topics, if the premise is “people are really tired of stupid and uninformed folks starting topics that they know nothing about”, then yes, certainly true.
Early Access in a digital industry is a pay-to-win feature. It’s always been that. The only difference is in the past you had physical media - if you didn’t pre-order then you got stuck standing in line at midnight to pickup your copy of the game. The purpose of pre-orders was to minimize the situations where stores sold out of copies of the game before you could get your hands on it. Then to encourage people to do the pre-orders so that developers could ensure copies for everyone they started adding digital goodies to pre-orders including early access. Eventually they realized the inmates were willing to pay stupid amounts of money for additional digital goods with tiers of the game.
Personally, they should only offer early-access for a limited time for a period when they first announce and start selling pre-order copies of the game. The late adopters to the “pre-order” aren’t really pre-ordering into todays economy.
but then you’d get people complaining that EA should be available 2 months out for release, then 1 month. Where does it stop? There will always be a collection of people who will be unhappy with whatever is offered up.