David wrote on Oct 14, 2020, 10:09:
A few points:
1) It's just the first part of the game. I did the EA for Divinity 2, loved it, and loved playing through it "for real" when the full game came out. There was SO much more to the full game that re-playing just the first part with a different party was still plenty of fun. BG3 is *much* larger than Divinity 2, so the EA is an even smaller chunk of the final game.
2) Regardless of positive/negative commentary, the advantage of this kind of EA is that the developers have thousands and thousands of play-testers instead of just a small group. They collect data on how the game is being played, where people are dying "too much", which encounters are too easy, and perhaps most importantly, bugs that might not show up with just a small group of testers. This improves quality of the final product and does it faster than with a wide release that has tons of bugs.
3) If you don't like Divinity 1/2 and you want a game like the old BG1/2 (both of which I loved), you're out of luck. I loved all four of those games, so I'm more than happy to buy it now and play *now* rather than wait even longer than I've already waited.
Pretty much what David said (and several others on this thread). This is not fanboying so don't put this opinion down out of hand.
1) From my perspective i preordered BG3 and as part of my preorder i get access to EA which i can choose to take advantage of or not. If you are against preordering then that is cool, this is what i did.
2) For those folks who say the game will be the same if the public EA's vs Larian doing a closed development process and driving towards completion i think that is a legitimate position to normally take but what i would recommend is look into the development blogs that Larian shared around the design and development process for DOS2 and how it was altered by the telemetry they collected during the DOS2 EA. So in Larian's case i think they showed that this position probably does not apply to them.
3) If you don't understand how folks can play EA for a story based CRPG with only 1 act and enjoy it and have it not ruin the full release of the game for them, well that is just that, an opinion. I can. I get wonder and amazement every time i start a new character in the BG 3 EA, plus for me if DOS 2 is a guide the actual act 1 will change a fair amount between now and release as well. I don't know how to convey it better but i am enjoying the heck out of the multiple play throughs i am doing now and know i will enjoy my multiple playthroughs on full release. It wont ruin it for me. Will knowing much of the story in act 1 modify the experience vs going in fresh. Absolutely, but i also know what type of gamer i am and it will, mostly for me, modify it for the better. For example i did not get access to the Wasteland 3 pre release, when i played it on release i redid the first area about 4-5 times because i did not know the mechanics well enough to know how to build and play to my play style. That is my play style. I now know what my first playthrough build will actually be for me on release and that is a real boon for the type of player i am i will now get to enjoy the whole game on release without fretting about my mechanics and can just enjoy the story itself. It will make for a BETTER experience for me and my play style on release for a story based CRPG. For those critical of doing BG3 as early access that may not be your play style. If that is the case then don't ruin it for yourself by buying into EA, but know that you are arguing that EA should not exist and the reality is it can be of benefit to some as well as the developers so those who it can be of benefit to let them have at it.