Wow, lot of hot steam here. Let's calm down, please
First, people claiming Alpha price damaging Frontier reputation - I think you and I live in quite different worlds. In my world, Alpha is game in unfinished state, very rarely shown to even investors. In fact, it is usually meant internal process, where developers come together at one part of software and plays with it. Or they hire people to do it. It is almost not released out to general public. Never.
Now, last three years we have seen rise of KS projects, were alpha access is one of backers rewards, Steam did it's Early Access thingy and suddenly everyone feels that every developer should give them alpha access. Still, it doesn't mean everyone agrees with this strategy. I mean, look at feedback and backslash to Godus, which looked alright game to me (too much clicking though), but most of people complain about unfinished state. Guess, they really don't know what 'Early Access' mean then, do they.
But in the end choice is entirely up to developer! Guys, if you would be rather famous writer, who has set aim to write very good novel, and would have written one very nice chapter. Would you show it to everyone around the world? Mostly no, right? You would show it to your friends. You would show it to your publisher, or your donor. You would show to people which input you value.
In the end, everybody will receive your novel in full form! Showing alpha to someone is form of trust. Now, if I have said that you pay 100 USD for early access to novel, and you have agreed, you have expressed your interest to evaluate what I wrote. Yeah, sometimes people pay just because they can, but usually they want to get something out of it. So paying so much in this case serves as *expression* of interest to be involved in process.
Also you should understand that FD is very conservative with showing things. We haven't seen majority of the ships, we haven't seen cockpit of other ships, we haven't seen stations, we haven't seen planets from LEO, etc. etc. etc. They don't want to *spoil* game. They want it to show fully, which essentially goal of beta. Alpha is really not meant as sort of mini game, but to test core concepts of the game, so they are nailed down before we move to premium beta.
It is nothing personal, it is just way things have turned out. I myself even don't have so much money for anything outside food and shelter. I paid my digital download pack because I felt justified to do that - and I even didn't plan to get into second stage beta. I really want to understand why so many people worry about not getting into alpha. We have just excellent community - I never expected call to arms for videos and streams to be so wide! People explain every little bit! We get to know different tactics, interesting bugs!
Beta will be here, and if FD keeps up with the polish of last alpha, it will come here soon enough
Alpha at 200 pounds was interesting choice of tier during KS. But it was choice FD made to attract funding and to avoid to sell lot of in-game content for unreleased game. As of DDF tier of 300 pounds, lot of people expressed doubts about this. Now they are really happy campers. That's price of being backer who puts his money and trust into hands of someone asking them that money. That's essence of kickstarter and crowdfunding. Let's respect that promise and let's not worry about missed chances.
Because in the end everyone will have full complete game
And that's what matters.
