I'd just like to say that I bought in to Alpha simply to support FD and help test the game. Also because I was impatient and had some extra money laying around, and partly in protest to SC's aggressive marketing campaign that shows no sign of slowing down (FD seems to be the underdog).
Believe it or not, Alpha isn't all fart jokes and propeller hats. The gameplay loop that came out with 3.0 was very much anticipated, and when it finally launched very few people were able to play it during the entire weekend because of all the bugs. I, personally, wasn't able to get passed the spinning ship screen 90% of the time - and most of our time is spent doing the same things over and over again.
If the sound isn't cutting out and the docking pads going haywire, then the station will disappear or you'll be shot by someone in another instance that you can't see. Needless to say it's more work than it is fun (after 10 hours).
I can't wait for Beta to come out and am practically doing cartwheels that Alpha 4.0 will most likely come out before the 25th of April - which means Beta is quickly soon after. The newsletter that just came out says this:
For anyone still interested in joining the Alpha now but unsure if it is worth it for a short period of time before we start the Premium Beta - here are two fantastic reasons;
- As we move into the Beta process, all Premium and standard Beta builds will be given exclusively to the Alpha players first.
- Also, all Alpha players will be granted a life time discount of 50% on ship insurance in game as a thank you for your support!
In my opinion it's a double edged sword. On one hand people will complain that Alpha testers get extra perks and the Beta builds before anyone else, but I don't see it that way.
In fact, I see the 50% discount of ship insurance as a "payment" for having to eternally test the development builds. This means that when they release an update for the beta build, we get to see if it breaks and have to wait for them to fix it before being able to play again - all the while the Beta people are unaffected.
It's what we signed up for and we're happy to do it - but please don't think we're getting special treatment, because only the Beta/Gamma people will benefit from us getting a broken update like with Alpha 3.0 (which is why I think there is a pay wall to limit the number of people affected).