Need to post this on the Steam(ing pile of whiners) even if most of them won't read or appreciate what it says.

No it doesn't mean that.  It means that anyone who does pay $100 for early access is likely to be committed.  It's a way to screen to get as many of those people as possible involved early on.  That doesn't mean it's exclusionary and only those who pay $100 are committed.   

You don't want casual players in the alpha presumably because they're casual.  It has nothing to do with their worth.  A casual player isn't going to spend hours in the ship creator. They're not going to spend hours understanding the minutia of how the systems work and looking for ways to break them.  They're not going to spend further hours discussing and debating those systems on the forums.  That's the definition of casual.  

And if your goal with alpha is to get ample high quality consistent feedback from a tiny portion of the player base, you don't want to include casuals in that group because by their very nature they're not the type of player to give you that amount of time. 

Right. Like I said, I tried to read this from a non-fanboy perspective, not from the perspective of someone who will scramble to the defense of SD and Brad at the slightest knee-jerk induced perceived offense.

Folks who are willing to pay $100 for a game, or a series of games are pretty damn hardcore.

To me, it's no different than the folks who pay $70-$100 for Japanese fighting games just to play them out, especially obscure ones when they can wait a few months and get it for $40 later.   With GCIII, you get the early access and influence on development.

That said, I haven't tried to influence GCIII much and I've tried to avoid playing the alpha too much- because I'm afraid of burnout before the good stuff gets put in, and because I know how I play is pretty casual compared to many folks on here.   (I'm not into min-maxing/twinking that much)

That said, the $100 is a good deal for me because I knew I'd day 1 this+ 90% chance of day 1'ing expansions because this game was going to be good in what I want. (plus I had minor job worries at the time, so I could afford it now, but maybe not later)

So are you being purposefully insulting or is it accidental?

It has nothing to do with being a fanboy.  It's basic marketing.  They're using price to capture the hardcore fans (who can afford it) who are going to contribute what SD wants from fans in EA.  You're not going to pay premium price for a game you are casually interested in.  

Do you have an alternate method of capturing those hardcore fans while also keeping the overall alpha player base small?  

I spent all day playing this game MP:

I don't want people who are going to sweat graphics on a game that won't be out for 2 years playing this. Most addictive game I've played since I was in college (final game won't even remotely resemble this so this isn't even giving anything away).

And this game is so addictive we've had to issue a "work hours" ban on playing it. 

Yea and I know plenty of people who drop $100 on stuff they forget about the next day without batting an eyelash.

But my point was to make you aware of how people outside the bubble of SD regulars may perceive what you wrote.

I honestly don't get the complaints about the $100 thing. I know that when I buy a GalCiv game, I'm going to spend quite a bit more money to get the expansions later. With this, I'm just paying for those expansions up front. It's almost like they don't realize how much extra paid content will be included.

The thing is price is the ONLY warning people will notice

You can throw gigantic banners on a store page. They won't read them

You can put a gigantic warning in ALL CAPS on teh store page. They won't notice it.

You can put a giant warning when the game loads. They won't look at it.

You can put a blinking neon orange message box before you play a game. They won't read it.

But put a $50 price tag and people will notice. They will read. They will make an INFORMED decision based on that.

The reality is that price is the only RELIABLE indicator of genuine interest in the game. Again this DOES NOT MEAN that because you can't pay, you're not a fan.

On the flip side, a low cost product makes people careless. During last year's Fall sale the Steam forums were inundated with this kind of complaint

I just bought Infestation:Survivor Stories because it was on sale for 3.75. WTF STEAM THIS IS WARZ YOU RIPPED ME OFF I HOPE YOU DIE!!!!!

STeam was FLOODED with this kind of thread because people bought the game 'because it was cheap' without even looking at the damn store page. Some people ALREADY OWNED WARZ and bought it AGAIN under the new name. It was absolutely astounding. When they refer to 'causals' this is the kind of problem that arises if you make the Alpha 'too cheap'

I think you should have included what I put in. I'm not a fan boy, within the bubble, enthusiast, etc. you supply the appropriate adjective here. I do own many of their products, all GalCiv post O/S2, Object Dock, Plus, Fences, you get the idea. Do I complement Brad and some of his team members? Sure, when I see what I view as worthy of praise. I'm also one of those odd people who feel it's important to give praise, credit, acknowledgement, etc. you fill in the word here, when it's due instead of just the negative, which is all too common in our society. I know, that's subjective. I also give negative criticism, feedback, rant at (have to admit I have had some of those frustrating times where I just let loose and vent on some forum), you fill in the word here, when I see it is deserved (yes, this is also very subjective as illustrated in this thread). We choose to view it differently. Having had the years of experience with Brad and this company (only buying their products and seeing his posts on different forums- he doesn't know me from Jack! ) I feel he's pretty straight forward and tries to do right by his customers. I like the products and feel I get my value for my money. Having played most of the GalCiv games I'm not worried about whether I'll like this version or not. I know will, how much so is to be discovered. I'm similar to what Parrotmath posted in that I haven't committed much to this process, don't have much free time to do much with it (most of my stated Steam time is due to me being AFK while playing), and have only briefly shared my opinion about things on this forum. I don't consider myself a tester at all, and I do know what that's like as I was/am a beta tester for Rise of Flight, a WWI flight sim.

I'm not so much. I've had my moments since I've first started to game in the early 80s on my Apple II+ in Taipei (computers were cheap and I was curious about them) flying Red Baron off a 5 1/4" floppy with DOS as an OS... Late nights with the lights out and my eyes melting from staring at that screen for so long... I've had years where I gamed more hours most days than not, to the point where I was a little self conscious about it... but I still don't consider myself hardcore and haven't gamed daily for more days than not in many years or for as long in one sitting like I had at times years back. But I just bought into this early release program because, like another stated above, it's a good deal. I'll get all that's done for this version in terms of DLC and expansions. I know I'm going to like it and buy it regardless and I can afford to... why wouldn't I? I'm sure some will still perceive me as being within that bubble you're talking about but I don't see the casual gamers remark of them not being worthy at all. Most, as others have already said, won't because it's not worth it to them. Some will who have the cash to burn and are curious and like the genre but I feel that's the minority. Does the difference in our perceptions stem from the differences we may see behind the Brad's motive in doing this? 

Let's agree then that the set of people who'd pay 100$ also includes:

- People who are very lax

- People who are very provident and mindful (paying 100$ to get a discount on products far into the future)

Sounds like win/win to me

I think all of you over-rate the impact or meaningfulness of the worst of the posters on the Steam forums.  The only ones who listen to them are those as stupid as they are.   They certainly do not rate any serious consideration here on the Stardock forums.  Why do you bring the opinions of fools here to bother fairly intelligent and benign folk?  What good does it do anyone?

Here's what I find somewhat frustrating about the pepole who don't like Early Access

1) You are totally and absolutely ok to not want to be part of Early Access. Thats totally reasonable. Wait till release. Wait until its cheaper. Wait until reviews. That's a 100% legitimate thing to do if you want.

2) But don't then jump on to EVERY SINGLE DISCUSSION HUB and preach on your soapbox that Early Access is evil and that devs who do it should be thrown into the sun. I mean I don't FORCE YOU to buy the game in Early Access as a fan. Why do you insist on coming and then pissing over people who bought the game?

3) Stop treating and assuming devs are slimeballs. You see it all the time. They rant and use weasel words like 'rip off', 'cash grab', 'dishonest', etc. Like anyone in the industry will tell you, they do it because they love this stuff. Because you coudl be making money, better stable money, elsewhere. This part really makes me angry since I know many devs are dedicated people. yes they're human. yes they make mistakes. Yes there are bugs. But they're honest hard working people. They're not 'lazy devs'. I've never met such a developer. I respect that making a game is raelly really hard. I'll critique it, but I respect the work that went into it, and I respect the people who made it. I wish more people showed at least that modicum of respect to devs.