The Steam forums are pretty terrible. So many trolls, crybabies, and entitled jerks. lol
But yeah, I see a lot of people on Steam complaining endlessly about the $100 Elite Founder thing... um... nobody's making them buy it.
But they still rant about how Stardock is ripping them off and such.
What's funny is that these same people will happily toss $60+ to pre-order some big AAA title from companies that have proven themselves untrustworthy time and again (giving us crap like WatchDogs for example). But when a proven company like Stardock gives people an option to support an upcoming game, they go ballistic.
Yes, the Founder stuff is expensive. It's also never forced on anyone. And while it's a great way to support the company, you can also do so by simply buying the game once it's out.
There are the complaints that companies used to pay testers to alpha and beta test their games and that now most companies (and most indie devs) rely on Early Access for that. And there is some truth to that. But again, it's completely voluntary. If you want to wait for the game to be out... then just wait.
I bought the elite Founder pack for a couple of reasons. The first is simply because I want to support Stardock. They make some amazing games (admittedly I was very disappointed with Fallen Enchantress, but I know others love it). And more importantly, they're not DRM buttholes like most companies who design systems to punish legitimate buyers of their games while letting the pirates have a wonderful time of things (I'm looking at you Ubisoft).
I remember having a friend over and him trying out GalCiv II. He thought it was awesome. So I gave him a copy. He asked about what cracks and such he'd need to play the game. I told him all he had to do was put it in and play. He was floored by that. Naturally he later went out and bought the complete bundle, because if you treat customers with respect (and not like criminals which most companies do) then you get damn loyal customers who will gladly buy your games (even if they don't have to).
True, GalCiv III has Steam, which is DRM in itself. So that is a little disappointing. I'm hoping there will be a Steam-free version though. If nothing else just so that the pirates don't win again. lol
Of course the other reason I bought the thing was to get all the DLC/expansion stuff. Cause really $100 is a good deal for a game like this with all expansions and content. I figure we can expect at least 3 expansions for it. Hopefully many more (but not a ton of little crappy DLC like Civ V did).