Was just wondering why a person would play an incomplete game instead of waiting for its release?

I have played a few Betas before. And if I had to be honest it has been for slightly selfish reasons like treating the Beta as a sort of demo. Don't get me wrong I have reported my fair share of bugs - I can't even remember the amount of Hearthstone bug reports I submitted. But in the end (except for Hearthstone really) is has mostly been about getting an early preview of the game to see if I would like to purchase it.

Early access would be something that seems a little more instant in terms of supporting the development as you are giving financial (and also user interest) support to the product, but doesn’t it almost seem like a wasted exercise to play an incomplete game?

@ Corr - I personally tend to avoid most Alpha / Beta's my self for the pure reason that I love playing the "finished" launch product and don't want to ruin the final gameplay experience

In the case of games like Destiny where I was really unsure if it was a product I wanted to play, I jumped at the opportunity to try the Alpha as it gave me a decent overview of a game that I might have not considered due to its MMO-esque format... but it's single player aspect just won me over!

But Yeah, BETA's are, for obvious reasons, hideously buggy at times and can ruin the entire experience for me.

Also generally avoid them but since for the most part they tend to be for multiplayer games (at least the ones I look out for), I enjoy taking it for a spin before release, particularly since these days it seems to be more to hype up the release and get ppl playing it so by the time it launches the online numbers are already there.
ANd obviously like you guys say, when you're unsure it can be the deciding factor.

Also nice when they offer certain incentives I guess for people who stick around, got in early or contribute in some fashion.

Games in recent memory that I've participated in actively:

Diablo 3
Starcraft 2
Battlefield 4 (ended up not buying it because of this)
Hearthstone
DOTA2 (this one I even paid to get a BETA key)
Heroes of Newerth (which was really just a placeholder until DOTA came out)

Single player though? Generally don't bother. Hesitant to jump into Alpha's as well, nowadays with Steam you see them quite a lot, and most of them you pay for, purely to get in early on a very unfinished game that may or may not even get released.

I dont see the problem in it tbh. I would never do that myself but it allows the user to experience how the game builds itself into the final form.

Nothing wrong in that if that is what you want to try out.
But I do question ppl who might do that constantly. But hey its their money.

I have bought into two different games early access:

War for the Overworld & Nekro both of steam. Reason I bought into them is more out of interest than wanting to play a finished product.

Both of them remind me of dungeon keeper (war for the overworld especially) and yeah I wanted to get in on seeing the games develop. It's pretty cool being able to have a say in the over all finished product as well.

From the average person wanting to just play a video game, like Tea says a finished product then yea Early access and stuff is probably pointless. For anyone though who has an interest in development and tagging along for the ride personally I think it's pretty cool.

a lot of times the "finished" game doesn't differ much from the beta, it's pretty much used as a promotional demo

I usually check out a beta to see whether or not it's something I may want to play.

Most MMO Beta's for instance are essentially the final product, just level capped with bugs, sometimes alot, sometimes very few.

If anything it can save you alot of money by playing a beta version that does nothing for you rather than buying the final game and finding that you hate it after spending so much on it and it just ends up sitting on your shelf.

Supa said ...

a lot of times the "finished" game doesn't differ much from the beta, it's pretty much used as a promotional demo

i avoid Early Acess with a nuke stick if i had one.

lot of us on steam is against it especially when it comes to steam summer sales.

i do have Defence Grid 2 which is beta atm but its releasing soon that i won tho. i wouldnt pay for any early access games anyhow

mainly they dont contain steamcards or achievements.. nor do i want to pay full price for a incomplete buggy game.

except for 8bitmmo that is a fun game must play that again. its free cause im cheap