There is also a big difference between being an unwilling paying beta tester and a willing paying beta tester. The first feels screwed and the second honoured.

Simple game comment referred to BF3. If ArmA 2 works online that is great. I don't play ArmA 2 online. Making AI infantry or vehicles simply cross a bridge is hit or miss in ArmA 2. Recent patches + ACE made the AI more competent at bridge crossing, but it is strangely still a difficult task for them to accomplish. Usually they will think swimming/sinking in water is the better choice.

Haha, my younger self used to buy games blindly, results in some really horrible waste of money POS(s). However, with the power of internet and also I am getting older. (Almost) Every single game I bought is excellent...(or so that I was told, cause I don't have much time to play them anymore).

I wish I was as lucky as you. Even at $3 I am being ripped off because almost no PC game works. Period.

To be honest, i think it comes down to correct information. I have no problems with game producers allowing people to pay for their beta as DCS is doing. I think that is a smart way to go. As long as the people know that what they are paying for IS a beta and an unfinished product.

What gets my goat is those games that are supposed to be complete and final products.(ok we all know computer games will have some bugs in them somewhere) but these games are either

# shambolic and don't run properly, (I am aware of computer hardware setups may have some contributory factor here)
# have missing features
# or just like most game producers, have lied about the minimum specs.

Lets name a few examples

Bugs and missing features.
Silent hunter series was famous for its bugs upon release and the lengthy waits for the patches that the dev team knew they had to do to get the game running semi propperly. The missing features advertised like milch cows (resupply vessels) etc. I gave up on the silent hunter series after 3 as i could not be bothered to wait the 2 years for people like grey wolves to mod it as they do.

Unfinished games.
A classic unfinished game was vampires bloodlines. This game was not even completed and they sold it on the market. It took user made mods to get it to actually work. I have no idea why this game was allowed to be sold in an unfinished state.

shambolic / don't run properly / lied about minimum specs.
Flight sim X takes the bait here. Minimum specs were an outright lie on first release. The game was so riddled with bugs it was not funny. Basic coding errors that made the game unplayable (e.g. the rediculous pan memory error where panning always stuttered your computer, a simple .ini file change and that fixed that one.) Not to mention they very very very lazy and poor effort to release Little or NO FSX only built aircraft with the game but port over FS9 garbage. Put that in conjunction the glaring errors between 2d and 3d pits (lets take the grumman goose for an example). The gear lever works in the opposite direction, and other switches do aswell between the 2d and the 3d pit.

Ohhh and lets see, they released a pay add on which was in all honesty, just a ptach to fix the game as it should have been on release.

Lets throw in that the aces team were only contracted to do 2 patches and that is all they did. No wonder they were fired and good riddance to for that rubbish.

So my point at the end of the day.> As long as a developer lets you know what you are getting, then that is fine if you decide to pay money for it, be it a finished product or a beta. I don't mind paying for a beta and quite happy to do so. But when #%&*$# is delivered on my plate at a restaurant when i have asked for a finished cooked meal of any price range.... well i expect something that resembles a finished cooked meal.