Are the unannounced games going to be RTS or TBS?

Yea that's right. I bet there are A Lot of impulse purchasers. - which is how a lot of developers probably make a good chunk of their sales. I imagine it's the driving force behind Steam.

Hmm, the word impulse sounds familiar, like an echo from the past.

So what about the statement that it would never go below $45 so join the early access today statement being branded around a month or so ago.

Only reason i bought into early access was due to that confirmation....been a loyal fan for a long time, but the salt is very real with this recent sale. 

I haven't had a problem with Stardock's early access thus far.  When things went awry, as they did with Elemental: War of Magic, Stardock did make things right.  I have seen and heard of companies ripping off customers time and again though with early access or pre-order programs, so aside from small studios and Stardock -- and honestly I think I will conserve from here on out even with Stardock, despite having made things right for WoM, I think I'm going to restrain myself on buying into early access.  In point of fact, when I get excited over a game from a big studio, I find myself increasingly waiting not /just/ past EA, but past 'official' release, and at least until the game has been around long enough to get on sale.  I saved myself a world of hurt with Sword of the Stars II on this ... and am thankful I did restrain myself.  I actually regret buying into it even at a heavy discount on Steam; I did try to poke around to ask the stalwart-but-forced-to-admit-it-flubbed fans whether they thought the game had achieved playability and was told all the major bugs that earned the game poor ratings had been fixed, and the studio was continuing to work on updates ... and so I bought it, only to find there were still some rather significant bugs and the studio seemed to have largely stalled out on quashing many more bugs several years after release.

Gamers are getting hosed, and unfortunately they largely do it to themselves.  Yes, I play games probably too much so it is a bit hypocritical of me, but I fear my 'fellow' gamers are helping to ruin the market by continuing to "pre-order" into the same big-name-studios whom seem chronically careless about very buggy releases, obtrusive-to-paying-customers-but-failing-to-inhibit-piracy DRM schemes, and "Day-0 DLC" schemes that largely seem to be intended solely to get impulsive gamers to fork over even more money whilst intentionally preventing resales based on the faulty premise publishers don't benefit from gamers reselling their games (whereas I see it as much like a car -- if it keeps its value and can be resold, the original owner who resells their old game they have gotten bored with then has more money than they would to buy a newer game).

Gamers keep buying into this, and it feels like it has led to a serious decline in the quality of games at release in terms of whether you can actually play (how many times have 'always on DRM' schemes failed at launch, leaving large numbers of paying customers getting absolutely nothing playable?) or enjoy (the size, obstruction and frequency of bugs definitely has not declined).  Some big studios also seem to be engaging in some obscene scandals involving bribing "Let's Play" reviewers or crafting 'monetization' restrictions designed to inhibit game reviewers' ability to give their honest evaluations on a game whilst getting paid, seemingly because it costs less to run such schemes than to actually put out games with no major bugs at release.  Because so many gamers seem to not care about this and keeping forking over money for pre-orders, the big name studios seemingly have no incentive to stop.

Again, thus far, Stardock has stayed clear of this, and I hope as Stardock continues to grow, it won't stoop to this level no matter how profitable it seems given how impulsively so many gamers fund such trash.  Fortunately there seem to be an endless supply of upstart developers creating some really intriguing independent games like Banished and Rimworld.  I have to recognize my own impulsiveness, though, and aim to discipline myself to avoid buying into too much early access or pre-ordering in the future, though I certainly haven't achieved that yet.

If early access was a tiny portion of the market that's fine, but it has taken over (along with FTP) ....

Sins of a Dark Age is at update 32 ...32! ...you could go through multiple PC'S BEFORE THIS GAME COMES OUT....

There was a time when I bought up EA games like they were smarties, but now I am very careful with buying EA games, wanting assurance that the game will in fact reach it's conclusion.

I agree with Stardocks decision of pricing an Early Access title very high so you only get dedicated players who truly want the game.

Regarding pricecomplaints, I would have a sticky that explained it and any threads talking about it would be closed and pointed to the sticky. Maybe allow one complaintthread but that would be it.

Right now, Early Access is either that you're with a game from the very start or in some kind of beta. No problems with that. It's actually good, cause people have to decide for themselves what they want to support.

As for the future of Early Access, I think Valve will change some things but I don't think anything else will change.

I personally will only buy EA if I like what is completed at the time of purchase. I am DONE with promises, road maps, schedules, etc. I have very much enjoyed buying some games early and watching them grow. But they were games that I liked at the time of purchase. Star Ruler, AI War, Space Engineers, and Planetary Annihilation  come to mind as games that were interesting at initial purchase and only got better as time passed.

I won't buy a tech demo.

I don't care what a developer "thinks" the game will be like in the future.

Is the game ready for actual play? Then I'm in.