I'm not going to quote every comment above but I'll add this:
Comparing CMSF to the Challenger too extreme. Agree. Just a little shock and awe value. LOL
As for the Challenger group think, all parties agreed to launch in the end. One man could have stopped it.
Why am I still playing 1.00? I'm not. I'm not playing it at all. I'm waiting for 1.07 or 1.08 before I launch it again.
Re Elmar Bijlsma and the NDA. Reading betwix the lines it sounds like there must have been dissenters, who can't speak up. Attacking any single beta tester was not intended. Assuming the overall group thought it was ready - that's the judgemnet I was attacking.
Ok, it was a contract dead line that predicated the release in an unfinished state, not beta-tester concurrence it was "ready". Now I understand.
Why buy any game before playing the demo? Why do that for any game? This is the beloved BFC - of course I'll buy it. I even tossed in the extra $10 for the mouse pad and poster. The pad was extremely flimsly compared to the $2.99 I bought at Wally World. But I have learned a lesson.
The BFC lesson learned in beta testing should go something like this:
1. Have some testers look for obvious computer crashing bugs and operability bugs.
2. Then bring a fresh set of eyes that haven't seen all the crashing flaws and test exclusively for playability and enjoyment.
The men that saw the crashing version get fixed were then happy when it worked correctly and perhaps they overlooked the enjoyment factor, because it was finally running.