I think the main issue is Celaviegroup's tiered release system is incentivising early access over supporting the game and it's causing issues with people feeling like others are cutting in line. There's currently six different tiers of releases and the game usually leaks before the final three releases. To help prevent people from feeling cheated out of their money, Bob should have 3 releases: Diamond/Platinum/Gold/Master > Silver/Bronze/Supporter > Public. I haven't seen much issue with the game leaking from the $50+ tiers (Master tier and up) but it routinely leaks from the Silver tier, causing the Bronze and Supporters to feel the same way as you.
Indicated release dates for Episode 6 were:
Diamond ($200/mo), Platinum ($100/mo) and Gold ($50/mo) members ... December 12th
Master ($20/mo) members ...December 23th (though actually released a day early - Thank You!)
Silver ($10/mo) members ... December 27th
Bronze ($5/mo) members December 30th
Supporters ($1/mo) ... January 5th 2024
Public ... January 25th 2024
I'd consider it essentially four release periods: One initial release to Diamond, Platinum, and Gold member; a 2-3 week delay to Master, Sliver, and Bronze members (release dates being within a week of each other); a total one month delay to supporters; and two months total delay to public. I could see arguments for or against consolidating the mid-tier release times more. Those release times are very similar, so I think developer is using the other membership perks (walk throughs, high priority support, access to high res images, etc.) as incentives. I'm currently a Master member, wanting a relatively early release, but not needing the walkthrough or higher res images (those in the game seem plenty good to me). My personal (biased) take is that release times are generally fair and the ability to purchase the game one month ahead of public release for $1 is pretty reasonable/generous. That seems like a pretty token amount for people to support the game and feel that they get a significant value, while hopefully the cumulative amount generated from that is significant enough for the developer. This (and the previous MBFD story line) is the only game I regularly play and only one I purchase. I've varied through the $5 and $10 tiers for MBFD and $20 tier for this one so far, with no regrets. I understand that there are some people out there with no access to Patreon or payment services, but seems like that is probably a small percentage. My only concern on signing up was an aversion to giving out credit card or bank information to non-major online services, but the PayPal payment option eased that concern enough. BTW - I think the current Episode 6 is the best yet and really looking forward to Ep 7.
