Don't make me sick.

Epic, Legend, or whoever owns them has the right to not want their unfinished work floating around the web.

Planet Unreal and any other web site has the right to try to assist the above in keeping it from spreading.

BUT PUUUUUULLLLLLEASE don't try to give us a lecture on morals.

People want this game more than any other game ever. I bought a Geforce 3 months ago for one reason only, so I'd be ready for Unreal 2 when it came out.

I haven't played the pre alpha nor do I know where to get it. But make no mistake.... if I knew where to download it, I'd be downloading it right now no matter how big the file was or how slow the server was.

To equate that to stealing is insane. I AM GOING TO BUY THE GAME THE DAY IT COMES OUT NO MATTER WHAT. So will everyone else who has downloaded the pre alpha. Epic, Legend, whoever else are going to get their money.

As a matter of fact... if Epic were smart.... they'd go ahead and start selling the game right now. Charge 60 bucks a pop, with free upgrades as the game progresses. Let's face it, everyone does that to some extent now anyway. When's the last time you bought a finished game that didn't have a patch within a month of its release?

If Epic started selling the game now.... they wouldn't have to wait to start making money off it. They wouldn't have to worry about the deadline nearly as much. They wouldn't have to leave out features because they have to get the game out the door and start making some money off it.

I don't even care if there were only one level, or even half a level, I'd buy the game right here and now if I could.

So don't tell all us loyal fans that bought Unreal, Unreal Gold, and Unreal Tournament.... the very people that made it even possible to make an Unreal 2.... that we are morally bankrupt thieves if we download this 'stolen' pre alpha. Anyone who says they wouldn't is either a liar or not a fan. (Go ahead liars, make yourself look like an idiot and start replying how you wouldn't. Everyone who reads your post will be thinking, "What a friggin' lying 'tard.")

So while I understand PU's stance in assisting Epic, save the boyscout speeches for your mom.

Think outside the box for a second...

Someone said, "That's so totally stupid, you can't possibly be serious about it."

Another person said, "You've got to be kidding me, right?"

I'm not kidding and there is nothing stupid about it. It is a simple fact that games get released every single day that are not complete. Look at UT for example... How many patches did UT get? About one a week it seems like there for awhile. Epic not only fixed bugs with the patches, they also added features. They even released a number of map packs for UT after the release.

Another sad fact is that everyday games are released minus some really cool features because there simply was not time to implement them. Game companies do work on a deadline, from the day they start work on a game they know when it has to be out the doors. If a feature doesn't look like it will be completed in time, it gets the axe. This is because the whole time the game is in development, money is being poured into the project without any money coming in.

However, what if the game was making money before it was even complete? There wouldn't be the great need to get the game out the door fast to start seeing a return on their investment. They could take all the time they needed to implement all the features that will make the game great.

When whoever started throwing words like 'stupid' around, he should have been more careful as it often comes back to you in spades.

Just weeks ago ID released a public test for Return to Castle Wolfenstein. It was downloaded hundreds of thousands of times the very first day! This was far from a complete game, it was one multiplayer level only. Yeah, sounds to me like most people just want to wait for the finished product. Stupid me.

Let's say ID didn't release the multiplayer test, let's say they instead started selling RtCW. Everyone knows they are going to buy it anyway, they've been looking forward to it for years. Why not go ahead and buy it now and just apply updates as they are completed? There quite simply is no reason not to. You can start playing the game you've been waiting forever for now instead of waiting another 6 months to a year. Everytime an update is released it will be like Christmas all over again. And quite frankly you will have a leg up on all the losers who are waiting to read the hundreds of reviews that say the same old tired, "Best game I've ever played." over and over again.

And all those people saying, "I wanna wait for the final release so that I can play it all at once and not ruin it."

A) You can't play it all at once. Let's say there were only 10 solo player levels (I'm sure there will be more). You would need 10 computers and 20 hands to play all the levels at once, and it wouldn't make much sense that way anyway.

B) Did you tape each episode of Seinfeld so that you could watch them all at once at the end of the season? I didn't think so.

C) I suppose if Epic asked you to help beta test U2 you'd turn them down, give me a break.

D) I suppose if you were at E3 and Epic offered you a press pass to see the private backroom demonstration of U2 you'd turn them down and tell them to give it to someone else.

Simply put, way more than half the people that will buy U2 would buy U2 V 0.1 today. Epic wouldn't have to wait another 6 to 12 months to start showing a profit on it and the fans wouldn't have to wait that long to get their hands on it.

Please note: nowhere did I ever say that, "Epic and Legend should release an unfinished, buggy game and present it as the finished article? I'm sure your school teachers praised you for handing in incomplete homework, or don't you have any memory of school?"

I don't know about him, but my teachers never required me to hand in a years worth of homework at the end of the year. I pretty much had to turn in homework every day. As for presenting it as finished, I never said that, I never even said anything that sounded like that. HOWEVER, Apple did just that with OS X and people ate it up with a spoon. PEOPLE EVEN PAID MONEY TO BETA TEST OS X!!! Full well knowing that they would have to pay the full price of OS X when it was complete. LOTS OF PEOPLE. Then, just as an added kick to the teeth, Apple is charging TWENTY BUCKS for the update that actually makes OS X a finished product.

So as you can clearly see, I haven't suggested anything extreme or beyond the bounds of reality.

1. EVERY game gets a patch these days, therefore NO game is actually complete when it ships. "We'll fix it in a patch, now let's get it on the shelves." is the game development motto.

2. Hundreds of thousands of people downloaded ONE and only ONE multiplayer level of RtCW the first day it was released.

3. Millions of people PAID MONEY to beta test OS X.

4. MILLIONS of people bought the OS X release knowing it wasn't quite finished.

5. MILLIONS of people are going to pay another twenty bucks for the update that actually completes OS X. AND THEY LOVE EVERY MINUTE OF IT AND WILL TELL YOU APPLE IS THE BEST COMPANY IN THE WORLD!

So perhaps the person that likes to call other people stupid should take a look in the mirror, read about what's going on in the world, and get in touch with reality.

Nobody said YOU would have to buy it.

I think a few people here read on a 3rd grade level. I NEVER SAID RELEASE IT NOW AND SAY IT'S DONE.

What I said several times now is that there is so much demand for this game that hundreds of thousands of people would buy the game before it was even done. Even if there were just a couple solo levels and one multiplayer level.

That does not mean that I think everyone in the world would buy it before it was finished. If you're so worried about it having bugs in it then you should wait a year after the final release so that all the bugs can be fixed with patches.

Obviously they would have to make it VERY VERY clear that it isn't a finished product so that people like you don't start crying and whining if you encounter a bug. Buy it now and deal with it or wait for the finished product.

You're not very bright, sorry.

I could excuse the first dude that called me stupid as merely being ingnorant of the facts. However, the facts are right there in my post and I assume you read them. Therefore I have to think that you are stupid, touched in the head, not playing with a full deck, not the sharpest knife in the drawer, or mentally challenged.

"most normal people wont pay full price for one map some place holders and a few unfinished things, with the hopes of downloading 1 (maybe 2) CDs worth of data over a period of months.. that is STUPID."

First, I never suggested they sell this tech demo non alpha. I said if they had a couple of solo levels and a multiplayer level complete they could sell that as version 0.1. LEARN TO READ PLEASE.

Second, it isn't a theory that people <i>might</i> buy it before it was finished. It is a FACT that people HAVE bought products before they were finished. (see OS X) It is also a fact that hundreds of thousands of people downloaded one single solitary multiplayer only level of RtCW.

Lastly, something you and all your literary challenged friends seem to keep missing is the most important part..... I NEVER SAID PAY FOR THE WHOLE GAME AND ONLY GET A SMALL PART OF IT. I said, buy the game now and play what IS done while waiting for the rest to be completed. As the game is completed you can get point releases (v0.1, v0.2, v0.3...) until finally one day it is a finished v1.0 release product.

THIS ISN'T SOMETHING NEW HERE PEOPLE!!! This happens everyday with hundreds of software titles. There are many many benefits to it as well. For example:

I bought the release version of Unreal Tournament. Unreal Tournament v1.0. Is that the final product? Hell no. So now everytime I want to reinstall UT, I have to do the CD install and then apply a patch and map packs. If I had the ACTUAL final release of UT I could simply install it off the cd and I would be ready to play. This may seem like a minor thing, but when you consider that EVERY SINGLE GAME SOLD TODAY is the same way, if you have to reinstall Windows for any reason you have a lot of work ahead of you reinstalling games AND THEN UPDATING THEM.

As games get more and more complex, they of course take longer and longer to develope. The potential for bugs also increases dramtically, adding greatly to the development time. Companies don't like to wait years to see a return on their investment. Gamers don't like to wait years to play the games. Since there is a point in time where the game engine is complete as well as several levels, yet there is still six months to a year to go before ALL the levels are designed, mapped, modeled and textured, why not start selling it before it is complete to people who would rather wait for it to be complete WHILE they are playing it?

There simply is no reason not to, especially when the demand for the game is as high as it is for Unreal 2. Even so, why the hell do you even care? If you don't want to play it until it is finished, NO ONE is going to force you to buy it before it is. So it's really no concern of yours. Every game you buy is incomplete and buggy anyway, the only difference is that they try to pass it off as complete. At least this way you know it isn't the final product.

I don't see why you mental midgets are getting so up in arms over this idea. It's already being done, and only good comes from it. Everybody wins. So take your own advice and go breath some fresh air.... ya never know, it just might stimulate some brain cell growth.

I'm done with you....

I've made it as clear as I could possibly make it. You just have a reading comprehension problem. I'm sorry you were unable to understand.

Good luck in life...

...you will need it.