I have participated in the Beta process since June, but I have rarely posted on the Forum. I believe that I belong to a "silent majority" of pre-order customers who simply do not have the time to play a lot and to post expert analyses -- on the sophisticated level of the forum regulars who have played a lot of Sins games (no sarcasm intended).

I can consequently understand why some IC and SD policy-makers might not be enthusiastic about letting "us" (the members of the silent majority of casual gamers) experience a pre-release Beta 5.

On the other hand, do IC and SC intend to limit their sales to a few dozens of MP/RTS fanatics and forum experts ?

I have already paid with my June pre-order, but I have friends who would perhaps purchase the final game if I issued a recommendation. SD marketing must consider that they need to sell tens of thousands of copies of the game. Having a select and elite "private Beta 5", in that commercial context, does not seem to make (business) sense.

Why keep it restricted and secret ? If Beta 5 was public, the forum experts and the IC/SD buddies would still have the possibility to have a special access to the main IC/SD policy-makers, who would consider their reports and suggestions as the cream of the crop -- but IC and SD would also have "more eyes" to catch bugs and more PC-configurations to test the pre-gold-master version on.

Also, and perhaps more importantly, it would be smart marketing diplomacy to include the "silent majority" which has already paid. I agree that we do not have a God-given right to get our hands on that Beta 5 just because we have pre-ordered, but excluding the majority of customers who have already paid does not seem to be a smart business move. As I have stated, even though most of us do not play that much and do not post on the Forum, we can recommend the purchase of the final, retail product to family members and friends.

I humbly understand that IC and SD do not need to have my non-expert opinions on Beta 5, but if they want to sell tens of thousands of copies, what would it cost them to allow the "silent majority" of the pre-order customers to play at Beta 5 ? We might not be MP/RTS fanatics and forum regulars, but we do possess a power to influence the Market.

For example, I teach to 160 students (age 18 to 20) per semester (320 per year !), and I sometimes talk about PC games to relax the atmosphere of my classes. I have recently recommended HMM5/TOE, and some of my students went out and bought the stand-alone expansion because I issued a very enthusiastic recommendation.

Some of you have become very chummy with the key IC and SD policy-makers (no sarcasm intended) : well, good for you if they let you have the privilege of having fun with Beta 5. But I wonder how many thousands of copies of Sins those few IC/SD buddies can sell ...