So 50$ for a pre alpha, beta? but then it ends in February. paid cosmetics for an alpha as well? is it worth it?
No, You will likely spend most of your time in a queue. The time you don't you will spend walking around looking for stuff to kill because there are so many poeple playing the same 4 quests you cant find anything to kill
Don't know where you saw ends in February. EA access runs all the way to live launch. All the moaning about the launch and queues has shown that they got a lot of work to do. So it will run for a good long while. Cosmetics are optional. Don't like that they sell them? Don't buy em.
As said by @unknownsystemerror there is no end to the testing in sight for now as they haven't set an end date. if you don't want to buy cosmetics. you do not have to. I wouldn't join if you wanted a complete gaming experience as there will be wipes but if you want to contribute to testing and having a formed opinion based on actual ingame experience then it's definitely worth it.
I'm pretty sure it's not that the game has a cash shop, its that the cash shop is the most polished part of a game in an Alpha. Which denotes the priorities of the people making the game.
The cash shop may look polished but 90% of all the cosmetics that have been sold from kick starters and those that have purchased the bundles still don't have those in-game yet as well. But also, this is a very simple aspect of the same:
Make cometic → apply to all races → sell on site → purchase → in-game
Really all it is. Very little to develop this since it's mainly just graphical.
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@mag3cmac
To go off what @Hinotori said, don't play/buy the game if you are looking for a completed game with a ton of features and things to do. The development is still in the alpha phase and most likely will be for several more months (if not a year or two). Now, if you want to play and help find bugs and help create a MMO with your feedback and bug reports, then I say give it a try! You will be able to play for the rest of Alpha 2 and going into Beta 1 and 2. On top of that, once the game DOES go live, you will have a free month to play, and the game already purchased.