After reading the original post I would have to say you are over-reacting, the reply does feel to be made with humour intended and not as a jab against you.

There was one unreasonable person in that coversation, and it was not DanAmrich

How about you give us a link to that conversation, rather than just relying on your side of the story?

And yes, many Early Access games are sold cheaper than the planned 1.0 price, so they are essentially discounted, even without the discount label.

Pretty much. I get it that sometimes the tone can be misinterpreted in a written conversation like this, but to twist this into something worth going all "You have lost a sale and a fan" requires more imagination than I've got.

Stuff like this makes me feel really sorry for people who manage public relations. No matter what you say, there's always a chance someone will get all bent out of shape over nothing.

How about you give us a link to that conversation, rather than just relying on your side of the story?

And yes, many Early Access games are sold cheaper than the planned 1.0 price, so they are essentially discounted, even without the discount label.

Thank you for this. If we ever needed an example of offence being taken and not given, this would be it.

Looks like kai2 needs to change their name to Karen.

It's not obvious, because you asked a question. But now you don't like the answer. And yeah, you absolutely overreacted. He did no such thing. You completely misread the reply, and should apologize.

"Get your ice packs! Freshly frozen! Get your ice packs right here!"

If you judge the intent of the statement and overlook the modern and informal phrasing that is commonplace and no longer deemed irreverent.... it seems that you may have overreacted a smidge. I don't believe he meant any harm.

Key and Peele comedy skit nsfw

Yeah, now after also reading the reply that triggered this, I see nothing whatsoever that could be potentially seen as bothersome in it. And, if anything, the smiley strikes me as a way to indicate that it was written in good spirit, without any anger, offense or malice.

The last time I played a commercial game before its release was Pandora: First Contact.

Not only did the devs (Proxy Studios) give me access to the beta build for free, they actually thanked me for the time spent helping them debugging then offered me an exclusive discount to buy the full game once it got released. They obviously did the same for all the people who participated in the beta test.

This is the only sensible way to treat people who are willing to give their time to help you get your game in good shape for its release. And if as a developer you are not OK with that: go hire a professional team of testers.

Already did. Just hope these pearls go with this dress!
Hey, weren't you in that thread arguing that the price was fully warranted?

Have no problem with that. IMO would have been a better response than what I got... and not up for interpretation. And BTW, my wife read that reply in the same way I did... and I showed it to her cold with no explanation. As I said earlier, she called him a "jerk." So...

Yeah, I beta tested a couple of games and had good rapport with the devs. It does exist.

This issue is just a community manager who made a quick, flippant reply and didn't think much about it... but therein lies the problem. Not the end of the world... (they certainly don't care about one less sale)... but kinda disappointing nonetheless.

As I stated earlier, I have no problem with the price of the 1.0 being higher. The devs always said this would be the case.

My issue was when I simply asked whether the EA version would go on sale again prior to launch the community manager used the response to -- instead of just saying "no" -- made a flippant response that I interpreted as snide (and my wife interpreted it the same way).

That's my only issue. When dealing with the public a community manager should try to be forthright and be mindful of how his / her responses are being interpreted. Again, if he's just have said "I'm sorry but we've put a lot of hard work into the game and can't afford to discount again prior to 1.0 launch," the entire issue would have been understood and done. I even said that in my response to him.

The one thing I've learned from this though...

... I'm done with early access games. No time for variable pricing, paying to beta, and hoping that the game finally releases. This just cemented it for me.