I understand the desire to keep kbin a solo project in order to maintain control over it, but if this is going to see any success in the long term, then there needs to be a team. I like kbin over lemmy for the interface and mocroblog integration, but the spam and lack of updates are taking its toll. At the very least, there needs to be another admin or two to look after things whenever Ernest isn't around.
Perhaps I didn't make myself clear. I am not against Epic because of their privacy policy. I don't like Epic because of their business practices and owners, and don't want to give them anything, even if it's just a bogus email address and a few clicks or whatnot. And no, I never tried to imply other companies don't do the same thing.
Here's the bottom line, as far as I'm concerned:
I don't like Epic, and want nothing to do with them. If others want to interact with them, even if it's just for the free games, that's their decision to make.
Sure, their primary focus is most likely generating interest and usage of their platform, but they'll also use analytical and statistical information to influence their business decisions.
If that's something you don't care about, then more power to you - enjoy your free game.
On a personal note, I made the decision as a consumer to not interact with them as much as possible. Even when I did have an account to collect free games years ago, the only thing I actually played was a Satisfactory alpha/beta event. I have more than enough games to play, so I am not concerned with collecting their free games.
But it does. You're still giving them your data, which they can use for all manner of things. If that's something you don't care about, then more power to you - enjoy your free game.
Ultimately, if you want a free game and have no issues with Epic, then hurray, you get a free game. Some of us don't like Epic and prefer to give them nothing (including our data), even if it means passing up on free games. I have no shortage of games to play, so I won't be missing a free copy of FO3 or whatever else they decide to offer up.
Early access isn't necessarily different from a beta version, it's just the name of the program used by devs to generate some revenue and get feedback during development. The game can be in alpha or beta or whatever.
Personally, I avoid games in early access on principle (with a couple exceptions) as I would rather play them once they are completed.
What is or isn't immersive is subjective, for sure. As far as a UI goes, some people may think that having a UI with too many elements or taking up too much space can detract from actually experiencing the game and its environments.
I didn't say anything about actually believing you are the character. Immersion doesn't have anything to do with deception and is more about being engrossed or deeply involved with something. You can be immersed in other things too, like a tv show, book, or tabletop game.
I think it's less about being "tricked" into believing you aren't actually playing a game, and more along the lines of having the mindset that you are actually playing as your character. It's more like the difference between performing tasks, going from A to B, and checking boxes on a list, versus actually feeling like you're going on an adventure.