Imagine I told you that I'd get you a really nice shirt, if you paid me 20 bucks. You'd say "Okay, let me see the shirt" and i'd say "Well, you can't see it, but here is a picture of what we want it to look like". Maybe you'd ask "Oh, is that a picture of the shirt?" and I'd say "No, this is a picture of the concept of the shirt. The real shirt will be a lot better, and likely in a similar color, I promise. Also it won't be done for another 4 months, but if you give me the 20 bucks now, I'll make sure yours comes with a top button". And then you say "Oh man I need to make sure I get a button!" and give me your 20 bucks, and it turns out the shirt doesn't fit you right, and you're angry, and you complain to your friends.

Now in the real world, your friends would say "What...? You bought a shirt, and you didn't know what size it was, or even for sure what color it was, and you paid for it 4 months in advance? Why...?" and then you say "Because if I bought it at the store after it was done, mine wouldn't have had a top button!" and everyone would laugh at you.

But in the gaming industry, we regularly pay 60 bucks for things that aren't complete. And the only reason we do that, is for "pre order bonuses". But that isn't actually is a nice thing for all the people that bought early, its really just something the devs spent time to make and add to the game, but they then REMOVED from everyone else's copy. Like if your jeans didn't have a back pocket, because you didn't preorder them. That isn't bonus pockets for preorders, that's just removed pockets for people who don't preorder.

But for whatever reason, we keep preordering things, and keep giving gaming companies money to do things that are bad for us. So basically, we buy things that are only half finished, so that when they are finished we get the whole thing, rather than 99% of the thing like everyone who waits, but one of our most common complaints is that companies are "Releasing unfinished games".

Sounds a little silly when you look at it on paper, right?