Some people like there games like they like there women "With issues"

(I'm not one of them <.< Please don't kill me hon!)

It doesn't necessarily require them to be in denial of reality. They can acknowledge the problems, but at the same time find the experience fun as a whole - warts and all. A person enjoying the story/acting of a movie will be more likely to forgive it having horrible camera work, video quality, etc. They'll still notice it, but by being immersed in what they do like, they'll tune out the problems temporarily. This is different from denial of reality which would be saying the movie has no problems whatsoever. The ability for people to do this differs from person to person though. I'd imagine a person suffering from OCD, for instance, wouldn't be able to overlook any small issue, and would instead allow that issue to nag at them and build upon other issues they found until they could no longer enjoy the experience at all.

In this case, the guy being sold on the game could have very well seen the problems, but at the same time, seen the potential. A good deal of people here have confidence in Stardock to correct the problems in the game, and even improve the areas that aren't problematic over time.

This is a gamble of course, but strategy games are the definitions of taking logical gambles based on expected returns later on. The people that pre-ordered the game expecting a perfect release with every little thing that was ever discussed in a dev journal, for instance, made a gamble that failed. (One could even say this was a rather risky gamble to make given the track record of virtually all games that have been openly discussed since their inception.) It remains to be seen what the return will be for people who bought the game based on the expectations that Stardock will continue to improve on it over time. Given Stardock's track record on supporting games post release, however, this seems to be a rather safe gamble to make.

That said, I do think that the game was released too early, and that there shouldn't have been as many problems at release as the game has. Just the same,  I'm one of those who firmly hedged their bets on the ultimate state of the game, not the one it was released in. I still see my investment as a safe one, and hope to see it pay off - for there is nothing quite like Elemental out there on the horizon. (Civ 5, other than being a TBS, is hardly comparable.)

I find it a little disheartening to see that every thread with a positive attitude gets dragged down by a discussion about the "issues". The topic started even wrote that his friend visited at his place and they looked at the game together. That should have provided a pretty good first hand impression of the game.

Being dishonest is wrong, even if you're positive about it.

To be fair, that's not true either. There's plenty of constructive criticism here, and you can tell that the majority of the playerbase agrees this game is not in good shape atm.

Guys I just got back from my buds house, I played the game over there for 3 hours straight and never had any problems. The more I played, the more I realized this game is awesome and addicting. I guess you can safely say he sold me the game even though I told him about it being released first. Maybe if I played more I will notice issues but as of now, I don't notice ANYTHING, it seems to me it all actually works ok but I want to see more creatures, quests, things like that this game has plenty of room to grow. Now his game is patched up to 1.06 so I supposed most of the main issues were with the earlier release version.

Most of the nuked threads were nuked for a good reason, there are lots of constructive threads around that criticize every little detail in a manner that will help Stardock to make a better game. We don't need threads where the main drift is to the "you s*ck" direction.

My brother watched me go through the beta process and he decided long ago to get it once it came out.  However, he couldn't do the beta then because he was busy and now is still busy enough that he just doesn't have the time to play it.  Don't worry though, I'll nag him until he buys it and he'll thank me for it!