"And i mean, if you pay the 50 bucks now or in 6 months, whats the difference?"

Because in 6 months this game will be so price reduced it makes sense to wait since they cannot sell any copies at 50 dollars.

There's currently a price war on Amazon, price went down another dollar today. A few sellers are duking it out, it's down to 28 dollars, brand new.

I had three companies on my, "Pre-order buy automatically list". Paradox Interactive, Stardock and Creative Assemblies (TW games). The reason they were on that list is releasing solid products based upon strong pre-release testing and even stronger follow-up support. PI got bumped off that list with Hearts of Iron III, CA lost their seat with Empire and now Stardock fell off the wagon with Elemental. They all released those products in equally bad states of un-playability. PI and CA never have fixed their games to an acceptable state, Stardock still has a chance to redeem itself.

From now on I wait for reviews and a few patches before I buy...sadly...As this kind of puts a damper on the excitement of new releases, but in today's market, buyer beware...

Well if you want the expansion for free, buy now.

Wait and use that money to buy Civ 5 next week. Don't listen to the fanboys. This game will be fun in a year, plus it will probably be 30 or 20 bucks by then.

I bought it last week and must say I am really enjoying it. I realize that my saves will be useless after each patch is released but I am ok with that. I love Sandbox type games and LOVED Civ4. True some of the game needs to be balanced better and there are a TON of spelling errors and the like... nothing too bad.

The game is complicated and it very well might take several weeks to get really good at it and really understand it. True, it all might change, but I find it hard to believe the fundimental game mechanics will change THAT much.

I have not had any crashes and I have played it on four different machines, two of which were not up to snuff hardware wise and the game barely ran on it.

I'm confident the Devs will fix the game and in due time it will be great. I bought the game on release, but I'm not playing it anymore. I find one bug in particuliar to be a game killer, where the AI seems to be completely ignoring basic economy mechanics. Given Stardocks record though, I'm not worried.

Civilization series was never really any better after CIV II. If you're buying CIV V you are just buying into the same donkey milking crap you've already bought into before. Pick a civilization, research the same damn tech tree you've been researching since CIV I and go for the victory you've been going for since CIV I & II the race to space because the AI is never going to vote you the leader of the game. Oh boy this time there is actually a race in space oh boy yeah I want to spend another $50 on the series for that crap. Oh boy it has HEXES now instead of squares, Oh boy it has armies of units instead of the single type we've all used for 20 years now. lol Don't forget it's THREE-DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE woohoo. lmao. Another stab at milking the donkey of the same game they've been milking with for years. Glad I did the series like one of you above is saying to do for Elemental. I got Civ IV complete for $7.99 yep that's right the entire series for $7.99 as I'm not going to waste my money on the same crapola donkey milking game it's always been after Civ II. Civ II is the best and will always be the best.

Exactly.  I'd say why risk missing out on the fun of playing another game that's actually complete?  Maybe you'd find discovering bug fixes fun but all the real content will be new to you no matter when you start playing.  

In addition, everybody seems to be 100% positive Stardock can fix this game.  As much as we all hope it will get better, I think they may be in over their head on this one.  I know they have a strong track record of improving games post release but I'm starting to have my doubts about this for Elemental.  Between the technical challenges such as fixing the AI and revamping the combat mechanics and the constraints placed on the game by the predetermined lore it seems like fixing the game is going to be a challenge.  I hope Stardock is up to it but I'd recommend that anybody who has not purchased the game wait as long as they can to see if the patches are really going in the right direction.  

I would buy both:) Don't listen to the haters:P

Do you like to be a beta tester even if you have to pay money for it? (serious question, not a joke, I do for example) Then buy it. You will see how game progresses and you will have influence on this game - Stardock listens. But be prepared that game is not that interesting right now. What is fun is to watch it grow, and becoming good game - it is different kind of fun.

Bought it - have been playing it every day - looking forward each day to a patch - and liking the responsed from devs on the game and patch ETA.

Lots of potential to increase the gameplay fun - i say go for it.

I came back to re-address my comment above.  
I still say buy it. I had a good time with it until I became very very bored with how shallow it feels. It's now sitting there unplayed for the last week. I WILL play it again, probably at 1.1 where Froggy said the real changes are happening, not 1.08.  So, in the meantime, I'll play Civ5 when it gets here. To me, it's not a Civ5 vs EWoM issue.. I think both will be great. 

But still, buy it, you may enjoy it longer than I did and maybe by then the changes that actually make it a bit deeper and more exciting will have come into effect. I think, in the end, you'll buy it, so why not get something out of the same money instead of delaying it a while longer.   I'm bored now, but I will be back to play it and I'm sure I'll enjoy it... eventually.