After the debacle that was Destiny 2, which I pre-ordered for $100 (which was a lot back then), I swore off ever pre-ordering games ever again. However Starfield is out soon, and I have been dying to play it it’s the whole reason I bought my Series X. So, do I preorder it?
No. You don’t preorder it.
The only reason why preordering was a thing to begin with was to secure last minute funding for small devs to buy the infrastructure they would need to support their game after release.
Starfield is not made by a small dev studio. They have billions of dollars behind them and preordering will not impact the course of its release, nor will preordering ‘reward the developers’, as they are paid in fixed wages and have no financial stake in its success beyond maybe a tiny token bonus. (This is also why we consider Piracy justifiable for non-indie games. )
There will be no material benefit for you to preorder vs buying once the game is released and public opinions on its state become available.
P.S, you’re on Lemmygrad. You’re not going to get a different answer.