Early Access games were "popularized" two/two and a half years ago. Then, every single day I login into my Steam account, I was "presented" with a message from some publisher trying to offer me early access games to test and help to develop. I've never had any, until Dirt Rally comes out. I'm a HUGE fan of rally (we here, in Portugal, do really like two major sports; football - which I hate!! - and rally), and I decided I want to have and test out this new Dirt game since day 0. I did so, and I'm not disappointed, not a bit! I do think we, as gamers, should be part of this develop stage of games. World is much more "connected" than 10 years ago. Gosh, world is much more connectec than 6 months ago! I'm 23 years old and I remember quite well that, when I was 5 or 6, I wish I could talk and have some friends from around the world. Now we can just go to YouTube, post a comment and make friends! Is incredible how small the world is nowadays, and I love it!
So, I think that's quite incredible we, as gamers, can actually be part of the development of our favourite games. When I think about it, I know it's an honor to me to help this big companies.