I'm an economist, so I find this game fascinating. It won't be released for a couple of months, but there will be another alpha test release soon. They are doing an asset auction at the moment. I'm gonna try to buy a bunch of tools for $100. Sounds crazy, but should be very profitable. It would be great if you played this game. There will be unions, so we could work together. This game will be nothing like Drug Wars where it quickly runs out of STEEM. They have their own token, so the devs don't need to constantly sell stuff. Long term it will have it's own in-game governance with voting and a budget from taxation.
It seems like they are emulating the real gold rush by auctioning off equipment to the highest seller. I will take a look this weekend. Hopefully, I don't need to buy Eos to play yet or a minimal amount in anycase.
They're selling golden tickets right now to allow three days early access, but I don't think they will make much difference. Starting without any tools in the beginning might be a little slow and difficult, but you will be able to carry materials for other people to earn PGL, so it will be possible to play without spending anything and to start earning straight away. Of course you need to have an EOS account, which costs a few dollars.