You could say this about most if not all scams I dare say. It’s “your fault” you fell for it.
Only if there is no chance to see your money back. A scam for me is something that is clearly desigend to trick you into buying it and then you out of luck because there is no chance of refunding your money. But in this case everybody who spend more then 20 minutes into it can see what this game is about and has no issues to get their money back.
The game was marketed as the most ambituous MMO since a very long time and apparently what they released is a bad extraction shooter so idk if I could call it anything but a scam.
I completeley agree on the shady marketing but again I dont see the possible advantage for the developers in this. They marketed their game as something that it is clearly not, so people just can check it for themselves or from valid ressources and then refund the game. No damage done except a little loss of time on your end.
And please don’t think that I defend this game, I dont give a flying fuck about it, not even interested in it. I just find that a scam is something like Chronicles of Elyria, where all the kickstarter backers never wil see their money back. But The Day before is just a very terrible video game, nothing more, nothing less, at least in my opinion.