Too Much, Too Soon, Too Late?

Yes, I used the same cover-art for two posts in a row.

I’m going to write what I hope will be a few words and then I want to turn this back to the community for thoughts, because I realize a lot of what I write here is entirely from within my own echo-chamber where I get to be enamored with my own thoughts and opinions, and I don’t really ask for folks to chime in (folks only often comment in places where articles raise their ire, and I really don’t like being That Kind of Blogger).

I’m currently watching the dev diary from Inflexion regarding their upcoming “Realm Rebuilt” update for their early access title Nightingale. When Nightingale was first announced I think it piqued interest, but since it released into EA I think I’m the only person I know who played it. Even then, I stopped because of the usual handwaving reasons. I really do like the game, though, and I think they have a lot of interesting concepts that simply were — as we should expect and accept — in their infancy. Realm Rebuilt, then, improves a lot of aspects of the game (most of which won’t mean anything to you if you haven’t played previously) in response to player feedback.

My concern then, is “does this matter”. Since I hadn’t really heard too many people — or really anyone I can recall — talking about Nightingale, is this update going to push it in front of them so that they care to give it a shot? Is it going to be enough to bring lapsed players back? Or will Nightingale suffer from “too much, too soon, too late”.

Here’s my theory: some games like Nightingale or — let’s face it — Star Citizen, et al., which launch in Early Access get a flood of people in (flood is relative) who are playing “a game in flux”. They play and either get through content, burn out, or are turned off from what they see. Then the game changes or improves, hopefully. At this point, has the game somehow squandered its opportunity to appeal in it’s “final form” by slouching towards some ideal of completion? It’s not so much a question of “development or release” as it is “you only get one shot to make a first impression” no matter how powerful your impression becomes over time. In fact, I can only think of two games which have blown the doors off of their initial presentation: Final Fantast XIV and No Man’s Sky.

Aside from implications of “early access” on technical issues or financial concerns, what does this early access pipeline mean to you? Do you avoid EA for the express purpose of not spoiling a 1.0 by riding the train towards the destination? Do you think games that start poorly are fairly or unfairly judged forevermore? How much work would a developer need to do to their initial product to get you back on-board with an EA project you dismissed for whatever reason?