Scopique
ScopiqueYes, 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?
3 Comments
Nimgimli
September 6, 2024 - 2:13 pmWell first, I playing Nightingale and I know Bhagpuss at Inventory Full played it quite a bit as well. I’m sure there were others!
But for a LONG time I had a firm policy of not buying Early Access titles because I didn’t want to ruin that ‘new game smell’ on a game that was half finished. It kind of felt like sitting in the editing room when a film was being cut. By the time you see the final theater release a lot of the “Whoa!” feeling is gone. It CAN be nice to see how the sausage is made, but it can also be nice to bite into a delicious sausage and be completely surprised at how much fennel adds to the flavor.
Eventually FOMO wore me down and I started buying EA games but I’m rarely really satisfied with them, so I do think I’m going to try to build those walls back up. I mean some games are essentially finished but stay in EA for years and I’ll make exceptions for those, but these games that are like “Here’s a minimum viable product…we’ll add content over time” I’m going to go back to skipping until they’re actually complete games.
This isn’t even about an EA title being bad, for me. I just like new games and an EA game, by the time it launches, no longer feels like a new game if I’ve first played it a few years back.
Tipa
September 6, 2024 - 2:43 pmI tried it a couple of times and kept getting killed immediately.
So… I lost interest.
Azuriel
September 6, 2024 - 8:39 pmMy preferred genre these days are survival crafting games, so I either play Early Access games or nothing at all.
Nightingale is on my List, but I missed the original sale and thus never got around to purchasing it. With these games, I will typically play them until I hit the end of meaningful content and/or have my suspension of disbelief eroded by some obvious placeholder. For example, I played Valheim for almost 47 hours back in 2021, defeated a golem in the mountains, and it dropped an important-sounding item that literally had no use. Wiki said it was “not yet implemented.” Lost all motivation to play even though I technically still had the Plains biome to explore. Never went back either, although will probably do so once/if it hits 1.0.
It is amusing seeing these developer pivots though. In Nightingale’s case, they were apparently surprised that players wanted the ability to play offline. Like… duh? The only thing that ever justifies “always online” is if there is an “always multiplayer” aspect to a game, and Nightingale’s endgame bait-and-switch isn’t until, well, the endgame. Or so I’ve heard anyway. I wish them luck in any case, but I do wish devs would stop having to learn the same lessons over and over again.