The problem with updates and spoilers - A discussion

Just purely for transparency and accountability reasons, they have to do updates. Then, you have to consider the excitement of the fans. A certain amount of detail has to go out there for the consumers. I'm a MN9 backer and I didn't even know that about the boss, which adds another point - you're largely responsible for how spoiled/not spoiled you are. At this point and later, it might be wise to not watch videos showcasing areas, if they continue to do that. It's more or less the individual's responsibility, and the communication/excitement areas shouldn't suffer because a certain demographic have personal issue with when they see something.

We talked about this a good bit starting here in Design Review:
bloodstainedfanforums.com/post/25400/thread

You might notice I'm one of those that hates spoilers - I blacked myself out completely on Souls 3 recently for example. That's a different situation, though. I'm connected and involved with the growth and community of this game, and it having a strong start and doing well is something important to me. With From Software, I'm more or less just letting them do what they do, and then experience it on my own time.

Anyway, yeah, my first paragraph sums up how I feel about the whole thing.

Gonna be frank, Pure Miriam: a bunch of what you're suggesting is a good way to make a lot of people upset over time.

When people are invested in a project monrtarily they want to know what's going on with it. You can see it in other kickstarters when developers go silent for a long time people get upset.

So if you say you don't want to know too much you have to ask yourself: what is too much? If they do updates every two months it is a fewer amount of updates but there's still a chance you're going to be spoiled on something. And they're already doing the other yeoman suggestions you gave.

If you're really worried about finding out too much there's also just not looking at the updates. You don't have to worry about being spoiled and the people that do want that info still gets it.

I made a poll about this 1 year ago:

bloodstained.forums.net/thread/272/poll-monthly-ks-update

I voted for "prefer to know nothing" but... you know what happens. I found myself refreshing Bloodstained Kickstarer page at the start of every month.

If you don't want to be spoiled, you can just not look at the updates. But can you handle the torture? XD

And if you can handle that, the real torture test is yet to come: the Beta! I for one wouldn't be able to resist the Beta. Hell, I even dreamed about the bloody Demo last night as I keep watching it xxx times now.

You can think of the updates this way: this is your only chance to experience it. To be part of the big team that make this game a reality. Even SOTN cant give you this kind of experience.

I agree with most of what you said. Of course, there can't be spoiler-free updates, but it would be nice to tone down a little. From here on, i think we should get a glimpse of the castle and such. The general gameplay system, through, i don't have any problem with it.

About "Just don't look at it", well, it is hard, of course, since i'm inside the same Minerva-Boat as you all and want to see how things are going. I just thought this could be a interesting discussion.

No offense taken. Maybe you are right.

That reminds me of some policies old message boards I visited before social media took off had. If it was information from an official or reputable source and meant to be known (press releases, trailers, announcements, interviews, magazine articles), it usually wasn't a spoiler. If it was from a leak (a fan getting their hands on something early, an employee or voice actor accidentally giving away info they weren't supposed to, toy companies displaying action figures of unannounced characters for events geared towards the marketing/business audience rather than fans, etc), it was considered a spoiler.

There's also the nature of the game to consider. I'm usually okay with games that are gameplay-driven or have minimal story giving away their final bosses and areas since they're usually pretty straightforward with what the player can expect. I tend to avoid discussion on story-driven games (RPGs, Telltale games, Metal Gear Solid, Undertale) until after I play them since the story is the big selling point.

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With Bloodstained, I can see both sides of the spoiler issue.

I want to keep an eye on the game, read and discuss the Kickstarter updates, there'll probably be more of an emphasis on gameplay than story, and people should avoid reading updates at their own discretion. As mentioned earlier, things like the Minerva aren't really what a lot of people would consider spoilers since it's part of a public demo, setting context for the game, and meant to be known.

At the same time I would greatly appreciate it if everyone involved with the updates (IGA, Artplay, Inti, and Fangamer?) used discretion towards keeping a fair amount of Bloodstained's story details, areas, and bosses withheld until release since exploration and discovery are a big part of IGAvanias. I have a feeling this could already be the case and those involved with the updates have a general idea of what share and what to keep secret.

Unless it's a FromSoft dark fantasy game, I can't see how they can keep the game 'hidden'.

I think knowing general things about the game does help the audience, as well as showing off parts of the game to players. I'm sure they'll be careful on what they show off, because they have to show something.

Showing off the earlier stages of the game is probably the safest bet they have. Most of IGA's games have been previewed and showcased in this manner.

Also, I bet they have MUCH more stuff that they're still not showing us. So you don' have to worry about being spoiled. What you see is what Iga think it's spoiler-free.

It's possible that they have 10+ bosses, 100+ weapons, 500+ rooms done by now. But they only show us the Galleon Minerva. =)