Alpha-2 isn't REALLY a 'product being sold' that they need to maintain some hype for. If there was more to show, anything that was mostly finished, but could influence our opinion for the better and improve feedback, I don't really understand why one wouldn't show it.
I think it's the classic "most people will never understand that it's an alpha". As much as we and/or Intrepid want to show the most current development of things, the masses, that would see those things on smth like Asmon's stream or those who just get recommended clips from the stream, would just complain that "this shit looks unfinished and/or broken". Especially when you consider that most clips are usually torn out of Steven's double, or sometimes triple, context of "THIS IS AN ALPHA, YOU DUMBFUCKS, WE'RE TESTING UNFINISHED SHIT" (I'm obviously paraphrasing here, but the core message of his prefaces is the same).
Never underestimate how truly dumb the masses could be.
Right, I get that, but why treat it as 'holding some stuff back for Alpha-2' rather than just saying 'some other stuff isn't ready yet'?
The first reason I think this is confusing/bad is because it implies this is all we are going to get to see before Alpha-2 of the Ranger, for example. If Alpha-2 is close, fine, if not, eh?
I guess it could just be Steven going 'well I'll use this reasoning', but I think it's potentially a loss. If you had something good to show, then I say show it. They went into talking about Lore instead, which, honestly, I'd massively prefer that they
definitely did not do
. Why spoil 'story' stuff but be concerned about 'showing off Ranger Mechanics'? There certainly would be some development done on those between now and Alpha-2 anyway.
I guess It could be gearing up to another round of "Archetype Reveals" going into that, or maybe trying to make sure they focus the feedback down a bit, it just seems like a really strange reason to give for 'not showing us something'.
People already think things are unfinished or broken. That's never going to stop happening. But now, those who could explain potential ways they aren't broken, have no way to do that. If Intrepid doesn't know for certain either, it is what it is, though.