Lower your Expectations for ED

[Northpin]

For me ED is more like a interactive forum, uou move around looking for somewhere pf interest, sometimes your on your own in a thread and sometimes you see other people. Like most forum software theres a limit on the number of contributors at ay one time so you cant see everyone

To call it a MMO we need to look at other MMO games out there and tbh ED falls massively short of even UOs MMO capabilities.

You cannot say ED it's not a MMO because, for example the 13000+ people that participated in DW2 didn't do it while being in a single instance
Or because the 10000+ people that had built the Colonia bridge didn't do it while being all in the same instance

The common galaxy and everyplayer affecting that galaxy pretty much makes it a MMO

And i'm not even counting the thousands of people that are involved in the BGS or PP skirmishes on a very regular basis

 

[babelfisch]

You cannot say ED it's not a MMO because, for example the 13000+ people that participated in DW2 didn't do it while being in a single instance
Or because the 10000+ people that had built the Colonia bridge didn't do it while being all in the same instance

The common galaxy and everyplayer affecting that galaxy pretty much makes it a MMO

And i'm not even counting the thousands of people that are involved in the BGS or PP skirmishes on a very regular basis

This. Most "real" MMOs don't have all players in a single instance either. 100.000 players fighting the same boss at the same time in the same instance sounds rather stupid in my opinion.

 

[Evoflash]

After being daily player for several years, I’ve had nearly two months away from ED after ragequitting over losing 10 months explo data at the hands of my own carrier.

I loved ED, and it gave me lots of fun, challenge and brought me to a great community. I lived out lots of cool fantasy games and really got it. I was quite happy to say Elite is life.

However with my head out of the game I’m now seeing in more detail that there’s other spaceship sims and exploration things out there that maybe will be better, maybe not. One thing is for sure I’m now slightly pained when looking at exobiology or on foot combat. I wanted to walk on earth likes with awesome graphics and cool weather effects. My feeing is that ED has run it’s course for me. I find the Thargoids stuff uninteresting, I love exploration side of the game - but it’s not a game made for me to my tastes.

I’ve come away from spaceship games until I see the one I want to invest time in, I’d love it to be Elite V!

 

[Darkfyre99]

I play a MMO every day, called Elder Scrolls Online, and while Elite may be an MMO in name and maybe even in numbers, it does not feel like an MMO at all. If anything, it feels just as much a single player game to me as X4, except with Disney animatronics NPCs. At least X4 feels "full" thanks to very realistic and persistent NPCs.

* the obvious exceptions being popular CGs and sometimes Deciat.

I’ve played many MMOs myself. Most of them were like Elite Dangerous: you primarily played them solo or in small groups, you were frequently instanced from one another to keep server loads manageable, with the most players found around certain hubs. Unlike all those other MMOs, ED has two key differences: players are able to affect aspects of the shared game environment, regardless of instancing or time zone, and it’s unique methodology of dealing with the age old grief problem in an open world PvPvE environment. I never liked the forced social MMOs myself, even before real life started to require scheduling such things weeks in advance.

As for NPCs… the only animatronic ones are in station concourses, and not all of them there are like that. ED’s NPCs may never rise to the interactivity of a single player role-playing game, but at least they’re aware enough to make stealth gameplay possible. I’d be playing this game a lot more if it was a single player game.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

....

I’ve come away from spaceship games until I see the one I want to invest time in, I’d love it to be Elite V!

That would need a lot of pesuasive arguments to even make me have a look at it. I'm not buying another game where the dev annuls player progression willy-nilly without any form of compensation. My time is too precious for that.

 

[Shabine]

This. Most "real" MMOs don't have all players in a single instance either. 100.000 players fighting the same boss at the same time in the same instance sounds rather stupid in my opinion.

ED isn't an mmo, not because everyone isn't on a single shard, but because it's a game that can be played as a single player title while also being online and affecting a shared galaxy.

 

[Northpin]

ED isn't an mmo, not because everyone isn't on a single shard, but because it's a game that can be played as a single player title while also being online and affecting a shared galaxy.

There is no Single player mode in Elite.
Solo is not single player. Is only filtering other players out from direct contact, but without filtering the effects of their actions (or the effect of my actions on them)

Me and you, both in solo, it's like we're being in 2 different instances.
But if i go to station X and buy that G3 Exec with Scope and Audio Masking, you cannot buy it, its gone.
And if i put a system in lockdown, that will affect your gameplay too or if i trigger a war etc etc

it is as MMO as it can be.

 

[Shabine]

Solo is not single player. Is only filtering other players out from direct contact, but without filtering the effects of their actions (or the effect of my actions on them)

That's my point. There is no mmo that allows you to completely remove all direct multiplayer interaction. Solo is essentially single player. I honestly don't care about the semantics people use to convince themselves and others that it isn't. For all intents and purposes, it is.

 

[Christopher Roberto]

"MMO" was never very well defined, and when games like UO/EQ/AC started a craze, everyone claimed their multiplayer game was a MMO. And in modern times, everyone has tried to claim their ancient game prior to the term existing was a MMO, wikipedia now even attempts to call MUDs MMOs. But back when UO came out, we took the massively in MMORPG to mean players you were simultaneously interacting with. Shared worlds with a large player base and a handful online were nothing new, the acronym was to describe something that was different.

So you might as well call ED a MMO, since a game most players play essentially offline just completes the utter destruction and humiliation of the term.

 

[Shabine]

So you might as well call ED a MMO, since a game most players play essentially offline just completes the utter destruction and humiliation of the term.

That's an excellent point. Calling ED an "mmo" really does jam one more big old nail in that useless, amorphous term's coffin, doesn't it?

 

[Old Duck]

ED isn't an mmo, not because everyone isn't on a single shard, but because it's a game that can be played as a single player title while also being online and affecting a shared galaxy.

Oh yes it is. I have been persuaded, through brute force and the chorus of a thousand voices, that Elite and Star Citizen are the only two games comparable to each other because they are MMOs. X4 has absolutely nothing in common with Elite or SC and shall never be used again as a comparison. Heck, X4 isn't even a true space game! Elite is only true space game, and the bestest one ever. It's also the only true MMO, and the bestest one ever. The only game that comes close in category is Star Citizen, which is the worstest one ever and makes Elite look great in comparison.

Well, I guess I'll just slink back into my corner and enjoy my not space game that has nothing in common with Elite. Nothing.. In common... At all..... Too bad I don't have a cool acronym to make it worthy of discussion, like MMO.. Hmmm, how about IOC? Yes, I like that!

 

[St0rmFury]

A hybrid MMO perhaps?

 

[Northpin]

So you might as well call ED a MMO, since a game most players play essentially offline just completes the utter destruction and humiliation of the term.

offline?
yeah, right!

 

[IstvaanDCIV]

ED has a 1:1 scale model of the galaxy, using procedural generation to fill in the gaps in real astronomical data. Even the bubble alone has like 50,000 inhabited systems. So I'd say that's "massive" by any reasonable definition of the term.

Multiplayer? Definitely. Even when playing Solo, you're still affecting a shared galaxy. I don't know why having the ability to avoid direct interactions should disqualify. ED is the only that does it? Or is just the first?

Online? Well, I'd call this one indisputable.

So yeah, ED is an MMO.

 

[Shabine]

A hybrid MMO perhaps?

Elite Dangerous is a Sort Of Multiplayer But Not If You Don't Ever Want To See Anyone But Also It Is Because We're Technically All Online Affecting The Same Galaxy But Also We Don't Have To If We Don't Want To Game (SOMBNIYDEWTSABAIIBWTAOATSGBAWDHTIWDWTG).

 

[Northpin]

Elite Dangerous is a Sort Of Multiplayer But Not If You Don't Ever Want To See Anyone But Also It Is Because We're Technically All Online Affecting The Same Galaxy But Also We Don't Have To If We Don't Want To Game (SOMBNIYDEWTSABAIIBWTAOATSGBAWDHTIWDWTG).

It's a MMO, with the added feature of players having more control over who they're instancing with (through the modes, which are nothing less or nothing more than a player filter)

 

[Shabine]

It's a MMO, with the added feature of players having more control over who they're instancing with (through the modes, which are nothing less or nothing more than a player filter)

So basically, it's an mmo I can play as a single player game by using Solo mode. Got it.

 

[Old Duck]

I had to look back at the OP to verify, and lo and behold, none of his complaints observations were about Elite as an MMO. Though ironically most of the things he mentions (forests, trees, birds, and other planet-based gameplay) are ever going to be found in X4 either, so I guess none of us are on topic, LOL. It looks like the No Man's Sky crew takes the win on this debate!

Oh, and in this regard, Star Citizen does have more in common with Elite than X4, and I'm not even being sarcastic!

 

[Shabine]

I had to look back at the OP to verify, and lo and behold, none of his complaints observations were about Elite as an MMO. Though ironically most of the things he mentions (forests, trees, birds, and other planet-based gameplay) are ever going to be found in X4 either, so I guess none of us are on topic, LOL. It looks like the No Man's Sky crew takes the win on this debate!

Oh, and in this regard, Star Citizen does have more in common with Elite than X4, and I'm not even being sarcastic!

This brings up an important point.

"Birds". "Trees". "Forests".

What the actual hell does any of this have to do with space simulation? It's like people aren't happy with a game about cosmic exploration, galactic shipping and interstellar combat if they can't wander through a forest and take a leak on a tree. We need to be able to get poop on our boots and waddle through snow storms and pick up boxes with hyper-realistic box-picking-up animations or else the EMESHUN is not complete.

I think this bothers me more than anything else. Games need to be good at what they do, not do everything all the time at the expense of the quality that focus yields.

 

[Old Duck]

ED has a 1:1 scale model of the galaxy, using procedural generation to fill in the gaps in real astronomical data. Even the bubble alone has like 50,000 inhabited systems. So I'd say that's "massive" by any reasonable definition of the term.

Multiplayer? Definitely. Even when playing Solo, you're still affecting a shared galaxy. I don't know why having the ability to avoid direct interactions should disqualify. ED is the only that does it? Or is just the first?

Online? Well, I'd call this one indisputable.

So yeah, ED is an MMO.

I'd just like to remind people that this entire debate started because X4 was "disqualified" as a comparable game to Elite Dangerous (despite the great big long list of similarities I provided) because it's not an "MMO", whereas supposedly Star Citizen is, and thus that is why Star Citizen is the only comparable game to Elite Dangerous, and since Star Citizen is just a broken alpha tech demo, that means Elite Dangerous is the ONLY true (and bestest ever) space game out there.

Somehow I'm playing X4 almost identically to the way I spent most of my time playing Elite (only better), but I guess that's because of my ignorance of what an MMO is.