How does Elite Dangerous affect your RL?
- Thread starter Happy Daze
- Start date
And go to Burger King afterwards?I've been tempted to rob some trucks...
I never really was a gamer, I’d had a couple of consoles but they usually gathered dust until sold. For me a PC was for work, and having done 10 hours straight the last thing I wanted to do was fire up a game and play/sit a further few hours rooted to the same place I’d just spent stressing a hard days work at. However all that slowly changed when I heard about ED. It reminded me of the original game that I had never actually played but had always admired. Back in the day a good friend had played it on the BBC and we had often talked about it when we discussed his passion for all things space related. These conversations always captivated my interest but until ED was announced I’d never played the OG Elite. So in my head - don’t ask me why - I thought before I play the sequel I must play the original. Hence I bought a zx spectrum off eBay and a copy of the original elite game for it. The box game is a work of art, the manual really sets the scene and the accompanying novella “The Dark Wheel” further fires the imagination. Anyway back to earth, the Spectrum didn’t work so I ended up joining a dedicated ZX spectrum forum and learned how to diagnose and fix my issues. This had the side effect of getting fully involved in the vintage zx spectrum world. I then played the game for hours and hours eventually getting Elite. In many months between playing I learned how to program in Basic - for the second time in my life - and wrote two pretty poor but fully functional games before starting the still ongoing journey of learning machine code - all because of ED.
The second phase of ED effecting my life: I don’t remember if I got ED with the intention of going VR or if I learned of VR in these forums but either way I slowly headed towards building a VR environment. Initially I was cautious due to the cost. My machine was not good enough for VR and I had read that lots of people have issues with VR that you would only know about when you try it. So not wanting to waste money I broke the journey down to a few steps, evaluating/validating each experience before moving on. My first step was the game (tick), secondly I ditched the mouse and keyboard and got a HOTAS. That went well. I believe my next step was to upgrade my graphics card to a 1080ti and then finally I bought a hardly used second hand Oculus CV1 headset. This was an almighty wow moment. Not just ED but the immersion VR offered blew me away. So I headed off down a couple of rabbit holes one of which was building PCs, the other was a VR flight simulator called Xplane 11 which in turn lead to me learning to fly real planes… I don’t fly anymore but I did and it was all down to ED.
Lastly I was an early backer of EDO and aside from all the initial issues the genre piqued my interest and got me to explore more games of that type. I’ve since got a small library of similar on foot/exploration experiences that I play, one of which gave me the idea to write a further game for the zx spectrum so all in all ED has had quite the effect on me and my life over the past 8 odd years.
The second phase of ED effecting my life: I don’t remember if I got ED with the intention of going VR or if I learned of VR in these forums but either way I slowly headed towards building a VR environment. Initially I was cautious due to the cost. My machine was not good enough for VR and I had read that lots of people have issues with VR that you would only know about when you try it. So not wanting to waste money I broke the journey down to a few steps, evaluating/validating each experience before moving on. My first step was the game (tick), secondly I ditched the mouse and keyboard and got a HOTAS. That went well. I believe my next step was to upgrade my graphics card to a 1080ti and then finally I bought a hardly used second hand Oculus CV1 headset. This was an almighty wow moment. Not just ED but the immersion VR offered blew me away. So I headed off down a couple of rabbit holes one of which was building PCs, the other was a VR flight simulator called Xplane 11 which in turn lead to me learning to fly real planes… I don’t fly anymore but I did and it was all down to ED.
Lastly I was an early backer of EDO and aside from all the initial issues the genre piqued my interest and got me to explore more games of that type. I’ve since got a small library of similar on foot/exploration experiences that I play, one of which gave me the idea to write a further game for the zx spectrum so all in all ED has had quite the effect on me and my life over the past 8 odd years.
Once I was sat at Bristol Airport enjoying a tasty burger only to look down and see the flyer on the left- I mean you have Aisling, Empz, LYR and possibly Antal on a bike...
Years ago, when I was one of the first wave of original Fuel Rats, I was sitting outside a cafe on the Strand in London scrolling on my iPad when a rescue call came in. A bit like a fireman on duty, I literally ran across the Strand, dodging double decker buses, in order to get to my desk so I could jump into my spaceship and attend the rescue!
Oh, and every time I'm stuck in traffic I wish my car had thrusters like the SRV so I could boost my way out of there!
Oh, and every time I'm stuck in traffic I wish my car had thrusters like the SRV so I could boost my way out of there!
Article, YouTube video or whatever: "This strange astronomical phenomenon is located far away, 1000 lightyears from Earth!"
Me: "Hey, this is just around the corner! A quick 15 jump trip, shouldn't take more than 40 minutes!"
Article, YouTube video or whatever: "...is located 12 astronomical units from the Sun."
Me, trying to convert it to units I understand: "...uh, that's, like, approximately 6000 ls? Not that far, 2 minutes if I can get away from the gravity wells."
Me measuring distance on a map: "1568 km, that's 1.57 Mm."
Me, doing a flip-and-boost while walking.
Other people:
Me: "Hey, this is just around the corner! A quick 15 jump trip, shouldn't take more than 40 minutes!"
Article, YouTube video or whatever: "...is located 12 astronomical units from the Sun."
Me, trying to convert it to units I understand: "...uh, that's, like, approximately 6000 ls? Not that far, 2 minutes if I can get away from the gravity wells."
Me measuring distance on a map: "1568 km, that's 1.57 Mm."
Me, doing a flip-and-boost while walking.
Other people:
When the police stop me I always say: "We are not the cargo ship you are looking for!"
I'm an average CMDR following his path, basically living in a slightly upgraded AspX, but sometimes I have to play a stupid simulation they call ''Reality'': graphics are awesome, but the gameplay is very poor: every session is about grinding for hours, your only reward is just enough credits to maintain the dummiest space ship I've ever seen that just sits in a garden forever and looks like a cube with randomly placed square windshields. There is a lot of crazy NPCs, and the main story in the background is a supermassive absurdism show. So many wasted hours not playing ED because of it being mandatory for some reason!
Ozric
Volunteer Moderator
Aside from like HRDiagram, looking at the Pleiades in a slightly different way now It was my favourite object in the Night sky and the first place I went in Elite as soon as they opened Gamma.
Elite has introduced me to many people in real life, some who I consider real friends and meet up with outside of events. They have also kept me sane by giving me people to talk to on Discord over the last few years, as the sudden change to social circumstances we all went through a few years ago could have turned out very differently if not for them.
Bit serious I know, but
Oh and every time I get in my car... Frameshift Drive Charging
It was my favourite object in the Night sky and the first place I went in Elite as soon as they opened Gamma.Elite has introduced me to many people in real life, some who I consider real friends and meet up with outside of events. They have also kept me sane by giving me people to talk to on Discord over the last few years, as the sudden change to social circumstances we all went through a few years ago could have turned out very differently if not for them.
Bit serious I know, but
Oh and every time I get in my car... Frameshift Drive Charging
LOL - reminds me of the time I raced back home from Southampton to make a Buckyball race and submitted the following as my evidence.Aside from like HRDiagram, looking at the Pleiades in a slightly different way now
Elite has introduced me to many people in real life, some who I consider real friends and meet up with outside of events. They have also kept me sane by giving me people to talk to on Discord over the last few years, as the sudden change to social circumstances we all went through a few years ago could have turned out very differently if not for them.
Bit serious I know, but
Oh and every time I get in my car... Frameshift Drive Charging
Modules screenshot
Starting screenshot
Austen's House waypoint screenshot
Finish line screenshot
Starting screenshot
Austen's House waypoint screenshot
Finish line screenshot
It's hard to discern what was caused by Elite and what was caused by the times I banged my head against the wall as a child
As a child of the 80s, I have to say a similar thought occurs in quite a few situations.
Personally I have to say my tolerance for long distance driving has improved after playing ED. Especially after flying a Corvette from the bubble to Colonia.
Well, it basically killed any attempt of mine at being an astro-amateur - aka someone with a certain amount of amateurish astronomical equipment* and a desire to drag that equipment outside the city to get some sort of dark skies - and turned me into an amateur of astronomy aka an ED player and a couch astro-amateur
I started playing ED in November 2018 and i think that was also the last year my equipment got out of the closet to see them stars.
*(A Celestron C8 (200mm Cass), a 80mm F7.5 ED Triplet, an alt azimuth motorized mount, lots and lots of oculars (including naglers and some really nice explore scientific and meades) - some of them in pairs since i also have a binoviewer. All these were enough to fill the trunk of my car - granted, the Ford Focus 3 facelift doesnt have much of a trunk, but still)
That's some serious millage, 888888, my truck isn't close to thatAside from like HRDiagram, looking at the Pleiades in a slightly different way now
Elite has introduced me to many people in real life, some who I consider real friends and meet up with outside of events. They have also kept me sane by giving me people to talk to on Discord over the last few years, as the sudden change to social circumstances we all went through a few years ago could have turned out very differently if not for them.
Bit serious I know, but
Oh and every time I get in my car... Frameshift Drive Charging
O7
I don't have any of those - admittedly funny - "haha this reminded me of Elite" moments, but it certainly influences my real life. What I have realized is that Elite has become a factor in my weekly schedule since I've gotten used to hanging out in Brother Sabathius' stream, often playing along or winging up with him or other people. So, these days I have two nights that are pretty much fixed "Elite" nights (monday and friday), plus often the sunday afternoon, and when I make appointments or plan other activities on those days, I catch myself thinking for a moment "crap, I'm going to miss my Elite time". Real life stuff always takes precedence, so that's good, I guess, but it shows how important a silly video game has become .
I'm guessing it also shows how flying in Elite has transformed from playing a silly video game to actually be a hobby for me. Large part of this is of course that I do it in VR, which makes a huge difference (I always say in 2D you play a spaceship video game, in VR you're actually flying a spaceship).
I don't think about "missing out" on other games when I make real life plans, but I do notice when real life interferes with my Elite life.
.I'm guessing it also shows how flying in Elite has transformed from playing a silly video game to actually be a hobby for me. Large part of this is of course that I do it in VR, which makes a huge difference (I always say in 2D you play a spaceship video game, in VR you're actually flying a spaceship).
I don't think about "missing out" on other games when I make real life plans, but I do notice when real life interferes with my Elite life
.
As wrapped up as I get in Elite your comment makes me glad I haven’t tried VR, I am not sure I would ever do anything else.I don't have any of those - admittedly funny - "haha this reminded me of Elite" moments, but it certainly influences my real life. What I have realized is that Elite has become a factor in my weekly schedule since I've gotten used to hanging out in Brother Sabathius' stream, often playing along or winging up with him or other people. So, these days I have two nights that are pretty much fixed "Elite" nights (monday and friday), plus often the sunday afternoon, and when I make appointments or plan other activities on those days, I catch myself thinking for a moment "crap, I'm going to miss my Elite time". Real life stuff always takes precedence, so that's good, I guess, but it shows how important a silly video game has become
I'm guessing it also shows how flying in Elite has transformed from playing a silly video game to actually be a hobby for me. Large part of this is of course that I do it in VR, which makes a huge difference (I always say in 2D you play a spaceship video game, in VR you're actually flying a spaceship).
I don't think about "missing out" on other games when I make real life plans, but I do notice when real life interferes with my Elite life
Haven't played in months and, unless an extensive expansion comes along, I won't be playing any more. That said, I'm an ED KS backer and will never be sorry I backed and played the game. The COUNTLESS hours of playing, several exploration expeditions...
Also, the game actually got me through some really tough times at work. There was a time I was under huge preassure and it lasted over three years. As my home situation deteriorated as well, I literally burried myself into exploration in the evenings. That helped calm me down so my brain wasn't in total job overdrive any more and I was able to get some sleep without any (other) medications.
So, Elite really did have an actual impact. I hope to get back to it eventually, be it another expansion or another iteration.
Also, the game actually got me through some really tough times at work. There was a time I was under huge preassure and it lasted over three years. As my home situation deteriorated as well, I literally burried myself into exploration in the evenings. That helped calm me down so my brain wasn't in total job overdrive any more and I was able to get some sleep without any (other) medications.
So, Elite really did have an actual impact. I hope to get back to it eventually, be it another expansion or another iteration.
ED (EDO now) remains one of a few tools I use to disconnect from day2day stuff every so often. I've not experienced even half of what is available to be honest. I'm on an exploration trip still honking and scanning and doing my thing. Head phones on, music playing and for a few hours once in a while, content to be just looking out of my spaceship at the stars. Now, on a clear weekend night (it's rare when one presents), I pull out the telescope and build a little more data on a set of different nebula I've been photographing for quite a while. Once the sequence has been set and running, it'll run for hours and during this time, I find myself back in ED as I wait for the sequence to complete.
Season's Greetings all
S!
Season's Greetings all
S!
I would still give it a go. My machine is not bad when it comes to VR but the headset weight/cable/comfort and other aspects do keep me from making VR the default way I play and more of a when I feel like it type of thing. When the day comes when the headsets are more like sunglasses (already here) and aren't also prohibitively expensive (not here yet), then I could see myself playing in VR all of the time. It really is worth checking out, though it never ruined 2d for me.
