Worrying trend...

[Straker]

Whatever the opinion expressed, it's good to see people passionate about this game. If I were DB, I'd be pretty happy that people care so much about the game he is making, regardless of their opinion or tone.

It takes a certain maturity to accept what is there and use the energy that is present in the forums to develop positive momentum to help spur you on to make the game even better. If any of the ED developers were to read this, I'd certainly encourage them to accept and use this energy in a positive manner - I have no doubt they can.

I'm not afraid to express an opinion on ED (and I have), whether overjoyed or immensely frustrated. Let's continue to be passionate and hope that we can be respectful to each other at the same time.

 

[Zvanya]

I think the people that are so sure Elite will have a horrible launch, bad reviews, and fail horribly, will turn out to be wrong. Most new players, who haven't been hanging around here obsessing over the game for months, won't have same expectations we have. They won't know how many features have not (yet?) been realized and are going to be blown away by the scope.

Watch Scott Manleys Elite Videos. He just jumped in and played. He seems to like it fine. I've seen other videos by people who had little knowledge of the game really liking it.

I know some of you numpties want Elite to fail and will be disappointed.

 

[Jigsaw]

Maybe people are passionate in their discussions because they really care about this game and want it to succeed?

Absolutely. If I didn't care I would have left a long time ago.

The fact that the apparent schism of the population into the "this game is fine" and "this game is not fine", has to do with several factors. First, the somewhat unfinished nature of the game at the moment and second, the rapidly approaching release that many say may make or break the game financially.

[,,,]

I really think most of this is simply a reaction to a fast approaching "deadline" where the game is going to be judged based on what is has and what it doesn't.

That's it exactly.

 

[wstephenson]

I'm reminded of your 'Avoiding Group Control' thread from June. Perhaps the anger you're feeling and seeing in the forums is due to a displacement of the 'mature, reasoned, insider' ED community by an influx of newer players who don't have the shared background of closely observing the game's development, and who are feeling a sharp contrast between the buzz around the game, and the fact that it is still a work in progress. So on the one hand, we have the 'nice' early group, and on the other hand we have the 'spiky' newcomers. Losing 'control' of the community to these demanding, intolerant Visigoths will raise both your stress level and that of the community as a whole.

 

[Shadowdancer]

Maybe this just isn't the game for the OP

 

[obliterator]

To me part of the problem is that some people want the game to be something else. Yes there are real problems. But there are also some fully intended features that are seen as problematic (steep learning curve, high difficulty level, slow progression and punishing gameplay), by players who just don't get what the game is all about.

So if you add every (in my opinion) non-legitimate complains with every legitimate one, no wonder why it feels overwhelming.

 

[Alric]

While I always liked the atmosphere on here compared to other forums, and it's not what it was right now, I actually think the discussion is better. Some months ago it was near impossible to discuss certain gameplay topics. Some things would get the response that basically we already discussed that to death, go read the archives (because clearly we already said everything that needs to be said and all we need to do now is sit back and wait for everything to fall in to place). Others such as grouping and organisation mechanics were frequently shredded - why do you want that? You're an EVE player who wants to rule the galaxy aren't you?! You want to ruin everybody else's fun don't you! Get out of our game!! The income model was another one - go away nasty MMO player - but guys they need sustained income for sustained development.. if we don't want to pay a sub, buy credits or ships we need to talk about what they can do to bring in money - lalalala kickstarter funded they will deliver everything on time and on budget lalala.

So now people are talking about the game's shortcomings. It's a bit late in my opinion because one or two of them are going to be pretty hard to deal with at this point. But I think it's healthier than burying our heads in the sand and thinking that Frontier aren't just great developers but they're actually completely immune to every potential issue a game can have.

 

[Rykzon]

To me part of the problem is that some people want the game to be something else. Yes there are real problems. But there are also some fully intended features that are seen as problematic (steep learning curve, high difficulty level, slow progression and punishing gameplay), by players who just don't get what the game is all about.

So if you add every (in my opinion) non-legitimate complains with every legitimate one, no wonder why it feels overwhelming.

What? Where is this difficulty you speak of, punishing gameplay? You mean respawning in my old ship for peanuts in case I die? ED is easy, what makes it "hard" are some design choices involving RNG(outfitting) and the slow progress. That could be described as more tedious than difficult by some people though.

Edit: IMO its foolish to call the game difficult. Even the flight controls are rather easy. The game dosn't have to be hard to be fun, why call it something it clearly isnt?

 

[Stressfest]

Problem seems to be with those that either have an issue with the no offline mode or the fact that they've built it up so much in their own minds that anything less than perfect simply will not do. So much negativity on this board and frankly I only browse it myself while battlefield 4 loads up. I'll start playing when they do the final wipe or release... It's not over until the fat lady sings!!!

 

[Tarman]

Problem seems to be with those that either have an issue with the no offline mode or the fact that they've built it up so much in their own minds that anything less than perfect simply will not do. So much negativity on this board and frankly I only browse it myself while battlefield 4 loads up. I'll start playing when they do the final wipe or release... It's not over until the fat lady sings!!!

I like how your nick is the most stressful thing about you.

 

[littleminxundr]

I think the people that are so sure Elite will have a horrible launch, bad reviews, and fail horribly, will turn out to be wrong. Most new players, who haven't been hanging around here obsessing over the game for months, won't have same expectations we have. They won't know how many features have not (yet?) been realized and are going to be blown away by the scope.

Watch Scott Manleys Elite Videos. He just jumped in and played. He seems to like it fine. I've seen other videos by people who had little knowledge of the game really liking it.

I know some of you numpties want Elite to fail and will be disappointed.

I want ED to succeed. This year has been one long string of games not delivering in one way or the other on PC, while their console-versions (for the titles that had console versions) ran smoothly. Point in case, I bought Inquisition for my PS4 and have been playing with a big smile on my face. The people who call themselves the PC-masterrace are crying.
It was a nice year in titles, but that's all that can be said. In actual playability on the PC-platform, 2014 was a lowpoint in gaming.

I don't think that people want to see ED fail, it's that PC-game failure has become the defacto standard in 2014. Face it, there are a lot of red flags raised on ED:
1. Always online.
2. Not feature complete.
3. Not clear what will be paid DLC and what will be free content-patches.
4. Emergent gameplay
5. Developer driven events and storyline.
6. Multiplayer with little chance of running into other players.
7. Already people can't access their paid for product.

Given the last year and the plans for ED, it's really not that hard to understand where the negativity comes from. That said, I want ED to succeed. I already have way too many games accumulated this year that are worthless space-eaters on my HDD. Buying a new game isn't as fun as it used to be. ^^

 

[noodle]

I haven't posted much over the weekend. But when I have, the posts have more often than not had an anger behind them I don't usually have. What's making me angry is the attack on the game, the forums and the tone of them (which, obviously now I'm not helping).

We all know the game has issues. Part of the problem I'm feeling is that I no longer feel I can discuss them. Not actually because of the issues, downsides or whatever, but because I feel that every problem the game has has already been attacked, disected and pointed at as the reason the game will fail.

It feels like everyone posting a positive comment is attacked as a blind fanboi, anyone pointing at the cool things is swatted as being an ignorant buffoon for his obvious gullibility. Everyone who says this is the foundation of the game as it should be is shouted down because it doesn't meet the MMO expectations of those raised on WoW-clones and EVE and any other way of doing things is obviously wrong.

There are a lot of things I don't like in the game, a few things I'm disappointed in that aren't here for launch. But I no longer feel I can discuss them as I'd just be attacking something that really doesn't need to be attacked anymore. The tone of the forums has taken a nosedive, there are no longer discussions. Just shouting matches.

This was always going to be the case. What you're seeing now is and always was inevitable. It has nothing to do with the game or the community. It's just the nature of the internet. Now the audience has expanded, you can expect more of the same. It's the reason I wanted to see the alpha form remain. It would have been nice to have a corner of sanity to retreat to - not out of snobbery or elitism, but as you correctly point out, discussion becomes almost impossible in the open forums.

 

[hobblygobbly]

The core of the game is excellent (i.e flight model and so on), the only real issue is content and variation. It's very difficult to fix a badly designed game at its core such as mechanics, fortunately things like the flight model is perfect and incredibly fun, the great framework is there, now we just need more content, such as expanding upon mining for example, more mission depth, etc. I believe that the dynamism of the galaxy is supposedly kicked into effect on the 16th (plus the Emperor's stuff), so it will be interesting to see what happens.

Most people know that the game is missing a bit and light on some content, it's a fair criticism and I hope post-release the game will begin to focus more on this, but I find peace in that the core design of the game isn't inherently flawed and that is what makes or breaks a game. Fortunately ED has outstanding core mechanics such as the flight model. I dislike the cliched phrase "it's only up from here", but it is in this case with ED. I'm not blind to the criticisms and I've voiced them myself as well, but I can see a bright future honestly. The game is not going cease to be expanded upon post-release on the 16th.

My only real worry post-release is what is paid expansion/DLC, and what is content updates for bare minimum features or features that were intended prior to release but never made it. I just hope Frontier makes the right decisions here to avoid huge backlash.

 

[Philip Coutts]

What Noodle said.

It's the internet and unfortunately it always tends to the negative. For what it's worth I think the "core" game is great, it's bloody Elite for gods sake how could it not be. But we need the core gameplay to be beefed up with the injected events, where are the famines, the disease, the wars and dare I say the Thargoids. These will be the things that really up the ante. Have any explorers found anything really exciting yet? Probably not because nothing really exciting has been added. I'm hoping for a lot more from ED than we are currently seeing and I'll be honest I would rather ditch the "walking around" bit and concentrate on making the gameplay we have at present the absolute best it can be present.

 

[Stressfest]

I like how your nick is the most stressful thing about you.

It'll all be alright on the night...or day

 

[northern]

Ignore them and get on with YOUR game. After all... Its a big galaxy out there. There will always be these type of players in any MMO type game. I dont rant and rave abut posts as its pointless tbh. (your only feeding there hunger for arguments)

 

[Serkor]

Many people seem disappointed because it lacks usual MMO social features (guilds, instances, etc..)

1. Imho Elite is not a MMO game like in "WoW in space". It is a solo experience where the universe you're in is dynamically influenced by what other players do, and where you can sometimes interact with other players (being shot by them, shoot at them , cooperate or simply say "hello" or "Dr Livingston, I suppose ?" when you meet them) and where nobody tells you what you should do.

2. Like every other game which gives a choice between "open world", "private group" and "solo", the vast majority of the people who will buy this game will play "solo" or "private group" because they don't want to be bothered by other players but many will be happy to team with their friends against the environment, once they manage to meet somewhere after starting in different places.

3. People writing in forums generally are 10% of the players.

PS : another good thing is that even if you play "open world", you can decide if you want to have a lot of interaction with other players (in this case hang around systems where many people will be) or go to a quieter place in space by heading the other way. You can even alternate with both, like staying in quiet places for some time, and following events decide to head somewhere where something will be happening (civil war or anything else) which you will know about from the Galnet news.

 

[noodle]

What Noodle said.

It's the internet and unfortunately it always tends to the negative. For what it's worth I think the "core" game is great, it's bloody Elite for gods sake how could it not be. But we need the core gameplay to be beefed up with the injected events, where are the famines, the disease, the wars and dare I say the Thargoids. These will be the things that really up the ante. Have any explorers found anything really exciting yet? Probably not because nothing really exciting has been added. I'm hoping for a lot more from ED than we are currently seeing and I'll be honest I would rather ditch the "walking around" bit and concentrate on making the gameplay we have at present the absolute best it can be present.

I don't think there's much point passing judgement on the game until at least three months after release. We need to get a feel for the level of on-going development and enrichment that we can (or can't) expect.

 

[Kernel Kwatz!]

I don't think that people want to see ED fail, it's that PC-game failure has become the defacto standard in 2014. Face it, there are a lot of red flags raised on ED:
1. Always online.
2. Not feature complete.
3. Not clear what will be paid DLC and what will be free content-patches.
4. Emergent gameplay
5. Developer driven events and storyline.
6. Multiplayer with little chance of running into other players.
7. Already people can't access their paid for product.

I actually don't see many of these as a problem.

1. Always online.
   I think gamers have largely come to accept and except this. If ED is a success then the offline thing - which was a big mistake on Frontier's part - will be largely forgotten. Games are online now. Just as God intended.
3. Not feature complete.
   This a tricky one to predict. Will gamers recognise ED's potential and thus be willing see it develop over time or are they expecting the complete package on the 16th? I hope it's the former because ED clearly needs more work. Even then I would ask how long a period of grace should ED be given?
5. Not clear what will be paid DLC and what will be free content-patches.
   The same could be said of just about any game that offers DLC, no?
7. Emergent gameplay
   Do you mean "lack of emergent gameplay"? I think there is already evidence of emergent gamplay - e.g. the smuggling runs into the station, fastest landing competition, Buckyball races and so on. Emergent gameplay is something I would expect to see after a considerable amount of maturation.
9. Developer driven events and storyline.
   What games do not have developer driven events and storyline? I'm thinking about the popular FTP MMO games that I play (e.g. Defiance, STO and so on) and they are purely developer driven in terms of story. Generally they have a rather shallow and disjointed story that was scripted years back. Perhaps ED will be different in that they are able to rapidly create events and product storylines in response to community actions.
11. Multiplayer with little chance of running into other players.
    Well, this was always going to be the reality. The galaxy is very big after all. However, I don't think that many people would argue that the multiplayer aspect of the game does some fundamental changes (e.g comms) and massive improvements.
13. Already people can't access their paid for product.
    That some can't is unfortunate for them. I hope that they get to play very soon. Still, I would say there is a small percentage of customers who experience the same frustrations for any release. ED have 2 weeks to sort it out.

 

[Cosmos]

Whatever the opinion expressed, it's good to see people passionate about this game. If I were DB, I'd be pretty happy that people care so much about the game he is making, regardless of their opinion or tone.

It takes a certain maturity to accept what is there and use the energy that is present in the forums to develop positive momentum to help spur you on to make the game even better. If any of the ED developers were to read this, I'd certainly encourage them to accept and use this energy in a positive manner - I have no doubt they can.

I'm not afraid to express an opinion on ED (and I have), whether overjoyed or immensely frustrated. Let's continue to be passionate and hope that we can be respectful to each other at the same time.

Indeed. I suspect most people are arguing about the game because they care about it and thats a good thing. I too critique and get frustrated at times but I looked at the game a bit differently over the weekend, decided to change what I was doing, hooked up with some friends and had a great time. Frontier are no doubt working on addressing bugs and stuff before release, such as becoming wanted for shooting wanteds etc..

Yet over the space of this whole process I find myself being a bit bipolar. One moment I am super happy with things and others it seems like the world is about to end, well.. at least reading back some of my own posts. Thing is, ED has exceeded my expectations at almost every release and if I was sitting back at the start of KS and knew the game would be this good I'd have been happy. As things have progressed and Frontier have delivered something of a very high standard I think we find ourselves expecting more and more.

Is the game going to be perfect and feature rich (i.e. all The DDA stuff) at release? No, but its still in a great position and there is a solid foundation to build upon. Its also worth bearing in mind that Frontier is a small independent studio without a AAA budget and they have done some great stuff. I think the future is bright for the game, we all just need to give it time to mature.

Thats not to say we shouldn't critique and point stuff out but, at least from my own perspective I hope that doesn't overshadow all the great things I love about the game so far.