Having read the forums as to E3 announcements and the various posts on the matter I felt to contribute with my own thoughts on the subject.
Firstly is the announcement of the new combat areas for pvp that are going to be Xbox only until maybe around xmas. Personally i think DB has been drinking the star citizen kool aid. Now dont get me wrong this is not some kind of rage post against DB, having played Elite since 84, I hold him in the same regard I do Sid Meier and a couple of other gaming develop gods. But most of us do not want arena combat in ED. If this happens it will possibly turn into a another generic space shooter like star citizen (which already has a arena mode)
The problem lies with DB and FD as to who their customer base is. I suspect the majority of people who backed it at kickstarter and beta, like me were original 84's or at least played the sequels and have been waiting for 20 years for a decent sequel to come out. These are the people who would have put their hand in their pockets to get this game made. SO should DB and FD be listening to their complaints and gripes about ED. To a certain extent YES because they backed the game and got it off the ground. So FD should devliver on their promises of 25 ships, passenger missions, thargoids etc.
But this is the other side of the argument. Whilst those people got the game started, FD are in the business of making money so have to balance between delivering the game people like me want and a game for the mass market to sell as many copies as possible. Personally I think launching the consoles and PC versions in the same universe is a mistake but besides that console games are not known for longevity and (with no disrespect to todays generation) their attention span is not as great as it once was, again looking at some of the posts in the forums of people rage qutting because they didnt get the ananconda after 6 hours or the fact that the credit farming res have been nerfed. Most console games have maybe 24 hours of gameplay in them if that, so having a sandbox game which essentially has no end game, will not appeal to the massive of console players who might buy it and then after a few goes will probably get bored of it and the disk will sit gathering dust.
So DB and FD have to do a balancing act between keeping us backers onside whilst trying to open the game to new markets and gamers. Personally I think FD are going about it the wrong way at the moment, they should look after the people who got the game here in the first place before taking on the console generation who i suspect will dwindle after the initial buzz of the game has worn off.
Elite after all stood out from the rest of the games in 1984, with its secret missions, thargoids, those damn tribble like creatures. Frontier and First Encounters carried on the tradition whilst being a sandbox you could align yourself with either the federation, empire or alliance (Long live the empire). So Elite Dangerous should be just more than a generic space shooter like star citizen because it is steeped in lore and it should step up and dare to be different not add parts from other mmo's.
Some people dont like PP, I do besides the bugs, it brought some of the immersion that was needed to the game and started to make the game more like the Elite and Frontier of old. And this is what DB in my opinion should be focusing on, making ED his own image like he did when he did the original and the sequels. This will please most of the backers who have been asking for Elite 4 for years, but whether it makes good financial success that is only FD know.
Summing up I think FD have lost their way a bit and are alienating their original customer base with broken promises, to grab a slice of the console market which will be small. Microsoft probably have had a big hand in bringing the pvp arenas to the xbox first due to two facts (1) they managed to get that exclusive deal (makes sense now after the annoucement and (2) launching an ED controller for the Xbox (hmm more money for Microsoft).
I hope DB reverts to the game develop we all know he can be and stops chasing the quick buck which is where FD are heading at the moment.
Firstly is the announcement of the new combat areas for pvp that are going to be Xbox only until maybe around xmas. Personally i think DB has been drinking the star citizen kool aid. Now dont get me wrong this is not some kind of rage post against DB, having played Elite since 84, I hold him in the same regard I do Sid Meier and a couple of other gaming develop gods. But most of us do not want arena combat in ED. If this happens it will possibly turn into a another generic space shooter like star citizen (which already has a arena mode)
The problem lies with DB and FD as to who their customer base is. I suspect the majority of people who backed it at kickstarter and beta, like me were original 84's or at least played the sequels and have been waiting for 20 years for a decent sequel to come out. These are the people who would have put their hand in their pockets to get this game made. SO should DB and FD be listening to their complaints and gripes about ED. To a certain extent YES because they backed the game and got it off the ground. So FD should devliver on their promises of 25 ships, passenger missions, thargoids etc.
But this is the other side of the argument. Whilst those people got the game started, FD are in the business of making money so have to balance between delivering the game people like me want and a game for the mass market to sell as many copies as possible. Personally I think launching the consoles and PC versions in the same universe is a mistake but besides that console games are not known for longevity and (with no disrespect to todays generation) their attention span is not as great as it once was, again looking at some of the posts in the forums of people rage qutting because they didnt get the ananconda after 6 hours or the fact that the credit farming res have been nerfed. Most console games have maybe 24 hours of gameplay in them if that, so having a sandbox game which essentially has no end game, will not appeal to the massive of console players who might buy it and then after a few goes will probably get bored of it and the disk will sit gathering dust.
So DB and FD have to do a balancing act between keeping us backers onside whilst trying to open the game to new markets and gamers. Personally I think FD are going about it the wrong way at the moment, they should look after the people who got the game here in the first place before taking on the console generation who i suspect will dwindle after the initial buzz of the game has worn off.
Elite after all stood out from the rest of the games in 1984, with its secret missions, thargoids, those damn tribble like creatures. Frontier and First Encounters carried on the tradition whilst being a sandbox you could align yourself with either the federation, empire or alliance (Long live the empire). So Elite Dangerous should be just more than a generic space shooter like star citizen because it is steeped in lore and it should step up and dare to be different not add parts from other mmo's.
Some people dont like PP, I do besides the bugs, it brought some of the immersion that was needed to the game and started to make the game more like the Elite and Frontier of old. And this is what DB in my opinion should be focusing on, making ED his own image like he did when he did the original and the sequels. This will please most of the backers who have been asking for Elite 4 for years, but whether it makes good financial success that is only FD know.
Summing up I think FD have lost their way a bit and are alienating their original customer base with broken promises, to grab a slice of the console market which will be small. Microsoft probably have had a big hand in bringing the pvp arenas to the xbox first due to two facts (1) they managed to get that exclusive deal (makes sense now after the annoucement and (2) launching an ED controller for the Xbox (hmm more money for Microsoft).
I hope DB reverts to the game develop we all know he can be and stops chasing the quick buck which is where FD are heading at the moment.
S
