Stepping down from active duty, farewell Elite Dangerous for now - Drew Wagar

[PsychoFish]

I'm sad to see you go. You've been a good part of the community and I really liked your enthusiasm for the Elite lore. I wish you all the best in your future endeavours.

So the story driven input you made to Frontier a few weeks back is off the table too then? I hope they have a good reason for that and not only more arcade stuff content. Elite could have benefited from your lore.

 

[Coot]

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

 

[marx]

Even hardcore fans are abandoning the ship??!

Um, you might want to read his blog post. He himself has said that he's not abandoning the ship, and also that he's not "hardcore". It's more of a case of shifting priorities, him taking a break from the game and needing to spend his time on his own projects instead - like his own SF series, due to come out soon.

To Drew, best of luck with the books, and be seeing you!

 

[Cradle2Grave]

OK... So a non hardcore fan who writes Elite fiction is leaving Elite Dangerous but NOT because he doesn't like ED. Right, got it.

All the best anyway!!

 

[Parmo]

So, Drew, you've put yourself on the reserve list for now.
I hope that you and your talents and enthusiasm for the Elite Universe will be re-enlisted at some later date.
Thank you for giving us Kahina.
We should all listen to our Salomé.
Cheers
Sam

 

[Cmdr Raz]

Best of luck out there in the black, Drew

Fly safe, Commander!

 

[drew]

Thank you for giving us Kahina.
We should all listen to our Salome

I like that, Sam. ;-)

Thanks for all the well wishes, folks. I do wish ED the very best, but it's not really going where I thought it would a year ago. I'd like to see more content (of the lore, exploration, intrigue, adventure and mystery variety). I've offered to contribute myself and been politely declined. Clearly there are other priorities at this time. It's not my game as I've been told on numerous occasions.

I am a bit bored with the game, but that's a personal view, not a criticism, even if I'm not a fan of powerplay (which really isn't my idea of Elite).

I wish you all the very best though, and thanks once more for all the support.

Cheers,

Drew.

 

[VR jefranklin18]

I like that, Sam. ;-)

Thanks for all the well wishes, folks. I do wish ED the very best, but it's not really going where I thought it would a year ago. I'd like to see more content (of the lore, exploration, intrigue, adventure and mystery variety). I've offered to contribute myself and been politely declined. Clearly there are other priorities at this time. It's not my game as I've been told on numerous occasions.

I am a bit bored with the game, but that's a personal view, not a criticism, even if I'm not a fan of powerplay (which really isn't my idea of Elite).

I wish you all the very best though, and thanks once more for all the support.

Cheers,

Drew.

So you offered to add to the richness and backstory and were refused? Sigh... I am really not liking the way ED is heading

 

[lefty1117]

I wonder if I can understand that, admittably not caring much about the lore. The game was now pushed into being more "flexible" with regards to stuff that happens in itsuniverse. People wanted to be able to change the course of the overall storyline. So the "big picture" is volatile, so no story-writing relying on political settings can be done anymore. Did I get that correctly?

Interesting, which implications all these changes can have. In MechWarrior, one acted within the storyline the books dictated. You could win battles, not wars. Elite: Dangerous seems to be the other way around, which is pretty bad for lore.

Yes, but I would argue that in some ways the lore restricted gameplay, at least until FD started to open it up. The "no comms faster than ship travel" has been a major blocker to fun gameplay elements such as wider data sharing, trade market API, etc., that many players would expect in a modern game. Some of those lore restrictions have started to come apart via things like wing-chat that spans systems, or GalNet and soon CQC being accessible from anywhere in the galaxy. It sounds like Drew in this case has some disagreements or sees some of his work as not being feasible due to changes brought to lore by Powerplay.

 

[Steve50]

Read your blog Drew and although I'm sad to see you taking this "break" I wish you the best and would like to thank you for all the work you've done so far. I really hope Frontier see some sense and get the game back on the right tracks but I won't hold my breath.

As for myself, I'm playing a lot less but holding out to see what is announced in August or what comes in 1.4. To be totally frank, I'm not far from totally walking away from the game but I'm trying my best to hold on in the hope that good things will come for us 84ers.

Fly safe Drew, take care mate.

 

[Cody]

I'm not far from totally walking away from the game but I'm trying my best to hold on in the hope that good things will come for us 84ers.

See my sig!

 

[Ericlas]

This is so wrong, so sad and so dissapointing.
I cannot describe how utterly wrong that decision by FD was to -even politely- declining your contribution.
There are so many players that wish for a richer atmosphere in the game, not just more isolated tasks to do.

...I'll quote a line of a character in your book, that's in my sig since then:

"...it'll all come back to bite them one day..."

Hopefully they will recognise that it where fine gentlemen like you, who kept the idea of Elite alive throughout the years and think about the course that this game is heading.

Thank you for all your work!
And thank you for a story that made me enjoy this game again.
It was enriching it for sure.

 

[Engadine]

All the very best Drew and thanks for all that you have done to date.

Hopefully Elite will head back in the direction that you felt it would when you first got involved and we can look forward to more novels/sequels from you.

I'm very much puzzled, if not a little anxious that they turned down your offer to contribute towards the lore/back story. :S

Good luck with your other projects and hopefully seen you back here Soon™.

 

[KING5TON]

Even hardcore fans are abandoning the ship??!

Some are.
Hardcore Fans that played it hours per night every day of the week are IMO long gone. Out of the thousands of people I used to see playing I see like 5 currently, some used to be major fans.

Hardcore fans like Drew that play a few hours a week max because they've got a life, traditionally stick around a lot longer because they don't burn out as fast.

I think it's a real shame that FD do not want the free content that Drew and the other authors offered/provided with their novels. It's a goldmine they just can't be bothered with. Daft IMO

 

[drew]

I suspect commercial reality/business decisions, potential copyright and administrative overheads may have scuppered the 'outsourcing' of content creation.

I think we could have collectively made it work, but it's not to be. Frontier are quite tight-lipped generally, and this has been no different. The authors have made various offers of various types, but the story, such as it is, is firmly 'inside' now.

Lore has already diverged considerably from our official books and will doubtless continue to do so.

Future in game content will be coming exclusively from Frontier, perhaps with occasional fan submitted Galnet story.

At the end of the day it is their game, and their call as to what to include. I'm not privy to their roadmap or the constraints under which they operate. All I know is I won't be involved. It's a shame, but life goes on. ;-)

Cheers,

Drew.

Ps. And with that... Adieu! ;-)

 

[FuzzySpider]

This is so wrong, so sad and so dissapointing.
I cannot describe how utterly wrong that decision by FD was to -even politely- declining your contribution.
There are so many players that wish for a richer atmosphere in the game, not just more isolated tasks to do.

Where you get a creative project, whether it's music, movies, or games, you get egos. I'm sensing pride is playing a part in FDevs decisions to push on in spite of the criticisms. Criticisms which have come from staunch Frontier fans and not just malcontents.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

Some are.
Hardcore Fans that played it hours per night every day of the week are IMO long gone.

waves madly... I am still here 600 hrs in at a guess since gamma seems fairly obscessed (more in premium beta)

I do agree tho, what a real head scratcher turning down an acomplished authors offer of help (unless he wanted a bucket of gold to do it )
I know a bunch on the team are decent authors in their own right but in a galaxy the size of the milky way there IS room for 1 more.

 

[Strychnine]

Fly safe brother...

 

[Ben Ryder]

See you around. You have made many major contributions to the game and I really enjoy reading your work.

 

[Arcanonn]

Some of you may recall that I was involved in the initial 2012 Kickstarter for Elite: Dangerous in a small way. We had rather a lot of fun and games working out how to get some novels funded back then. Suffice to say, through the generosity of the fans, I, along with a number of other authors, were able to write official stories within a game we had loved since childhood.

Those stories have been well received by and large, they paint a picture of how we saw Elite: Dangerous at the time. For myself, I added some characters that people have been enthusiastic about, notably Senator Kahina Loren and Luko Prestigio-Giovanni. I'm truly gratified that folks have taken the trouble to write to me about how much they enjoyed their adventures and asking for more.

Things have moved on since and the game is evolving in new directions. Powerplay has set a new tone for the in game lore and there's the promise of new and exciting content to come. At this time there isn't an opportunity for me to inject more of my type of story into the Elite universe, so I'm taking a leave of absence for now. Perhaps the opportunity for sequels will come at some point and I'll be more than happy to help out.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Frontier, and all the fans for their support and generousity over the last two and a half years in giving me the opportunity and support to realise a long held dream of writing an official book in the Elite universe. I hope you all considered it was worth it, I certain did.

So, it's not goodbye, but it's farewell for now, as my blog explains. I have some other projects to work on.

http://www.drewwagar.com/progress-report/its-not-goodbye-just-farewell-for-now/

Fly safe in the void, and, of course,

Right on, Commanders.

Cheers,

Drew.

Take it easy Drew, Thanks for your help with "stuff"