I've spent some time out in the Black, no where near as much as many have(the guy who just returned from 10 months out in an EAGLE of all things!), but I am definitely one of those drawn to it. And it's not exactly as people think when they hear that it's all procgen, as well known astronomical objects(stars, black holes, nebula, etc) are all hand placed, like the black hole at the center of the Milky Way itself, Sag A*. The Milky Way is here, ingame 1:1 scale, and it's all built based on the actual currently known and understood rules of physics, something that people have been totally blown away by when they discover that a contact binary that has 2 stars touching each other is NOT a computer mess up, those exist, we have photos of them in real life, and that's just one of the many wonders out there, all created according to the rules of reality as we understand them currently...with a few exceptions for gameplay purposes(black holes for example, people have flown into them and out of them again).
If you want a true sandbox where you can go do whatever you want and not worry about a storyline, Elite Dangerous definitely fits the bill. You can get missions all day long at any station and do all sorts of things, or you can totally ignore those and just do whatever. Hunt pirates, haul cargo, mine, go explore the galaxy, prey on other players AS a pirate yourself, or be a bounty hunter and hunt those players who are pirates and psychopaths(yes, we have PKers) or even be one of those psychopaths. And we now have CQC, Close Quarters Combat, which is actually quite fun, wherein you get in a small ship in a limited arena and fight others, no risk to your ship, no credits lost for dying, and you get paid for it. awesome for when you just want to jump in and blow stuff up for no damn reason at all but you want to see stuff blow up! I found it quite fun, far more enjoyable than the PvP in Elite typically(risk/reward isn't good there typically), and even more fun than the PvP in SC(to be fair, SC's flight model needs work, CIG has said it themselves and they are revamping it, not to mention my HOTAS sucks in SC, it's far too kb/mouse based currently, another thing they've acknowledged and are working on).
Elite isn't empty, you can go to a number of hand crafted systems in the bubble, some are really quite beautiful(standing off from Terra in normal space, not moving, watching it rotate under you, it's amazingly beautiful, even though it's JUST a video game, it looks like you are really there, and that's on a monitor, I can't wait to get a VR setup and do that). Exploration is something that most people just don't get into really. They'll do it to grind the Elite title and that's it, but that's not the reason I do it, or so many of those who've been out in the Black since Dec 2014 do it. I love to see what's out there, literally, just see what's out there. The thrill of finding a system that NO ONE else has ever been to, seeing things that no one else has ever seen, to me, that's more than worth the money I've spent on Elite and Horizons, more than worth the money I'll spend to upgrade my system to handle VR with ease, but that's me, and some others, we get a kick we can't really describe from this. And I'm actually the guy who usually plays FPS games and is all about PvP and being top of the boards, Elite pulls something else out of me, and I rather love that aspect of the game. My daugher, son in law and grandkids are just dumbfounded that I'm talking about the cool planet I just saw, the rings around a brown dwarf that were almost 50ls across, the colors inside a nebula, instead of how I roflstomped some twit in CoD or BF or MWO, games my son in law and grandkids won't play with me because I kick them around like newbs, yeah, I'm THAT type of gamer usually, so I really do love what Elite Dangerous has pulled out of me, and with CQC, I can now satisfy the killer in me without leaving the game at all. I will leave it on occasion however, I am a SC backer now, my teammates in SRM have dragged me over, but I'm not really enjoying it half as much, although I must admit, the LOOK of SC is really amazing, as far as the ships and ArcCorp that is, not at all fond of they way they do space, far too claustrophobic and comic book like.
If you want a true sandbox where you can go do whatever you want and not worry about a storyline, Elite Dangerous definitely fits the bill. You can get missions all day long at any station and do all sorts of things, or you can totally ignore those and just do whatever. Hunt pirates, haul cargo, mine, go explore the galaxy, prey on other players AS a pirate yourself, or be a bounty hunter and hunt those players who are pirates and psychopaths(yes, we have PKers) or even be one of those psychopaths. And we now have CQC, Close Quarters Combat, which is actually quite fun, wherein you get in a small ship in a limited arena and fight others, no risk to your ship, no credits lost for dying, and you get paid for it. awesome for when you just want to jump in and blow stuff up for no damn reason at all but you want to see stuff blow up! I found it quite fun, far more enjoyable than the PvP in Elite typically(risk/reward isn't good there typically), and even more fun than the PvP in SC(to be fair, SC's flight model needs work, CIG has said it themselves and they are revamping it, not to mention my HOTAS sucks in SC, it's far too kb/mouse based currently, another thing they've acknowledged and are working on).
Elite isn't empty, you can go to a number of hand crafted systems in the bubble, some are really quite beautiful(standing off from Terra in normal space, not moving, watching it rotate under you, it's amazingly beautiful, even though it's JUST a video game, it looks like you are really there, and that's on a monitor, I can't wait to get a VR setup and do that). Exploration is something that most people just don't get into really. They'll do it to grind the Elite title and that's it, but that's not the reason I do it, or so many of those who've been out in the Black since Dec 2014 do it. I love to see what's out there, literally, just see what's out there. The thrill of finding a system that NO ONE else has ever been to, seeing things that no one else has ever seen, to me, that's more than worth the money I've spent on Elite and Horizons, more than worth the money I'll spend to upgrade my system to handle VR with ease, but that's me, and some others, we get a kick we can't really describe from this. And I'm actually the guy who usually plays FPS games and is all about PvP and being top of the boards, Elite pulls something else out of me, and I rather love that aspect of the game. My daugher, son in law and grandkids are just dumbfounded that I'm talking about the cool planet I just saw, the rings around a brown dwarf that were almost 50ls across, the colors inside a nebula, instead of how I roflstomped some twit in CoD or BF or MWO, games my son in law and grandkids won't play with me because I kick them around like newbs, yeah, I'm THAT type of gamer usually, so I really do love what Elite Dangerous has pulled out of me, and with CQC, I can now satisfy the killer in me without leaving the game at all. I will leave it on occasion however, I am a SC backer now, my teammates in SRM have dragged me over, but I'm not really enjoying it half as much, although I must admit, the LOOK of SC is really amazing, as far as the ships and ArcCorp that is, not at all fond of they way they do space, far too claustrophobic and comic book like.
