Is Elite Dangerous a Dad's Game Played mainly by "non-gamers"?

vindicator jones

vindicator jones
Current Gaming vs Gaming in the past

Todays Preorder - Place online order on steam - wait until game is automatically downloaded on your computer on release.
Yesteryears Preorder - Order a book with computer programs in from a book catalog or store. wait months for it to be delivered.

Todays Beta Testing - Playing the game, whinging on the forums when a glitch happens
Yesteryears Beta Testing - Spend hours typing out a game, only to realize you have mistyped something and spend the next 2 hours scouring line by line until you find the mistake

Todays Controller - Unlimited options from joysticks, gamepads, mice, keyboard wireless controllers and gesture control
Yesteryears Controller - Keyboard, and if your super lucky, a badly designed un-ergonomically friendly metal stick and cheaply made plastic case with a single button, that usually cost the soul of a family member to purchase

Todays Storage - Gigabytes, Terrabytes, unlimited storage ability for Games, savegames and content
Yesteryears Storage - None, you want to play the game again, Type it out again... if you were lucky, you might have had a computer with a cassette drive, and if you were bill gates brother a Floppy drive...

Todays Gameplay - Rich, deep, beautiful graphics and immersive
Yesteryears Gameplay - Look at the square pixel, use your imagination...

Todays Gamers - Whiny, ungrateful little so and so's who cannot appreciate how awesome classic gaming really was, and they dont appreciate what they have now... They Look at older gamers and think LAME....
Yesterdays Gamers - Old farts who are buried too deep in nostalgia to realize their "classic" games are NOT better than today's games and look at younger gamers and think TWERP, you dont know what GAMING IS....

;) gotta have a laugh...
 

lysan

lysan
WUT? well I play some times with my son, my daughter finds ED boring, however she enjoy angry birds, shopping and sipping drinks at the cafe with friends.

I play ED, DayZ, Arma, DCS, IL2, prepare3d repeatedly. I also played skyrim, GTA V, Alien Isolation, Half life series plus a lot of other games I have in my steam account.

So Yeah, I'm a dad who play many type of games and have a lot to compare with.

Oh and most important! I'm +50 got enough money to do whatever I want, (when the misses say yes) and I play with many people who are serious gamers.
 

Dakron Nova

Dakron Nova
Here is an interesting article. Op needs to remember that the older dads who are playing now, were playing at the start of this form of entertainment and as we age so the demographic changes accordingly.

"Industry advocacy group the Entertainment Software Association report:

The average age of someone who plays games is 31 years old. In fact, more gamers are over the age of 36 than between the ages of 18 to 35 or under the age of 18. They are also mostly men, but by a slimming margin. Men make up 52 percent. From 2012 to 2013, the number of women gamers over the age of 50 grew by 32 percent."
 

the100thmonkey

the100thmonkey
I've had a games platform of some kind since I was 4 years old.

Colecovision to VCS 2600 to ZX Spectrum 48K+ to Atari 520STFM to Super Nintendo Entertainment System to N64 to PSX to PS2 to PC and Xbox 360 to PC and PS4, Wii, Wii U.

I'm 38, I have four kids. I'm a dadgamer and I'll tear you whippersnappers a new one.

Is E|D a dadgame? I don't think so. It does, however, have a rather niche core demographic.
 

Hurricane Moon

Banned
H
lol I do like the OP post...

I have 3 boys and 2 girls,so I think im a dad gamer alright.....my oldest boy plays all the usuall games like cod and fifa ect....gta....and I still do myself....
but at a slow and different pace to my younger self..

for example these days im playing gta v again with a ton of mods ,mouse emu headtracking,drive force gt,occulus thrift......I am playing be a cop mod,not the game.
I actually RP the hell out of it,looking up criminals and all that......arresting them,chasing them,be a prison guard.....the game is simply a sandbox masterpiece and is what a true sandbox game should be.

ED has been a trusty friend since its launch,but alas I am burned out on her for the 3rd or 4th time,i cant play her until I can walk around places ect now...so that's probably another 3 years,and by then we will probably be on NMS or SC.........and we all know NMS is gonna get the hell modded out of it

games to me these days are like a good old book or movie,best enjoyed at a nice pace and alone lol


from a miserable old dad gamer who hates society.....lol
 

Pazmino

Pazmino
I don't think this question makes any sense. Why put folks into categories based on age, etc. I'm playing computer games since mid 80ties. C64, C16, CPC, Amiga, Atari ST, Pc, Wii. I played the 1st Doom and Wolfenstein, as well as Elite back then (Amiga). I played Total Annihilation and Max, played Half-life, the very first release of Counter strike, you name it.
Nostalgic about Elite? Yes - good times - with a friend - one of us piloting, the other one managing the ship - epic! For the fun I downloaded the copy of Elite Frontier provides. Installed it, took a look, ahhh, these days. But turned it off and never touched it again - since we have ED / EDH. Nostalgic about the good memories - yes - playing Elite or games like Tau Ceti, Trantor, Lemmings, Monkey Island, Turrican I + II, Flashback, Another World, Wings, Syndicate. All great games. But this was back in the days, when computer had less CPU power then an iPhone. Why look back? I saw the whole evolution of games and technology (e.g. 1st 3D accelerator card), but I don't want to go back. I don't want to play the old stuff, I want to play the new stuff and push the envelop. It's a mindset - if you start thinking in the past you will start living in the past and will stay behind.
.
And I love ED for it is a different kind game. No end game - I'm my biggest enemy. To me it is more of a hybrid of a complex space flight / trade simulator and a ... well ... shooter. A big aspect is about getting an iron ass ship to fight of other players or NPCs. I have lots of freedom in the game and the only thing that holds me back to see the whole potential in the end is me.
 

Cowboy Bats

C
CarnRage said:
Starcraft falls into the same category as DOTA and LoL ( league of legends ). Insanely competitive game with a skill ceiling reaching to the gods.
Click to expand...
Not really. The vast majority of the playerbase pretty much enjoys friendly matches with others in their league. Diamond players and above, with maybe a few in platinum are highly competitive with a tendency to be toxic, but the lower ranks and usually platinum and friendly and low key.

Elite lacks that, hence the game modes. Few of the players in the middle of the bell curve want to meet the Elite equivalent of the South Korean who's devoted his entire life to Starcraft, even going so far as to skip adolescence in his pursuit of gaming perfection.
 

Jigster

Jigster

Stigbob

Stigbob
I'm not sure the games full of old-farts/whippesnappers or not, although my perception may be skewed as I'm on the old and farty side of the spectrum. I've definitely not noticed a bias in any direction in game it seems quite an even spread.

What I see in ED is an old fashioned style of game, in that it's unforgiving has a steep learning curve (with minimal guidance) and the core game-play has been prioritized over everything else (flying in space). The game makes me nostalgic because of elite 84 (and other old titles) but also it doesn't fall into modern game traps, such as being pretty but rubbish, hand holding, zero-consequence, easy to the point of extreme boredom any and all of which put me off a game.

Going by the forum the majority of criticism of the game center's around lack of research before buying (no guilds), the repercussions of impatient play (no-insurance/friendly fire), lack of planning by the player (my shield-less trade-ship was melted) and a lack of knowledge of game modes (why can't I shoot players in solo/group). All of which strike me as being instant gratification/self inflicted issues which would tend to indicate younger players (treebeard would call it hasty).
 

Kigre

Kigre
Im an 83' model! (Yay!)

I play everything. GTA, Fallout, Metal Gear Solid, Mad Max, Civilization, Rocket League, Arma 3, Space Engineers, Project Zomboid etc... and racing games when they are good. :)

Not too keen on MMORPGS though.
Elite Dangerous is the closest i get so far.

Now when it comes to what i think of ED so far.
I've owned it since Premium Beta. The development have been slow and the communication have been... how to describe it....

imagine theres a bunch of people standing outside FD's window, neatly gathered. Ready for information or news. Then a window opens at the 4th floor, a head pops out and shouts some news regarding mining for example...
and only the closest guys at the bottom where the ones listening and ready for it. All the others lost their patience are now talking to eachother. So you will see a few guys pulling the shirts of the up front guys and go... "Hey! What he say?" ... and theres that! :)

For the game itself, i start with the bad and different. Its doesnt hold your hand. There are descriptions for certain things but most have no tool tips or information.
Personally i think FD have been a little lazy on certain game elements. Looking at you "Signal Sources."
They just seem half baked most of the time. And thats a pity. So much could have been done to increase their... "excitement."
And the lack of "Wings" content was also very dissapointing. Still is.
Powerplay aka "merit collection" is a complete chore and it certainly doesnt stimulate me in any way.
And who wins and loses what system? Couldnt care less.
The A.I. I hate the A.I on all aspects.


What i do enjoy the most and what keeps dragging me back is the vastness, space, freedom to do whatever, finding new routes, mining, selling things, smuggling, the occational pew pew, seeing the sights, (havent tried exploring for real yet but i will.)

And this game just becomes that much more fun with a HOTAS. I have no other game i use the HOTAS for atm.
A HOTAS just makes the game 1000% more awesome.

There. Im done. :)
Happy New years!
 
Last edited:

xDreadnoughtx

X
I'm utterly baffled as to the point of the post OP. Why are you trying to establish if it is or is not? What difference does it make?

I feel like running you off my land right now but I'm so decrepit I can't manage it ;)
 

Howe

Howe
I'm 35, not a father, have an incredibly understanding girlfriend that doesn't mind sacrificing me or the TV to Elite and I think elitism amongst gamers daft.

So in answer to the OP: Dunno.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

Hannalicious said:
WOW was first MMO.
Click to expand...

Ultima Online.
 

Frank

Frank
What's all this quiche-eating nonsense!?

Luniticisi said:
Nope real gamers use cassettes !
Click to expand...

Real gamers don't use storage devices of any kind. And they don't bother with any of that hex loader namby pamby nonsense neither. They use the silver foil from a chewing gum wrapper to tap the binary directly into the CPU.
 

two quiet suns

two quiet suns
im a dad but i play lots of games (amongst other hobbies), fps, racing, aaa titles..
i have to say i have no interest in pvp elite though, have battlefield for that ;)

elite feels like my down time, a game to play while making synth patches/listening to music/watching tv.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom