Trouble Getting Friends into Elite Dangerous?

Infiltrator_2K

I
I have a friend who's a keen gamer but I'm having difficulty getting him into ED. He hasn't yet bought the game as he says prefers more action and I can't help but think he's simply dismissing ED as just being a space SIM. I've tried to explain to him that ED's so much more just than a space SIM, but he's not too fussed about buying and playing the game.

What's your experience? Did a friend have trouble getting you into Elite Dangerous? Are you having the same problem as me getting a friend into the game? Has a friend ever regretted getting the game? If so why?
 

zimms

zimms
"Forcing" friends to play a game is never going to work. If they don't like it, they just don't like it.
 

Jason S

J
The problem is because there is no story (and Galnet does not count) and very basic quests (missions) people usually think what is the point so I also have a hard time to convince people it is fun.
 

Mole HD

Mole HD
All of my online friends tried, all of them went back to multipew FPS games. I simply expanded my friends list by meeting folks in game, nearly 120 of them by mentoring and instructing in the Lidpar Order Pilot Training academy over on Xbox for a year or so... unfortunately, most of them left due to disagreeing with game design choices and went seeking something else...common story, sadly.

A few of them have followed me over to PC, we still play almost every day.
 
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Noctover

Noctover
ED is marmite really, love it or hate it. I love Elite, and you know what? I don't even know why, i can never explain to people why! Fact is my friends wont play it, and those that say they'll try it i tend to put off because i know they think the game is different to what it is.

Ive got 1 friend, who may get it soon, and i think they may like it...Thing to remember is Elite is very niche and the lions share of the gaming community would rather play a game like SC than ED. If you don't think they'll like it or they arnt willing to get to know the game; its not worth trying to get them in.
 

ozrix84

ozrix84
If they're not excited by the premise, chances are good they won't like it, or will get bored of it pretty quickly
 

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead
I tried explaining ED to friend once.

I don't think he's my friend anymore.
Lol

I love ED, but Christ, try explaining it to someone without boring them to tears. Lol

Me; "They've made a 1:1 replica of the galaxy with 400,000,000,000 star systems"
Buddy; "That's amazing, what's in them?"
Me; "No idea, less than 1% has been explored... I've been to the center of the galaxy though!"
Buddy; "Wow, what's there?"
Me; "A black hole... It doesn't do anything though!"
Buddy; "How hard is it to get there?"
Me; "not hard at all, you just need patience! It's a 25,000ly trip"
Buddy; "wow!"
Me; "My ship could only jump 25ly at a time. So it took me 1000 or so jumps to get there!"
Buddy; "What does that involve?"
Me; "ummm, charge for hyperspace, watch hyperspace, scoop fuel from a star, and charge for hyperspace again. It takes about 1 minute. "
Buddy; "ok...."
Me; "Combat is fun! Pew pew? No? Annnd he's gone."
 

goemon

goemon
well, i was brought in by a gamer friend myself....

generally i force people who are interested watching gameplay videos before buying.

two thirds don't buy after that. of the third who buys, two thirds are still playing.

sometimes friends of mine buy the game withot knowing me playing it (and without watching gameplay videos). almost all of them give up after a few hours.

elite is quite a special interest game - I personally don't look at it as a game mainly, more like a scifi- sim with a sloppy game UI attached. if i want to play games, i look somewhere else ...

btw. - one of my favourite book series, "the malazan book of the fallen" is quite the same. very few people are hooked, but those read all 10 books twice.
 

SpeedMATS

S
It would be great for Obsidian Ant to create a video specifically for this purpose.

I often find myself trying to explain what it's about but it's quite a hard thing to do in a meaningful and exciting way. And it typically ends up by me sending around a few movie links to wet the appetite.
 

kmwmtd

K
Noctover said:
ED is marmite really, love it or hate it. I love Elite, and you know what? I don't even know why, i can never explain to people why!
Click to expand...

This! I like Elite. OK, when I started playing in the original Beta, I found it difficult to get into and after the 3rd progress reset because of new versions, I left to do other things for a while ... over a year. But when I came back 6 months ago to give it another chance, something clicked. But I don't know what! I played EVE Online for about 5 years, and if I'm honest, EVE is a superior game in almost every respect - more variety of ships and careers, easier to communicate with other players, better PVE/PVP system, proper module storage and ship fitting, corporations/alliances/wars, no real limit on ships per instance, a realistic economy etc etc.

And yet, at the moment, I'd prefer to play Elite. Maybe it's nostalgia - I remember many of the earlier incarnations fondly, for all their faults. Maybe it's the realism. Maybe it's the scale of the environment - several hundred billion (admittedly, mostly samey) systems vs a few thousand. Maybe it's the mysteries - thargoids, ruins, formidine. Maybe it's because FD don't interfere and re-balance as often as CCP used to - probably because they don't need to as it's a much less complex game. Or maybe it was just time for a change.

I am currently 35,000 light years from Sol, trudging though one beige system after another (with the occasional neutron star or black hole), hoping to make it to Beagle Point, and dreading the journey back to the bubble. And yet I still look forward to playing every evening.

I must be insane ;)
 
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Thetele

T
Its hard to get anyone even try elite as the game already have the reputation of endless grind fest and no content just same couple boring stuff over and over again for more than 2 years.
 
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askavir

askavir
Just enjoy the game and leave your friends alone.

I put myself in their shoes, every time my friends pester me about joining them on WoW. No matter how much I say I prefer Skyrim or Witcher for my RPG fix and I don't want to spoil my RPG experience by seeing characters with stupid names doing stupid things, they still don't leave me the fart alone in this regard.
 

lokvette

lokvette
You either get past the initial 100 or so hours of game play either with friends or blindly trying to work out what the hell your meant to be doing and spending more time on youtube, and carry on with whats is mainly rinse and repeat game play, then carry on with the game.

Or you think nah not me for me where its the game it looks nice and I get to do this and that but whats it all for...think thats what might have happened to someone I know who got the game recently, not been on for two weeks and tbh I dont know if he will be back.
 

lysan

lysan
I gave a few copies away, mainly to friends who like space and exploration open world games. Sadly there is very little to do for explores but they still play the game now and then, and I hope hope there will be more for explores in the future.
 
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