I have been part of a number of discussions lately, many outside these official forums. And I have found those discussions are all regarding one thing.. Elite and how many players have either given up and no longer play or those rarely doing so and thinking about it.
One of the problems I want to touch on before saying my piece though, is I do NOT want to be inundated with a bunch of over the top fanboy replies. If you cannot join this discussion as an adult, if you feel you have to berate someone with a different opinion than your own, DON'T POST.
I want to point out that starting with throwing around labels does not make it seem like you want to start such a discussion as you are referring to, just you know, fyi.
This is a discussion. I also want to make one thing clear: I WANT the game to grow and succeed. This is not about putting down or knocking down the game. It is about trying to SAVE IT because there are THOUSANDS of players who have stopped playing or are near that point. Obviously me writing this should tell you that I too am frustrated enough to do this. All I personally see is a lot more 'pretty' ooh and ahh features that actually add no real substance, no real content for players to actually do to the game. It is time that the DEVS of Elite start listening to we players. Yes, we see your vision and where you want to go. But in your quest, you are forgetting we the player and the fact we need to be engaged, we need to be entertained, we need to find ourselves having FUN in the game.
Ok, you are talking about saving it, yet where do you have this information, Elite is doing better then ever according to all stats I can find, thousands of people stop playing games daily, that doesn't mean a game is dying? provide links to sources of your information?
I joined Elite Dangerous back from day one. I am one of those original Founders. I have patiently sat here, watched and waited as improvements were made, bugs were fixed and time moved on. I have had complaints about things just like everyone else has. But I have stuck it out and kept the faith that eventually we would get to something I could consider 'fun' and immersive. Well, after the last few days of round and round in some other discussions with over the top fanboy types, I decided it was time to make my opinion official here in the official forums... in HOPE that Elite DEVS might just read this and understand what it happening out here to even their most long term supporters.
I have personally played since launch, and I keep coming back to Elite unlike so many other games, so, apparently, it is doing something right?
And you are still here after all that time? so clearly it isn't all bad?
To put it bluntly.... The game is BORING. There is no immersion. There is no impulse to want to stay in the universe and game. And I realized that this may not change for a long time to come based on the new beta patch and the content being added.
The new patch adds a number of 'nice' features like holo avatars, some more decal markings for your ships and a few other things. But it does NOTHING to address the much more important and serious issue of game play itself. Just like the Horizons and Passengers and Engineers updates, this one too adds some nice pretty things to the game but it does not change anything in the underlying engine or universe in terms of fun or immersive experience.
There is no 'drive' to want to do anything. There is no draw that sucks you in and keeps you there. No story that engages your mind.
.....
I am curious to hear other thoughts regarding my post.
Alright, lets talk about this, you say you want 'more' but you don't really quantify what that is, what it actually is you want, you want to be able to do more, find 'other' planets and similar, but what do you want to 'do' on them? planets are vastly different, yes they are all rocks that we can land on currently, but more is coming, but even if you have none realistic planets, like say No man's sky, it still becomes much the 'same' and everything is the 'same' to do, so it would seem what the planets 'are' doesn't really matter, what you can do does, and again, you are really vague on what you want to do, and again, if you are playing thousands of hours, there is no way gameplay wouldn't end up feeling repetitive.
As for there being no 'drive' in the game it being boring, remember that is subjective, and I don't know, I find plenty, but I need to chose it myself yes, I need to decide what I want to do, and then go do it, there is no, quest line or storyline to drive you along, that is very true, but again, how could there really be? and would that improve anything? quest lines and such in other mmo's that have this, are in my book significantly more boring over time.
You say realism isn't needed, and use thargoids as a counter because they aren't real? I want to point out that there can be millions of intelligent life in the milky way alone, so something thargoid like, 'could' very well exist irl, main problem is distance, something that we in have mostly overcome in the future setting Elite is set in.
As for missions being 'canned scripted' I do not agree, if you want to see canned scripted events, look at wow or other things, yes, missions generally follow a set of guidelines for that type of mission, but again, how would you do it differently, how would you avoid this getting to feeling canned and scripted over a long time, I've yet to see any game manage it, because frankly, it is a near impossible task as of yet.
My point, is that Elite is not magic, I'm not a 'fanboy' or similar, I consider my view on the game very realistic and objective, you can't demand that Elite does something no one else has managed, you can't demand simply state you want 'more' and expect people to know what the 'more' is to add, you can't simply claim that thousands are leaving, or that most of us feel a certain way, because you are frankly not right considering game stats that we can see prove that Elite is doing better then ever, and steadily improving.
This makes your post come off as someone who's run tired in the game, tossing around doom and gloom without providing any evidence for your claims.
And no, I'm not blind to Elite's flaws, it has several, but here's the thing, its significantly better then most anything else out there that I've seen so far, so I want Frontier to keep doing the great work they are doing.
