I backed the Beta on the premise that this would be an MMO and have played it as an MMO ever since.
In my view, the game is obviously an MMO and always has been. It's a heavily instanced MMO, but that's not particularly unusual, nor particularly relevant to the definition of MMO.
Outside of the single player training Elite: Dangerous is always on-line, and all players, utilizing any of the three modes, influence and are influenced by the same shared background simulation. Players and CMDRs can cooperate with, and oppose, others without ever having to encounter them in an instance. Of course, in Open and Private Group, more direct, less abstract, interactions are possible.
PvE piracy is another exercise in mindless repetition, reinforced by poor and broken mechanics.
"identify system with correct attributes, jump there, identify T9s to interdict, look for LTDs".
Missions are laughably paid, each one generally surrounded by data or cargo delivery that pay several times more.
Any notion that crime as a playstyle is well developed - and talking PvE here - is effectively objectively wrong.
The problem with broad definitions is that they become meaningless. If ED is an MMO then practically every MP game out there is an MMO.
What's the "typical" haul you get from, let's say, a T9 if you pirate it?
In one sense ED is more massive than many traditional MMOs. We all share the same game world in ED. In traditional set ups, you usually share the world with those on the same server.
By Massive do you mean the size? I'd disagree I think as it's not that big at all. If we compare art assets with other games, ED fails miserably on the amount of work done. Compare something like The Division and how much work went into all the 3D models - so all the clothing, all the guns, all the attachments and then step out into the game world and take a look at all the vehicles, people, buildings, POI's, weather effects.
ED is basically balls in a void with the same space stations here and there throughout the entire galaxy.
WoW has huge worlds filled with more art assets than you can shake a stick at. ED's art assets on the other hand whilst brilliant work, aren't that much. There's 20-30 ships and a handful of stations.
The problem with broad definitions is that they become meaningless. If ED is an MMO then practically every MP game out there is an MMO.
By Massive do you mean the size? I'd disagree I think as it's not that big at all. If we compare art assets with other games, ED fails miserably on the amount of work done. Compare something like The Division and how much work went into all the 3D models - so all the clothing, all the guns, all the attachments and then step out into the game world and take a look at all the vehicles, people, buildings, POI's, weather effects.
ED is basically balls in a void with the same space stations here and there throughout the entire galaxy.
WoW has huge worlds filled with more art assets than you can shake a stick at. ED's art assets on the other hand whilst brilliant work, aren't that much. There's 20-30 ships and a handful of stations.
On a WoW server there may be about 6000 people I can potentially meet. In ED I can potentially meet all other players. I can't meet them at the same time, but I can meet them.
If I happened to like someone on a WoW forum and wanted to play with them, there would be a good chance one of us would have to switch servers. Perhaps both, if the server was full. It's like ED with PG only.![]()
Yeah, the borders between genres are tougher to define these days.
Many games feature elements from genres outside of their own, there is a lot of overlap.
On a MMO site (Massively Overpowered, short MOP), which mainly reports on MMORPGS, they came up with an elegantly named subsection when writing about such games.
They call it "Not so Massively", and it covers many of those in-between games.
ED has been featured there too, among others.
Lots of recent talk around here about definitions methinks, is that the 2018 theme ?![]()
I really think this is what it eventually comes down to- people arguing semantics over a term that's been used for generations which hasn't really been clearly defined in and of itself.
There's no "standard". Many games have been published that use the term- and although it may seem "clear" to some that it doesn't fit their definition, it may make perfect sense to others.
I guess we should consult Wikipedia as it seems to be the MMO bible.
So, for those who are saying number of players in an instance is a prerequisite for a game to be classed as an MMO, can we get an actual number on this?
8? 16? 32? 64? 128? 1000000?
At what point does a game magically become an MMO due to number of players who can directly interact with each other at once?
Everyone is connected to the same servers, Elite can probably handle more players than any other MMO out there...
There is a reason that you don't see massive FPS games. Even client/server games have to have a good connection. In an FPS you chose a server with low ping, if you want to do well. ED combat is fortunately more FPS like than MMO like.
.... apart from WWII Online
Because most of the work is done via the P2P connection and you're own PC, not by the servers. Try running PlanetSide 2 on ED's servers and it would collapse as would any other MMO out there.
Ah yes, PUBG... A game that gets even worse critics than ED because of their poor network infrastructure (at least last time I checked)...*cough*....Planetside 2....*cough*.....Falcon 4 (a 2 decade old game)...*cough*...Armed Assault 1,2 and 3....*cough*....Player Battlegrounds Unknown....*cough*
*cough*
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On the BGS:
The complete BGS is based on player interaction.
But will also run on it's own with zero player input and essentially is a text changing tool to rename systems in a grindy and shallow way.
Spreadsheets are what MMOs come from.its an SP game with limited MP functionality. Its not an MMO. MMO used to mean something, IE MANY people playing TOGETHER at the same time, now its a buzz word meaning many people playing separate in a sort-of multiplayer mode... Go on Steam and categorise by MMO, see how many are real MMO's...
ED is what i like to call a Spreadsheet game...Loads of people playing alone changing numbers on a sophisticated spreadsheet (not literally)...Once a week someone clicks "Save" and stuff changes, nothing is real time, its more turn-based.