I agree 100% with Drew here

[Old Duck]

Oh absolutely. Same recommendation about not paying too much heed to those opinions. Although those youtubers and ED streamers actually probably play the game themselves a tad more than you, I suspect.

You dishonor your moderator badge with this character assassination attempt.

 

[askavir]

Elephant Butt Leather is a part of the lore and has a rich heritage dating back to the chairs David Braben and Ian Bell sat in when they developed the original Elite.

Even if not part of the lore, it's now part of ED's pop culture.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

The Open Letter crew demanded they take resources away from II & CG. As you are an ex-programme manager I would have hoped you would know that demanding resources in one area would result in removing them from another... it's pretty rare that customer demands will increase project budgets in such a short timeframe...

I for one never supported that open letter, whilst there was stuff in there which groked with me, there was some which absolutely didnt. (and whilst I do not agree with @Stigbob when it comes to ED a lot of the time, he is bang on point imo about the threat to throw toys out of pram and run away if not heeded, that definitely put me off)

That said the autumn release last year was a low point for ED imo for a game which is a long way outside of any arguments of early access.

It should not be too much to expect continual support of existing features AND a relatively unbroken release no?

I also like to think the people who wrote that open letter give themselves far too much credit. IF a group of people can genuinely convince a company the size of FD that features which yesterday the devs thought were working just fine and ready for release all of a sudden need a 6 month delay something is very wrong.

Personally I do not think this is the case, I think FD knew they had to delay again, but were reticent to do it given it had already been delayed, and then saw this open letter as a convenient scapegoat.

but that is just my guess..... but if the alternative is a few fans of the game can have such huge sway with FD, then i know what i will take.

(that said if i am wrong maybe i need to do an open letter about the need for NPC crewmates!!!)

 

[JesusRocks1988]

Oh absolutely. Same recommendation about not paying too much heed to those opinions. Enjoy their content to your heart content by all means though. Most of it is pretty good.

Although those youtubers and ED streamers actually probably play the game themselves a tad more than you, I suspect.

That's outers

 

[Stigbob]

You're doing a lot more howling than I am.

Do I need to add werewolf to the list of OldDuck conspiracies now ?.

 

[drew]

Arguably, Drew's vested interest in Elite Dangerous lore ended with the Salome event and the release of Premonition. Whatever happens to Elite's lore from then onwards is not really anything to do with him, from a business standpoint? Right?

I don't monitise my twitch/youtube channels. I do still get small amounts of royalties from sales of my two ED books, but they are now insignificant next to my other SF works - I think most people who wanted a copy of those books probably have them by now. I'm not writing any more ED material, so have limited 'vested interest' other than being a fan of the game.

I have not dealt with Fdev in a 'business' manner since 2016 and the commission for Premonition and my last GalNet articles was posted just after the Salomé event - April 29th 2017/3303 I believe.

Anyway, points made, hopefully. I shall retire back to obscurity once more. Right on and o7.

Cheers,

Drew.

 

[JesusRocks1988]

I don't monitise my twitch/youtube channels. I do still get small amounts of royalties from sales of my two ED books, but they are now insignificant next to my other SF works - I think most people who wanted a copy of those books probably have them by now.

I have not dealt with Fdev in a 'business' manner since 2016 and the commission for Premonition.

Cheers,

Drew.

Thanks for clarifying, although, you shouldn't have to.

 

[Old Duck]

Anyway, points made, hopefully. I shall retire back to obscurity once more. Right on and o7.

Personally I wish the "other side" would retire back into obscurity, as you are worth 100 of them IMO, but such is the nature of social media. Well I at least look forward to your upcoming Lore Tour, so don't let these naysayers stop you from publishing videos or doing these tours. You have a lot of people who appreciate your contributions to the ED world-building through your stories and lore.

 

[JesusRocks1988]

Personally I wish the "other side" would retire back into obscurity, as you are worth 100 of them IMO, but such is the nature of social media. Well I at least look forward to your upcoming Lore Tour, so don't let these naysayers stop you from publishing videos or doing these tours. You have a lot of people who appreciate your contributions to the ED world-building through your stories and lore.

Seconded

 

[Sir.Tj]

I'll be watching with popcorn to see the mods tell Obsidian Ant to shut up next time he shows up and leaves an opinion about exploration...

Someone care to hold my coat?

@Obsidian Ant

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

hang on.... either i have smoked too much onion head or that boxers mustache got smaller over the last 5 minutes!.

 

[Ozric]

Well the last few hours have been interesting. It appears I'm back again, so soon I hear you cry. Remember to discuss the post, not the poster and just play nicely please.

I will not be back again...

 

[Jenner]

Just because Drew may have a monetary interest in Elite lore/Galnet fluff/etc. doesn't mean his criticisms are baseless.

And for what it's worth (not much) I happen to agree with the overall gist of Drew's take on Elite lore and storytelling.

 

[Sir.Tj]

hang on.... either i have smoked too much onion head or that boxers mustache got smaller over the last 5 minutes!.

It's all part of the lore....

 

[pippo]

I will forever miss the Galnet fluff.

 

[Stigbob]

Just because Drew may have a monetary interest in Elite lore/Galnet fluff/etc. doesn't mean his criticisms are baseless.

It doesn't add any weight to them either though.

I will forever miss the Galnet fluff.

Where do you get forever from ?.

 

[Jenner]

It doesn't add any weight to them either though.

Doesn't have to. The criticism stands well enough on its own merit imho.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

Drew's points are well taken but along with these points are several departures from the Elite management team, specifically Michael Brooks and Paige Harvey, both community managers, who have moved on. Michael Brooks has moved on to lead another Frontier project as I suspect his expertise was needed there as game director.

Given the shift away from community management for Elite to other Frontier projects as well as postponements in major content for Elite, coupled with Drew's assessment on FDev's departure from Galnet, (the only source of Elite lore and narrative for this game), one has to wonder what the "New Era" means for this game.

o7....

Out of curiosity is MB still playing with dinosaurs? Is Sandro still at FD?

I am just wondering if the new projects they are working on could possibly actually be new era?

 

[pippo]

Where do you get forever from ?.

To be honest with you, as much as I really liked the useless fluffy aspect of those news, like a coating of paint, I always thought it was not viable on the long run, much to Frontier's credit in all fairness. So it is no surprise that they pulled the plug at some point.

I would be very surprised to see it returning in the fluffy form we once had, were you never were quite sure if the news was some random backstory or the hint towards a proper story.

 

[Layne Vakarian]

That, right there, is two examples of how to do everything wrong in terms of lore.

Imagine if, say, Marvel made a "Spiderman" game and stated that it was canon within the Spiderman lore.
The dev's, in a bid to maintain immersion, set it up so that the player character couldn't die and, instead, when your health reached zero you got cocooned in a spider-web and emerged fully healed.
Perhaps the game takes place over a large area so the dev's create a mechanic where Spiderman can spin a huge web and use it as a trampoline to "bounce" himself all over the country.
Maybe there are parts of the game where you need to get information from criminals so they set it up so you can shoot a spider-web into an NPC's ear and do some kind of telepathic brain-suck.

The game is canon so those abilities are now canon too.
Spiderman is immortal because he can cocoon himself and be restored to life, he can bounce across the world on a web-trampoline and he can brain-suck people if he want's to.
Erk!

Sometimes a game dev' needs to be capable of deciding when to make use of suspension-of-disbelief rather than trying to come up with implausible lore, in a bid to maintain immersion, that ends up being so convoluted that it creates more problems than it solves and conflicts with a heap of pre-existing lore.

There's no hard & fast "rules" to this stuff but a smart writer (and a competent game design team must include somebody in that role) will have a good understanding of the subject-matter and will be able do make decisions which are sympathetic to the lore of a franchise.

Trust me on this, Spiderman is the one of the worst possible examples you could have chosen to make your point. For that matter anything from Marvel is the worst possible etc.
The only pity is that as far as I am aware, all of the Elite games so far seem to have stuck to one particular version of lore. And it IS a pity. Had the developers indulged in a spot of retconning here and there as they went along we might not be neck-deep in discussions such as this.

I have genuine sympathy for the protectors and defenders of the Elite Faith, but at one and the same time I also genuinely wish they'd accept that stuff happens, things change, and not all stuff that happens or changes is a bad thing.

Oh, and if you don't trust me, try this on for size for a start:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_versions_of_Spider-Man