Drew Wagar's Thoughts

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Drew did some lore, wrote a couple of books on the back of the elite galaxy - was there anything else of import?
You make this sound light, he didn't just write lore :D He wrote the 2nd book with player participation on a grand scale. The amount of people involved with the culminating event is second only to the Distant Worlds expeditions. And of course the ingame assets added just for that whole storyline: The Zurara, the Formidine Rift settlements...
 
You make this sound light, he didn't just write lore :D He wrote the 2nd book with player participation on a grand scale. The amount of people involved with the culminating event is second only to the Distant Worlds expeditions. And of course the ingame assets added just for that whole storyline: The Zurara, the Formidine Rift settlements...
Indeed, the past is glorious, but is in the past nonetheless.
 
You make this sound light, he didn't just write lore :D He wrote the 2nd book with player participation on a grand scale. The amount of people involved with the culminating event is second only to the Distant Worlds expeditions. And of course the ingame assets added just for that whole storyline: The Zurara, the Formidine Rift settlements...
Yep. 2016 to 2019 were the best times in this game as the amount of community initiatives, Drews books and mystery, and frontier themselves actively worked in tandem together, creating a lore-rich gameworld where something epic was always going on, be it the distant worlds events, premonition event, Colonia's birth, frontier adding new story-based content, like the dynasty settlements, whole expeditions going out there to find them, the addition of the colonia connection highway, the explorer's anchorage CG on Distant Worlds 2. It was an unprecedented time of gameworld development and a lot of it was down to player initiatives and activities - something Frontier were once receptive to and worked with people on. There's been nothing like it since that time period, maybe the DSSA thing last year, but that got shafted when frontier watered carriers down to being nothing but an expensive toy.

I think there was a big shift in frontiers thinking a couple of years ago. Since then everything has become ever more secretive with frontier and they no longer seem to have interest in what the community is doing, except superficially.
 
For those who haven't seen it yet. Here are Drew's thoughts on Odyssey.

Source: https://youtu.be/qGsQUSd-9cM?t=170
Not sure why the constant banging on about "Panther Clipper", isn't that a pre-3300 ship? Why would it be resurrected when it's now obsolete (thanks to Fleet Carriers having massive cargo capacity?)

Also, accusing FDev of "arrogance" isn't helpful, but insulting. Don't confuse incompetence with malice.
 
The forum is full of irony, I'm pretty cetain you may have noticed that already - little things like a member suggesting that Frontier lose enough money to have to let Devs go, but disliking when the same analogy is made back to themselves... (that one was a doozy!)

Even your own post is doing exactly that which you are making a comment on, Ironic?

Drew did some lore, wrote a couple of books on the back of the elite galaxy - was there anything else of import?

I'd have considered, with his excellent writing skills, that he might have delivered a written summary of his opinions too, for those who prefer the flavour of the written word rather then yet another video selling "snake oil" (as some of the CCs & influencers claim ED is either dying or offer their own "surefire" ways to get it back on its feet)
Agreed,

It's like politics isn't it

it's easy to offer sure fire winners / fixes, when you don't have to implement them. You're in a no lose situation - If they implement them, and all succeeds, it was because of your suggestions, and if they don't implement them, and they fail, then it's because they didn't do what you suggested.

To quote a beetles song "Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see".
 
Lore-rich game world? Story-based content? I think that's pretty far-fetched or I must have played a different game back then. I for one have a very different idea of what these terms were supposed to mean. Apart from a few CGs, I don't recall anything of Drew's lore manifesting itself in the game mechanics. That said, history and lore were always as disconnected from the rest of the game as power play and CQC, if I recall correctly. For exactly the same reason I never understood why everyone was so obsessed with Galnet News. If none of it directly translates into game mechanics, I'd rather read a book. To me, it's all just pointless icing that only relieves FDev of the responsibility of creating real story-based content.
Have to disagree on the Galnet news - I quite like it,
I wish they would do it more like they did in First Encounters where they had newspapers such as newspapers 'RIG, Imperial Times' etc.
Some of the articles were about in game events, and some were just random nonsense / fluff - they were great fun / a great read.
Plus if you carried out a quest, your name appeared in later Journals.


Link to The First Encounters 'Newspapers'
 
Because they'd get even more hate for self promotion.

There are already enough condescending posts in this thread and it would be much worse. Some people really don't like "content creators" posting their opinion online - while posting their opinion on this forum. There's some irony to that.
Hate is often a child of jealousy.
 
I guess it depends on what you mean by "game mechanics". If you mean actual gameplay, I agree, I don't think there's been any change there, but from a game "assets and Galnet perspective", both of which should be considered part of the overall narrative of Elite Dangerous, then there is some evidence that player events have had some impact - not much - but some . The main example is probably Drew's narrative that lead to The Zurara and the Formidine Rift settlements. Both are physical assets with a backstory. Both born out of Drew's story. They should be part of the lore, but are barely recognized or known about (especially if you're new to Elite) as you have to know about them first, then go visit those actual locations to get a tiny snippet of what went on. It would have been nice to entwine stuff like this into the Codex and have an in-depth writeup of what it was all about, as in that respect they would have been considered a part of the whole story that is Elite, instead of a semi-hidden away afterthought.
 
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Because they'd get even more hate for self promotion.

There are already enough condescending posts in this thread and it would be much worse. Some people really don't like "content creators" posting their opinion online - while posting their opinion on this forum. There's some irony to that.
True, although I think OA's latest posts where he summarized the content from the forum (as asked) got a good feedback.

My "favorites" are video posts without summary, with clickbait title.

Super annoying, and I never click them, even if I miss out good content.
 
Because they'd get even more hate for self promotion.

There are already enough condescending posts in this thread and it would be much worse. Some people really don't like "content creators" posting their opinion online - while posting their opinion on this forum. There's some irony to that.
Personally I don't like the whole content creator / influencer stuff.

It's just a video with random scenes from the game and a guy talking slowly. I guess most Youtubers have a script, instead of making a video they could simply post it on the forums so we can discuss it properly (OA did that a few times which resulted in interesting threads). I tried to watch Drew's video but after a few minutes I quickly realised that he doesn't say anything we haven't discussed on the forums yet, so it's mostly a waste of time for me. And if I wanted to talk about something he said I'd rather quote him directly.
 
Super annoying, and I never click them, even if I miss out good content.
This, and: "But... but... the Roadmap, will nobody think of the Roadmap?!"

I really have no idea what gamers need to have a roadmap for to play a game. I've been playing games for 40 years totally wrong I guess. I was NOT entertained in many occasions for many reason. I never ever was NOT entertained because I did not have a Roadmap.

Only one who wants to get a prying finger between something needs one, gamers don't. Calls for it should not be taken serious.
... to be frank, same goes for sneak previews from Frontier btw.
 
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You make this sound light, he didn't just write lore :D He wrote the 2nd book with player participation on a grand scale. The amount of people involved with the culminating event is second only to the Distant Worlds expeditions. And of course the ingame assets added just for that whole storyline: The Zurara, the Formidine Rift settlements...
Even on the larger estimates for the size of Distant Worlds 2, there have been several CGs with a higher participant count, just since the late-2020 revival of the storyline.

The Premonition finale was a large and interesting set piece event, but in terms of raw participant numbers there've been plenty of bigger ones before and since.

I think there was a big shift in frontiers thinking a couple of years ago. Since then everything has become ever more secretive with frontier and they no longer seem to have interest in what the community is doing, except superficially.
As always, it all depends on who The Community is considered to be.

In reality there are hundreds of overlapping communities with various levels of awareness of each other and various opinions of each other.

I doubt there's time to engage with all of those different communities except superficially ... meanwhile, Frontier's historical deeper engagement with a few certain communities is still a subject of bitterness from some players in other communities who feel that this was favouritism.

Apart from a few CGs, I don't recall anything of Drew's lore manifesting itself in the game mechanics.
There were some treasure hunts and custom POIs, too.

In terms of in-game implementation, to compare Premonition the current Azimuth story arc:
- both have had occasional CGs
- both have had treasure hunts, codes, and mysteries as well as unique in-game POIs
- both have had big needle-in-haystack search area
- both have had opportunities for discoveries or insights by individuals to be key to progressing
- Premonition but not Azimuth [1] had a few small-group RP events in-game for selected participants
- Azimuth has had almost all the reported action take place in-game ... Premonition much of it took place in Galnet only [2]
- Azimuth but not Premonition has had in-game non-cash rewards for participants
- Premonition ended with a big set-piece event ... Azimuth isn't even a third of the way through yet so we won't know for a while.
- both are centred around morally ambiguous protagonists who are allergic to giving out actionable information but have nevertheless have attracted considerably greater player support than the formal authorities
- neither have particularly connected with the BGS [3]

There's not all that much difference between them in practice, from my point of view. (Obviously people will have their own opinions on which is the more interesting storyline)

[1] not yet anyway, but it seems highly unlikely
[2] the current Federal politics story arc has been more Premonition-like in its balance of Galnet reporting of "off-screen" events
[3] though the Marlinist story arc running alongside Azimuth has
 
The Premonition finale was a large and interesting set piece event, but in terms of raw participant numbers there've been plenty of bigger ones before and since.
FWIW, I "participated" in that event by zealously following multiple livestreams* in real time that day. ED was not yet out on PS4, but I was very interested in the game, and Salome's Return was my first experience of a large-scale community event. Sure, CGs may have more players participating over the course of a week, but as for "televised" events that generate hype, I can't remember any that quite compare to Drew's event.

* by luck I tuned into Harry's stream (before I even knew who he was) just minutes before he betrayed and killed Salome. I was a bit miffed by that, and I wasn't even playing the game yet!
 
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