Of course it was! If you go back to its origins, which also had that "battle/trader thing" (actually it invented that for space games, don't forget that). It wasn't an MMO, of course, since there was no internet at the time. But if this MMO thing is really that important to you, then you might be right. All right then..
It's not important to me, it's part of the identity of elite dangerous. Being an MMO is as part of what makes this game behave the way it does as having mining in the game.
Without it, you would have a game that is much more like traditional space combat trader / privateer type games that came before. It's a different kind of game entirely, with a story you can re-play at your own pace and potentially mod your own game and potentially play in a unique iteration of the galaxy not exactly the same as anyone else's, etc.
So it's an important distinction being an MMO compared to elite games of the past that were not. It drastically changes the game when you can't re-play the "story" of the game ...you can only play in the now. And it drastically changes the game when other players activity in the game can impact your game.
That's not a judgement call, it just is a part of what sets this game up in it's genre and sets it apart from the likes of old elite and privateer games and the countless other space combat sim games out there.
I really don't know what these aspects are that you think VO has and "that are vastly larger in scope than ED", but I guess to further discuss this here is really beyond the scope of this thread.
Just to name a couple off the top of my head, you have cross platform gameplay, player modding (for good or worse), non-player server side simulation (allows persistent npcs and remote control of assets, etc), user contributed content (players can design and create complex missions that can be added to the game) - the squadron/guild system is much more mature in vo and allows access to assets based on keys you can provide to players (like permits) - at the owner or squadron/guild level.
Like i said, nobody is suggesting there exists a game that exceeds ED in all that it does, or that VO is even a good game.
Just mind you, I wasn't the one to start comparing ED to other space games, there are many others that each had/have their own strengths and weaknesses (Jumpgate and Evochron come to mind). I really don't want to take these comparisons any further as there is no point in comparing a modern day Porsche to a Ford T-Bucket. In this respect: EDO is simply the best Porsche that actually exists. And if you think it's VO, fine. I just wonder what you are still doing here? Go play it! It doesn't get any better if you talk EDO into the ground.
The point is not to compare games or judge them on which ones are good or not. It was stated as a question if ED was the first or only game like it still active.
I provided the example of VO that it was indeed not either. VO is a mmorpg space combat trader game with twitch control and newtonian physics flight model with numerous other features and gameplay designs that cover the primary parts of ED that still is being developed and was released 10 years before ED. Nobody was making this a "who's better" discussion other than you seem to be taking it as.
I stand by it: for all its flaws, EDO is still vastly superior to others of this genre with fewer flaws (I don't want to mention NMS or EVE here, as I don't consider them space games - vague space-themed ones at best). And don't even get the idea of putting me in the white knight's shoes now: this forum is full of posts from me pointing out bugs and shortcomings of EDO, some of them quite toxic I think...
and the last word is... yours.
who said anything about white knighting? I assume this part of the post was actually directed at banana's comment?