Ars Technica's "Salome Event" Article - what do you think?

ZeroAi

ZeroAi
I just read the Ars Technica's article about this weekend's "Salome" event and wondered if you thought they did a good job summarizing it?

Also, is any press good press, or do you think this type of story hurts or helps the game most of us truly enjoy playing?

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017...munity-plan-event-upended-by-masterful-troll/

As always, there are no wrong opinions however anyone worth their "salt" knows how to share their opinions without personal attacks ;-)

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My Two Cents:

I think AT did a great job summarizing a complicated situation.

And I also think any press is good press, but I could be wrong?

I do have a different conclusion than AT did:

Their conclusion was SDC provided some great entertainment, but my conclusion is the whole event was an opportunity lost.

Don't get me wrong, if the forces aligned against Salome had more firepower or better combat tactics then I think Salome should have died.

However, it seems the only reason she did die was because those organizing her defense invited the fox into the hen-house while locking out the farmer (as detailed in the article.)

So what do you think?
 

Strangepork

Strangepork
Greylock said:
I just read the Ars Technica's article about this weekend's "Salome" event and wondered if you thought they did a good job summarizing it?

Also, is any press good press, or do you think this type of story hurts or helps the game most of us truly enjoy playing?

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017...munity-plan-event-upended-by-masterful-troll/

As always, there are no wrong opinions however anyone worth their "salt" knows how to share their opinions without personal attacks ;-)

--------------------------------------------------------------

My Two Cents:

I think AT did a great job summarizing a complicated situation.

And I also think any press is good press, but I could be wrong?

I do have a different conclusion than AT did:

Their conclusion was SDC provided some great entertainment, but my conclusion is the whole event was an opportunity lost.

Don't get me wrong, if the forces aligned against Salome had more firepower or better combat tactics then I think Salome should have died.

However, it seems the only reason she did die was because those organizing her defense invited the fox into the hen-house while locking out the farmer (as detailed in the article.)

So what do you think?
Click to expand...

How exactly was 'the fox' invited, I have heard differing reports.
 

ape808

ape808
Here's the ending from Salome's wingmate perspective. The chances of success were always slim, but looks like wing beacon/instancing problems didn't help.

[video=youtube;DL0vpYUtE48]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DL0vpYUtE48[/video]
 

CMDR Corlas

CMDR Corlas
I normally really like Ars, but the event wasn't "upended". I flew to try to defend Salome, but the goal of the event wasn't to get her to safety. It was to get her to safety OR to kill her. It seems like so many in the community wanted her safe, we all forgot that killing her was also a valid option. There was no "right" or "wrong" ending, just two branching paths. One of them had to happen, and this is the one that did.

I think the event was a lot of fun, and props to Drew for putting it together.

Anger at FD and Drew is grossly misguided. It should be in-character anger at those responsible for her death, however the individual's character chooses to see who is responsible.
 

[VR] Merkir

[VR] Merkir
Terrible PR and terrible result for FDev.

It reinforces that the extreme griefers and trolls within the game are allowed to set the agenda, and not only for the game but also now for the book.

Edit: And to think it could probably have been avoided if Salome was played in character by deleting the extreme griefers/trolls from her friends list.
 
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Gunnet

G
The article itself is the usual garbage I'd expect from Ars Technica.

The comments were worth reading though, particularly to see how people who don't play Elite interpreted it. For the most part people looking in from the outside seem to be able to see through the "emergent gameplay" ploy.
 

Chorda

Chorda
I didn't think much of it. As others have pointed out the event wasn't wrecked by trolls or griefers, but both Ars and Massively have been eager to play up the drama in their click-baity, sensationalist accounts. The AT article in particular had a clear tone of schadenfreude to it, which just comes off as petty.
 

Blackcompany

Banned
B
Greylock said:
I just read the Ars Technica's article about this weekend's "Salome" event and wondered if you thought they did a good job summarizing it?

Also, is any press good press, or do you think this type of story hurts or helps the game most of us truly enjoy playing?

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017...munity-plan-event-upended-by-masterful-troll/

As always, there are no wrong opinions however anyone worth their "salt" knows how to share their opinions without personal attacks ;-)

--------------------------------------------------------------

My Two Cents:

I think AT did a great job summarizing a complicated situation.

And I also think any press is good press, but I could be wrong?

I do have a different conclusion than AT did:

Their conclusion was SDC provided some great entertainment, but my conclusion is the whole event was an opportunity lost.

Don't get me wrong, if the forces aligned against Salome had more firepower or better combat tactics then I think Salome should have died.

However, it seems the only reason she did die was because those organizing her defense invited the fox into the hen-house while locking out the farmer (as detailed in the article.)

So what do you think?
Click to expand...

This article proves one thing beyond any doubt:

FDEV is going in the wrong direction design wise.

By which I mean their strange insistence on total control of pacing, their utter lack of allowance for player agency and the complete lack of tools, choices and consequences with which to offer truly unique, emergent game play.

If you want gaming press talking (positively, for once) about your big, open world sandbox game in this day and age, it has to offer something unique. Something most games dont. And a good place to start, is to introduce tools that foster the REAL sandbox feeling that Elite lacks.

This game needs to allow more player agency. When players are allowed to change a game world, it gets people talking. When those players possess the agency within a game world to create their own, truly unique, one of a kind experiences, it really gets people talking.

That's what Elite needs. Not a carefully paced, hand holding grind. Not a developer afraid to let go of the reigns. Not a new currency to grind for every update. The game needs player agency. Tools and choices that can lead to real consequences. That will get gaming media and gamers talking positively about Elite. Otherwise, give it a year or two on this path and if it makes it that long the only thing people will still be discussing is the over/under the last player gets to turn out the lights.
 

M. Volgrand

M. Volgrand
My biggest applauses to Harry Potter and the SDC.

Yes, I mean that. And no, I'm not an SDC membe, and I have called them griefers many, many times. But this was brilliant.

I have been unable to join the event, because I was travelling abroad, but I followed it as close as I could. When I learnt that the PAC said they would shoot any armed ship not in their files, I immediatly thought that Salomé would not make it. Because it was obvious that someone willing to kill her would infiltrate the PAC discord channels and lists.

Even better, many of the defenders were streaming live. So yeah, the position of Salomé was going to be known. Good job!

But let's be hones, the defenders had a really difficult objective ahead, even if they did a perfect job. I can't really blame them: They did it as good as they could and failed, so just cheer guys! You had fun, that's the important bit!

But now, as a wannabe writer myself: The story development is simply brilliant! Think about it: Salomé has a very important objective that moves hundreds of pilots to defend her when the Empire places a millionaire bounty on her head! They organize a defense force to protect her, but a mercenary infiltrates this force and destroys her from the inside!

It is a BRILLIANT storyline!

So stop complaining! This was not about winning or losing, this was about creating an story, and you all did! And the SDC has played an amazing role in it, they deserved to be considered as the best villains ever in the galaxy!


Oh, and by the way:

I AM PLACING A BOUNTY OF 10 MILLION CREDITS ON COMMANDER HARRY POTTER'S HEAD. Video footage required. :D
 

Nilt

N
purplepomegranite said:
Ars. I've always assumed that's a misspelling. :D
Click to expand...

Nope, it's pseudo Latin. The translation would be basically "The Art of Technology" or "The Technological Arts", depending on a few factors which don't really matter.

As far as my opinion of the article, I am quite disappointed in it. I read Ars daily, at minimum, and am active there in the forums. I ordinarily agree with much of their coverage, but in this case I disagree entirely. This attitude many have that griefing and attery is "emergent gameplay" is bull pure and simple. In a multiplayer game such as Elite, it's almost guaranteed that you end up with this crap unless you make PvP completely optional. Whether you do that via a flag, or via a PvP server doesn't much matter. If you want a game to have mass appeal, this is what you need to do. Otherwise you're going to alienate a large part of your playerbase.

Sure, you get whiners either way, but the fact is this is a known quantity these days. I have little tolerance for the glorifying of behavior that, in polite sopciety, is frowned upon for good reason. It matters not at all, to me, whether this behavior happens face to face or in an electronic game.
 

Tel Prydain

T
I hate that Salome died - I love the character...
But as others have said, the event was to save the character OR to kill her. SDC did a fine job.

Having said that, the more I learn, the more it becomes obvious that SDC didn't actually get on the inside, and the Ars article was written from reddit posts, not from talking with people involved.
* Despite PAC acting like the 'offical' event group, it wasn't. It was more of a public sideshow while the core guards were in a separate group.
* SDC were never part of the CoR/Command channel.
* SDC were expected to turn traitor - which is why HP was supposed to be three jumps back from Salome and was escorted by more trustworthy players.
* The moment HP or any SDC were to disobey orders or enter a system with Salome, they would become KoS
* In the final strike HP had arranged for his escorts to be distracted, and other defenders struggled to instance with Salome to save her... they were apparently in the tunnel for about 90sec, she was dead in 40.

It sounded like rubbish when it was said PAC allowed SDC to join so they could split them up and have them winged with folk who would ideally have been able to counter them, but hearing it from the other side has me won over.
 
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Ralph Vargr

Ralph Vargr
Nilt said:
Nope, it's pseudo Latin. The translation would be basically "The Art of Technology" or "The Technological Arts", depending on a few factors which don't really matter.

As far as my opinion of the article, I am quite disappointed in it. I read Ars daily, at minimum, and am active there in the forums. I ordinarily agree with much of their coverage, but in this case I disagree entirely. This attitude many have that griefing and attery is "emergent gameplay" is bull pure and simple. In a multiplayer game such as Elite, it's almost guaranteed that you end up with this crap unless you make PvP completely optional. Whether you do that via a flag, or via a PvP server doesn't much matter. If you want a game to have mass appeal, this is what you need to do. Otherwise you're going to alienate a large part of your playerbase.

Sure, you get whiners either way, but the fact is this is a known quantity these days. I have little tolerance for the glorifying of behavior that, in polite sopciety, is frowned upon for good reason. It matters not at all, to me, whether this behavior happens face to face or in an electronic game.
Click to expand...

Please. Stop. Being. A. Mature. Rational. Person. :)

This board might put a bounty of a brazillon credits on your head... :)
 
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