Kind of what I was trying to say, but you said it better. Instead of 'pvp or solo', it should have been PvP or PvE, where you can see and interact with other players who share that style. Of course, FD could have tried to find a way to suit both play-styles in the same server.
I think in the context of this game that's a bad idea and ultimately detrimental. By labelling any open mode as either PvP or PvE that creates an expectation in many gamers heads that said servers are intended to explore that to the fullest extent of their labelled designation with limited scope if any for the alternative style of play. If this was a game of several hundreds of thousands of players, perhaps it could support that level of separation, but with the current scale of the game and playerbase this isn't going to work in any really satisfactory way and would spread us even thinner. Labelling Open 'PvP' would be a little disingenious when the intent isn't to turn it into a free for all PvP fest, but instead to create a style of play where all styles of player role are intended to coexist and form their own equilibrium.
I'll agree with you, Frontier could have done more to make this work, but until proper social tools and grouping are in game there's very little else to meaningfully do but pirate, bounty hunt or trade alone or with a small group of friends. It's very early days and despite the negative experiences a few players have had a fairly significant portion of players aren't experiencing anything like the same probem, or perhaps aren't responding to it in the same extreme manner. This doesn't make them gung ho pvp monsters. It just means they don't feel the same level of awfulness at falling foul of another player with a different approach to in game development. Open is a really good environment for these kinds of people, and I'm willing to bet they're more than a few. Slap 'PvP' on the mode instead and I'm willing to bet a considerable portion of those same players would think a little more cautiously before logging into it because it has an entirely different meaning. I think many people suggesting this as a 'solution' are absolutely aware of this too, just as the hard line PvPers suggesting everyone should be forced into Open know how that looks too. But they just don't care because they can't or won't see a middle ground.
My hope, as one of these middle grounders, is that once wings are in and once people can more effectively motivate - that players can take it upon themselves to deal with all the legitimate player based piracy and murder. Frontier can certainly tweak many things about the environment and how bounties and so on are handled, but ultimately the onus should be on players to take the reins themselves wherever possible. Players on trade runs can reap the benefits of those initiatives, and player pirates will at last get to experience their own taste of fear and adrenaline. I imagine as many of them will get a kick out of it as players who get a kick out of being interdicted by a real flesh and blood assailant. This doesn't mean those players expect to have to fight every pirate. There's a ton of tools in place that provide options to weather or escape piracy. I have friends who are quite happy to mostly trade in open, and loved being pirated because it gave them a much more real experience. They're also not that fussed about player versus player combat.
This sort of gaming shouldn't require designated PvP or PvE server styles that paint a polarised picture. I actually think Frontier have taken a progressive and forward thinking stance by trying this out and for my part I'm going to wholeheartedly do my best to give it a chance and persuade others to do likewise
and make their own minds up.
