Whilst also paraphrasing a line oft associated with r*pe excusers. And they wonder why we might wish to keep to ourselves...
Calling on the community to play in Open Play
- Thread starter Maiakaat
- Start date
Not for everyone. It's about engaging with an actual thinking opponent who might surprise you with their tactics, or by turning out to be friendly when you expected aggression. It's the unknown aspect human interaction provides. This may or may not involve lasers and, in my experience, often doesn't involve them a lot. It's generally more cat and mouse than tin can and air rifle and as Dabba put quite nicely 'Wild West'. The price you pay for an environment where that is possible is that on some occasions you might unfortunately find yourself being the tin can, but I can testify that Open isn't even remotely as awful as some would like to lead others to believe.
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The bottom line is its a personal preference. Everybody should try it and see if it suits them, but nobody should be berating, insulting, or name calling people that find it doesn't suit them. Its not going to work, and all you're proving by doing so is that you are a person that is indeed worthy of being avoided.
Open isn't terrifying... or the slaughterhouse one may think.
But i stand to my decision to play solo.
The most beneficial factors of uncertaincy and thrill are exactly what i have to avoid. The game doesn't need another psycho and i don't need another therapy
Perhaps not, but as I stated earlier, my personal reason for avoiding open play is not some fear of being shot at by some wannabe space Billy the Kid (I refrain from using the names of known pirates on the basis that Golden Era pirates did not actually want a battle and mostly were looking to score the supplies they couldn't openly purchase in ports not gold and silver etc) rather that I see nothing at all to be gained at present by doing so. Had I the inclination towards seeking to experience some frisson of danger-laden excitement whilst going about my daily business, I would take a walk in Brixton (though arguably lately I'd be more at risk of my eyes being assaulted by the dress sense of some hipsters).
Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
It's a matter of personal preference indeed - and the preference of some may be never to try open - that's their prerogative.
Really? You are openly admitting to being that incapable of spotting humour? Lighten up people, you are taking life, and more specifically yourselves, far too seriously.
This is a game, folks. It's about fun. It's not nasty people looking to be evil to helpless people. It's about having a giraffe together. Yes we can grab a football and all stand in a circle and kick the ball to each other while we chew the fat. Yes it's a distraction, yes it's amusing but only for so long and only so far.
All I'm saying is come on guys, we'll wear black and you can wear white if it makes you feel better but for fox ache let's have a game of football!
Open isn't terrifying... or the slaughterhouse one may think.
But i stand to my decision to play solo.
The most beneficial factors of uncertaincy and thrill are exactly what i have to avoid. The game doesn't need another psycho and i don't need another therapy
Open play may as well be solo for me. I've been playing since before Christmas and have seen perhaps 5 other players in that time. I've been around the core systems of all three factions too, and nothing. I am aware of threads that try to deal with this by changing router settings, of all things, but I shouldn't have to change my router settings just to see other players in a supposedly open game.
So I play in open play but it may as well be solo. Disappointing, as otherwise I love ED.
Now we're talking! Perhaps I'm getting an inkling why we see these things so differently. I don't feel the slightest bit of fear at all playing video games of any stripe. Now dread, I've had a sense of dread at having to start over in several games but again, that's the same sense of dread I get when the dog digs up the garden. An emotion closer to sadness than excitement, although I wouldn't actual say it make me sad. I've risked my life often enough in this world, for reasons ranging from youthful exuberance to flag and country, for a video game to cause me to adrenaline dump. That's just never going to happen.
Like many here, I game for relaxation and entertainment. I find starting over to be a drudgery more akin to having to do the dishes than anything remotely resembling excitement. I'm not against competition, just drudgery. Probably shouldn't admit this, but I play Battlefield and Call of Duty for the competitive aspects. That's competition done right, as there are no setbacks. Even if you are severely trounced in a match, you still make progress towards advancement. In Elite: Dangerous if you lose your ship, you're set back, which only increases the drudgery. I have enough dishes to do already, thank you.
I'll tell you my experience. December 16th, very exciting, been wanting this game 20 years, didn't participate in the beta as I don't do kickstarters or pay companies to do their beta testing for them, and had arduously avoided any info on the development so that my resolve on that wasn't tested. Install the game, do a couple of the tutorials, ok lets fly! Open server, basic sidewinder, leave LHS whatever towards Eravate. Interdicted by human commander in a Cobra, no communication, dead in 15 seconds, 5 minutes into the game. Well, that wasn't particularly fun.
So I decided to come to the forums, make an account, post a thread asking a simple question... is this a regular occurrence on Open? Keep in mind it was just the question, wasn't whining or complaining or asking for the rules of engagement on open to be changed, just asked if that was a common occurrence. Im sure you can imagine how that went. I got roasted, negative 20 something rep right off the bat, 3 or 4 pages of being called everything from a scare monger to things I cant say without bypassing the filter, all for asking if it was a common occurrence. Was told repeatedly to play on Solo if I didnt like it, amusingly enough by some of the very same names now begging people to play Open because they're lonely. Funny how that works.
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It's not empty. I'm in it, and I'm loving it. Come on in, the water's fine. (And no that's not an order, I'm not telling you how to play, just saying that it's not as bad as some people seem to assume - although I just saw you say you had personal experience, sorry to hear that.)
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Ah, the "just kidding" backpedal. Good show.
Did you read what he quoted? You too think that...
"I won't be harsh or even impolite when I rob you. I'll flatter you and tell you you have lovely eyes if it helps. Piracy doesn't have to be stressful. Just lie back and think of Proxima Centauri and it will all be over shortly. It may hurt a little at first but, who knows, you may even grow to like it. Open yourself to new experience. Give yourself over... "
...was a serious comment?
Like, for real?
This world, man! I'm losing the will to live.
Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
As forums are a written medium, tone is difficult to assess - emoticons help with this problem.
Really sick of these threads. Just play the game your way and let everyone else do the same. Nobody voted and made you God...
If it helps any I found it amusing, and my reply about the forum GHB was similarly tongue in cheek.
Yep, it's about fun, enjoyment. Which means I won't do anything I don't find enjoyable; this includes opening myself to non-consensual PvP in any shape or way.
Tried it in the past, came to the conclusion that I can never enjoy it, hence I will never again open myself for non-consensual PvP for as long as I live.
That's really the point that would be pirates/grifers/and-now-rapists don't get. There is no thrill for the unarmed trader in these scenarios. You could arm yourself, but that's at the expense of cargo space and profit. What is the incentive to give up cargo space and profit, when you can just trade in solo?
I'm not against pvp. I showed up at Eravate last night in my Viper, got a couple of kills, and had a bit of fun. My buddy, stayed for hours chewing players up in his Cobra. Had a message this a.m. that he had 7 kills and never even lost his shields before he went to bed. Full disclosure, he's a retired career marine pilot who's flown God only knows how many combat missions, and yes Virginia, those skills seem to translate nicely in this game.
I am against players wanting me to be unarmed content in their game. That's just never going to happen, ever. Let's be honest, that's what this is really about. These players want passive, helpless victims who'll look at Orion while they helplessly submit. They don't want to face other players in fully kitted combat ships with genuine skills.
I think some of this could be down to sheer excitement at release, and misunderstanding, but how could a human player have a cobra on the day of release? Did they not get ships reset? I read something about not resetting at Gamma, which I guess is fair reward for beta sponsors
I'm seeing quite a few who are just attributing attacks by players on the assumption that pirates behave better, so while you knew what was happening, its getting to the point where people are claiming attacks without knowing about the radar indicators, which is buried half way inside the manual.
It seems to have calmed down now, but if you are interested in a solo experience that's ok, and I understand that it was crappy when you tried open.
I started on the 23rd or something after doing some reading and tutorials for a few days to a week, maybe I've been dumped on an instance with differing people.
Hopefully Frontier can make open better without affecting solo negatively.
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To be fair I believe that there are more than a few that do want that, they just aren't the ones flinging around the coward, carebear, etc pejoratives.