If I may say this for myself:
...
I am not an online multiplayer game player, never have been and never will be.
...
I want an immersive experience and that
doesn't include other gamers.
I also want to play the game where I don't have an internet
connection, and when the FD servers are down (or have been shutdown,
or FD no longer exists). [...]
Except from constant bullying and incomodating your customers?!
Simply for long term assurance the player will be able to play the
game long into the future regardless of what happens to FD, without
wishing to sound horrible but if the company folds one day (as many
games studios sadly do over time) the game can still be played for
many years to come, and maybe even be modified and supported by the
community if the developer is no longer in a position to do it
themselves, there is many such games still being played today with
this exact scenario where the original developer & publisher have long
gone but the game still lives on supported by a dedicated community,
having a game which is solely dependant on the survival of either
makes me very nervous, history proves this sadly. [..]
So that is why offline mod is important for many players
Hello, just to clarify I am a standard beta customer, not original backer, so I "missed" part of the story.
That said : your first point seems to be well addressed by the SOLO mode.
I do see your (and many other's) point being able to play without an internet connection and personally I am a Open source fan so I would love to see the code published to the community, but that's just not realistic right now (it uses their proprietary engine, for starters).
So the problem there is not the "internet" part, it is the reassurance of being able to play the game regardless of the future of FD.
That said, indeed FD can go under, but we should consider that we just celebrated the 30th anniversary of Elite... meh, that's a pretty solid record I would say, so chances are that it will be around for a few years more, maybe.
