Depressing Disingenuous Criticism of ED

[crushdepth]

I recently asked the question regarding getting friends into playing Elite Dangerous and their experiences of whether they took to the game or what put them off, and it attracted quite a lot of response and criticism. But what struck me was the criticism of Elite Dangerous being boring. You know, I found myself not even wanting to play the game after reading the replies as I found them depressing. But yesterday I watched a recorded version of the Live Steam of the 2.3 update and it instantly lifted my spirits. Last night I fired ED back up to get back into doing some bounty hunting. When I launched from the space station I cease to gaze at the fine detail and all the love that's gone into creating those amazing structures and the sounds are just simply amazing. I then find myself outside the letterbox, but with a seemingly endless list of possibilities and things to do. The amount of choice you have in all aspects of the game is simply astounding. You can go almost anywhere you want, be whatever you want and do almost anything you want. How is this game boring I asked myself?

Having watched most of the Live Streams you can see how passionate the Devs are and how they're constantly brainstorming to come up with more ideas on how to make the game and gaming experience better, and let's not forget, these are intelligent educated people who studied hard to be in the positions they're currently in today. So when things are nerfed or buffed in the game, regardless if we find it a bummer and inconvenient for our personal gaming experience, it'll be for a very good reason, and despite the belief that it's Cmdrs' moaning that prompts these changes, rest assured that the Devs look a lot lot more deeper into just reading people's grievances. We all like to think we know what's best and what would make the game better, but I can only imagine how much of a fine balancing act it must be to create 'balance' within the game when it's such a complex game mechanic.

But what I come to realise from the responses of that post I created is Elite Dangerous is indeed Marmite and niche, but also many of us who do like it also believe we can make it better by in some cases making fundamental changes to the game's mechanic. As I've mentioned before, we now live in a society that wants everything in an instant with instant gratification, but I've come to learn that Elite Dangerous really isn't like that, but it's a slower paced game where things aren't just simply handed to us on a silver plate - we have to earn things and the Devs have given us a seemingly endless list of things to do in order to do this. Again, how is this boring?

At the end of the day people who find Elite Dangerous boring means the game likely isn't for them. Or may be it is, but they just don't like some aspects of the game - like having to wait a while - and hope that moaning and begging the Devs on the forum will change the game to make it more towards their personal taste. I really am sick of this 'want it now' mentality, and the day FD cave in to pressure by these 'twitch' gamers by making the game easier is the day I quite playing Elite Dangerous.

So it's going to take me a few days to afford a military grade bulkhead for my FDL, who cares! IMO it'll be making ED easier and more arcade that will kill the game, and those who complain the game's too long winded aren't likely to stick around regardless if it's made easier from them anyway. There's no two ways about it, you either love Elite Dangerous for all its glory and its les, or you should move on to something else, because if you don't like it now you never will.

At the end of the day perhaps ED just isn't living up to its potential? A lot of people want it to succeed and to enjoy it but are frustrated by the endless repetition and lack of any story that would put the RNG in context.

There is no depth, as has been discussed endlessly elsewhere. And its sad.

 

[Mikey2305]

@neilf... bolt on more of the same or rebadge what is already there. Yes i agree and am pretty sure this is the the consequence of the way the modular game was built and the engine it was built on. As everything has to interract with everything else this is pretty much the way it will go. And everything will be at the level of the first bit. I have no real understanding of programming but thats the way i see it.

 

[Winterwalker]

Personally I love the game and while people will have their opinions, I hope very much that Frontier hang tough, and introduce 'more depth' ONLY when the game architecutre can take it. I don't know that I think Frontier need to over-sell the game (speaking personally) but I hope they also see it as a steady burn project.

 

[Voidwake]

It is boring, but thats not neccessarily a bad thing. euro truck simulator is also boring, except somehow its also awesome. as are flight sims and footy managery games.

it just requires a bit of an ocd mentality on behalf of the user.

 

[Steyla]

Let me explain how ED get's boring. I quit for few months so i won't overindulge on ED.
Fun meter at login after few months:
[===================] 100%
Loading screen (fsd)
[==================_] 95%
Loading screen (fsd jump taking 2 minutes of staring at interresting game mechanics called stare at witchspace)
[================___] 85%
Entering glide takes way too long of staring at hidden loading screen
[==============_____] 75%
meanwhile realising that i love exploring and hate loading screens
[============_______] 65%
oh right then i'd have to go back (more loading screens)
[==========_________] 55%
Oh this SC jump was fast no load yay will it last?
[==========_________] 55%
nope
[========____________] 45%
Ok so where am i now? Loading screen for system map?
[_____________________] 00%
Screw this! Angry loading screen post time on forums!

Edit:
I was trying to figure out why i keep quitting the game. I finally found 2 main reasons: some other cool game came out or some new patch with cool content came so yeah going to play other things.
Second thing is loading screens. ED have already lot of boring screenstaring content but even more of it? Damn man at least in SC i can wiggle my ship, read status, browse map, plan course, annoy players with my system wide "objectively funny comments", but in loading screen? Nada.

I had the same problem with my Nvidia GTX680. It took sometimes minutes before the menu,system map or galaxy map was up. I changed to a Nvidia GTX1070. Al those problems I had are solved now. Everything comes up much faster. When I play ED (Not Horizon) the witchspace scene always takes 15 seconds. In Horizon it depends on how many landable planets are in the target system. Main menu takes 2 seconds. Galaxy Map and System map always depends on the content. But usually it takes a few seconds before they pop up.

 

[Blackcompany]

I had the same problem with my Nvidia GTX680. It took sometimes minutes before the menu,system map or galaxy map was up. I changed to a Nvidia GTX1070. Al those problems I had are solved now. Everything comes up much faster. When I play ED (Not Horizon) the witchspace scene always takes 15 seconds. In Horizon it depends on how many landable planets are in the target system. Main menu takes 2 seconds. Galaxy Map and System map always depends on the content. But usually it takes a few seconds before they pop up.

I have a current gen i7, GTX1070 8GB, 16GB RAM and a 10k RPM HDD. All on 150Mbps internet, with 100mbps router and card, and a matching hard wired cable.

LOAD TIMES ARE STILL ATROCIOUS.

At 20+ per session, even 10-15 seconds is unforgivable. And they are much longer than that on many occasions. Not to mention...Load times for planets. For SC drops and starts. For the mission board. For Outfitting.

It's honestly sort of pathetic. It's like the games primary function is a loading screen. If you aren't in combat, that's what it truly, honestly feels like: Loading Screen Simulator.

- - - Updated - - -

It is boring, but thats not neccessarily a bad thing. euro truck simulator is also boring, except somehow its also awesome. as are flight sims and footy managery games.

it just requires a bit of an ocd mentality on behalf of the user.

You're wrong.

ETS2/ATS are ENGAGING and RELAXING. Elite is boring.

The difference lies in interaction. The amount of it. The frequency with which it takes place.

In the driving games, on long routes, you might spend time in cruise control. But you still need to steer, mind traffic, etc. To interact. To PAY ATTENTION.

Contrast this with Elite. In Elite, when traveling, you aren't in control. Aren't interacting. You're LITERALLY just watching the game.

Elite might be the best thing that ever happened to Netflix. Not much of a game but I hear it's great as something to fidget with while watching shows.

Me I'd rather either drive trucks, or watch shows. Both are more engaging than traveling in Elite.

 

[Martian Successor]

I have a current gen i7, GTX1070 8GB, 16GB RAM and a 10k RPM HDD. All on 150Mbps internet, with 100mbps router and card, and a matching hard wired cable.

LOAD TIMES ARE STILL ATROCIOUS.

At 20+ per session, even 10-15 seconds is unforgivable. And they are much longer than that on many occasions. Not to mention...Load times for planets. For SC drops and starts. For the mission board. For Outfitting.

It's honestly sort of pathetic. It's like the games primary function is a loading screen. If you aren't in combat, that's what it truly, honestly feels like: Loading Screen Simulator.

CZs, Res sites and even interdictions sometimes take up to a minute to load in the enemy ships. Nobody escapes the almighty loading [up]

 

[Mr_Foxhound]

I recently asked the question regarding getting friends into playing Elite Dangerous and their experiences of whether they took to the game or what put them off, and it attracted quite a lot of response and criticism. But what struck me was the criticism of Elite Dangerous being boring. You know, I found myself not even wanting to play the game after reading the replies as I found them depressing. But yesterday I watched a recorded version of the Live Steam of the 2.3 update and it instantly lifted my spirits. Last night I fired ED back up to get back into doing some bounty hunting. When I launched from the space station I cease to gaze at the fine detail and all the love that's gone into creating those amazing structures and the sounds are just simply amazing. I then find myself outside the letterbox, but with a seemingly endless list of possibilities and things to do. The amount of choice you have in all aspects of the game is simply astounding. You can go almost anywhere you want, be whatever you want and do almost anything you want. How is this game boring I asked myself?

Having watched most of the Live Streams you can see how passionate the Devs are and how they're constantly brainstorming to come up with more ideas on how to make the game and gaming experience better, and let's not forget, these are intelligent educated people who studied hard to be in the positions they're currently in today. So when things are nerfed or buffed in the game, regardless if we find it a bummer and inconvenient for our personal gaming experience, it'll be for a very good reason, and despite the belief that it's Cmdrs' moaning that prompts these changes, rest assured that the Devs look a lot lot more deeper into just reading people's grievances. We all like to think we know what's best and what would make the game better, but I can only imagine how much of a fine balancing act it must be to create 'balance' within the game when it's such a complex game mechanic.

But what I come to realise from the responses of that post I created is Elite Dangerous is indeed Marmite and niche, but also many of us who do like it also believe we can make it better by in some cases making fundamental changes to the game's mechanic. As I've mentioned before, we now live in a society that wants everything in an instant with instant gratification, but I've come to learn that Elite Dangerous really isn't like that, but it's a slower paced game where things aren't just simply handed to us on a silver plate - we have to earn things and the Devs have given us a seemingly endless list of things to do in order to do this. Again, how is this boring?

At the end of the day people who find Elite Dangerous boring means the game likely isn't for them. Or may be it is, but they just don't like some aspects of the game - like having to wait a while - and hope that moaning and begging the Devs on the forum will change the game to make it more towards their personal taste. I really am sick of this 'want it now' mentality, and the day FD cave in to pressure by these 'twitch' gamers by making the game easier is the day I quite playing Elite Dangerous.

So it's going to take me a few days to afford a military grade bulkhead for my FDL, who cares! IMO it'll be making ED easier and more arcade that will kill the game, and those who complain the game's too long winded aren't likely to stick around regardless if it's made easier from them anyway. There's no two ways about it, you either love Elite Dangerous for all its glory and its les, or you should move on to something else, because if you don't like it now you never will.

i can only do 1 of 3 activities fighting,trading,and exploring only 3

 

[GG7]

In an era made up of 5 second sound bites, 20 minute long TV shows, and instant gratification at pretty much every turn, none of this is surprising.

The world is devolving folks. Anything that takes any degree of thought, dedication or commitment is fast becoming a dying paradigm.

Take it from someone who has been on the planet for nearly 60 years now. I am more than dismayed by what this world has become in my lifetime.

Elite Dangerous is one of the last bastions of quality in video games for those with a brain that has yet to become diseased by the incessant and non-stop dumbing down of the human race.

Enjoy it while you can! Its probably one of the last games on its kind to be developed in your lifetimes.

Besides that, in another 50-70 years none of this is going to matter anyway. Video games will be the last thing anyone will be thinking about then. Play time on any form of technology requiring an infrastructure like the internet would have ended long before that.

Staying alive will be your new game.

Glad I won't be around to see it.

 

[SeaFireliv]

I recently asked the question regarding getting friends into playing Elite Dangerous and their experiences of whether they took to the game or what put them off, and it attracted quite a lot of response and criticism. But what struck me was the criticism of Elite Dangerous being boring. You know, I found myself not even wanting to play the game after reading the replies as I found them depressing.

I stopped right here. THIS is your problem, Stop listening to other people`s opinion on a game. All that matters is if YOU like it- That`s it. If you do, go play it. Never let other people`s facelss opinion on a faceless forum affect YOUR decisions that affect YOU. You need to be stronger in yourself mentally than you are right now.


Damn are people this fragile today? I blame the likes of Facebook experimenting on people`s moods and schools that snowflake people.

 

[Blackcompany]

In an era made up of 5 second sound bites, 20 minute long TV shows, and instant gratification at pretty much every turn, none of this is surprising.

The world is devolving folks. Anything that takes any degree of thought, dedication or commitment is fast becoming a dying paradigm.

Take it from someone who has been on the planet for nearly 60 years now. I am more than dismayed by what this world has become in my lifetime.

Elite Dangerous is one of the last bastions of quality in video games for those with a brain that has yet to become diseased by the incessant and non-stop dumbing down of the human race.

Enjoy it while you can! Its probably one of the last games on its kind to be developed in your lifetimes.

Besides that, in another 70 years none of this is going to matter anyway.

As QUALITY in games goes, Elite is mostly an example of what NOT to do. It's full of bugs, unfulfilled promise and an Engine that's obviously incapable of delivering content as planned.

People wanting instant gratification isn't the Problem. We want fun, interactive content, not hours of loading screens and spectating per week.

If you travel 100+Ly in Elite, roughly 10℅ of your time is spent DOING anything. The vast majority of it, is either loading screens or the straight line of SC at the end.

That's not a game. That's a tech demo.

 

[verminstar]

I stopped right here. THIS is your problem, Stop listening to other people`s opinion on a game. All that matters is if YOU like it- That`s it. If you do, go play it. Never let other people`s facelss opinion on a faceless forum affect YOUR decisions that affect YOU. You need to be stronger in yourself mentally than you are right now.


Damn are people this fragile today? I blame the likes of Facebook experimenting on people`s moods and schools that snowflake people.

I actually agree with this...rep given.

I have what we call gallows humour over here...if not held in check its borderline narsitistic and extremey offensive because its not even remotely politically correct. People get offended by the most trivial things which is why I stopped using fakebook...its full of self entitled kids and mankids and bored housewives. What some people find offensive, I find funny which makes things worse obviously ^

 

[Chris Simon]

As QUALITY in games goes, Elite is mostly an example of what NOT to do. It's full of bugs, unfulfilled promise and an Engine that's obviously incapable of delivering content as planned.

People wanting instant gratification isn't the Problem. We want fun, interactive content, not hours of loading screens and spectating per week.

If you travel 100+Ly in Elite, roughly 10℅ of your time is spent DOING anything. The vast majority of it, is either loading screens or the straight line of SC at the end.

That's not a game. That's a tech demo.

Interesting to see some humans evolved to the stage where traveling through space at superluminal speeds is considered boring...

 

[Blackcompany]

Interesting to see some humans evolved to the stage where traveling through space at superluminal speeds is considered boring...

Except...It's not traveling. It's WATCHING. You aren't DOING anything. People pride themselves on long distance travel in this game. How hard is it to stare at a screen for hours doing something so easy you can spare attention for Netflix the while?

 

[GG7]

As QUALITY in games goes, Elite is mostly an example of what NOT to do. It's full of bugs, unfulfilled promise and an Engine that's obviously incapable of delivering content as planned.

People wanting instant gratification isn't the Problem. We want fun, interactive content, not hours of loading screens and spectating per week.

If you travel 100+Ly in Elite, roughly 10℅ of your time is spent DOING anything. The vast majority of it, is either loading screens or the straight line of SC at the end.

That's not a game. That's a tech demo.

Then WHY are you here?

SELL IT, UINSTALL IT and/or MOVE ON!

Sheesh! I do that with new games I dislike every week.

If you see so little value in what is currently here I'm afraid you never will.

How foolish to be sticking around waiting for some miracle change that is never going to happen. NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN!

Cut your losses! Find something else to do you actually enjoy doing!

There is nothing for you here. THAT is blatantly obvious from your comments.

I'm not saying ED is a perfect game. But it is currently THE ONLY game in this genre that is actually out there in the wild as an official RELEASE. All the others many claim will be better, are still nothing but vaporware after years and years of development and most of these will likely remain vaporware forever.

 

[Zambrick]

I like ED alot, but its the only game I have ever played where I fall asleep playing it. Not because I was sitting there for hours. Last time Plugged it in I was just trying to SC out to that 300,000k ls Alien Ruin planet and fell asleep on the way there. I had just booted up the game less than 20 minutes before.

That is the problem ED has is the hurry up and wait attitude equals fun. While it does ad to the imersion of the games universe, we are generally not rewarded in any way for being diligent and steadfast in resolve to play this game. We spent 3 months straight trying to figure out Alien Ruins only to find out it was a fools errand. There is and was no way to actually decode or receive any actionable data.

I think those are the kinds of things people are not happy about.

 

[Arkantes]

Except...It's noy traveling. It's WATCHING. You aren't DOING anything. People pride themselves on long distance travel in this game. How hard is it to stare at a screen for hours doing something so easy you can spare attention for Netflix the while?

SC is the single feature that completely kills the game for me in the end. Flying in SC feels like I'm just wasting my life, and I could watch whole anime seasons when I was trading.

Yet, I love Euro Truck Simulator 2, which is all about travelling.
But in that game you got to take traffic into account, roads aren't straight, you often need to take a turn, there are atmospheric events

 

[Xani D]

I remember as a lad (Im old now), surrounded by paper, containing ledgers of of trade prices, and scribbled, almost illegiable, coodinates of systems. I was blown away by this, the entire universe was explorable... at least.. thats how it felt to me aged 13 playing Elite 2. My memories of that game still hold strong today, and although it seemed bigger and more impressive than it probably was, it will always be a gaming milestone for me.

Was it fast paced, no, was it varied, no, was combat thrilling, no (Although it felt it back then), in hindsight it was very basic, and far from what we have now. But it was engrossing, to me at least, did my friends all like it, no, not really, most prefered Sonic, Mario, or Doom, but what im getting at is, its the same today. Elite Dangerous is at its heart very similar to Elite 2, or First Encounters, its not for everyone, its more a simulation/sandbox than it is an action shooter, you either enjoy that or you dont. Not everyone likes Call of Duty, or some fast pace action shooter over it, but at the same time, I would not slate those games, or praise them for being more "fun". Fun to me is grinding weeks to get something I want... I really need to reevaluate my life!

 

[Ignition]

People think there're a lot of things to do, but in reality there aren't. The game revolves in doing simple things with very simple non elaborated mechanics and the game is exactly the same since 2 years, it only got bigger but it kept the shallowness.

Developers are passionate because its their job.

This game is for people who are easily impressed by graphics and don't care about the gameplay and complexity in flying a space ship.
Elite dangerous is a very casual game:
log in, go to CZ, shoot, get bored, log out
log in, go to mine, get bored, log out
log in, do some missions, get bored, log out
log in, jump, honk, jump, honk, get bored, log out

The game has no depth or complexity managing your ship that could expand each profession and this for me is what makes a space ship game.

 

[lokvette]

The game gets boring after a few months I take a break and play something else, I do play other games and I said it today in another thread this is the first day since October that I haven't booted up ED.

The thought of doing the same old same old and I've done it all bar pvp has run out of steam for me at the moment , it might last a few days it might last a few months, I think a lot of it is the uncertainty of 2.3, and TBH spending far too much time in this forum which really has gone to the dogs of late.