Supporting/Not Departing (did I understand that right? I felt it would be beneficial to hear from someone who is staying with the game, for contrast)
Demographic: Late 30's
Geographic location: Arizona, USA
Time spent playing: probably around 15 hours so far, most likely will be much more after launch
Reason: I love space games, and grew up with the original Elite. Frontier was just such an obvious step in the right direction when I saw it, and it blew my mind. FFE, to me, was conceptually the icing on the Frontier cake (though the bugs annoyed me - not the Thargoids). This is the sort of game I've always wanted.
Background: As above, grew up with the original, on my family's C64 in the 80's. The C64 wasn't quite as big in the US as it was in the UK, but when my dad was looking into buying a family computer back then, he decided the C64 offered the most flexibility compared to the other options. Eventually the C64 was mine, since I used it more than anyone else in my family, even my sister, and I used it until the late 90's, even after I had bought my first 386 with my own money from an older friend. And man, I played the hell out of Elite, Frontier, and FFE. I tried Privateer too, but compared to Frontier, it just didn't have the depth I'd grown accustomed to. Some of the best memories of my childhood were spent hauling goods, shooting down pirates, and listening to 90's alternative with the radio I kept beside my comp (yeah I was one of those teens). At some point I was mem hacking FFE, figuring out how it worked (I did this with alot of games), trying to find clues to secret easter eggs, and even experimenting with weird game design ideas by essentially cheating. The idea of a fourth game in the Elite series fascinated me. I was already a sci-fi fan and played lots of space sims and games, but nothing excited me more than when, in 2012, during another one of my regular google searches for "Elite 4" (and dodging all of the Pokemon related results that tended to appear), I found the Elite Dangerous Kickstarter. Needless to say, I was sold as soon as I clicked the link. I was already sold 15 years ago. I've been in the game dev industry for a long time. I knew what to expect - or rather, to forego expectations. I just wanted to see what my favorite dev team could do with the franchise they created. I went in with an open mind and I have to say I like what I see. I am in it for the long haul. The game is fun, reminds me of the old ones, and adds lots of cool new features I like. Maybe my experience and background isn't quite like the "average player", whatever that is, but it's what it is. So there you go.
Connectivity: Centurylink DSL 16.89Mbps down, 0.83Mbps up (from latest test results)
