Elite: Simulatiom or Game?

SkyB

SkyB
Greetings cmdrs,

A game is supposed to be fun with rather fast progress and a deep story having the player in the focus.

A simulation is supposed to offer realism, reflecting the hardship of work when aiming towards goals, giving the player the same importance in the sim as a regular npc.

It is basically real life grind - which often is the case in most professions - vs free time gaming.

Elite is a simulation and must be viewed upon with that knowledge.

I do not want to take the fun away from anyone but that is just how the cookie crumbles.

Those who like sims will always support grind and those who like regular games will dispute against it.
 

Captain Thea Kreutzer

Captain Thea Kreutzer
Elite is fun if you actually enjoy space. And its only really grindy when you are 1st starting out or if you do engineer/guardians stuff which isnt required unless your a pvper. And of course its a simulator a normal game wouldnt have more then half the stuff elite has nor would it update as much as elite does
 

Whitmann

Whitmann
When I first saw footage of canyon racing, the following issued forth from my lips:

"Wow! That looks just like a video g....oh!"
 

Sylveria

Sylveria
ED is a hybrid simulation and game. It's more engaging than an "arcade" game, however- in the sense that you're actually required to invest more time and effort.

"Arcade" type games typically allow jumping right into some sort of action without building up to the experience.

I prefer ED's style, and consider what most people call "grind" to be rather minimal, considering you can still experience the "action" on more gradual levels as you progress in terms of credit balance, ships and outfitting.
 

RymdLazer

RymdLazer
Agreed. Any other sim would be proud to sport a procedural campaign with the scope of ED's universe.
I enjoy the boredom of a Hutton run. Just the mindnumbing drone of my engines until a interdiction out of nowhere makes me spill my coffee.
Mistakes and panic situations that arise from zoning out or overconfidence gets my heart racing in ways that scripted action games can only dream of achieving.
Elite is the spaceship game of my wildest fantasies. Walks the fine line between lofty sci fi and realism. The lack of streamlined functionality gives just the right amount of clunkiness to make simple things like scooping stuff feel physical and real.
Elite is also the only game that has made me crave a VR-rig.
 

Vedmo

Vedmo
SkyB said:
A game is supposed to be fun with rather fast progress and a deep story having the player in the focus.
Click to expand...

Stop right there. Games should be fun, yes. Games are not by definition fast paced narrative driven epics in which the player saves the princess. Many games are like this, and most RPG's, but I find most of them terribly boring and rarely fun. Even the ones I have enjoyed, like WoW, have segments of the player base that use the game as an open world platform for their own more mundane player stories while ignoring the content most consume at a ferocious pace.

ED is most definitely a video game and a simulation (computer generated model), it just might not be the type of video game you want.

I'm in no way a great fan of space games (impartial). I do love open world games, which is why I gave ED a shot, and it has delivered beyond expectation.
 

Mohrgan

Mohrgan
I consider E|D to be a simulation of the Milky Way galaxy, joined to a game. It's just that the game portion of E|D doesn't conform to the OP's narrow definition of what a game is. FD have brought us a different way to view PC in a game, and an uncommon type of progression. Most importantly, I find FD's version of a game in E|D to be good fun.

I don't need to be one of thousands and thousands of heroes that save the galaxy to have fun. I don't have to be one of thousands and thousands of characters at the center of a predetermined story. I enjoy being one of thousands and thousands of nameless, faceless Commanders out there trying to make it in an unfeeling galaxy.
 

PhanttoM

PhanttoM
It definately has a lot more gamey than realistic. But it's not something that has a binary answer.

One thing to remember is that simulations come in various fidelity. (DCS flight sim full modules make Microsoft Flight Simulator X look like an arcade game)

Simulation games are usually in the lowest possible end — Euro truck simulator, Farming simulator, etc.
 

SkyB

SkyB
Well, the only thing I would like to change is the amount of blueprint fragments from guardian structure sequences and do something about the escalating internal prices of bigger ships - costing almost as much as the ship itself.
That really is unnecessary.

Regarding WoW, the story is way more focused on the individual player by hand crafted quests - not procedually generated quests. That's the difference.

I do not want to speak for or against grind but the construct of thought Elite is based on.

I like the sim aspect a lot but I also like to work around it from time to time shoveling in 60 mil/h at my favorite passenger rout.
 

Kaocraft

Kaocraft
SkyB said:
Greetings cmdrs,

A game is supposed to be fun with rather fast progress and a deep story having the player in the focus.

A simulation is supposed to offer realism, reflecting the hardship of work when aiming towards goals, giving the player the same importance in the sim as a regular npc.

It is basically real life grind - which often is the case in most professions - vs free time gaming.

Elite is a simulation and must be viewed upon with that knowledge.

I do not want to take the fun away from anyone but that is just how the cookie crumbles.

Those who like sims will always support grind and those who like regular games will dispute against it.
Click to expand...

Elite is a simulation of a videogame. It's a rough approximation of what the devs think it might be like to play a videogame. It's only a rough approximation and a lot of it is pure speculation because the devs have never seen or played a videogame before. This is however their best guess as to what it would be like.
 

Suvi Anwar

Suvi Anwar
SkyB said:
Greetings cmdrs,

A game is supposed to be fun with rather fast progress and a deep story having the player in the focus.

A simulation is supposed to offer realism, reflecting the hardship of work when aiming towards goals, giving the player the same importance in the sim as a regular npc.

It is basically real life grind - which often is the case in most professions - vs free time gaming.

Elite is a simulation and must be viewed upon with that knowledge.

I do not want to take the fun away from anyone but that is just how the cookie crumbles.

Those who like sims will always support grind and those who like regular games will dispute against it.
Click to expand...


Do you have any idea what you are talking about?

First, lets define the two terms (for real).

Simulation: The imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system, using a different system.
Game: Activity engaged in for diversion or amusement.

So you are making your own definitions for the terms used, and expecting everyone else to go along with it. Got it.

Elite is both, as is almost every other game ever developed, ever.
 

Iskariot

Iskariot
SkyB said:
Elite: Simulatiom or Game?
Click to expand...


Labels are so limiting.
Elite is a mix of both perhaps.
Or perhaps it is its own thing.
It is what it is, and some of what it is needs improving.
And that is why 'Beyond' is so important.

I have no problem with grind. Most games have grind and very often this is not bad at all.
Ed has some weird and bad grind, like the excessive repetitive grinding at the new Guardian bases.
I hope and I think this will be changed in the near future.

The grind for the engineers is not in itself the biggest problem.
Many players do not really complain about the material grind as such, but they become very demotivated when they are unable to find certain materials after putting in many hours.
The problem here is lack of in-game information and feedback and some lacking mechanics as a result of which the game doesn't know what you need and what needs to be spawned.

Another problem is the Powerplay merit grind. Actually it is not the grind in itself that is the problem, but it is the weird and demotivating, or even depressing, merit decay system that puts many players off.
I think this mechanic should be completely revised.

Even if the game was pure simulation then these problematic mechanics would still be a problem.
Labeling Elite a simulation can not be a free pass for bad grind.

And finally... the sim part of Elite is in the flying of the ship with its many options and in the simulation of the galaxy.
I do not think that the sim part of Elite is to be found in the merit grind, or in the material grind, or Guardian base grind.
 
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