I might be biased, I might be wrong. But I personally just want to feel how it is to be an honest space trucker, working odd regular honest-to-god spaceship jobs. I think many elite fans like me mostly want the immersion a space sim can bring, and I feel like elite released with that as it's core focus, with all the blips and boinks in the right place. The game was revered for it's immersion. Exactly what players of old elite games would want.
Any small detail you produce in how my life would work as a real blue collar space guy, the simulation aspect; small details that add to my immersion, little readouts, repairs, tools, systems, cooking space food, even walking to the space toilet would be much more welcome than a tired old aliens trope. I don't need constant fantastic universe-bending events happening. I don't even need a narrative at all. That's just not what I expect from you. Maybe that's just me. I feel like we have good narrative readily available in the form of countless sci-fi books, we can even listen to those books while working our space sim job. I wanna roleplay my own story, interact with tiny immersive events. At least for me personally, it totally even counteracts what the game set out to be when aliens attack.
I understand, you polish the game to a certain level and then release, try to work on another axis, move on and try different angles with goals to hopefully widen the target audience and up those player numbers. But immersion is something you can actually continue to work on. If you want retention and reactivations make the game provide exactly the service that people bought into when they chose to play your game in the first place.
I'm sorry but I just don't see why I would want my space sim to tell an ongoing narrative at all? I realise maybe not one forum post will change your budget or goals, but I just don't see why not some of the time can be spent doing tiny small immersion packages; tiny immersion stories, tiny immersion toys. Just any tiny step will go a long way in the long run. Why spend so much energy on the biggest most elaborate one-offs, that are obviously designed to just make people reactivate the game just one more time. So what if murdering aliens might attract small amount of arcade actions jocks to the game? They won't stay for long. So what if some people activate the game one last time to check out the story. They will be gone if it's not the quality of other sci-fi narratives. The player-types you are looking for are not here for immersion and will not stay when content runs out. I can bet my whole snusdosa that most of your core player float, actually are here to immerse themselves in a spacesim. They don't need a story. They are self-sustaining roleplayers. They need more toys to roleplay with. It's a game full of nerds that just wants to immerse themselves in soothing, monotonous commander life. It's a nerd's game, Frontier. Embrace the nerds!
Anyway just my hot hot take, it might not fit all your core players but it's just how I personally feel.
Any small detail you produce in how my life would work as a real blue collar space guy, the simulation aspect; small details that add to my immersion, little readouts, repairs, tools, systems, cooking space food, even walking to the space toilet would be much more welcome than a tired old aliens trope. I don't need constant fantastic universe-bending events happening. I don't even need a narrative at all. That's just not what I expect from you. Maybe that's just me. I feel like we have good narrative readily available in the form of countless sci-fi books, we can even listen to those books while working our space sim job. I wanna roleplay my own story, interact with tiny immersive events. At least for me personally, it totally even counteracts what the game set out to be when aliens attack.
I understand, you polish the game to a certain level and then release, try to work on another axis, move on and try different angles with goals to hopefully widen the target audience and up those player numbers. But immersion is something you can actually continue to work on. If you want retention and reactivations make the game provide exactly the service that people bought into when they chose to play your game in the first place.
I'm sorry but I just don't see why I would want my space sim to tell an ongoing narrative at all? I realise maybe not one forum post will change your budget or goals, but I just don't see why not some of the time can be spent doing tiny small immersion packages; tiny immersion stories, tiny immersion toys. Just any tiny step will go a long way in the long run. Why spend so much energy on the biggest most elaborate one-offs, that are obviously designed to just make people reactivate the game just one more time. So what if murdering aliens might attract small amount of arcade actions jocks to the game? They won't stay for long. So what if some people activate the game one last time to check out the story. They will be gone if it's not the quality of other sci-fi narratives. The player-types you are looking for are not here for immersion and will not stay when content runs out. I can bet my whole snusdosa that most of your core player float, actually are here to immerse themselves in a spacesim. They don't need a story. They are self-sustaining roleplayers. They need more toys to roleplay with. It's a game full of nerds that just wants to immerse themselves in soothing, monotonous commander life. It's a nerd's game, Frontier. Embrace the nerds!
Anyway just my hot hot take, it might not fit all your core players but it's just how I personally feel.
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