It's also worthwhile to note that in Elite, you (the player) are a very tiny cog in a very big galaxy, and you are not important. This isn't a narcissism simulator like so many games become. You don't matter.
It's not narcissism (although it's pretty easy to brand everyone that expects more from games, as this), it's called creating meaningful, strategically diverse, and interesting gameplay. You might be happy trading gold all day, other plays might be happy fighting all day,
if they felt that fighting had a purpose beyond "because it's there". This game has such a huge scope, but the gameplay is so shallow it actually numbs the mind. I actually spent a few hours doing a jigsaw last night because it sounded more fun than a game that lets me explore our galaxy. I didn't think I would ever type something this, believe me.
If trading different items meant different effects at your destination, you would consider taking something other than the best profit. Some people making the best money per hour, others might enjoy seeing a station grow as a result of their actions. Being a cog in a greater machine doesn't mean that the cog has no influence on the machine's operations- it's vital, of small impact,to it, and what we see here in Elite is that player actions are the opposite of this- they are completely unnecessary.
Fighting in combat zones is repetitive and serves only to grind meaningless rep and low amounts of credits, with the winner being determined by FD almost regardless of your actions. How many hundreds of ships would you have to destroy to impact a war do you think? None according to FD, it comes down to missions. Make the reason to fight worthwhile and players will do it of their own accord.
Make reasons for players to do things that doesn't revolve solely around making credits. Allow for players to have reasons to group or join large groups, or not. Give them something to work towards, even if it a tiny thing on the scale of the galaxy, but make it something that alters or changes their gameplay. Getting credits through a repetitive task, to buy a bigger ship and continuing the repetitive task is very one dimensional gameplay. Make player decision matter. This needs to be expanded upon and has absolutely nothing to do with narcissism, rather it would just make the universe feel real and believable and would add a feeling of consequence to ones actions. A feeling that we are more than just observers in this game.
