I've been doing some pondering on why some people (like me) love exploration and others don't see much in it. I realized that the answer, at least for me, lies outside of gaming.
When I was a pre-teen and teenager my family frequently went on camping trips all over the western United States. I particularly remember a trip to Glacier National Park in Montana. I spent hours hiking miles of trails, wanting to see what was around the next bend. It didn't matter that all of the trees looked pretty much the same, or all of the rocks were the same with just different textures, and I had no illusions that I would find some ancient artifact or wrecked ship, but I wanted to see it all.
When I was in my early twenties, when I still had some time on my hands, my favorite thing on a Saturday afternoon would be to hop in my old beat-up 4x4 and take off across the desert following some old dirt road or dry wash bed that I hadn't followed before, just to see where it went. I had a few friends that liked those trips, but many got pretty bored, pretty fast. On the other hand, I was totally uninterested in a lot of the parties and such that they liked.
Now days, those types of adventures are harder to come by for me, but I can take an hour or two on some days to continue my journey in Elite. Every system I jump into is sort of like going around a corner on the trail, wondering what I would see next.
So, in the end, I think that how you feel about exploration in Elite is not so different than how you feel about different activities in real life. Some things interest you, some things don't. Find out what works for you and do it.
