So I'd like to open up a discussion to the wider community with reference to a growing concern I have for a direction the game is possibly going to take.
In essence this relates to a little bit to how some perceive griefing and a bias towards PvE at the expense of player adversity which is a popular play-style present in many online games. I'm not here to talk about griefing which has been discussed at huge length by the community as a whole. I'd like to discuss the PvE and PvP element of the game.
Now as background to this situation I'd like to point out that the game is going to be rather unique in allowing players to isolate themselves from others, be it single-player mode, single-player online and private-online groups and Iron-Man. Its also going to be possible for a player to ignore any other player which will have the result of it being highly unlikely they would be placed in the same instance together.
Whilst I have some reservations about this, partly because I think its going to mean we don't see many other players in the game, I do acknowledge that its important for a good number of people who don't particularly enjoy conflict or encounters with other players but these systems will certainly offer a player the chance to simply avoid anyone they don't wish to have contact with, even to the extreme of not seeing anyone but a close bunch of friends, or playing entirely on their own. There is also the option to switch between these groups at will at pretty much any time in the game.
Its also worth remembering that should a player choose to perform a criminal act there are in game consequences for these actions and whilst I think its a bit over the top the result of this is that this also is going to act as a deterrent for certain behaviours.
So the 'All-Group' is the only presently described place for those to play who want to fully experience encountering other players. One of the reasons I backed Elite Dangerous was because of multi-player; and was rather looking forward to encountering other players either as adversaries or as allies. I find that many single-player games don't come close to the experience one can find in an online game where we engage with other players and one of the strengths of a sandbox game is that the players themselves create their own content by their actions which enriches what there is to do in game beyond what scripted or defined stories the developers themselves create; this of course helps to increase the longevity of the experience.
However, its recently come to my attention that living in the 'All-Group' is likely not going to be even a shadow of the experience I thought it could offer. I am now hearing that there are possibly further moves are a foot to reduce these opportunities that I and so many other players of the game were looking forward to. So in addition to all the game systems I've mentioned there is now a possibility that even in the all-group we might not be allowed to see who other players are; imagine if you will , in the extreme, not being able to identify a player from an NPC, a player being able to hide their status as a real person from the entire game or having to scan every single NPC to establish who is a player and who is not.
I certainly do understand that others might not want to be 'hassled' by other players but for those who do enjoy encountering others I feel we are going to not going to have those experiences because the game design seems intent on further catering to those who already have many many ways of finding a good portion of the things they want from ED. I'd like to see the game bustling with players with the opportunity to make allies and enemies and in my view the huge bias towards PvE is going to seriously undermine the gameplay which could negatively effect how the game is received by the larger gaming community and a poor performance in sales.
So a long post and thanks for taking the time for reading it. I'd really like to hear your thoughts..
In essence this relates to a little bit to how some perceive griefing and a bias towards PvE at the expense of player adversity which is a popular play-style present in many online games. I'm not here to talk about griefing which has been discussed at huge length by the community as a whole. I'd like to discuss the PvE and PvP element of the game.
Now as background to this situation I'd like to point out that the game is going to be rather unique in allowing players to isolate themselves from others, be it single-player mode, single-player online and private-online groups and Iron-Man. Its also going to be possible for a player to ignore any other player which will have the result of it being highly unlikely they would be placed in the same instance together.
Whilst I have some reservations about this, partly because I think its going to mean we don't see many other players in the game, I do acknowledge that its important for a good number of people who don't particularly enjoy conflict or encounters with other players but these systems will certainly offer a player the chance to simply avoid anyone they don't wish to have contact with, even to the extreme of not seeing anyone but a close bunch of friends, or playing entirely on their own. There is also the option to switch between these groups at will at pretty much any time in the game.
Its also worth remembering that should a player choose to perform a criminal act there are in game consequences for these actions and whilst I think its a bit over the top the result of this is that this also is going to act as a deterrent for certain behaviours.
So the 'All-Group' is the only presently described place for those to play who want to fully experience encountering other players. One of the reasons I backed Elite Dangerous was because of multi-player; and was rather looking forward to encountering other players either as adversaries or as allies. I find that many single-player games don't come close to the experience one can find in an online game where we engage with other players and one of the strengths of a sandbox game is that the players themselves create their own content by their actions which enriches what there is to do in game beyond what scripted or defined stories the developers themselves create; this of course helps to increase the longevity of the experience.
However, its recently come to my attention that living in the 'All-Group' is likely not going to be even a shadow of the experience I thought it could offer. I am now hearing that there are possibly further moves are a foot to reduce these opportunities that I and so many other players of the game were looking forward to. So in addition to all the game systems I've mentioned there is now a possibility that even in the all-group we might not be allowed to see who other players are; imagine if you will , in the extreme, not being able to identify a player from an NPC, a player being able to hide their status as a real person from the entire game or having to scan every single NPC to establish who is a player and who is not.
I certainly do understand that others might not want to be 'hassled' by other players but for those who do enjoy encountering others I feel we are going to not going to have those experiences because the game design seems intent on further catering to those who already have many many ways of finding a good portion of the things they want from ED. I'd like to see the game bustling with players with the opportunity to make allies and enemies and in my view the huge bias towards PvE is going to seriously undermine the gameplay which could negatively effect how the game is received by the larger gaming community and a poor performance in sales.
So a long post and thanks for taking the time for reading it. I'd really like to hear your thoughts..
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