Interesting article related to why I no longer play ED

[Ian Doncaster]

Those who cannot do so will simply have to look for another game.

I think this is probably the real problem. Elite Dangerous is pretty clearly a game more about the journey than the destination in a lot of respects. Don't enjoy flying the spaceship from A to B? Well, that's - in a lot of ways - the game. If you don't enjoy it, you're not going to be happy.

But... what else is there? There's really not a lot of choice if you want an open-world multiplayer space game that isn't Elite Dangerous:
No Man's Sky: more about the planets than the space, not very multiplayer
Star Citizen: a long way from release
EVE (and a few others): not first person

The clear ability of Star Citizen, Elite Dangerous, No Man's Sky, etc. to attract massive pre-release hype - and therefore the suggestion that "in space" is a type of game a lot of people are after - does not appear to have attracted many other people to the idea of producing their own competitor, either.

So you get a lot of people playing Elite Dangerous because they really like a couple of bits of it and there's so far nothing else out there which does the same, then resenting the fact that they can't just do those bits, they also have to do supercruise / combat / earning money.

 

[shadragon]

I am not forced to do any of this grind stuff, and it doesn't much get in the way of what I do enjoy doing.

Amen.

OP - I get your position with limited time, but there's lots of options out there for you. Within Elite: CQC / Arena is good for limited time. Planet Coaster is another Frontier product. Outside of those there's LOTS of other games where you can hit F5 to save progress and quit in seconds when a nappie needs changing. Elite requires time and asking for shortcuts would be like having a five course meal in a fancy restaurant blended together into a liquid because you can't spare two hours to enjoy it.

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The quoted article asks the question, "Do games have enough respect for your spare time?" Where my question would be, "Are gamers with no patience and a strong desire for instant gratification playing the right games for them?"

A lot of players are buying Elite today because it's popular without doing any research if it's are a good fit. Then once installed and realization hits that the game is not what they expected, they call for changes that will undercut the very formula that made it such a hit. All because they are playing the wrong game for them and refuse to admit it. If you're grinding, you're doing it wrong and that isn't Frontiers fault.

 

[Shadowdancer]

Since both the OP and the article author are using that sub-argument:

Having a child in this day and age is a conscious decision. It was your own personal independent choice to reduce your free time that way. If it wasn't, see a lawyer.

This game puts you in a world in which you supposedly live, and consciously tries to not give you too many shortcuts. Yes, you will need some minutes to "get to the fun", travel takes time, some travel takes a very long time, and there are activities you won't be able to enjoy if you only have two hours on your hands every now and then. Consider that this may be deliberate. If you do not have that time, especially when you chose not to have it, then this or any other game built around such a premise may not be made for you.

There's a huge variety in games and you have great freedom of choice to find something matching your time restrictions.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

As someone with a ton of credits yet mostly flying small ships: what exactly are you referring to? What gameplay became a slough and forces one to get the best ship with the best mods? I honestly dont follow you here.

Spawning serves me souped up bulletsponges with engineered modules. Taking them down can take ages with my mediocre skills and unengineered ships. And the rewards were basically the same. The only thing that changed was my rising upkeep for hull repairs.

At one time I got fed up with the crap I just rammed them to death in my FAS.

 

[Dogeh]

It's PC Gamer. They're like the Daily Mail of the gaming journalism world.

It may resonate with some but I take the website with the smallest pinch of salt.
I'm guessing many of their journalists are unable to invest time in the games they test. So it makes sense that they bash games like GTA (and indirectly ED)

 

[wrmiller]

Since both the OP and the article author are using that sub-argument:

Having a child in this day and age is a conscious decision. It was your own personal independent choice to reduce your free time that way. If it wasn't, see a lawyer.

This game puts you in a world in which you supposedly live, and consciously tries to not give you too many shortcuts. Yes, you will need some minutes to "get to the fun", travel takes time, some travel takes a very long time, and there are activities you won't be able to enjoy if you only have two hours on your hands every now and then. Consider that this may be deliberate. If you do not have that time, especially when you chose not to have it, then this or any other game built around such a premise may not be made for you.

There's a huge variety in games and you have great freedom of choice to find something matching your time restrictions.

Or in my case, things like protracted gaming sessions on the PC, or any other time consuming past time (golf) is postponed until that time when you have punted the Little Ones out into their Brave New World so I could then get back to things I enjoy.

 

[Shadowdancer]

It's PC Gamer. They're like the Daily Mail of the gaming journalism world.

They're not quite down to the level of Eurogamer, gamesindustry.biz, or RockPaperShotgun though.

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

I sometimes find it frustrating if I've taken 1 simple kill 5 whatevers mission, with only 30 minutes to play, and the game decides to not spawn them, ever. Lol

It's no biggie though, i just abandon and RTB if it's not working.
The rep loss is easily recovered.

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

 

[StiTch]

Since both the OP and the article author are using that sub-argument:

Having a child in this day and age is a conscious decision. It was your own personal independent choice to reduce your free time that way. If it wasn't, see a lawyer.

*chuckles* post of the day here, folks.

 

[Terry Bruge-Hiplo]

Having a child in this day and age is a conscious decision. It was your own personal independent choice to reduce your free time that way. If it wasn't, see a lawyer.

You should know by now a lot of CMDRs fly without protection and their undocking game is atrocious

 

[lefty1117]

I think something as simple as shortening or eliminating the deceleration required to smoothly exit supercruise would go a long way to cutting down less useful time spent in-game. The rate that we have to decelerate is not consistent with the jump TO supercruise, and certainly not the jump to hyperspace. I know it's cool and hi-fidelity to have to consider the impact of the nearby body's gravity on your momentum, but I'm not saying eliminate that entirely. I'm saying cut down the 60 seconds or so that we spend on every trip just trying to decelerate enough to exit SC. Imagine how much time you'd save, even in a single play session, if that wasn't a concern anymore.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

Not started to slate ED in anyway but first i've seen it discussed in a editorial

http://www.pcgamer.com/do-games-hav...el=ref&ns_source=steam&ns_linkname=0&ns_fee=0

One main reason I quit playing ED. With kids and minimal time, it felt like I was never going to get anywhere. So frustrating to spend a good hour jumping, getting half way through a mission to realize I'm out of time. Then wishing I was back at uni with, what seems like now, endless hours to spare

Made me wonder if some sort method could work with ED to allow people the option to speed up certain aspects. Does seem like there are two sides to the argument. 1. Spend and enjoy the length of the game or 2. speed through it to get the ship you desire to make combat "fair".

I would love to speed up the game and would it really effect the people who have the time to enjoy the length and time it takes?

Not sure what the issue is. I have a kid, a family etc. Sometimes I don't get to play for over a week, and when I do its only for a couple of hours. What missions are you getting that requires you to jump for over an hour? If it is a long distance passanger mission, I suggest taking your time and do some exploration at the same time. A lot of these missions give you days or weeks to do them.

 

[askavir]

There are games for people with a lot of spare time, and games for people with little spare time. And neither are "wrong".

People with little spare time will not make much progress in Civilization, or Skyrim, or Dragon Age Origins, or The Witcher, or any deep rpg, strategy or city building game etc. Should those games be changed to accommodate people with little spare time? Hell no! Same goes the other way around, games for people with little time should not be changed to accommodate people with more free time.

Each person has his "X" amount of spare time. Each person has to decide what to do with it. Choices and compromises have to be made. If you don't have time to play game X, then play game Y. Choose your games exactly like you choose your hobbies or whatever. It's really as simple as that.

Anyway, there's plenty of things to do in ED, and only some of them take that much time. In fact, one of the game's flaws is that many things are short-lived and end up feeling like menial chores instead of adventures.

This all being said, I do believe there could be some tuning here and there, like faster supercruise acceleration and deceleration, or USS's created on system entry and detectable by discovery scanners instead of randomly popping in.

 

[Ninj]

It's PC Gamer. They're like the Daily Mail of the gaming journalism world.

^This. They're mainly interested in GTA online and PUBG nowadays, since that's where the biggest player base is. More readers for them etc.

 

[Heavenly-Hammer]

Unfortunately, the game isn't for you right now, OP. Games that take a long time to progress in like MMO's and ARPGs like Diablo and Path of Exile will always be incongruent with the "I have 30 minutes to play a day" player. They are simply not for you and their core philosophies will never accommodate your play needs for more abbreviated, faster-to-conclusion experiences.

You might want to look at other story-driven SP space sim games to scratch your flying itch. Most games are suited to your needs; it's just that MMO and quasi-mmo games like ED are not.

 

[lefty1117]

Unfortunately, the game isn't for you right now, OP. Games that take a long time to progress in like MMO's and ARPGs like Diablo and Path of Exile will always be incongruent with the "I have 30 minutes to play a day" player. They are simply not for you and their core philosophies will never accommodate your play needs for more abbreviated, faster-to-conclusion experiences.

You might want to look at other story-driven SP space sim games to scratch your flying itch. Most games are suited to your needs; it's just that MMO and quasi-mmo games like ED are not.

I have to disagree. Most modern MMOs, which are designed to be time-sinks, have incorporated convenience systems to enable players to jump in and play in spurts. Dungeon finders, hearthstones, portals, etc. I'm not saying these things should be in Elite, but I'm saying that there are ways to reduce the amount of necessary downtime to keep people playing and engaged. Something like shortening the SC deceleration, or allowing people to access mission boards in-flight, or viewing market info remotely. These don't change the fundamental gameplay but they do help people spend more of their time on the meaty, meaningful parts of the game.

 

[Vasco Sapien]

The dichotomy of having time.

'If you do not take time.... then how can you ever have time?'.

3 Years ago i was sitting on a beach in vietnam with my motorbike parked right behind me. I had all the time in the world, i was free and i made sure that i used every second of it to its fullest potential.
Now im back in the U.K and im working, I find that i now find ways to waste what is left of the spare time i have available to me after a working week.

I respected my time when i had plenty of it... and waste it now that i have a finite amount of it.


Elite is one way that i waste that time. If the game was more respectful of my time as the OP and that article suggests then i wonder if that time saved will be used productively. Im kinda forced to say....'i doubt it'.

I think my point is.... If you valued your time.... you wouldnt be filling it with playing games.

--

Yes im being pretentious.

 

[Jethzk]

Both Powerplay and Engineers are time wasters. Engineers are considerably better than when they were first released, but they are still a huge time sink. Powerplay wouldn't be so bad if they didn't dump half your progress every week. I really hope FD becomes more aware of player time and we see fewer features that follow the Powerplay time sink.

 

[Jenner]

The dichotomy of having time.

'If you do not take time.... then how can you ever have time?'.

3 Years ago i was sitting on a beach in vietnam with my motorbike parked right behind me. I had all the time in the world, i was free and i made sure that i used every second of it to its fullest potential.
Now im back in the U.K and im working, I find that i now find ways to waste what is left of the spare time i have available to me after a working week.

I respected my time when i had plenty of it... and waste it now that i have a finite amount of it.


Elite is one way that i waste that time. If the game was more respectful of my time as the OP and that article suggests then i wonder if that time saved will be used productively. Im kinda forced to say....'i doubt it'.

I think my point is.... If you valued your time.... you wouldnt be filling it with playing games.

--

Yes im being pretentious.

I get your point, but to me 'wasting time' playing games is actually productive. I find that I really enjoy being transported to other worlds in a game, and having the satisfaction in making progress. Same with thematic board games, which I also enjoy. By definition these activities are play and are therefor not strictly required, and you could argue that you'd be better served working a second job or refinishing your den or something. Yet, I think I would be less happy overall if I were more productive if it meant giving up this hobby of mine.

 

[Vasco Sapien]

I get your point, but to me 'wasting time' playing games is actually productive. I find that I really enjoy being transported to other worlds in a game, and having the satisfaction in making progress. Same with thematic board games, which I also enjoy. By definition these activities are play and are therefor not strictly required, and you could argue that you'd be better served working a second job or refinishing your den or something. Yet, I think I would be less happy overall if I were more productive if it meant giving up this hobby of mine.

I guess it comes down to thinking or knowing what makes us happy. I know what makes me happy, but i often result in doing what i think makes me happy.

Im being to introspective.... 3rd beer..