Is ED played by mostly "Old Ducks" like me?

Shiro Akai

Shiro Akai
Old Duck said:
And if you are young, young enough not to have played the original Elite games, I'm curious - what draws you to Elite Dangerous? This is a sincere question, as I think many of us older folk (I am old enough to have played Elite on C64 as a kid) play at least partially out of nostalgia.
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Next week I'll be 37 (hm... triple salute age?), started playing games on Amiga 500 but haven't played original ED. Age wise I barely missed that game but I haven't been aware of the franchise until few year ago when I started to research modern space sims. No nostalgia to ED for me but nostalgia to space sims as a whole - I played countless hours with X-Wing Alliance (X-Wing vs TIE Fighter as well) and Freespace. Later I played lots of RTSes and RPGs. Few years ago I wished to play again as a space pilot so I started to look after modern space sims.

I had my hopes with Star Citizen, when I joined it had just few ships available, 2 maps and simple shooting mode. Not enough for my needs so I researched further. No Man's Sky had bad reviews and only true option was Elite. So what drawn me to ED? Urge to play space pilot. And mnostly non combat one. When I learned you can explore, mine and trade as a living I knew it's the game for me.

Looking at the game from a distance and time spent - I must say it's a good game. Interesting gameplay, awesome ship feel. Sure, it has it's issues (RNG overuse, grindness and timegating behind weird limitations) but overall it is interesting enough so I come back to it on regular basis.
 

ZeroAi

ZeroAi
Old Duck said:
Someone posted the following in another thread of mine (abbreviated):

This, along with various other threads and photos from the meet-ups make me wonder if we are all "Old Ducks" playing this game. Ironically I'm actually relatively young compared to many in this forum. My "Old Duck" PSN name was in relation to the average demographic on the Playstation - so when I'm playing Overwatch or Fortnite, the "Old Duck" is very fitting (and earns me some good laughs), whereas I'm beginning to think that I'm a "Young Rooster" when it comes to Elite Dangerous.

I do find the "ED on PS4 is better than Elite on Commodore 64, so what's all the fuss about bugs and graphics?" mentality to be a bit frustrating. If ED is played mostly by a bunch of old guys happy it's better than the C64, then it probably will never rise to the expectations of this "Young Rooster". After all, the original Elite had flickering graphics, so why complain about the terrible flickering shadows on PS4?

And if you are young, young enough not to have played the original Elite games, I'm curious - what draws you to Elite Dangerous? This is a sincere question, as I think many of us older folk (I am old enough to have played Elite on C64 as a kid) play at least partially out of nostalgia.
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As someone who was a pre-teen when the first home computers came out, and owned a Commodore Vic 20 before upgrading to a C64 (still have it,) I'm also an "over the hill" gamer.

That said, as I've aged I've become less interested in hyper-shooters with the spawn-die-repeat mechanism of COD, and have focused on games that allow me to play with friends cooperatively.

Unlike students with oodles on time on their hands, my limited game time is my R&R time away from work, stress, and honey-do lists ;-)

Not sure if other older gamers feel the same way, but I can say none of my friends are playing either COD or Fortnight.
 

Old Duck

Old Duck
ZeroAi said:
As someone who was a pre-teen when the first home computers came out, and owned a Commodore Vic 20 before upgrading to a C64 (still have it,) I'm also an "over the hill" gamer.

That said, as I've aged I've become less interested in hyper-shooters with the spawn-die-repeat mechanism of COD, and have focused on games that allow me to play with friends cooperatively.

Unlike students with oodles on time on their hands, my limited game time is my R&R time away from work, stress, and honey-do lists ;-)

Not sure if other older gamers feel the same way, but I can say none of my friends are playing either COD or Fortnight.
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I only like the older COD games like MW2, which I have fond memories of as early console multiplayer was often me and my wife battling my friend and his wife on a 4-way split screen. "No screen peeking!" was shouted back and forth more than a few times, LOL.

When I play Fortnite, I do so in a non-traditional way. I tend to explore in "stealth mode" (similar to how I often play ED, actually) and let everyone else kill each other until the storm closes in. I hate the "I can magically toss a wall in front of me and build a gravity-defying ramp to the moon" mechanic that makes Fortnite popular, so I don't use it and usually lose to those who do. I don't play that game to win, I play to explore and experience the "hide from everyone" gameplay. I'm that girl from the first Hunger Games who ate the berries.

Now Overwatch for me is a very different FPS. This game is as much a game of chess as it is a shooter. I'm still young enough to have the reflexes needed for a shooter, but I can tell that I often have a strategic edge over many of the younger players who don't understand the chess-like nature of the game. I get much more enjoyment from out-thinking an opponent than I do from out-shooting that opponent. Overwatch kinda reminds me of Archon for the Commodore 64, one of my favorite games of that era.
 

babelfisch

babelfisch
Old Duck said:
But on the other hand, ED was visually impressive when it first released on PS4 (except for the beige plague, but that's not a console thing). It was no Horizon Zero Dawn, but it was good enough for me. Remember, I'm not as fussy as people think, hence why I play on a Slim instead of the Pro. The broken shadow issue is a bug acknowledged by Frontier, one that's never been fixed despite their attempts.

I think the problem is that Frontier put their best people on the job to port ED to PS4, and once it was released, they moved that team to JWE and other projects. That's why 2.3 was great, but starting with 2.4 ED on PS4 started to fall apart. From Frontier's Cobra Engine page (emphasis mine):


Cobra engine was supposed to allow Frontier to "fire and forget" when it comes to the console ports, but unfortunately it has failed in that regard.
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You have my sympathies and support when it comes to EBL and other bugs / issues. But apart from EBL I believe PS4 and PC are almost the same when it comes to issues, IIRC there was a long standing problem with SRVs in multiplayer but I am pretty sure there are PC isolated issues as well.
They need better QA and faster patches, sadly that's conflicting... I would be fine with less frequent content updates but better quality. Less bugs, less features, less placeholders. That's just my opinion though.
 

AsukaZ

AsukaZ
Probably more old ducks than you can point a stick at (and you can point your stick this way as well). After a 30+ year franchise there's bound to older fans, but I think there's more to it than. Perhaps it has certain qualities that appeal to people of all ages. There seems to be a good mix anyway.
 

Midian Cabal

Midian Cabal
Lazuras Poe said:
12 years old in 1982. Commodore Vic 20. 16k rom cartridge upgrade. Played on a black n white portable tv.
I never enjoyed the original Elite. I liked the idea, but I was drawn, even back then to visuals and graphics. Wasnt long before I upgraded to a C64.

PSI 5 Trading company was my go to spaceships game.

I couldnt really afford games, so i would often just get stuff that was on sale, i know lots of people used to trade/share games because cassettes and easy to copy, but I wasnt an overly friendly kid and the other wierd kids that were like me were all spectrum fan boys... And people say todays toxicity in online forums is bad...
Pfft fights beween geeks over commodre v spectrum were real back then, i had many a bloody nose and left many a black eye...
Ok, maybe only the once, but it was pretty vicious.
I remember wanting to play the early star wars games and stuff, but I did start to lean towards rpgs and similiar, side scolling shooters and combat games. Yie ar kung fu!
I really do enjoy ED, i just find most of the gameplay extremely frustrating, so its mostly just flying, visuals and exploration for me.
So for me, age has nothing to do with it, Im a gamer, i play and have played lots of games and what ED does well, it does incredibly well, unfortunately games have so much more depth and complexity, and have matured in a lot of ways and I think thats half the problem... ED isnt a game, its an experience, and as far as experiences go... Id rather ride my bike and leave ED for rainy days.
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I My mom almost bought a C64 instead of Spectrum, only because Elite was released for C64 before it was released for Speccy.
 

Smykes

Smykes
I'm 55yrs old, played Elite on the Speccy 48k in the 1980's.
If I had known about Elite:Dangerous being a start-up I would have jumped at the chance to invest in Mr Braben's creation.
Glad to see that Elite has the same pull now as it did back then.
o7
 

Old Duck

Old Duck
babelfisch said:
You have my sympathies and support when it comes to EBL and other bugs / issues. But apart from EBL I believe PS4 and PC are almost the same when it comes to issues, IIRC there was a long standing problem with SRVs in multiplayer but I am pretty sure there are PC isolated issues as well.
They need better QA and faster patches, sadly that's conflicting... I would be fine with less frequent content updates but better quality. Less bugs, less features, less placeholders. That's just my opinion though.
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I agree 100%. Elite Dangerous actually looks pretty amazing "in the dark". A station in the shadow of a planet or a surface outpost at night looks great. It's the flashing, flickering, moire-pattern shadows that ruin the visuals of an otherwise beautiful game, hence my focus and obsession with this one particular bug. Fix the shadows, fix the game.

Save the cheerleader, save the world!
 
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PiLhEaD

PiLhEaD
Old Duck said:
....So I guess from my frame-of-reference, "old" is 50+ and young is 30s and below... Anyone in their 40s is "just right", unless they use C64 to say that EBL is acceptable :p
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'Thanks', so I am officially old..... o_O... in fairness, I already knew it. So it's a bit of a shame that I still think that I'm 17... now, where did I leave my long-distance spectacles, and my arthritis medicine... ;)
 

Old Duck

Old Duck
PiLhEaD said:
'Thanks', so I am officially old..... o_O... in fairness, I already knew it. So it's a bit of a shame that I still think that I'm 17... now, where did I leave my long-distance spectacles, and my arthritis medicine... ;)
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I keep telling my wife that I'm going to get myself a man-wig, then I'll be 17 again!

Amazon.com : STfantasy Mens Brown Wig Male Guy Short Layered Cosplay Costume Party Natural Hair 12" : Beauty

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PaxtonNewt

PaxtonNewt
PiLhEaD said:
I removed my 486 DX2 with its bonded heat sink when I scrapped my first PC. It's on a shelf below my TV and it gets a quite a few comments. It's actually quite a thing to see.
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I sold a 486DX2 and motherboard I had in my loft cos I wanted the case for my new build.. a vintage case with brand new insides.. everything fitted perfectly, a testament to how things haven't changed that much since 1990's - I got £100 for the cpu and £50 for the motherboard - no ram - so in terms of value I think I got a good deal
 

VR SenseiMatty

VR SenseiMatty
PiLhEaD said:
I removed my 486 DX2 with its bonded heat sink when I scrapped my first PC. It's on a shelf below my TV and it gets a quite a few comments. It's actually quite a thing to see.
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You had the powerful version then! I remember most games required the DX2 (66Mhz if I remember correctly) or Pentium 100 (recommended) and I was always in the no-go area! 🤣
 
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