WARNING: BIG POST AHEAD! - only enter if you have the ability to be patient and read!
From what i understand (i'm a backer of SC as well as ED (and LT!)), i'm going to be limited to the Squadron 42 part of SC as the rest in ONLY MP, and i just really hate MMO/MP online type games.
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About SP vs online MP/MMO:
I've tried many of those death match/team FPS games back in the day (Quake/Delta Force etc), and a number of newer online MP games over the last decade or so (Unreal Torment and Halo on console, WoW and Guild Wars on PC). My first online MP game experience was M.U.D way back when. So yeah i've had a number of 'internet' based MP games to test out, and they always fell short of the best SP game experiences for me, every time.
The problem is ALWAYS the other people. Many are fine, some are really good to interact with (they roleplay or whatever), but all it takes in one bad egg and the whole game world falls down around my ears.
One 'gangsta' hiphop text message, one off topic message about some inane celebrity from X-factor on tv the previous night, one comment that is from outside the confines of the game world and lore and my immersion is gone. It then dawns on me all i'm doing is hanging out in a virtual playground with a bunch of 'juveniles' (often with very bad manners and little imagination, often not just kids!) that are mostly only interested in killing stuff for loot or the kicks, which is kind of depressing and game wrecking.
I've always been after so much more in my games than that. Even back in the day when SP games were very primitive, my imagination would help fill in the deeper details of the gameplay to make the experience richer and more involved than simply blowing stuff up.
The game world is a new place outside of our reality to explore and experience, often you can learn interesting things from playing them (not so much these days, as we have gone all AAA graphical-violence over content).
Say like in Elite, you learnt pretty quick that docking a space ship in zero-g was pretty darn hard, which in turn grew ones respect to the Astronauts that do it for real.
Or in Frontier you learnt about semi-newtonian physics and the actual closest part of the galaxy around us (Proxima Centauri being 'only' 4.2 light years away etc).
Or in a game like Civ, you learnt some broad basics about the history of the world, and in a much more interesting fashion than any history lesson most of us can remember!
Or in Pirates! you got a basic geography of the Caribbean and even it's trade winds that effected the route sails ships would mostly have to use.
Or in Sword of the Samurai where you learnt some basic concepts about Japanese feudal Shogun society.
All while having a blast of a time.
These kind of experiences, invested deeply in the game world and scenario were always the most valuable to me growing up as a gamer. These little pearls of actual knowledge AND/OR wisdom. And exclusively (in my experience) this has been the preserve of the (good) SP game. All MP games have been about the conflict between player A and player B, and little else really matters, as ultimately that is what the MP game is about.
Sure it can be exciting, sure it can be adrenaline inducing, but that is all it ever can be at it's best, that inherent conflict between players. For me i've always got more real world excitement (from sports etc) that also comes with physical health/social aspects, a much richer reward for the adrenaline rush imho.
So while i would love Elite: Dangerous to be the game that breaks the mold in terms of the limits of MP/MMO game design, i really can't see that happening as some fundamental basics are hard-wired into what MP/MMO is really about. To put it crudely a ing contest behind the bike sheds.
So for me all the richer, deeper game experiences rest in SP games and the ability of their creators to find the 'art' in their expressions and try to 'teach' the player something good and important they can use to grow as individuals in life, in the real world.
Ha, this became longer than i was expecting, but i think these finer points are often not talked about between gamers, and i just want to be sure people understand crystal clear why i'll be SP only (maybe home network with a few friends i know i can trust to not 'break' the game world immersion for me) in both Elite: Dangerous and Star Citizen, and why i now avoid all open online MP and MMO games as my gaming preference.
These thoughts and insights have been developed over the past 30 odd years of my gaming, over many thousands of different games played on many different systems, with a huge variety of gameplay and game styles, and with deep reflection on what i value a 'game' for the most. Your millage may vary, and not saying i'm right and 'your' wrong, but just that this is the value of gaming for me, the reason i've been at it for as long as i have and the reason i'll be at it for the next 30 years (assuming all games don't become 'Micro-transaction', MP only and all about graphics over gameplay and depth!).
