I distinctly remember when, somewhere during my first few months playing Elite Dangerous, I emotionally resolved myself to the reality that I would never achieve Elite rank in any of the careers in this game.
At that moment I had put enough time into Elite, as both a trader and a bounty hunter, to begin to have a real understanding of just how much work was involved in attaining Elite rank in anything. To be frank, it had become quite obvious that Elite rank was for crazy people. The numbers involved were just too insane. Elite Dangerous was a cool game, sure, but who would have the time or stamina for that? Who would really play Elite Dangerous long enough to ever come even close to achieving Elite rank in anything? Frontier’s intentions became clear to me: Elite rank was for the hardcore 1%. It was not a realistic goal for a casual player like myself, and I needed to accept my place in the galaxy. I accepted my lot.
Then came CQC.
CQC did not click for me right away. Out of curiosity I jumped into a deathmatch one day, and learned, with an emphatic note of certainty, that being an “ace” npc mass-murdering bounty hunter did not count for much in the Arena. I got schooled, really hard, a lot, and for a while I also began to resolve myself to notion that “damn, maybe I just kind of suck as a combat pilot”...
Then something began to click.
I am not generally an obsessive gamer. In fact, most of the time, I am quite the opposite. Some games, however, turn on a light bulb in a dark room for me, and I get hooked. CQC was one of those games.
Somewhere along the line the chaos of the arena began to resolve itself into patterns that made sense, and I started to slowly feel like, maybe, I was beginning to know what I was doing. There was something really compelling about this evolution of skill, and once I turned the corner and actually started winning a few matches, and then started being competitive with some of the best, regular players, well by then I was well and truly hooked.
CQC became the primary way that I played Elite. I got so much joy from competing in it, working to get better at it, and chasing, but never quite catching, the legends like Tannik Seldon and Artysu.
I really loved (and love) CQC, and it was that feeling that reignited a long dismissed possibility in my mind: Yeah, I thought, I understand it now: that particular kind of love, that particular kind of drive, that particular the kind of crazy. Yeah, I decided, I know what I want. I am going for CQC Elite!
CQC was my first, and undeniably, my most satisfying Elite rank. I did not chase it for the rank itself, or for the prestige, or to satisfy some internal, completionist goal. I chased it because it represented the pinnacle of achievement in a game that I had really come to love and appreciate, and especially as CQC began to decline in popularity, I wanted to reaffirm my sense of commitment to the game that had brought me so much fun, frustration, satisfaction, friendly and not so friendly rivalries, and just pure, unadulterated enjoyment.
Elite Dangerous, in general, is one of my favorite things, as I think is probably pretty plainly evidenced by the three other Elite ranks that I eventually got (and enjoyed every crazy moment of the process), but CQC will alway be something special to me.
So, Frontier, a few words from someone who really did not expect to, but obviously has come to be kind of a ridiculously huge fan of your game.
- Thank you for making Elite Dangerous. You have created something truly amazing. Yes there is a lot of debate (mostly healthy?) about what should and should not be in the game, but what actually IS in the game right now has brought me many, many hours of satisfaction, and I thank you for it. Please continue to do great work and to grow Elite Dangerous into something even more spectacular (I personally would not mind if you prioritized landing on atmospheric worlds and entering the atmospheres of gas giants, but that’s just me
).
- Please do not let CQC die. With Arena, you actually have something pretty amazing on your hands, especially in VR. The core gameplay of Arena, and the flight model for the ships, is sublime. It is leagues above the competition in the market. CQC has immense potential, but the extremely well executed core concept is being overshadowed and smothered by the absence of some important supporting features. If you are looking for thoughts on this from the people who play Arena the most, then please reach out to us on the CQC discord. The CQC community is, admittedly, small right now, but we really love Arena and have lots of ideas on how it can begin to grow again. Thank you for for making this game, and thank you for keeping it going, even with the low population numbers these days!
- Quad Elite?? What kind of crazy person dedicates that much time to a videogame??? Braben, what have you doooonnneeeee.
