I gotta be honest, if it weren't for the rift, I'd not be playing ED currently. Game is to one dimensional for me, but playing an one dimensional game in three dimensions helps quite a bit
There have been times in the past few weeks where I have felt like not even logging into the game. And NOT because I have a different game ready to go that has taken my interest.. but because I was having a hard time finding something engaging to do in the game. Trading? meh... too monotonous. Bounty huting? You mean camping a navbeacon or resource extraction site? meh... Explore? what, in my viper? meh.. But after I got into the rift... even the most SIMPLE thing in the game is overwhelmingly entertaining.
I logged in yesterday and did like a dozen trading runs between two stations. When playing on a monitor, it is just a task you do in order to get money to buy a better ship. In the rift, you do it for the experience alone, the money is just a perk. I loved sitting in the docking bay for an extra 15 seconds just adoring the massive scale sitting in front of me as I try and measure the distance from the edge of my ship to the wall of the hanger. "What is it, 40? 60 feet? I wonder if I could hit it with a rock if could throw one" I love watching the sun go under the floor windows of my T6 as I come out of super cruise looking for my next destination. I think to myself "wouldn't it be cool to have my wife turn on a room heater for 5 or 8 seconds as I go over this star here".... Then I am amazed as I come in for a landing on a platform station, literally looking over my shoulder trying to judge how close the tail of myship is to the giant sail thingy sticking up out of the station as I make my way to the landing pad. When I land and sell my wares... I literally take a deep breath, like I can't believe I landed this space ship... I feel like I actually accomplished something. Heck, it is even more exciting sitting there reading the news bulletins in the station. Why? because it doesn't feel like I am playing a game, It feels like I am in space sitting in my ship.
When dog fighting, occasionally I will get SUPER close to my target, sort-of on accident and looking up through my cockpit window, I can FEEL the mass of this GIANT spaceship just a couple meters from my face that have literally made me say "WWWOOWW" out loud in my room. I felt a little internal sense of peril as I got too close. "please don't hit the anaconda, please don't hit the anaconda..... OH MY GOD I ALMOST HIT THAT ANACONDA!! CRAP, DID YOU SEE THAT?".... It's terribly satisfying and is something you literally get ZERO of, when playing on a monitor. On a monitor, you think "oops, got a little close there. No biggy, just a game, and i have shields". There's a huge difference.
I am completely fascinated with the game again... more so than the day I first started playing, by a HUGE margin. It might as well be a different game. Sorry I'm so simultaneously geeky about it, over passionate about it considering I have only been in the rift for 2 days, and so crappy with my words all at the same time. It's impossible to describe.
I came up with a base analogy I have used to try and explain it to my friends here the last couple of days, and the best I can come up with, is the Disney classic movie "Tron". Playing the game tron in the real world standing up at an arcade game is like playing ED on a monitor.... getting zapped INTO the game world by the super computer and actually being INSIDE the game battling tron yourself in the flesh... is like playing in the rift.
The only thing left to do, is to play wearing a wet suit.
Sorry I'm such a geek, but im excited.
