Should Elite Dangerous add clans/player factions in the future

[Garbarrage]

This poll highlights perfectly FD's problem. It's an almost 50 per cent split (albeit a small sample size). between wanting guilds and not wanting it. Whatever they do is never going to please at least 50 per cent of the player base. That is a big challenge to the longevity of the game.

Not really. If you can put this in the game without adversely affecting those who don't want it, the opposing 50% will suck it up. A common misconception with these polls is that you need a majority to demonstrate demand. This is a game, not a democracy. What percentage of players currently play PP properly? More than 50% How about how many players currently play for minor factions? 50%?

The challenge to the longevity of the game is finding out what causes players who left to do so. Although, with current traffic levels, I don't think ED needs to worry about longevity as long as they keep up with the same level of development.

 

[Crimson Kaim]

No thanks, blaze your own trail, not someone else's.

What if I want to blaze OUR own trails? I mean it is just like PowerPlay. You can take part if you want to but noone forces you to do so. It is just offering a possibility to connect your game experience with other players and as said: you don't have to do this.
The point is that at the moment you can't even do this even though you would like to. Choices are always better than a path without a road to exit.

 

[Mohrgan]

The trouble is; to what extent should all of the pro-cult players demands be considered. If a in-game cult system can be brought in that allows players to connect without the ability to affect individual players, and doesn't require content that only cults could benefit from. I say rock on. We and FD has to come to an agreement as to where that line is. It would be great for player groups to be more able to communicate but, many of the requests reach to far outside what I consider a danger to the individual pilots out there.

 

[Mohrgan]

Cult? Obvious troll is obvious..... and obviously socially inept. ;-)

I guess one word can send you off a message. Where do we/FD draw the line for the expectations of the most extreme of the pro-clan (an easier word for you to digest) suggestions?

 

[Super Manx]

I voted no. Adding clans/factions would make the game unappealing to new players a la EVE.

 

[Winterwalker]

I think the player organised groups we have are cooler, because their structure isn't fixed. Player owned (and named) factions tie you to an area of space but give power of influence in the region. I like FD's approach.

 

[Garbarrage]

I guess one word can send you off a message. Where do we/FD draw the line for the expectations of the most extreme of the pro-clan (an easier word for you to swallow) suggestions?

It's not an easier word for me to swallow. The word you used was simply disrespectful of other peoples' standpoints, and as you are the only person making such references here, clearly the intention was trolling.

As to where the line is... I would say keeping it consistent with FD's other policy wouldn't be that hard.

You couldn't make it invasive to other individual players without removing solo mode and the BGS. ie. Not going to happen. You can't own a starport. You can't exclude other players from an area. You can't withhold resources.

You can:

Communicate via group chat channel. Although, I'd be against a global chat channel. Leave messages for friends/group members who aren't online. Recruit in game. Identify yourself or ship as part of your group.

None of these things would impact an independent player whatsoever.

 

[Katie Byrne]

There must be some serious anti-social crowd in ED that I'm not aware of...

yes indeed its somewhat depressing.

I think it might be because ED has a somewhat unique demographic split between the older folks who played the original game and wanted ED to be a single player expereince and the younger folk who's gaming experience is more often a very complex multiplayer expereince.

Arma for example has realism units like this :

[video=youtube;8VH-qLt6S2I]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VH-qLt6S2I[/video]

[video=youtube;IthKiGE8Kj8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IthKiGE8Kj8[/video]

I wish ED would one day allow that kind of large scale player organizations/activity

But then again I also wish that player owned structures/machinery/stations would be on the cards and I'm told it isnt.

 

[Mohrgan]

It's not an easier word for me to swallow. The word you used was simply disrespectful of other peoples' standpoints, and as you are the only person making such references here, clearly the intention was trolling.

As to where the line is... I would say keeping it consistent with FD's other policy wouldn't be that hard.

You couldn't make it invasive to other individual players without removing solo mode and the BGS. ie. Not going to happen. You can't own a starport. You can't exclude other players from an area. You can't withhold resources.

You can:

Communicate via group chat channel. Although, I'd be against a global chat channel. Leave messages for friends/group members who aren't online. Recruit in game. Identify yourself or ship as part of your group.

None of these things would impact an independent player whatsoever.

Nope. I can't see a problem with those points. Rock on. Will the bulk of the pro-cult guys be ok with this? A unified front would certainly help to give some traction to the idea.

 

[Cosmo]

yes indeed its somewhat depressing.

I think it might be because ED has a somewhat unique demographic split between the older folks who played the original game and wanted ED to be a single player expereince and the younger folk who's gaming experience is more often a very complex multiplayer expereince.

Arma for example has realism units like this :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IthKiGE8Kj8

I wish ED would one day allow that kind of large scale player organizations/activity

But then again I also wish that player owned structures/machinery/stations would be on the cards and I'm told it isnt.

Yep mostly the old folk are scared of massively social and massively multiplayer features so they want to prevent the rest of the players (roughly 50%) from being able to build, own and manage structures, stations, guilds etc.

It's a really sad situation that the old folk are holding Elite Dangerous back as a shallow game. Even when being told that all those things will be optional and avoidable they still abhor it and want to stop other players from enjoying those things in Elite.

Elite Dangerous: Blaze your Old-Fans Trail.

 

[Funkyboymonkeyboy]

Petition the EVE developers to make EVE more like ED.

 

[Robert Maynard]

The poll cannot be considered to represent the player-base - because it is neither restricted to players only voting nor do all players know of its existence.

Also, with regard to the oft repeated "old folks are holding the game back" - is there some poll reporting that shows voter age for each poll option that I'm missing - or is age vs. poll option just assumed?

 

[jabokai]

Yep mostly the old folk are scared of massively social and massively multiplayer features so they want to prevent the rest of the players (roughly 50%) from being able to build, own and manage structures, stations, guilds etc.

It's a really sad situation that the old folk are holding this game back as a shallow game. Even when being told that all those things will be optional and avoidable they still hate it and want to stop other players from enjoying those things in Elite.

Elite Dangerous: Blaze your Old-Fans Trail.

It's really sad that the juveniles cannot interact in the online world unless they're in a group, connected via fartbook, or twitter or the like. They do not have the courage or imagination to dive into the unknown unless there's a whole group of them - probably some sort of social inadequacy, kind of like little gangs at school. Probably give their little gangs silly names too, like at school.

See how easy it is to use immature rhetoric to try and disparage people? Pointless.

The main shallowness of the game comes not from social, but from mechanics. The scope of the game is huge but the individual mechanics, almost all of them, do not bolster this scope. The oft repeated mile wide inch deep, kind of sums it up. Sadly they keep focusing almost entirely on creating new things for the so called social crowd (who still aren't happy), rather than dividing time on making the core mechanics deeper, and better.

 

[Cosmo]

The poll cannot be considered to represent the player-base - because it is neither restricted to players only voting nor do all players know of its existence.

There is no other or better way to poll the player base sadly.

The point of this thread is to get the message across to Fdev that enough players want Clans that are created and managed by players. And that Fdev should add those MMO features to Elite.

Also, with regard to the oft repeated "old folks are holding the game back" - is there some poll reporting that shows voter age for each poll option that I'm missing - or is age vs. poll option just assumed?

There's a thread How Old are Us Players? with the average age of people on the forums. It's very high for a video game.

30-39 years old (2,309) 36.31%
40-49 years old (2,208) 34.72%
50-59 years old (616) 9.69%

44.41% of all the people who voted are over 40 years old. That's old for a game.

 

[Robert Maynard]

There is no other or better way to poll the player base sadly.

.... and this way is not "good" for the reasons explained earlier.

There's a thread How Old are Us Players? with the average age of people on the forums. It's very high for a video game.

30-39 years old (2,309) 36.31%
40-49 years old (2,208) 34.72%
50-59 years old (616) 9.69%

44% of all the people who voted are over 40 years old. That's old for a game.

.... and where's the link to who voted for what poll option? That's the bit that is missing. Unless the "old folks are holding the game back" postulation is simply an assumption based on a poll relating to the age of only about 6,500 forum members (there are many, many more than that) which equates to about 0.7% of the copies sold from the last estimate.

 

[Cosmo]

.... and this way is not "good" for the reasons explained earlier.

I think it's good enough, it does the job. Fdev already knows that many people want Clans, Guilds. The community is roughly split 50-50%. If only 40% or 30% want it, that's also enough people to develop it. There's been several threads about it and there will be more in the future until it's added or people will eventually abandon ED.

.... and where's the link to who voted for what poll option? That's the bit that is missing.

I didn't create the poll, so don't know.

only about 6,500 forum members (there are many, many more than that) which equates to about 0.7% of the copies sold from the last estimate.

There will never be the total player base in any poll about implementing clans and guilds.

The players who strongly dislike Elite Dangerous won't bother to register on the forums. They might post a Steam review.

 

[dementia]

I think it's good enough, it does the job. Fdev already knows that enough people want Clans, Guilds. There's been several threads about it and there will be more in the future until it's added or people will abandon ED.



I didn't create the poll, so don't know.

I created the thread and deliberately didn't include the option to list what everyone voted. Simply to allow people to vote freely.

 

[Kerrash]

...only about 6,500 forum members (there are many, many more than that) which equates to about 0.7% of the copies sold...

So what you saying is, that any kind of forum poll is essentially useless for data mining?

 

[Robert Maynard]

I think it's good enough, it does the job. Fdev already knows that many people want Clans, Guilds. The community is roughly split 50-50%. If only 40% or 30% want it, that's also enough people to develop it. There's been several threads about it and there will be more in the future until it's added or people will eventually abandon ED.

I didn't create the poll, so don't know.

Where are the reliable stats that show that the community is "roughly split 50%-50%"? We don't have tools within the forums that permit any reliable results to be gathered.

Showing forum user-names in a public poll does not necessarily permit any kind of age distribution to be gathered - every user enters their birth date as they choose - no guarantee that it is accurate.

 

[Cosmo]

Where are the reliable stats that show that the community is "roughly split 50%-50%"? We don't have tools within the forums that permit any reliable results to be gathered.

There are no reliable stats because we can only create these polls on the forums. There are several other threads about clans and guilds with similar voting, support patterns. There's several posts on reddit about this with many upvotes.