Sure our children and children's children and so on for generations could play the game, looking specifically at different systems, and not see the same one twice however I, my children, their children and so on can experience everything the game has to offer in one weekend. When you can see every single aspect of gameplay in such a miniscule amount of time and the real wow-factor the game has is a procedurally generated galaxy with 400 billion systems and nothing to do in them there's a problem. Imagine if Minecraft was an infinite world in which you could run around and look at the landscape, mine rocks from specific node sites to sell to villagers (through a text menu/spreadsheet no less) and buy better armor and weapons to fight the mobs. It would have failed without anyone caring about it one bit because doing that gets boring before long. See my point? Even a game like Skyrim can launch full of bugs and still be a success because it has enough content to keep everyone busy. Environment is only 50% of a game, the other 50% is gameplay and missing either is a death sentence. Elite simply lacks gameplay content.
I can't speak for everyone else but I know any complaining I have done has simply been because I know that the developer's future (since they're producing the game in-house) and the future of the game (which I really want to see do well) depends, like all the indie game developers do these days, on what REVIEWERS think of the game. Like it or not, that is who brings you a new player base. Nobody cares what the fanboys (and girls, we know you're out there too) think, they want to know what the reviewers think. How do you think Elite Dangerous would go over in a Zero Punctuation review in its current state? I would imagine it wouldn't be smiles and rainbows and skip to my lou my darling...
I want ED to have a future, with more and more people buying the game and playing it every day, and as featureless as it is for a title preparing to go into retail launch it simply won't have the staying power and future-proofing a game needs in the modern world of video games. It's a very competitive environment what with so many options to choose from these days and people willing to rebuild your game's entire premise with improvements based on what they feel people want. It's gone from "impress a few dozen production company execs enough to fund your project" to "impress everyone, or at least a good portion of everyone" otherwise your game will simply die a slow, cold death. I really don't want to see ED die the death it will in its current state and a bad first impression on the world will ruin it and planetary landings or whatever else you want to introduce later simply won't get the game back into the spotlight.
I understand the devs wanted to make a modern Elite experience, however, that "modern reboot" idea is simply not good enough in 2014 for anything other than a short-lived nostalgia trip for those who played the original. The core experience can be there but it must also expand. Gameplay has evolved right alongside graphics as game development has progressed through the years and we've come to expect a much higher level of detail and a more feature-rich experience than we did back in 1984. Call us spoiled brats but that's just how it is, regular people also test modern electronics by breaking them and posting the video on Youtube mostly unedited regardless of the outcome. The modern world (and the Internet especially) knows no mercy for your beloved product, it is a cold and objective critic of all things.
Regardless, they'll do what they will and the game will either get a slew of new features (rather quickly I hope) and have a chance to survive or it will recede into the annals of video gaming history like so many other titles nobody cares about and we'll move on to the developers who decided to do it right. I hope they pull a miracle out and the galaxy and existing infrastructure is enough to keep the game fresh long enough for more surface content to be developed but I doubt it will be TBH.
Good luck Frontier, you're going to need it as you push out into the veritable killing field that is a modern retail launch and the subsequent cynical review process from thousands of people at the least!
If it was me I would have pushed release back for 4 months at least. People would have complained but they're still complaining now and will continue complaining (prepare for a whole slew of complainers post-release when all the preorders get in and stuff goes boom) so who cares?
