Which brings us full circle again
. I honestly think FD knew what they were doing when they scoped the basic game before bringing it to the Kickstarter.
Personal View
At its core is the 1:1 galaxy. From that flows everything else, the PvE slant, the emphasis on player choice, the P2P networking model, the focus on the BGS to “run” the galaxy, not players who amount to no more than a speck of dust in the vast expanse of the Sahara desert.
I seem to recall some wise soul posting some time ago – “FD couldn’t have designed a game more likely to frustrate ex EvE players if they’d tried”. – or words to that effect. I don't think they did that on purpose, it's a beneficial/regrettable result of the games core design.
Territorial/Resource control – pointless. Effectively infinite territory and resources.
No Subscriptions – No real money trade, pay to win, and gold faucets to monetize the game. That it reduces the scandals and corruption, is a side benefit and means FD don’t have to employ their own form of “Internal Investigations Department” just yet.”
The ability to mode switch, simplifies the game for the many, many thousands of players who don’t play the “my gang is bigger than your gang” game. They effectively have it, hardware, software for the non tech savvy, or by simply flying somewhere else. All the mode switch does is allow them to do it without inconveniencing them further.
Unfortunately for some “Play Styles” it would seem there is a market for games which encourage player interaction without forcing it. That FD, and other games under development (Star Citizen, Shroud of the Avatar) have chosen to pursue this market would indicate from a business point of view there’s more money in player choice than forced interaction.
As FD have been around for a “couple” of years, they may just understand their market a little better than we do from our side of the monitor. After all they’re staking their jobs and livelihoods on the call they made before the kickstarter. We’re just staking a couple of quid.
