This is not, nor should it ever have been conceived of as, an MMO. It is a single player game but one where the experiences of the average player are constantly being sacrificed to sate the appetites of a privileged few who, whilst preaching the idea that this is in actually an MMO and everyone who thinks otherwise should get with the program or go play a game and stop ruining their fun, are simply trying to enforce their beliefs of what a game should be on the vast but quiet majority.
The concept of “blaze your own trail” or “play your own way” is utterly destroyed in the face of a development team who have proven themselves utterly brilliant when creating a slightly more complicated version of Microsoft Flight Simulator, but utterly inept at creating an actual game. Rather than just having the balls to create what they want, or more accurately, what they are actually capable of creating within the limits of their abilities, skill sets and experiences, they make the utterly boneheaded decision to bow down to the whining of a small group of people who believe that their way to play is the only one.
Now. I'll agree, their opinions are no less invalid than anyone else's.... except when you leave the future of a game that many people play to be ultimately decided by a minority of people, you're creating a predestination paradox, one where if you only aim your message at a group of people who have already made their opinions clear, then you're unlikely to be surprised by the answer and instead just pat yourself on the back for a job well done.
Every computer or video game, depending on your preference for terminology has had, in one way or another, an option for easy, medium or hard. It's a basic concept of the genre that some people wanna just spend an hour or so shooting the crap out of aliens, or they want to spend hours a day, slogging through hard (though not necessarily engaging) content just so they can say “I did that”. But the achievements of one group should not be invalidated by the achievements of the other.; yet they constantly are. And sadly it's not something that works both ways, in the vast majority of situations it has been a negative superiority directed from the former to the latter.
I had immensely high hopes for this game. Until I realised it wasn't really a game, it was a collection of parts backed by a group of fanatics, a cult if you will. And for a time, I left it alone, idling in my hard drive as a world I might come back to if the fancy took me. And in the past few weeks it did, I felt the urge to take my battered old freighter out of dock and cruise the space lanes. After all, I'd paid for the game all over again, a decision based entirely on faith and more than a little naivete that eventually, the developers would get their heads out of their collective asses and start building, you know, a game. But alas, I was disappointed. I got some cool screenshots, shot down a few pirates in my junker that mathematics told me I shouldn't have been able to, and that was it.
I paid attention to the Gamescom stuff thinking something might come out of it, but what did I get? New paint jobs for ships that I can't afford but the privileged “elite” (cult) can. New missions that are actually exactly the same as the old missions (which is an interesting commentary on the supposed intelligence of said “elite”, but is probably a different topic), but can only really be done by the those who can afford the specific ships they're designed for (the cult). They just have a shiny new name attached to them. But, most heinously of all... what could have been a huge game changer, an actual development in what has become quite possibly the stalest and least interesting storyline in sci-fi history, a chance for people to actually get involved like this was an real MMO, was so utterly mishandled it turned into a confusing (though in hindsight thankfully brief) mess that one could only make sense of if they decided to trawl through a million forum posts written only by, you guessed it, the cult.
And yet what has been the thing that the cult has taken in hand and raised up on pitchforks as the focus of their crusade? The one thing that FD has ever done (yes I'm generalising for the sake of sensationalism) to make allowances for the fact that this is a game (beyond all the other things that the cult ignores cos it makes it easier to prove how much more awesome they are than the filthy casuals because they're obviously entitled to instant refuelling, cargo loading and repairs, and all the other things that people have tried to bring up on these forums that are either ignored or attacked). To take into account that maybe people don't always have the 36 hours available to press the J key repeatedly (and by repeatedly I mean close to a bajillion times, its an actual mathematical number, look it up) just to prove our "skill" and that maybe they just want to play a game. A modification that might have made me want to play the game more as crazy as that sounds.
And how did I find out that this change was going to be taken away from me before I had even been given it? I jumped on to the frontier site to see if they'd actually decided to give me some paint jobs for my ship (a ridiculous notion considering I don't fly an anaconda and that, as the wise (and cult) know, is the only ship worth flying). And lo and behold, here was a small message asking me to vote. Interestingly it provided no reference for those of us not in the know (non cult) to make any kind of informed decision. It did not provide a list of pros and cons, it did not provide a breakdown of what would or would not happen as a result of the vote. It simply says “choose”. I felt like I was in the middle of “Brexit” again (and I bloody hate that term). It's scaremongering by a group of people who simply want to impose their will upon others (which as well know, has no historical precedence so we can safely has say has never gone badly for anyone). No other options were given, its join the cult or go play “X” game cos obviously you're not worthy to play this one (or more accurately pretend that this is in fact a game).
Now, at the end of the day, it would be easy to dismiss everything I've said, based on the simple principle that FD doesn't owe me anything, and I don't deserve anything special over and above the “common” people, and that in general is true. But lets think about that shall we? Despite the successful funding of this “game” on kickstarter, it would not have continued to exist without those outside the cult purchasing it, as advertised. And then purchasing it again at full value because the first incarnation did not in fact, live up to it's advertisements. The second incarnation continues to not live up to it's advertisements so soon we will be asked to pay for it a third time. And then likely a fourth, fifth and probably seventeenth time (if you actually believe the ten year plan crap I think it's safe to say you belong in the “cult” bracket). And should I be stupid enough to continue to believe all this and fork out a considerable percentage of my yearly disposable income every time FD suddenly realise they are incapable of delivering on their promises, I will still be disappointed because they will change their mind, despite the somewhat questionable legality of that situation; they will change features, and aspects of the simulator based entirely on the minority of public opinion. They will do it without telling anyone (or at least anyone in the general public, I'm sure their sycophants will know beforehand and delight in lording it over others, most likely through the medium of their Twitch streams, cos lets face it no one with an opinion worth listening to doesn't try to scam people out of money on Twitch, it's just what's done these days). And all because the cult will tell me and them that the way I want to play this simulator is inferior and that my opinion's are worthless in the face of their highly evolved views on life and gaming (important note, FD will be getting no more of my money, I'm not an idiot).
Frontier developments have offered two polar opposite choices in a vote that could and should span a multitude of options. They have picked a medium where only the cult are likely to vote meaning the rest of us would have no chance even if we'd known to vote. My response to this is, in short, a very emphatic “none of the above”.
I know my personal choice will make no difference. The cult will have their way and they will feel somehow enabled by it. Some of the “game's” population will find out about it later, shrug, and stop buying the questionable attempts to fix a broken system. But I suspect the vast majority of people will fall somewhere in between. Cos you know, that's where most of the human race fits in. Unless you play Elite: Twitcherous of course.
The concept of “blaze your own trail” or “play your own way” is utterly destroyed in the face of a development team who have proven themselves utterly brilliant when creating a slightly more complicated version of Microsoft Flight Simulator, but utterly inept at creating an actual game. Rather than just having the balls to create what they want, or more accurately, what they are actually capable of creating within the limits of their abilities, skill sets and experiences, they make the utterly boneheaded decision to bow down to the whining of a small group of people who believe that their way to play is the only one.
Now. I'll agree, their opinions are no less invalid than anyone else's.... except when you leave the future of a game that many people play to be ultimately decided by a minority of people, you're creating a predestination paradox, one where if you only aim your message at a group of people who have already made their opinions clear, then you're unlikely to be surprised by the answer and instead just pat yourself on the back for a job well done.
Every computer or video game, depending on your preference for terminology has had, in one way or another, an option for easy, medium or hard. It's a basic concept of the genre that some people wanna just spend an hour or so shooting the crap out of aliens, or they want to spend hours a day, slogging through hard (though not necessarily engaging) content just so they can say “I did that”. But the achievements of one group should not be invalidated by the achievements of the other.; yet they constantly are. And sadly it's not something that works both ways, in the vast majority of situations it has been a negative superiority directed from the former to the latter.
I had immensely high hopes for this game. Until I realised it wasn't really a game, it was a collection of parts backed by a group of fanatics, a cult if you will. And for a time, I left it alone, idling in my hard drive as a world I might come back to if the fancy took me. And in the past few weeks it did, I felt the urge to take my battered old freighter out of dock and cruise the space lanes. After all, I'd paid for the game all over again, a decision based entirely on faith and more than a little naivete that eventually, the developers would get their heads out of their collective asses and start building, you know, a game. But alas, I was disappointed. I got some cool screenshots, shot down a few pirates in my junker that mathematics told me I shouldn't have been able to, and that was it.
I paid attention to the Gamescom stuff thinking something might come out of it, but what did I get? New paint jobs for ships that I can't afford but the privileged “elite” (cult) can. New missions that are actually exactly the same as the old missions (which is an interesting commentary on the supposed intelligence of said “elite”, but is probably a different topic), but can only really be done by the those who can afford the specific ships they're designed for (the cult). They just have a shiny new name attached to them. But, most heinously of all... what could have been a huge game changer, an actual development in what has become quite possibly the stalest and least interesting storyline in sci-fi history, a chance for people to actually get involved like this was an real MMO, was so utterly mishandled it turned into a confusing (though in hindsight thankfully brief) mess that one could only make sense of if they decided to trawl through a million forum posts written only by, you guessed it, the cult.
And yet what has been the thing that the cult has taken in hand and raised up on pitchforks as the focus of their crusade? The one thing that FD has ever done (yes I'm generalising for the sake of sensationalism) to make allowances for the fact that this is a game (beyond all the other things that the cult ignores cos it makes it easier to prove how much more awesome they are than the filthy casuals because they're obviously entitled to instant refuelling, cargo loading and repairs, and all the other things that people have tried to bring up on these forums that are either ignored or attacked). To take into account that maybe people don't always have the 36 hours available to press the J key repeatedly (and by repeatedly I mean close to a bajillion times, its an actual mathematical number, look it up) just to prove our "skill" and that maybe they just want to play a game. A modification that might have made me want to play the game more as crazy as that sounds.
And how did I find out that this change was going to be taken away from me before I had even been given it? I jumped on to the frontier site to see if they'd actually decided to give me some paint jobs for my ship (a ridiculous notion considering I don't fly an anaconda and that, as the wise (and cult) know, is the only ship worth flying). And lo and behold, here was a small message asking me to vote. Interestingly it provided no reference for those of us not in the know (non cult) to make any kind of informed decision. It did not provide a list of pros and cons, it did not provide a breakdown of what would or would not happen as a result of the vote. It simply says “choose”. I felt like I was in the middle of “Brexit” again (and I bloody hate that term). It's scaremongering by a group of people who simply want to impose their will upon others (which as well know, has no historical precedence so we can safely has say has never gone badly for anyone). No other options were given, its join the cult or go play “X” game cos obviously you're not worthy to play this one (or more accurately pretend that this is in fact a game).
Now, at the end of the day, it would be easy to dismiss everything I've said, based on the simple principle that FD doesn't owe me anything, and I don't deserve anything special over and above the “common” people, and that in general is true. But lets think about that shall we? Despite the successful funding of this “game” on kickstarter, it would not have continued to exist without those outside the cult purchasing it, as advertised. And then purchasing it again at full value because the first incarnation did not in fact, live up to it's advertisements. The second incarnation continues to not live up to it's advertisements so soon we will be asked to pay for it a third time. And then likely a fourth, fifth and probably seventeenth time (if you actually believe the ten year plan crap I think it's safe to say you belong in the “cult” bracket). And should I be stupid enough to continue to believe all this and fork out a considerable percentage of my yearly disposable income every time FD suddenly realise they are incapable of delivering on their promises, I will still be disappointed because they will change their mind, despite the somewhat questionable legality of that situation; they will change features, and aspects of the simulator based entirely on the minority of public opinion. They will do it without telling anyone (or at least anyone in the general public, I'm sure their sycophants will know beforehand and delight in lording it over others, most likely through the medium of their Twitch streams, cos lets face it no one with an opinion worth listening to doesn't try to scam people out of money on Twitch, it's just what's done these days). And all because the cult will tell me and them that the way I want to play this simulator is inferior and that my opinion's are worthless in the face of their highly evolved views on life and gaming (important note, FD will be getting no more of my money, I'm not an idiot).
Frontier developments have offered two polar opposite choices in a vote that could and should span a multitude of options. They have picked a medium where only the cult are likely to vote meaning the rest of us would have no chance even if we'd known to vote. My response to this is, in short, a very emphatic “none of the above”.
I know my personal choice will make no difference. The cult will have their way and they will feel somehow enabled by it. Some of the “game's” population will find out about it later, shrug, and stop buying the questionable attempts to fix a broken system. But I suspect the vast majority of people will fall somewhere in between. Cos you know, that's where most of the human race fits in. Unless you play Elite: Twitcherous of course.
