Have Spacesuit - Will Travel
It was a beautiful world, in its own way. The ocean wasn't blue, as it was on the planet of my birth, but instead, it was an inoffensive yellow that spanned the horizon. Offsetting the yellow brine were towers of a green mineral that intermittently broke its surface, monuments to an alien ecosystem vastly different from my homeworld's system. Grazing wildlife gathered about its shores while flying creatures surfed the thermal currents that swept across its surface. With an ambient temperature hovering around a pleasant 80 F, I had unexpectedly found the perfect location for a pleasant beach day. This, I decided, was the planet on which to take a break from my interstellar perambulations and sit down for some deep thoughts about the future of space exploration.
You see, once upon a time I was convinced that the future of the space sim genre was with Frontier Developments' magnum opus, Elite: Dangerous. Despite the awkward name, this title proved to be the first, true breakout hit for the new era of space games. Oh sure, as was typical for this genre, Elite: Dangerous had a rough, if functional, launch back in late 2014, but after a year of aggressive development, Frontier managed to right its ship and get things moving in the correct direction circa late 2016. Since then, the game has steadily improved, earning itself a devoted following from a growing playerbase that appreciated the game's smart mix of sim-like elements coupled with single and multiplayer gameplay options. Elite: Dangerous offered something for "commanders" of all stripes, from space truckers to explorers, all of whom were eager to lose themselves in the game's procedurally-generated 400 billion star galaxy.
Lord knows I was passionate about this title. From my first moments in the game, I became entranced by its noirish presentation of life in space. Unlike so many other space games that take their visual cues from more lighthearted visions of life in the void - please see the increasingly goofy Star Wars and Star Trek franchises - Elite: Dangerous has a much darker presentation that I believe is far more suitable to a game that takes place in "the black" of space.
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| Life in Elite's galaxy is a wonderfully dark affair |
Frontier certainly hit paydirt with Elite: Dangerous. But problems soon appeared. From the start, Frontier seemed befuddled by its own creation. Content drops went from a quarterly schedule to a more haphazard 'when we're ready' calendar that could see long delays between new material added to the game. To make matters worse, when new content did arrive, it always arrived in a very buggy condition, something that could take Frontier weeks to rectify...if the issues were rectified at all, for bugs would routinely persist for months or even years in some notable cases. Worse, new content often resembled a lead balloon on a high gravity world in that the community frequently felt that the new features were unfinished or poorly implemented ("Power Play" being the foremost example). That being said, the fanbase remained loyal to the game because not only was it the only decent space game in town, but also because despite the myriad problems it suffered from, Elite: Dangerous virtues continued to outnumber its sins.
But then 2019 happened. By that, I mean that Frontier announced early this year that there would be no major new content coming to Elite because the bulk of the development team had been moved to working on what we were assured was going to be the next BIG thing for the game, an expansion that would eclipse the ambitious Horizons expansion from late 2015. As for specifics, in typical Frontier fashion, none were to be had. Worse, Frontier let it be known that this new content would not arrive until late 2020, some eighteen months (or more) later! Until then, the community would just have to make do with minor content drops. As could be expected, the community was largely cynical about the announcement.
And then Frontier added insult to injury. Over the course of 2019, only two updates were released, both of which focused on introductory material for new players, and one, September's update, saw the introduction of Elite's first in-game currency, Arx. The introduction of micro-transaction currency is always a controversial issue for gamers, and it was no less so here. But Frontier actually made things far worse when in the process of incorporating this currency into the codebase they managed to break large portions of the game doing so. Yet again, the low QA standards of Frontier were on display but this time the community's patience was at an end, something that resulted in open protests including angry mobs on the forum, an online petition demanding answers, and videos such as this:
Combined with the updates that went before it, "Beyond" finally brought No Man's Sky to critical mass. While still not quite up to the lofty goal set by the original trailer, it nonetheless came darn close to the immersive space game we all wanted. And fans quickly responded. The game, which had flopped in 2016, now found itself on the bestseller charts, with player numbers rocketing almost overnight. Three years post-launch, No Man's Sky was finally a hit.
As I wrote above, I was a huge Elite: Dangerous fan, contentedly putting hundreds of hours into that game over the years, assured that it would be reigning supreme in the genre for a long time to come. However, with the release of "Beyond," combined with Frontier's seeming disinterest in the on-going development of the existing game (as opposed to the mysterious "New Era"), I was no longer sure. At a minimum, Elite: Dangerous now had a pretender to the space game thrown. At worst, No Man's Sky had already overthrown its reign.
Okay, that last part might be hyperbole as Elite still has a lot going for it, but I would now say that NMS is perilously close to snatching the thrown away from Frontier. Really, I believe there is only one thing holding NMS back from accomplishing that feat: its version of space-based gameplay. Truth be told, in a game called No Man's SKY, the great irony is that the "sky" portion of the game - that is to say outer space - is woefully underdeveloped when compared to the planets found in the game. Clearly, Hello Games put all their efforts into realizing impressive procedurally-generated planetary surfaces. That is completely understandable. But the outer space portion of the game has suffered as a result; it now resembles little more than an intermission for our planetary adventures. When compared to the rich environs of Elite: Dangerous's portrayal of the Big Black, complete with realistic orbital mechanics, astronomical objects such as gas giants & neutron stars, a diverse selection of orbital stations, and a complex "background simulation" that allows for unscripted wars and realistic supply and demand economics, No Man's Sky offers little if anything to tempt the Elite's disgruntled playerbase to its threadbare setting. If you're a "spacer," Elite remains the title for you.
But here's the thing: that could change. Hello Games has already demonstrated a willingness and a definite ability to produce surprisingly robust expansions the likes of which would probably bring Frontier's developers to their knees (based on their paltry efforts of recent times). I think curmudgeon Yamiks said it best in his video: "This is just embarrassing [for Elite]..."
And that is causing me to rethink what I thought I knew about the current state of the space game genre. Putting aside the promises of the unknown "New Era," right now Elite: Dangerous is just one or two No Man's Sky expansions from playing catchup to a game once left choking on Elite's space dust. And if that happens, all the promises in the world about how wonderful the "New Era" is going to be isn't going to get them back, especially in light of the bad blood Frontier has managed to engender over the last few years, and particularly in 2019. In short, Frontier is now living on borrowed time.
Epilogue
It is now many months since "Beyond's" release. I have since left my beautiful alien beach world and now find myself on a bonedry moon that orbits a frozen world. Imagine Space Nevada, with just as many hostile critters. Still, my new world is worth celebrating as I've gotten here via a black hole, a trip that cast me many light-years from my beach world. It was only fitting that I build a base here, rudimentary as it may be, as a monument to my odyssey. Regrettably, this moon suffers from fierce firestorms, so I am often forced to take shelter. It is during such storm-induced downtime that I have time to contemplate the future of space games. Sadly, not much has changed since I first started writing this missive to Frontier around last October or so (yeah, I just don't have the time to blog much anymore so entries like this can take a long time to complete). Since then, Frontier has released its first update for 2020, which, truth be told, is just a minor bug-fixing patch that other devs wouldn't require four months to complete. Speaking of other devs, Hello Games, on the other hand, released yet another update: the much appreciated "Synthesis" update that, in addition to a long list of bug fixes and quality of life improvements, again includes fresh content (such as the Bytebeat music system!) that makes the experience that much more enjoyable. In other words, Hello Games is still on a development tear while Frontier remains asleep at the switch.
I don't know how this will end. It is entirely possible that the reason why Frontier is getting so little done with Elite: Dangerous is that the "New Era" is so aggressively transformative that the drain on resources is necessary and will pay big dividends late this year. That is entirely possible. But all I know right now is that with two teams of similar size, Hello Games is, well, cleaning Frontier's clock. And it is having an impact, too, because more and more Elite veterans, such as myself, have become so frustrated with the stagnation of Elite that we have started to shelve our joysticks until Frontier gives us a reason to return to the game. We will just have to wait and see how this all plays out. But until it does you will be more likely to find me not in the Milky Way but in the Euclid Galaxy.
Consider yourself warned, Frontier.
But then 2019 happened. By that, I mean that Frontier announced early this year that there would be no major new content coming to Elite because the bulk of the development team had been moved to working on what we were assured was going to be the next BIG thing for the game, an expansion that would eclipse the ambitious Horizons expansion from late 2015. As for specifics, in typical Frontier fashion, none were to be had. Worse, Frontier let it be known that this new content would not arrive until late 2020, some eighteen months (or more) later! Until then, the community would just have to make do with minor content drops. As could be expected, the community was largely cynical about the announcement.
And then Frontier added insult to injury. Over the course of 2019, only two updates were released, both of which focused on introductory material for new players, and one, September's update, saw the introduction of Elite's first in-game currency, Arx. The introduction of micro-transaction currency is always a controversial issue for gamers, and it was no less so here. But Frontier actually made things far worse when in the process of incorporating this currency into the codebase they managed to break large portions of the game doing so. Yet again, the low QA standards of Frontier were on display but this time the community's patience was at an end, something that resulted in open protests including angry mobs on the forum, an online petition demanding answers, and videos such as this:
Some were quick to point out that this dismal rollout of (microscopic) content was nothing new, and just required the usual patience from the community while Frontier patched its broken game (Frontier was in no rush either as the broken content drop arrived September 18th and the final fix didn't arrive until the second week of October). But this time things seemed to be different. This time the community wasn't quick to shrug its collective shoulders and move on. This time, there was a palpable sense of lingering disgust on the part of the community. The continuing lack of QA, the glacial pace of development, the announcement of only minor content updates for the next eighteen months, and the imposition of a microtransaction currency launched in a very obnoxious fashion - it all combined to poison Frontier's well.
And this is where something unexpected happened. Well, for me, anyway. A month prior to Frontier releasing their September fiasco, Hello Games, developer of another space game entitled No Man's Sky, released their latest expansion, called "Beyond," and it, well, blew everyone's socks off. To understand why you need to understand what a mess NMS was upon release. Unlike Elite: Dangerous, NMS didn't make it off the launchpad into orbit but instead exploded on the ascent. That is, Hello Games had promised much while it was developing the game, but when the game was finally released, it took eager players only an hour or two to realize that the game was severely lacking in content, including missing some promised features as well as not resembling what was displayed in its much-hyped official announcement trailer. It was, in short, a disappointing fizzle of epic proportions. There is a lot more to this story than I can go into here, but if you want to learn more, I encourage you to watch this supremely entertaining documentary on No Man's Sky from The Internet Historian:
In short, the most anticipated game of recent times crashed and burned, leaving Elite: Dangerous secure in its reign as king of the new era of space games.
But then something happened, something unexpected. Hello Games didn't do what many suspected they would (because, sadly, gamers had seen this scenario play out before with other developers), which is to say that they didn't cut and run. Instead, they put their nose to the grindstone and set about making things right. Progress was slow for the first few years, with free expansions to No Man's Sky bringing much-needed content but not nearly enough to completely close the gap between what was expected and what was delivered. But they persisted. And then, while many had stopped paying attention to its intermittent development, Hello Games released the "Beyond" expansion. And it proved to be a literal game-changer:
As I wrote above, I was a huge Elite: Dangerous fan, contentedly putting hundreds of hours into that game over the years, assured that it would be reigning supreme in the genre for a long time to come. However, with the release of "Beyond," combined with Frontier's seeming disinterest in the on-going development of the existing game (as opposed to the mysterious "New Era"), I was no longer sure. At a minimum, Elite: Dangerous now had a pretender to the space game thrown. At worst, No Man's Sky had already overthrown its reign.
Okay, that last part might be hyperbole as Elite still has a lot going for it, but I would now say that NMS is perilously close to snatching the thrown away from Frontier. Really, I believe there is only one thing holding NMS back from accomplishing that feat: its version of space-based gameplay. Truth be told, in a game called No Man's SKY, the great irony is that the "sky" portion of the game - that is to say outer space - is woefully underdeveloped when compared to the planets found in the game. Clearly, Hello Games put all their efforts into realizing impressive procedurally-generated planetary surfaces. That is completely understandable. But the outer space portion of the game has suffered as a result; it now resembles little more than an intermission for our planetary adventures. When compared to the rich environs of Elite: Dangerous's portrayal of the Big Black, complete with realistic orbital mechanics, astronomical objects such as gas giants & neutron stars, a diverse selection of orbital stations, and a complex "background simulation" that allows for unscripted wars and realistic supply and demand economics, No Man's Sky offers little if anything to tempt the Elite's disgruntled playerbase to its threadbare setting. If you're a "spacer," Elite remains the title for you.
But here's the thing: that could change. Hello Games has already demonstrated a willingness and a definite ability to produce surprisingly robust expansions the likes of which would probably bring Frontier's developers to their knees (based on their paltry efforts of recent times). I think curmudgeon Yamiks said it best in his video: "This is just embarrassing [for Elite]..."
And that is causing me to rethink what I thought I knew about the current state of the space game genre. Putting aside the promises of the unknown "New Era," right now Elite: Dangerous is just one or two No Man's Sky expansions from playing catchup to a game once left choking on Elite's space dust. And if that happens, all the promises in the world about how wonderful the "New Era" is going to be isn't going to get them back, especially in light of the bad blood Frontier has managed to engender over the last few years, and particularly in 2019. In short, Frontier is now living on borrowed time.
Epilogue
It is now many months since "Beyond's" release. I have since left my beautiful alien beach world and now find myself on a bonedry moon that orbits a frozen world. Imagine Space Nevada, with just as many hostile critters. Still, my new world is worth celebrating as I've gotten here via a black hole, a trip that cast me many light-years from my beach world. It was only fitting that I build a base here, rudimentary as it may be, as a monument to my odyssey. Regrettably, this moon suffers from fierce firestorms, so I am often forced to take shelter. It is during such storm-induced downtime that I have time to contemplate the future of space games. Sadly, not much has changed since I first started writing this missive to Frontier around last October or so (yeah, I just don't have the time to blog much anymore so entries like this can take a long time to complete). Since then, Frontier has released its first update for 2020, which, truth be told, is just a minor bug-fixing patch that other devs wouldn't require four months to complete. Speaking of other devs, Hello Games, on the other hand, released yet another update: the much appreciated "Synthesis" update that, in addition to a long list of bug fixes and quality of life improvements, again includes fresh content (such as the Bytebeat music system!) that makes the experience that much more enjoyable. In other words, Hello Games is still on a development tear while Frontier remains asleep at the switch.
I don't know how this will end. It is entirely possible that the reason why Frontier is getting so little done with Elite: Dangerous is that the "New Era" is so aggressively transformative that the drain on resources is necessary and will pay big dividends late this year. That is entirely possible. But all I know right now is that with two teams of similar size, Hello Games is, well, cleaning Frontier's clock. And it is having an impact, too, because more and more Elite veterans, such as myself, have become so frustrated with the stagnation of Elite that we have started to shelve our joysticks until Frontier gives us a reason to return to the game. We will just have to wait and see how this all plays out. But until it does you will be more likely to find me not in the Milky Way but in the Euclid Galaxy.
Consider yourself warned, Frontier.
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