After I finally grew bored of Oolite, I despaired of ever seeing a modern successor to my favorite game of all time. I was ecstatic to be proven wrong... there's just one little problem.
I don't enjoy PvP, and I hate non-consensual PvP. Few gameplay scenarios interest me less than having my own enjoyment held hostage by griefers or other types whose own enjoyment by definition comes at the expense of another's.
Oh, I loved the idea of Elite being multiplayer in theory--I remember a BBS door game called LineWars back in the day, which was really just two players going at it in Cobras over dialup. I really liked the idea of a universe being populated with other players. But with that inevitably comes the downside of multiplayer: dealing with the fact that it only takes one jerk to ruin an evening's fun. So I figured I would just play Elite as if it was the single-player game I wanted in the first place anyway.
It never occurred to me that the group feature of Elite could be leveraged in this way, or that there would be others like me who would form such a group. I'm going to join the moment I get home and log in, and if this delivers the experience I was hoping for without dealing with griefers or PvPers looking for their next target, I think this will become home.
I did more than my share of piracy in the original single-player games, but these days my "off-the-record" activities are largely confined to smuggling operations; I like thumbing my nose at systems with drug prohibition laws.
If you ever see me on your contacts, no matter what I'm flying or what my bounty is, you can feel as safe as if you were alone--I will never attack first or try to interdict you.Hope to see some of you out in the black--there's plenty of room there for all of us.
