Why does Elite still matter?

[pagroove]

[parazaine]

There have been many good points raised here but forgive me if this has already been said (I skipped the last page of comments) Elite not only invented the Space trading game genre, it invented the single-player open-world game that has exploded into nearly every other game genre that exists....it was the first game to do so and was revolutionary for that reason alone.

I played it when it first came out, when there was a competition for the first player to gain Elite status (which sadly I wasn't the first) but I forget what the prize was...but i seem to recall that there was one.

I used to play Elite obsessively (with THE DOORS blasting out in the background lol) and in recent years have tried to revisit the excitement and thrill that Elite gave me .... no other game in the same genre up to date has captured the same thrill, they all seem to fail to some extent or another, then I discovered this game and this community and after years of painfully following the ongoing Braben soap and the continual promises of Elite 4, this community provided the nostalgia I was missing.

Elite was revolutionary in it's concept and design...the current games industry has EVERYTHING to thank Elite for...the current shape of computer gaming owes so much to Elite

[Fatleaf]

Besides what a lot of other people have already said, Elite has drawn people together into a community and one of them is this one. It is the idea that still remains. The original game graphics are now outdated but some ideas never die and always inspire. It is close enough to RLTM in that it is unending in its scope but also that it is dangerous out there and you are not the hero but a lone commander that can choose to do good or can choose to do bad.

And Oolite with the community that has built around it captures it very well. For me Oolite IS Elite IV.

[onno256]

For me Oolite IS Elite IV.

Seconded!

[Gimbal Locke]

For me Oolite IS Elite IV.

Seconded!

I keep waiting for Frontier's Elite IV (perhaps we should do a poll on this ), but Oolite is the best Elite yet.

[Cmdr James]

I think the odd thing about Frontier Developments is that they have never "got" elite. Whilst Frontier and FFE where in many ways interesting and original games, they were in no way elite IMHO.

I imagine elite IV if it ever happens will be some horrendous Massively Multiplayer Online Simulator (ie not a game by any conventional definition) which will consist of tiny numbers of players whizzing around the enormity of real space at relativistic speeds never meeting each other.

[SandJ]

I imagine Elite IV if it ever happens will be some horrendous Massively Multiplayer Online Simulator (ie not a game by any conventional definition) which will consist of tiny numbers of players whizzing around the enormity of real space at relativistic speeds never meeting each other.

Oh, I do hope so. Then maybe people will stop coming on here saying "Hey, I've got you all a great idea, why don't you make Oolite multiplayer...?"

[Disembodied]

I imagine elite IV if it ever happens will be some horrendous Massively Multiplayer Online Simulator (ie not a game by any conventional definition) which will consist of tiny numbers of players whizzing around the enormity of real space at relativistic speeds never meeting each other.

I have a horrid feeling that you're right. And there was a quote from David Braben a few years back, apropos Elite IV, where he said that he favoured Newtonian game-physics because, although it was "less fun", it was "more realistic". Spot the gaping flaw in the game design ...