I've been playing games for my entire life. I got my first NES at age 7 and never looked back. I've played every MMO that was even remotely popular, some longer than others. I've sunk a lot of money and an embarrassing amount of time into video games and especially MMOs. I've played all of the "hardcore" games such as DAoC, Shadowbane, U:O, L2, etc. Whatever your definition of "HC" is, I've probably played that too, but this isn't supposed to be a comprehensive list. I've played games where you can kill people and take all their stuff, some of their stuff, or knock down their castles, or shit all over things that took them hours and hours and hours to make. I've had other players kill me, take all my stuff or some of my stuff, and shit all over things that haven taken ME hours and hours and dollars to make. There is one thing that has been a constant through every game I've ever played, and the more I think about this, the more I'm solidifying my theory on why certain games have a lasting attraction and certain games don't. Playing games like WoW on a PvE server, or playing games that have "PVP Flags" gives you an impression that you are in control, and as such, you never experience any thrill or excitement or nervousness or sense of accomplishment. (Please hear me out before you lose your damn minds.) Take EVE, for example, and we will compare it to Elite:Dangerous. You want to run a mining or trade mission in EVE. All of the good shit is in a system that's WAAAYYY off the Police scanner, and you're sick of mining next to the Police Department because all of the ore there is worth like thirty-seven cents per unit for obvious reasons. You finally decide to man up, kit your ship and fly into potentially hostile space. You do everything you're supposed to do, watch your scanners, watch your back, and you eventually mine the gas or ore, and get the hell out of dodge, get back to the station and sell your 40m worth of space-gas. That moment when you hit the dock and you realize your whole body is tense and now relaxes, and you realize like "HEY, I JUST ACCOMPLISHED SOMETHING." So you do it again, and again, and sooner or later you get killed. You get angry. But you learned something. Next time you have to make sure you align your ship to a jump point before you turn the miners on, etc. Either way, you keep learning and getting better and better and aiming higher. BUT, somewhere in the back of your mind, every time you undock and redock with a full cargo hold, you've accomplished something. There was a palpable sense of "this could go horribly wrong" at any moment. It's what makes the game FUN and keeps it interesting. Now, we will look at E:D. You want to do something. You turn off PVP and go do it, and log off and go to bed. There was never a fear of dying, there's really no sense of accomplishment since you're essentially playing checkers by yourself. There was no risk, no achievement. Most importantly - there was NOTHING TO TELL YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT. "DUDE LAST NIGHT I WENT INTO SINGLE PLAYER E:D AND I RAN LIKE 47 HAULING MISSIONS AND MADE A BUNCH OF MONEY." ....grats? That was exciting, wasn't it! eyeroll The long story short is that every time I have some crazy experience in SC, win or lose, I have something to talk about. I go to work and hang around the water cooler with the other guys who play and we trade war stories of camping CryAstro, or having some crazy multi-jump hunt of a 600i (IM TALKING TO YOU LILIANA, THE WILL OF BENNY COMPELS YOU). Every experience in SC when you hear "CONTACT" is an edge of the seat moment. "Is this another miner?" "Is this dude gonna shoot me or jump through" "Is this dude seriously gonna start some shit in a Reliant?" PVP flags rob you of tension, joy, sadness, anger, happiness, relief, but mostly ENJOYMENT. All of the emotions a game will run you through vanish into sheer boredom without risk. I want Star Citizen to be an edge-of-the-seat game, not a do my shit log off and go to bed game. Anyways, I know there's vastly differing viewpoints on this, and that's mine.