While I wouldn't quite call it a Journey Game (a la Elite Dangerous), it is very much not about The Destination.

People play it because they like to play it. The idea isn't to build an endgame character who can do anything and everything. The idea is to build a lot of different characters that do a lot of different things and so forth.

And, grain of salt, but based on my own personal experience and non-rigorous polling of the discord and reddit, the vast majority of regulars are just playing it seasonally. A new update/season drops and a lot of folk hop on to play it.

But it speaks to the fundamental nature of live games/MMOs/whatevers. Some (probably most...) people want to work towards goals and check boxes off. Every single thing they do is a pop-up saying how amazing they are. Call of Duty is the most well known example but it is also very much why games like (ugh) Kingdom Come Deliverance do so well. Number go up and everything you do Matters because the game told you it does.

But there are the weirdos (yo) who... kind of just like playing games? We don't need a pop-up saying we are a good boy because we either make our own goals or... we just like the way it feels to play a game. The Elite Game genre (not to be confused with the Elite series... which are Elite Games) tends to be emblematic of this but it is also what made Arena Shooters so popular in the day.

I don’t get how/why it’s still profitable for them to keep working on it - but I’m in full support.

It’s not to dissimilar to Minecraft in a number of ways, in a sense - there’s not really any drive to do anything in particular, it’s ultimately up to the player to do what they feel like.

It’s a literal sandbox, rather than a narrative experience. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, that’s perfectly fine!

I played about 75 hours of it back in 2019. Most of the time I was driven by the same thing that drives me to spend dozens of hours in open world RPGs wandering and finding stuff before doing the main quest. It also helped that it had good VR support, and I had just played a ton of Skyrim VR that same year.

But of course in NMS, there is no main quest to return to when things on the open road get slow. And you do not have the same had designed locations and loot to stumble across.

In retrospect I can see parallels with f2p games that are just an infinite numbers-go-up grind. The game is designed such that you do the same shit forever. (If my info is out of date though, I welcome corrections)

From the trailer I get the sense that it’s not so much just for NMS players but pushing the engine forward with meaningful changes. Sounds like this update especially benefited from improving the engine that has the work of benefiting this game and the game they are releasing next.

I fell off E:D a couple years back because of a lack of progress and how FDev treats the suckers who bought the lifetime expansion pass (also I am not entirely sure if my VKB+Thrustmaster mess will work in Linux and am procrastinating...). But apparently space legs are still restricted to basically the tie-in FPS from EVE?

But nah. Hello Games did a HORRIBLE job of marketing this but the game that should REALLY be angry is Starfield. Because the Corvette system is just their ship builder but in a game where you can actually fly them.

I gave up on Elite shortly after launch. However, I do keep tabs on it on occasion. The end game of Elite is basically choosing factions to support and helping them take over star systems. Honestly, it seems at least intriguing. I can't say the same for NMS.

My wife bought me the game and for years I didn't pick it up. Couple years ago I decided to finally give it a try.

I'm on my third playthrough and am making a sea base for fishing and deep sea exploration. All commanded from the bridge of my dreadnought. I haven't played in a couple months but am glad I get new things to do again. The amount of updates and changes absolutely amaze me.

I love NMS for what it is. A sandbox. Some people don’t like playing in one. That’s fine.

People on here crying, meanwhile I'm flying around the galaxy in my Eagle 5 Winnebago

I'll be honest with you for me personally I just don't have the patience for the game. I just want to build my ship with whatever parts are in the game and explore. that's it. I don't want to mine resources, I don't want to wait in some random station for some random ship to show up that MIGHT have the part I want. I don't want to do any of that.

I barely made it out of the tutorial and forced my way through it.

Nothing wrong with NMS but I didn't want to play it the way it made me play it. I just want to build in peace and explore.

Mile wide, inch deep. I've no doubt (as excited for this update as I am) that this will be the same.

Basically they just add a framework for new features and then leaves it there without building it out.

But you just don't understand. Sean Murray personally lied to me nine years ago!!! Boycotted forevar!!!

(Edit: I thought the sarcasm in this was clear enough but maybe it's tough to get through to some people.)

There are two types of gamers:

Some see an open world sandbox and say "Wow, I can do anything!" and pick their own goals.

The other type says "WHAT it's pointless!" and wants some kind of arrow pointing at the next objective.