Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I had no especial beef with Chris Roberts, I loved the Wing Commander series, loved Privateer, sort of liked Freelancer and liked what I saw of Starlancer. I even think Wing Commander the Movie wasn't as bad as its rep.
However I didn't like how overhyped Star Citizen was, though again I was impressed by his markerting talent and the mind boggling sums of money raised for a project that is still some way off in development.

Now I am very impressed with Chris Roberts indeed. It was well known and entirely expected that he had respect for David Braben (and Ian Bell) for what they made of Elite. However Frontier is a business rival, and one that is outperforming Star Citizen having made very similar promises and having delivered on them. Still Chris Roberts made an open acknowledgement of Frontiers new game, and even stated that over his Christmas break he will be logging on.

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14384-Congratulations-Elite-Dangerous

This has been seen to be true. On the Elite:dangerous forums mods are quickly becoming sick of the number of 'I've seen Chris Roberts' or 'I've shot Chris Roberts' threads appearing. And Roberts has been actively hunted and trolled by Elite fanbois as much as some SC fanbois have been predicted Elite's eminent demise once Star Citizen comes out. Roberts has reacted to that also in good grace, and is seen to play on open servers where others can meert him or take a shot at him.
As with many platform vs platform rivalries and game vs game rivalries the fanbois can get quite nasty about it, however it is nice to see the main developers themselves having due respect for each others work, business rivals though they are.

I can see this as being genuine. Chris Roberts is not just a businessmen, he is also a gamer. His delight at seeing new high end PC titles, even in competition with his own I beleive to be genuine, and he was documented why well enough. there is room for several successful franchises per genre, and the games milieu is richer for the competition and diversity. After all half of the Elite backer community have double backed star Citizen, and many Star Citizen backers are buying Elite so they can play now without any visible worries from Roberts Industries.

I like this open and welcoming attitude, so completely different from the way many in the computer and miniatures gaming industry have done business, and that comment sadly doesn't end at Games Workshop.
So I thought a new thread acknowledging this was in order.

I agree, very gentlemanly. I also remember both Roberts and Braben backed each other's projects and even gave a sort of "combo-interview" together.

The good thing is, I don't think Elite and SC actually are in direct competition. True, both are space sims, but I also see some notable differences in how they approach certain aspects (visual designs, flight models, world size/focus) that will ultimately see different kinds of gamers gravitate to either of them based on their personal preferences rather than perceiving them as equally competitive choices (once SC actually releases, by which time I'd expect Elite to have expanded its own feature list to a similar length). The key is variety, and variety is good.

I find it awkward to see some of the newer Elite players sink so low that they feel they have to insult SC, and the same goes for SC backers belittling ED out of arrogance - and I feel both communities harbour segments that have spurred each other on in a shadowy internet pi**ing contest for months. From what I've seen it started within the SC community, but this I attribute mostly to its much more considerable size and Elite's lack of "presence" over the first couple months, leading to a very small but dedicated core of mostly older gamers that were fans of the original from 1984(!). I also confess to silent glee after watching this initial trolling backfire as Elite slowly gained traction and publicity. By now I just wish to see it end and for people to enjoy their respective games, tho.

It actually reminds me of the silly and oft-parodied animosity between some hardcore Star Trek and Star Wars fans, who would go to war for their chosen franchise over the other - when in the background, the creators happily helped each other out.

At least from my own limited experience, I can say that this kind of respect is common in the games industry, and I suspect a lot of fans would be shocked by employees of their favourite studios playing a "rival" game - when in the end, this is what gaming should be about: having fun. Plus, how do you think good ideas from different games get preserved and propagated elsewhere, as part of an overall evolution that (hopefully) results in better games?

On a finishing note, I do agree with the assessment of SC being overhyped and am still convinced it won't end up fulfilling every expectation that some people have of it (in-engine =/= in-game), but I do expect it to be a good game, chiefly because of the prior experience of its maker and the obscene budget they've already secured (hell, they could trash and start over several times if they had to).
I also want to say that I liked the Wing Commander movie. Especially the music!

PS: I think at least the majority of people who claim to have "killed" Chris Roberts in Elite just met his name in the NPC database. All human players have the CMDR prefix, and so far I haven't seen a single screenshot documenting that. He can hit me up anytime he needs a wingman tho. ^^

The existence of more space sim games (or similar genre games in general) help each other more than hinder. Chances are someone who likes the sort of game will buy both, like how many platformers existed on 8 and 16 bit platformers; the existence of Mario and Sonic led more people to try other platformers than try rather than suck players away from them.