In contrast, the only really meaningful, memorable and properly interesting moments I've ever felt in ED have been when interacting with other players
I don't really like the "Play it your way" type of game. I prefer to have a set of obstacles in a world with rules, and skill or system to master to overcome the obstacles, while playing by those rules. If the obstacle is "Players are grouping up and hunting other players" then that's just another obstacle that I have to overcome. I do understand that sometimes people just don't have the time to group with other people, but this is where game developers should make systems to bounce off the emergent gameplay created by player behaviour, capitalising on the opportunity rather than having the "victims" remove themselves from the simulation as they perceive it to be their only option. I see things a little differently, in the past in MMOs I've seen it as a challenge, a very satisfying one, to react and overcome players grouping up against single players in this way. This might just be the way I enjoy things, but I do think it's a more productive way of playing the game as opposed to just moving to solo and essentially then making it someone else's problem! I realise that "Play it your way" seems to be the thing nowadays, but the best games (in my experience and opinion) tend to be the ones that don't cater for everyone to play however they like. It seems obvious to me that if you can do whatever the hell you like in a game without it giving you an advantage or putting you at a disadvantage, it stops becoming a game really!
It all comes down to the fact that Frontier never really decided whether to make it single player or more MMO style. I'm heavily of the opinion that they should have ditched pseudo-single player and instead, force people to make completely separate characters, some in a fully offline instance, and some in a fully online, MMO style, persistent world.
