Choose My Adventure: The Elite Dangerous vs Pax Dei rematch

Nine times out of ten, I generally follow the Will of the Polls here in MOP’s Choose My Adventure column without too much question or thought because that’s… well, kind of the point of this being a community-led adventure column. I’m not here to really argue the selections, even if there are a few times when I sort of wonder why in the world y’all picked what you picked (sometimes you’re trolling me, right?). But as of the last week’s polling, I kind of think some questions need to be asked, particularly since I sort of set things up to tumble this way and also suspect that something else is maybe going on here.

The two choices that won out were Elite Dangerous and Pax Dei respectively. For a good while, I was certain that Pax Dei was going to win out, but eventually there came a bit of a swell of movement in favor of Elite. But since I have a feeling that something went a bit screwy with the polling this time around, I’m going to now take a moment to sort of ponder the two winning choices and maybe suss out what game you all really want me to play.

Also, let’s be honest, the early access release of a certain expansion was always going to be a distraction.

I’m going to lead off by being completely candid with you all: I don’t particularly like the prospect of playing either of these games. Elite kind of broke my heart with how it’s been perceptually handled, which has effectively destroyed my support system I had in the game, and Pax Dei is the kind of sandbox that I’m really sure I’ll despise – to say nothing of the fact that I just hate sandboxes. Or more specifically, I haven’t found the sandbox that I like enough to live in.

But I’m not here to focus on the negative or beg for the option to change wholesale. I’ve made my bed, and I intend to sleep in it. And despite my misgivings for both titles, there are a few points of personal curiosity that I am strongly considering that could work as motivation enough to push through the projects that lie before me.

I’ll begin with Elite purely because it’s the game I’m the most familiar with, and therefore it is the one that I admit would probably have the least level of fear getting in to for this column. While it is sad that the people I play with have completely moved on, it also doesn’t mean that the lessons I’ve been taught are completely gone. And yes, considering Star Citizen has not been as stable as I had hoped it would be, and since I’m desperately thirsty for a sci-fi sandbox, I think this obviously would fit the bill.

Also, I am curious about whether presumptions painted by bad news and sour apples really are as true as they appear. I don’t know if things are that bad in the game right now, but it is a question that has merit to answer, particularly since I’ve been away from the game for so many months now. I would like to think that things have improved between then and now. Even if Frontier Developments seems like a clown circus.

Last but certainly not least… I kind of miss space trucking with my big chonky Type-7. And I would also be lying if I didn’t admit to some curiosity about the Type-8, whenever that may release.

So now we go to the other option: Pax Dei. And I’m going to be real, there are a lot of design choices that have me extremely concerned about doing this one – one of the biggies being that this game is one that actively discourages you from doing much of anything by yourself, and the last time I encountered something like that for CMA, I just noped the hell out. But as with Elite, these are all assumptions made of worries and possible outside caterwauling, not necessarily hands-on fact.

Sure, I was in-game for a quick hour or so for a livestream, but that’s nowhere near enough time for me to formulate even a first impression, let alone a full judgment of whether a game would work for the column or not. And on the very surface level, a sandbox title is the most appropriate for how a community-led write-up is meant to go.

Yet even as I have my doubts and fears, I also have my curiosities too. I really am wondering how far I can make it on my own – and whether I can find some others to join hands with to help progress. I am really intrigued to know if there is enough for a “social sandbox MMO” to actually work out. And honestly, Pax Dei does have the potential to be unlike any game I’ve experienced before, either personally or for this column.

So here we are together at a crossroads crafted from a combination of my own poor selection options and what I suspect is a Star Citizen hate brigade marching forth. And I would very much like for the real ones to raise your hands and let your true voices be heard. Not to suggest that those who actually wanted Elite to be the focus don’t exist, but at the same time I just want to be sure they were voting for Elite and not just against Star Citizen. Curse me for my overabundance of caution. Or curse me for liking Dawntrail. Both of them work, honestly.

So let’s get to it. Let’s figure out for real-real what game we’re going to zero in on for the month of July. Help me out, y’all.

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Polls will close at their usual day and time of Friday, July 5th, at 1:00 p.m. EDT. And this time around, I promise I won’t be distracted. Or I won’t be quite so distracted. No seriously. Why are you looking at me like that?

Welcome to Choose My Adventure, the column in which you join Chris each week as he journeys through mystical lands on fantastic adventures – and you get to decide his fate. Which is good because he can often be a pretty indecisive person unless he’s ordering a burger.