Beta testing a game, particularly one with a persistent, online universe, is a tense experience. Those countless hours you put into the game, all the things you’ve achieved, they get wiped clean. In Elite: Dangerous that would mean a whole galaxy of ships and pilots would suddenly cease to exist.
That’s not going to happen, though. Community manager Edward Lewis made an announcement on the forums, yesterday, confirming that there would not be a wipe at launch.
The initial reaction was overwhelmingly positive, but you can’t please everyone, and soon those with doubts started to make their worries known. They are pretty reasonable. Beta players will start the game with an even greater advantage than they would have had with just their experiences under their belt. An even greater concern is the fear that some players will have been able to get to where they are thanks to bug exploits.
In regards to the exploits, Lewis had this to say: “We’re looking at ways to find people who have used exploits. Don’t worry about that! But also, don’t worry about it if you have used an exploit – the guys on the dev team know the difference between testing something out and abusing the systems!”
Elite: Dangerous isn’t a traditional MMO, though, and it’s not about leaderboards or gear. In a living universe, there isn’t equality, and it would be really, really bizarre to play on launch day and see everyone starting from scratch.
The launch is a mere week away, with the game leaving spacedock on December 16th.