There's a Kotaku article doing the rounds right now about Elite - The Problem And Pleasure With Elite Dangerous Is That It's Lonely - and I think they hit the nail on the head. Sometimes, I feel like I am setting out on a grand adventure with just my trusty ship and my wits; sometimes, when I'm sitting at a station to top up my fuel and check for missions, it feels like some kind of motorway service station on the M1 as I drive from some grey part of London to some Grey part of... I don't know, Manchester maybe.
Half the time, I'm in Solo anyway. I am not the most social of pilots and circling the entrance of a Coriolis station waiting for another player to leave so I can have their landing pad fills me with as much joy as filling in my tax-returns. I suggested a couple of weeks back that something was missing, but I think I finally put my finger on it. Sometimes, it's great to just launch off into empty space and see what finds me, but there will be times like now where I need a little more interaction.
And that's actually fine by me. I have so many games which are good at constantly engaging me, whether that's Dreamfall Chapters' storytelling or Ronin's action, but games which provide a kind of meditative experience are thin on the ground. Put it on the TV with the surround sound on and all the lights off, I'm there on so many levels...