I guess I've had a much different experience. One in which I found myself confounded with the size and freedom to do whatever I wanted in space. No question marks over NPCs heads telling me to go kill five space-oxen for a new shiny ring. Just a throttle and control stick to direct my massive hunk of metal in whatever direction I felt like slingshotting myself, and seeing all the galaxy had to offer. And it was good. I started blowing people up for money, but quickly found myself on the receiving end to the tune of a rebuy that I couldn't justify paying. So I started over. With a new sidewinder at my fingertips I started killing pirates for their bounty. I worked my way up to a viper and just spent thirty minutes listening to the engine throttle up and decelerate. I scooped up some stolen gold from a bounty soon after and found myself scanned as I entered an outpost. They slapped me with a fine of 72000 cr for the 8 tons of stolen gold I helped myself to. As quickly as it had come I had to pawn my viper to pay the fines. Back in my trusty eagle I set out to find a pristine metallic ring of which I would make an honest buck. Quickly I outgrew it and funded a fully outfitted Cobra Mk III in a matter of a couple days. What else was there to do at that point? Well I wanted to explore, so I saved and saved and saved until I could buy my Asp. 500k mining trips at a time was slow going. I had heard such good things about trading that I decided quickly that it was more efficient to buy low and sell high. I found some good routes and it was working, but damn that vulture was pricey at 22M credits. It would take too long I thought, but kept at the mindless trading. And then they decided to drop the price on the Vulture to 5M! I already had more than that saved up! I was in a new vulture the second I got home from work, and off to the races killing anything and everything that opposed the Federation. But quickly I tired of the bloodshed. I've always been one for justice but never the one that wanted to hold the axe of judgment. I tired of battle and moved on to the real dream, exploration; to venture into the unknown. At first it was exciting; new star systems, each unique with their own nuances. Then they grew tiresome as well. It was 10000LY out before I would discover it. When that day came that I found a planet of my own, in the middle of no where, that supported ammonia-based life I was infatuated. Two more jumps and I had found my future earth-like that one day I will catalog new species on. Another 10000 LY and my frame shift drive had deteriorated down to 68%. It began to malfunction on a regular basis. The fear crept in. This was it, I was going to turn back from my quest to reach the center of our galaxy. Not even the other side of the galaxy, a mere halfway point. I even told my wife, we're going to have to turn around, I dare not risk these millions of credits in cartographic data in this folly; this foolish journey to the center of this tiny slice of the greater universe. But a moment of clarity came, and I overcame the anxiety of death. There would be no going home if it weren't on the right terms. So I pressed on to reach my destination. After days of charting the same old red and brown dwarfs I longed for something different. So I began scouring the map for unique stars. First I found an orange giant; it's mass astounded me. I then discovered white and blue stars followed quickly by white super giants. Neutron stars and black holes were next on the list. I also found T Tauri that were just babies and spun with an unmatched energy that yearned to grow yet larger and form planetary systems of their own. Not long after, my surroundings began to be filled with the light of a million stars as I began to enter into the final stretch of my journey. I hastily made my final plot to Sagittarius A. I was surrounded by so many stars that my navigation system began to experience a work load it couldn't over come. So I took to single jumps of 27LY each, individually plotted in the direction of my target. I would reach my goal before the night ended, and at 12:27 in the morning while the babes and my love slept I gazed upon the magnificence of the largest black hole I've ever seen. It was a strange sensation of completion and sadness all rolled into one. Almost a nostalgic feeling that things were different now, and there was no going back to that day I set out on my adventure. The completion of my journey is still 22000LY from civilized space but even if i were to die on my return, I feel that at least I did what I came to do. No game in my life has had anywhere near the impact that Elite: Dangerous has. And while it is just some photons on a screen it represents so much more than that to me. When I finally return to Tsu I will possibly retire, but having had this experience is unmatched and I don't know if it ever will. It's difficult to put my feelings about it into words so I will just leave my story with you.