In this episode of The Stuff of Legends, Frost tells the story of an Elite Dangerous author who was hunted by his own fans.
The Author Hunted by His Own Fans in Elite Dangerous – Transcript
You don’t happen to have antivenom do you? Yeah, I figured as much. I’ll just read this book and hope it wears off I guess.
Elite Dangerous, created by Frontier Developments, is another one of those space flight simulator games that lures you in with the great expanse and then before you realize it, you’re working a second full-time job as a miner, a pirate, or an assassin. God, how do they get me with space capitalism EVERY TIME??? Luckily, Drew Wagar’s first job is as a sci-fi novelist, so all of the time he spends playing at night can be considered a form of method writing. That’s probably why his book, Reclamation, is considered to be the best Elite Dangerous novel and why he was personally commissioned by Frontier Developments themselves to create a sequel with a rather unorthodox development cycle. Frontier Developments wanted to host a massive in-game event where the community would try to protect or kill Drew Wagar’s character. The outcome of the events would be written into the book.
From the outside, this sounded like a good bit of cheeky fun and cross-promotion. Drew Wagar gets to promote his novels which promotes Elite Dangerous which promotes his novels, back and forth, and players get a chance to see themselves in their favorite book. From the inside, the stakes couldn’t have been higher for the lore enthusiasts, because the character Drew Wagar was playing was at the center of the mother of all grand conspiracies. His character Salome was essentially Princess Leia from Star Wars on steroids. Imagine if George Lucas decided to do a live action roleplay session where he dressed up as Leia (ooh baby?) and if you killed or protected him you’d get to be written into Star Wars itself.
No one was more excited than a group of roleplayers known as the Children of Raxxla. Devoted to Salome and unraveling the web of political conspiracies that threatened her safety, it was them that made up the majority of her defensive entourage. Together, with Drew Wagar as Salome, the commanders repeatedly practiced fighting through a simulation of open space alongside their precious cargo, but she was shot down every time. It wasn’t until weeks later that the crew abandoned the idea of fighting altogether and instead opted to focus on coordinated defensive maneuvers and evasive action. In one such practice run, Salome made it through alive. There was hope.
Hope wasn’t enough for the Premonition Allied Coalition, a group of players who thought themselves to be the best fighters and strategists Elite Dangerous had to offer, and Salome’s only real chance of survival against any open space hostiles. The PAC took charge of the operation and forced changes that rubbed the community the wrong way. The most egregious of decisions was bringing in a group of hoodlums known as the Smiling Dog Crew. These players had a reputation for being the villains of Elite Dangerous. The SDC insisted it was all roleplaying, and while they didn’t cross major lines that warranted a ban from the game, they mostly picked on new or casual players. The PAC brought in the Dog Degenerates because they figured the best way to counter griefers and trolls was by enlisting the most famous griefers and trolls. If the SDC showed any sketchy behavior, an order would be given to shoot all members down like the Dogs they were.
I can not prove intent. I can not say whether the Smiling Dog Crew really intended to help from the start or if they were setting out to do the thing everyone assumed was going to happen. But what I do know is a wealthy player by the name of Commander Runis Oo did not like the fact that the villains of the game had swapped sides, so he put a billion dollar bounty on Salome’s head. He wrote in an email, “ I usually like to do some sparring with the bad guys in Elite, because they put up more of a fight and provide more entertainment than the good ones. When I heard that SDC was siding with PAC for Salomé’s protection I thought, ‘Hell, if even they and their friends moved to the righteous side, who is there left to fight? Traders and miners?’ I thought that if they chose to play it that way, I could make things a bit more interesting by throwing a billion into the ring.”
April 29, 2017, the day of the event. Drew Wagar logged into the game as Salome. His ship was surrounded by a small group of armed fighters. Another mass of fighters surrounded those fighters, but these were unarmed and could only intercept other ships. The SDC had convinced the PAC that the biggest threat to Salome was friendly fire from inexperienced players and that it would be easier to identify hostile players if everyone left their weapons at home. The PAC issued a declaration to the community that no one else was allowed to defend Salome. All non-PAC ships would be shot or intercepted on sight. Players weren’t too happy that the PAC had hijacked an event intended for everyone and had to get approval from them to participate. Many that intended to protect Salome were embittered to the point of trying to attack her. Others hoped the SDC would betray the PAC for their perceived arrogance.
Everyone set off. The scouts flew ahead and looked for safe spots to land. Once there, the coordinates were relayed back to the Salome group who then bought time for her to charge the hyperdrive to make the jump into hyperspace, but a jump can only take you so far. Salome was most vulnerable to being intercepted during the repair and charging of the hyperdrive, and the headstart they had was all but gone. Rogue ships flew in to pull Salome out of supercruise to shoot her down, but all non-registered flyers were intercepted by PAC members. If anyone made a mad break to the center of the formation where Salome was, they were intercepted and shot down by the few ships approved to carry weapons. This worked better than expected for the first hour, but the damage to Salome’s ship was beginning to add up and the outer layer of defenders was spreading thin because they weren’t allowed to use proper weapons to fight off invaders.
Communications had become a mess and Salome was spending more time repairing and charging in between jumps. The space net wouldn’t hold for much longer and her chances of survival were non-existent. The Salome crew made the next jump and that was the last time the main defensive group heard from her. In a bold move, the closest fighters to Salome decided to split away from the hive. They figured everyone would be too distracted looking for her in the middle of the fray, and that would be enough time to get their payload to its destination. Her ship had little means to fight back, and she was running out of resources to run. Luck didn’t seem to be on her side either, as a non-playable character was targeting Salome for interdiction. Salome’s ship was too weak to fight the tug-of-war, but her fighters kept her safe. They just needed to survive six more jumps.
As part of the event, anyone on Salome’s friend’s list knew her location, with a bit of a delay. One such “friend” on that list was a member of Smiling Dog Crew. He had been following the party from the moment they split off from the thousands of players who vowed to defend her. Catching her during a jump was impossible, but her ship was so damaged that she was spending more and more time charging in between jumps. It was during this window of opportunity that he swooped in to intercept Salome. Her ship was once again too weak to sever the connection and relied on her fellow fighters to save her, but they were nowhere to be found this time. The game had crashed for one of her bodyguards. The others were having network issues. After an hour and forty-five minutes of flying through open space, Salome was shot down by one of the most well known trolls in Elite Dangerous, “Harry Potter.”
“Well what did you expect?,” said the community. The players mourned Salome and cheered for the egg on PAC’s face. The group dissolved, whether out of shame or to avoid being hunted down is anyone’s guess. The SDC stayed together and continued to harass players under the guise of roleplaying. And Drew Wagar, true to his word, wrote “Harry Potter” into his book after coming to an agreement that he be referred to as “Besieger” instead. It’s some kind of irony to be an author shot down by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named-Due-To-Copyright-Infringement.
