Hello my friends,

I hope this finds you all well. Following the recent letter from the chairman (and mostly the poll at the end), it once again came to my attention that many of you guys, and I include myself, are really looking for a different experience here than our good old Wing Commander. Don't get me wrong, I loved those games, it's what got me hooked and I am pretty excited about the new squadron 42.

Yet I find myself voting for explorer options all the time and getting most excited about this type of stuff. I am 100% certain that Chris' team will blow all of our minds with the Squadron 42 experience. I mean: he once mentioned Apocalypse Now ... and now mix that with Top Gun and Star Wars and you got my adult and child demands in one happy bundle all at the same time. He won't **** this up - I am pretty sure about that.

But now for the explorer/scientist/salvaging/mining careers that we all get so excited about ... and planetary exploration? It begins to sound a hell of a lot like Star Trek which gets thrown into the mix. Will this work?
I know they once said mining will be more than clicking on an asteroid and exploration will be exciting as well ... but ... I can't really picture how they will pull of that Star Trek explorer experience and even make salvaging and mining exciting. Will it be mini games? Will these get tedious, repetitive and stupid? You know - like the Minecraft grinding. Or will it ... engage (sadly, this pun IS intended) like Wing Commander does?

What do you think? I can't help myself but doubt it ... but yet I get so excited by it that I support this direction nonetheless.