Just caught this tweet from Sean Murray....

https://twitter.com/nomanssky/status/763270259080097792

"Two players finding each other on a stream in the first day - that has blown my mind"

WHAAAAAT?? So it is multiplayer? This can actually happen?? Anyone have any further info as his tweets around it are still so vague....

@kilroyandy: No. 2 players were on the same planet, but could not see each other. It is not multiplayer.

@alistercat: the twitterverse implies they should have been able to see each other but the servers aren't firing on all cylinders for it to happen. Questionable though as you have no real avatar options etc. Wish they could be more clear, unless they are intentionally vague to make this stuff more impactful.

Something like journey would be great, even if there was no interaction as such..

@kilroyandy: Nope, it's not multiplayer

No Man’s Sky fans have long wondered whether it’s possible to see other players if they’re on the same planet. The answer, it appears, is no.

Player TheSadCactus noticed this afternoon that he had landed on a planet discovered by a different player, named Psytokat. SadCactus sent his new buddy a message, and before long the two players were both on Twitch, streaming their progress as they tried to meet up in the same place at the same time to see what might happen.

What happened was... nothing. As of post time they’re still experimenting, but it appears that different players are all located in different instances within the game (which is why you can pause). They haven’t been able to see each other on either planets or a neighboring space station.

Observers had long believed that running into another player in No Man’s Sky, as unlikely as it may be, would allow you to see them. In a 2014 interview, designer Sean Murray made it seem as if players would run into one another while traveling. He has since discouraged people fromfocusing on multiplayer.

Jason Schreier of Kotaku - from the article linked.

@jesus_phish: hey thank you! Clears it up nicely. Shame but still cool people did manage to find each other's discoveries!! Need to work on my names ha !

I saw this today... :)

It's basically multiplayer in the same way that Spore is multiplayer - you never directly engage with other people, but it's possible to see their created content.

Some of Sean Murray's recent tweets still seem to indicate that it is possible to see other players. Just so happens the first, really rare, instance of it happening happened during a server meltdown

@funkydupe: Oh dear, he's getting the Todd Howard treatment.

I think during all the pre-release media it's certainly possible they intended on this being a feature but in the end it wasn't a realistic goal during development. Hopefully they make a proper statement at some point, but I feel sorry for Sean he's obviously not a trained PR guy. He's certainly got a lot of lessons to learn for the future in terms of managing messaging to your audience and making sure what your advertising is what you intend on selling.

Okay, so this is where I start to feel out of the loop. I've been digging this game very much but I can't seem to wrap my head around why people (not on this website) are so hung up on this. What does seeing another player add? It's not like you can do anything together.

He just needs to confirm whether what he's said in video interviews is still the case. You don't need a degree in PR to speak clearly for all to understand and answer a yes or no question truthfully.

I think it's pretty pretty obvious from those interviews he's allowing people to believe that multiple players could team up, but finding each other would be extremely tough because of the size of the universe. If that's not the case, I don't think it hurts the current game for him to just say it doesn't have multi-player, just shared naming of planets etc.

Now that the game is out for all to see and experience I don't understand why they were so cagey and mysterious throughout development. They tried to foster a Souls' level of intrigue by being so vague and implicating all this hidden great meaning to things you would find in the game and what you would be able to do and now it's biting them in the ass.

They would've been much better served getting out in front of this long ago and not letting people build up wild expectations because they wouldn't elaborate on basic mechanics of how their game worked. It may have served them well in the short term sales wise but I imagine they've burned a lot of good will with their fans. I'll be interested to see if they can earn their trust back going forward.

I still find it very sad that people continue to think instances like this are examples of malicious lies and deception on the part of the developers. Things happen in game development, and it's unrealistic (though unfortunate) that plans for features that existed 2 years before a game is released sometimes have to change.

The idea that every discussed feature of every game that had to be cut at some point in development was nothing more than a lie told by the developers to generate hype is absurd. The internet rage train that inevitably develops when the final release of a game differs in some ways from things that were said in pre-release interviews is almost always foolish.

It's one thing to be disappointed that some previously discussed feature didn't make the final release, but these accusations of malicious deception are over the line. If people are going to be so hungry for as much information about a game as possible years before the final release, being prepared for things to change has to be expected.

It's unreasonable to expect every aspect of a project that takes several years to come to fruition to remain unchanged throughout the entire development cycle.

I swore he said it was like Journey, you could see others but that was it. So that was a lie?

@ll_exile_ll: Reddit is full of "No Mans Lie" posts.

Well, look at the YouTube video I posted earlier where he says to Steven Colbert that you can't see your own character, but you can see other players IF you meet them; and Colbert goes like wow in amazement...

Singleplayer focused or not, just knowing that everyone is connected and that you could possibly meet another exploring player is nice. If it weren't true vaguely stepping around it pre-release isn't a nice guy move.

Every time he talks about multiplayer he talks in terms of "Easter eggs" and "seeing consequences of other player's actions." Clearly, something is meant to happen when you are near other players, but he doesn't want to spoil what it is because two people meeting in the massive universe is meant to be a momentous achievement.

Hence his tweets this morning. All he confirmed was that the servers were on fire so this "easter egg" didn't occur. I wouldn't write it off yet, and people calling him a liar need to get a grip because all the sources of him talking about multiplayer are over 2 years old at this point and surprisingly, games change a lot in 2 years.

@bollard: Then change or update your message? And be very clear about it.

I didn't buy this game for multi-play I don't care, enjoy the game or try to?

@bollard: Again it comes back to messaging though, the game is out in the wild now he can't just wave his hand and give vague descriptions to try and appease people anymore. If something is supposed to happen but didn't apologize for the glitch explain what is meant to happen and move on, I think people are more upset at him being dodgy and less that multiplayer doesn't exist. The doors will be blown off as soon as the PC version is released and people dig through the code so why continue to potentially mislead people. Just be upfront and honest, reasonable people will understand.

Has anyone else seen a white dot just floating around, both in the upper center map HUD thing and in the environment? I haven't watched any videos of the two guys trying to see each other, so I don't know if everyone already knows this, but was that another person? It moved around a bit and I couldn't interact with it at all.

Full agreement. I don't care if there's multiplayer or not, but when someone asks you a question about your game, saying ANYTHING misleading--or downright untrue--is a stupid idea.

Given the odds involved in randomly finding other players, and assuming no friend group support, why would they invest the development time and server costs to support multiplayer? The main problem is people have just come to expect multiplayer these days and don't realize the amount of work involved (see: any indie local multiplayer game).

i don't know why people are so hungry for multiplayer in goddamn everything. let's ruin another perfectly decent game with trolling and griefing and people screaming at you that you aren't doing it right. but i guess i'm a curmudgeonly old person that hates human interaction. goddamn kids these days etc.

i would probably agree that sean can provide a simple yes or no in this matter. maybe his desire for mystery and surprise with this game is at odds with it. but he could just out and say, "yes it has multiplayer but it is instanced and you are limited in your interactions." outright calling him a malicious liar isn't helping things i think.

This remains the dumbest shit.

I think a lot of people built up this narrative in their head that this was the pretty, infinite Star Citizen that was accessible to them, and now that folks are realizing that the game isn't what (what I have to assume is largely their imaginations, I felt like this game always seemed pretty thin from everything they showed) they thought it would be, they feel deceived and duped by the developers or something.

Like a lot of things, No Man's Sky seems like a victim of zeitgeist more than anything. People get the wrong idea about your product and it rarely goes well after that.

Sounds like if the servers weren't on fire something would happen if you were near another player. He clearly wants it to be a cool surprise for people but at this point they should probably just spell it out because it's making people so angry.

I really don't think that's the case. I think it's just wishful thinking on the part of some people due largely to Hello Games refusing to just come out and definitively say this isn't a multiplayer game.

People have been peeking at the network traffic, and none of the packets seem to send anything about player position/movement. The game also doesn't sync things like time, ship/creature positions, and planet state - it even pauses all of that when you pause the game. People really just need to admit this isn't an MMO and move onto enjoying what is in the game.

Are Dark Souls blood stains multiplayer?

@paulmako: the multiest of multiplayer.

@mmmslash: It doesn't help when the lead designer/developer of the game is out there saying "you will see other players". People didn't make that up, he said it several times.

It doesn't help when supporters of No Man's Sky completely disregard video evidence of the developer saying you could meet other players and that you can 'play with friends'. So yeah. I don't know what more to say about this. The game is probably fun (I haven't tried it yet), but this was needless "drama".

@funkydupe: I completely agree that it's needless drama.

Quite possible that meeting other players is a feature they couldn't get ready for release and scrapped it for now. Maybe in a later patch

I have a feeling that, as you cannot see your own avatar, that seeing other players is not as people imagined. It seems that not seeing your avatar may be a narrative thing, which would make sense in not actually 100% seeing another player. It does sound like there is intention of having people end up in the same space, however.

I can't wait for the drama when/if Star Citizen actually comes out.

All these videos and posts about lies and frustrating opaqueness... I'm having Ed Boon flashbacks.

TBF Star Citizen has a lot more legit shady shit going on with its development and the devs themselves have way more delusions of grandeur than the playerbase.

Yes, it is going to be interesting to see what becomes of the Star Citizen PU. It might be stuck in a constant "In development" state, while the singleplayer game they're developing in parallel turns out to be decent. It just seems more planned out and manageable with an episodic approach like Telltale.

I'll admit this game has always been a little too mysterious for it's own good, but my eyes roll back into my skull when I see videos like 'Sean Murry is LYING about No Man's Sky'

Some people act like games in development are like... already finished, locked in a vault at company HQ or something. They act like Sean is peaking inside the vault and describing what he sees. And when it doesn't match up today he was LYING. They act like when a game is delayed the Devs are saying "HA! I'm going to keep this cool thing up for a few more months!"

The No Man's Sky that people are playing today did not exist when Sean gave that interview. It was being made, it was being created from nothing. So no, I don't think Sean was lying when he was asked to peer into the future and describe exactly how the game would work in a specific situation, years from now.

By created content you mean named things, because anything they do on planets like mine or damage things, you cannot see.

How can you say this isn't lying? He was asked, if we are on the same spot will we see each other? YES was his answer. And now you cannot. It was not years ago, the Colbert interview he gave and said YES was in October last year, you cannot realistically say they had planned but not started on online netcode whatsoever before that. All in all, it just seems he lied because "its very rare to run into each other" and assumed it wouldn't happen, at least for a while.

And even if you are unsure, you don't say definitively yes.

The developer(s) could have easily tweeted that interactive multiplayer was cut, or to be patched in later at any point from that date to the release date. Keeping people in the loop about the game, and keeping any multiplayer expectations in check within seconds.

Although the streamers testing this have checked network/nat and ensured they were both connected to the game's online servers; I think they've attempted to meet twice, still there's the slight possibility that something was bugged or that something else was to blame causing them not to see each other - - unless the developer kindly confirms interactive multiplayer was indeed cut for release or never seriously planned to begin with, I'm guessing players will still try to find each other?

This. People who are defending it by saying "things change during game development" are ignoring the fact that the developer's message can change too. Project Titan eventually became Overwatch but it's not like Blizzard just released Overwatch saying it was an MMO without letting people know the whole focus of the game had radically changed.

It's not a secret that people were expecting and wanting multiplayer functions of some sort, so if the plans changed and they were dropped then an announcement should have been made. You don't just leave the record uncorrected and say "games change during development" after the fact.

Regardless of whether No Man's Sky is good or bad (the reaction seems mixed and I haven't played it yet) I think it is clear that the messaging was all around building hype and making it a big seller and not about being truthful and clear towards the audience (regardless of the overhyped crowd a lot of people have been surprised about what kind of game it is and the survival aspects and focus). I think the game will sell very well but I hope there will be backlash against the messaging. When you have this many people confused about what the game is that's a messaging failure, not just a failure of the consumer listening. It's your responsibility as the advertiser to craft a message your audience can understand, and they clearly didn't do that here.

If there ever is multiplayer, I'm not sure how it will work. I think taking down some big capital ships together could be fun, but otherwise going on an expedition of planet together not so much. Unless they also add some kind of local planet mapping system too, then that would be more interesting.

Exploring a gigantic universe wouldn't be more fun with friends? Fighting the tougher monsters and ships together, experience new planets together, share resources among the group, be able to show off your cool gun or new ship to someone? I don't know. If I spent years designing the game I would have come up with something for people to do, I think. Humans are social by nature so I just assumed the game would last longer if you could randomly meet someone even if the chance of it happening was tiny. That said, the feeling of isolation and feeling 'like you're the only one' is already ruined by all of the NPC ships and aliens anyway in my opinion.

Its interesting that you can arrive to new planets, see a fleet of alien ships orbiting a planet, but it still says it is undiscovered. When you arrive, there can be outposts etc, actually quite often there are remnants of someone. You're not the first one there a lot of the time (from watching streamers play).

There is probably very little multiplayer for one simple reason. The game is designed so that players running into each other is supposed to be very rare (according to the developers.) Why would they spend a ton of time and development resources on a complex multiplayer suite in a game where many players would never even get to use it, or would barely ever be able to use it? That's a huge waste of resources. Multiplayer is hard to develop and I can't think of any games that have robust multiplayer that isn't easily accessible. The closest I can think of is Dark Souls, but the majority of players who want to access multiplayer in that series CAN do so, and there are a large number of people who play the multiplayer extensively.