An Elite Dangerous player discovered a way to write new stories into the margins of the 12-year-old space sandbox, and now thousands are testing it

An Elite Dangerous player discovered a way to write new stories into the margins of the 12-year-old space sandbox, and now thousands are testing it | PC Gamer Skip to main content Open menu Close main menu PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES US Edition UK US Canada Australia Subscribe Sign in View Profile Sign out Search Search PC Gamer Games Hardware News Reviews Guides Video Forum More PC Gaming Show PC Gamer Clips Software Codes Coupons Movies & TV Magazine Newsletter Affiliate links Meet the team Community guidelines About PC Gamer PC Gamer Magazine SubscriptionWhy subscribe?Subscribe to the world’s #1 PC gaming magTry a single issue or save on a subscriptionIssues delivered straight to your door or device From$1Subscribe now Don’t miss these RPG ‘We lost things such as physics in games:’ The dev behind my most anticipated RPG thinks players are craving more interactive games, not just ‘moving around in a static 3D environment’ Gaming Industry Doom co-creator John Romero adores Ghost Recon and has over 3,000 hours in World of Warcraft: ‘God, I lived in that game every day for five years’ Third Person Shooter Arc Raiders design director says players ‘never worked together’ in testing, but the emergence of care bear lobbies ‘encourages us to lean toward giving opportunities to have friendly interactions’ Third Person Shooter Embark admits Arc Raiders’ bosses are dying too fast because ‘they’re not intended for the full server to go up against’ and ‘we gave players too effective abilities’ RPG The dev behind my top upcoming RPG is a Hungarian chef who thought ‘if not now, then when?’ and learned coding from scratch to make his dream ‘eurojank’ masterpiece Third Person Shooter I wish I wasn’t missing out on new quests in Arc Raiders just because I’m not willing to grind the old ones every two months AI This space MMO was coded by AI, is played by AI, and all us meatbags can do is watch them Third Person Shooter ‘Arc Raiders is almost like a social experiment’: Embark Studios’ CEO reveals a neurology professor encouraged him to submit the game for scientific testing to study player behaviour MOBA I’m sad Deadlock is ‘just’ a MOBA—not because I don’t like them, but because I’m in love with Valve’s lore and characters enough to want any other game instead Survival & Crafting Hytale’s unfinished sandbox has finally given me hope for a voxel RPG, after Cube World broke my heart twice RPG Warhammer 40k: Dark Heresy might just have everything I want from a CRPG Strategy ‘We’re going to make some horrendous mistakes,’ Peter Molyneux says about his upcoming swan song Masters of Albion: ‘Horrendous, horrendous mistakes’ Third Person Shooter Arrowhead wants Helldivers 2’s assault on Cyberstan to really sell the promise of the Galactic War: ‘We don’t know how it will play out. We don’t know if they will win’ Action Inside PC gaming’s wildly creative Tomb Raider mapping scene: ‘Being able to create my own adventures for other people to play is such an addicting concept’ MMO Blitzball is alive and well in Final Fantasy 14, and I spoke to the community of passionate fans who built an entire 140-page D&D-like system to play it: ‘Once you start playing, you just can’t stop’ PopularNEW: PC Gamer Clips!Arc RaidersBest PC gearFalloutGame Quizzes Games MMO Elite: Dangerous An Elite Dangerous player discovered a way to write new stories into the margins of the 12-year-old space sandbox, and now thousands are testing it Features By Charlie Hall published 20 February 2026 How the nearly 9,000 players on the Distant Worlds 3 expedition are contributing to the birth of something new. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. A bartender on board the DSEV Odysseus, personal flagship of Commander Karnath. All of the official Distant Worlds fleet carriers leading the expedition are also locations used for quests inside MetaElite. (Image credit: Frontier Developments) Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter PC Gamer Get the PC Gamer Newsletter Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Want to add more newsletters? Every Friday GamesRadar+ Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you’re going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them. Signup + Every Thursday GTA 6 O’clock Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O’clock experts. Signup + Every Friday Knowledge From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what’s on the horizon. Signup + Every Thursday The Setup Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more. Signup + Every Wednesday Switch 2 Spotlight Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo’s new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play. Signup + Every Saturday The Watchlist Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we’ve got you covered. Signup + Once a month SFX Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month! Signup + An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter Elite Dangerous, the massively multiplayer spacefaring game, is known for its many ambitious storylines. The team at Frontier Developments has thrown quite a lot at players in the 12 years since its release: cryptic puzzles about a precursor race, entirely new and disruptive modes of transportation, and even a galaxy-spanning war against a swarm of alien motherships.But players may soon gain access to something truly extraordinary: a fan-made tool for creating in-game narratives of their very own. It’s called MetaElite, and PC Gamer recently spoke with its creator.A child of RaxxlaBy day, Commander Othon von Salza makes his living as an artist and a computer scientist. Professionally, he’s both a programmer and a researcher with a background in academic and industrial work. But by night he’s a member of the Children of Raxxla, one of Elite’s oldest and most influential roleplaying group