[Captain Kwok]

There are suprisingly large number of gamers that are really only interested in the strategic elements of the game and even put up a fuss when SE:V was moving to 3d models/star systems. I can't imagine how many e-mails MM gets complaining that the game is not 'spreadsheety' enough or is too 'spreadsheety'.

It might be of little comfort that SE:V's interface is completely moddable, including the fonts and UI elements... right now I can see how some people might not like the particular graphics style that was used.

And like I mentioned before, some hedging was done of course with the 3d models (planets, facilties, ships, terrain, etc) to keep game requirements and still allow for lots of on-screen elements at once.

Lastly, the static screenshots really make things look worse than they are - when things are moving around and exploding - it's a lot more fun.