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EVE Evolved: Growing the EVE Universe
For much of EVE Online's early history, the playerbase saw consistent organic growth with no end in sight and developer CCP Games was able to stay laser-focused on its single game. The EVE universe has even had to grow several times to accomodate the increase in players, most notably with the opening of the drone nullsec regions and Apocrypha's addition of 2,499 hidden wormhole systems. EVE has survived the launch of countless high-profile MMOs in its lifetime and even weathered the monumental industry shift toward free-to-play business models, but it hasn't been plain sailing. While subscriptions have reportedly grown year-on-year, EVE's average concurrent player numbers haven't really increased since 2009. The active EVE playerbase isn't really growing, so it should come as no surprise that CCP has been trying to expand the EVE universe on other fronts. Though the first attempt with console FPS DUST 514 was an unmitigated disaster, EVE players still seem quietly optimistic about its PC reboot as EVE: Legion. Dogfighter EVE: Valkyrie has also piqued the interest of the emerging virtual reality community and has the potential to introduce EVE to thousands of fresh faces. EVE's Creative Director Torfi Frans Olafsson even hinted during Fanfest 2014 that EVE Online, Valkyrie and Legion might all share a single login and that characters may eventually be able to switch between games at will. In this edition of EVE Evolved, I look at why I think a shared login could be a stroke a genius, and interview EVE's Creative Director and Valkyrie's Executive Producer to find out what the future holds for the EVE universe.
EVE Evolved: Eleven years of EVE Online
It seems that every year another few MMOs have closed their doors or convert to free-to-play business models to stay afloat. EVE Online has always enjoyed a level of insulation from these market trends elsewhere in the genre, and just last week on May 6th it celebrated its 11th year of year-on-year subscription growth. Following on from my previous column celebrating the EVE Evolved column's sixth year of operation, this week I'll be summarising all the major EVE news stories throughout the year. It's been a big year for EVE fans, one that many of us can be proud to have been a part of. The EVE community turned its financial wizardry toward the real world and raised over $190,000 US in relief aid following a typhoon hitting the Philippines, and CCP even built a monument dedicated to the community. Several massive player battles once again put EVE on the global media's radars, and the Odyssey and Rubicon expansions revitalised the game for explorers and PvPers alike. But not everyone can hold his heads up high this year, with details of more cyberbullying within EVE coming to light and several players being banned for defacing the EVE monument in Reykjavik. In this anniversary retrospective, I summarise all the major EVE news from the year in one place and take a look at what the future may hold for the EVE universe.
Massively's hands-on with EVE Valkyrie on the Oculus Rift DK2
At last year's EVE Fanfest, the press and attendees got a rare glimpse into something other than CCP's major IPs -- a virtual reality tech demo produced by a handful of developers during their down time. Originally codenamed EVR, this VR dogfighter on the original Oculus Rift development kit drew a surprising amount of attention and went on to win several awards at E3. It's now been a year since that project first sprouted legs, and last week at EVE Fanfest 2014 it sprouted wings as well. Now named EVE Valkyrie, what started as a side-project has become one of CCP's key intellectual properties and the poster-child for virtual reality gaming. The game's success now ultimately relies on the adoption of VR tech and the appeal of its gameplay, both of which are still open questions at this point. I got some hands-on time with the latest build of Valkyrie during Fanfest to see how the game and the technology that powers it have come along in the past year, and I was pleasantly surprised. Read on to find out how Valkyrie has changed in the past year and for a first look at the new Oculus Rift Development Kit 2.
EVE Evolved: Six years of EVE Evolved
Six years ago to this exact day, I joined the Massively crew and published the first edition of this column dedicated to the ins and outs of EVE Online. The column has been home to over 300 featured articles since its creation, offering everything from guides and expansion reveals to opinion pieces, fiction, and tales of real in-game events. It's been my pleasure in the past six years to offer the Massively readers a digestible glimpse into the ordinarily somewhat impenetrable world of EVE Online and to introduce new players to the only game (other than Master of Orion II) that's managed to keep me hooked for over a decade. It's been a fantastic year to be a fan of EVE Online, with CCP announcing its long-term vision for deep space colonisation and the game being revitalised through the Odyssey and Rubicon expansions. I've had the opportunity to explore both expansions in this column and to share some hands-on experience with DUST 514 and CCP's upcoming dogfighter EVE Valkyrie. There's been no shortage of opinion pieces this year either, with articles on everything from PvP consequences and twitch controls to whether Star Citizen and Elite are a threat to the sandbox giant. In this edition of EVE Evolved, I round up the best articles from the column's sixth year of operation in one place.
EVE Evolved: What to expect from EVE Fanfest 2014
Almost 10 years ago, EVE Online developer CCP Games started a new tradition with the first ever annual EVE Fanfest. The event started out as a largely informal gathering in a tiny venue that allowed players and developers to mingle on a more personal level, but it's now grown into something massive. Over a thousand players now make the annual pilgrimage to EVE Online's birthplace in Reykjavik, Iceland, to hear what the future holds for their favourite MMO. For many, the event is also a social gathering, a chance to swap stories with other players, and a rare opportunity to meet the corpmates they fly with every day in the virtual galaxy of New Eden. The Fanfest weekend is typically a packed schedule of panels, talks, roundtable discussions with developers, and keynote speeches revealing the future of the game. While the event is understandably focused on EVE Online, it's recently expanded to cover aspects of DUST 514, the latest goings-on with World of Darkness, and even CCP's new virtual reality dogfighter EVE Valkyrie. CCP has announced that this year's event will see a monument to the EVE playerbase unveiled in Reykjavik Harbor as well as the first reveal of EVE's summer expansion, but what else can we hope to glean from this year's event at the start of May? In this edition of EVE Evolved, I delve into the EVE Fanfest announcement and speculate on what we might expect to hear from this year's event. Will this be the year that World of Darkness gets some serious news? And what's new for DUST 514?
CCP Games reveals big plans for EVE Fanfest 2014
The universe of EVE Online may be best known as a crazy virtual galaxy full of back-stabbing pirates and political betrayal, but for a few days each year it becomes something altogether more tangible. At the annual EVE Fanfest, hundreds of the game's most devoted fans make the long pilgrimage to the game's birthplace in Reykjavik, Iceland. In addition to the official talks and reveals on the game's future from developer CCP Games, Fanfest plays host to charity raffles, roundtable discussions with developers, and informal get-togethers for players to share their stories. Last year's 10th anniversary Fanfest was the biggest one yet, with information included on World of Darkness and DUST 514 and the official reveal of Oculus Rift-based dogfighter EVE Valkyrie. This year's attendees can look forward to the first ever live demo of EVE's yet-to-be-revealed summer expansion, hands-on experience with the next major evolution of DUST 514, and playtests of a brand-new build of the virtual reality dogfighter EVE Valkyrie. This year's Fanfest will also see a special monument dedicated to EVE Online players revealed to the world; The "Worlds Within a World" monument will be installed in Reykjavik Harbor and will be etched with the names of all active EVE subscribers on March 1st. It's also hoped that crowdfunded EVE Online documentary A Tale of Internet Spaceships will be premiered during the Fanfest weekend, and we'll reportedly hear the latest on CCP's new EVE comic book and live action TV series. The event takes place from May 1st to May 3rd, and I'll be attending this year's event on behalf of Massively to bring you in-depth first-hand coverage of all the big reveals. Stay tuned!
Commercial Reality: Why the man behind EVE Online is betting on VR while others aren't
Hilmar Pétursson is convinced virtual reality gaming will be mainstream in 2014. It's a bold claim to put to people who, by next year, will have been exhausted by next-gen console purchases. But Pétursson has already tasked 20 engineers at his company, CCP, with creating what looks set to be the first major game designed solely for the Oculus Rift VR headset. EVE Valkyrie is a high-profile commitment: a Wing Commander-esque dogfighting title, which will tie into the same universe as CCP's main PC and console properties, EVE Online and Dust 514. The question is whether significant numbers of gamers will choose to spend an estimated $300 on a pair of Oculus goggles. For a number of reasons -- some immediate, some futuristic and others downright outlandish -- Pétursson believes they'll come up with the money. They won't be able to stop themselves.
CCP's Sean Decker and Hilmar Petursson on the future of EVE, DUST 514, EVE-VR, and mobile gaming
Earlier today, CCP Games announced that industry veteran Sean Decker is coming on board as Senior Vice President of Product Development. Sean's laundry-list of industry experience includes a recent 12-year stint at EA, where he headed up the Play4Free division. This has naturally led to some trepidation within the EVE Online community, which has been extremely wary of free-to-play and microtransaction-based business practices since the Monoclegate scandal in 2011. I caught up with Sean Decker and CCP CEO Hilmar Petursson last night to get the low-down on Sean's role, how he will influence EVE and CCP's other products, and what the future has in store for DUST 514 and EVE-VR. Sean is to be the head of product development across all of CCP's games, not just the free-to-play titles, but I wouldn't worry about EVE going free to play any time soon. "I don't think [free-to-play] is the be all and end all business model," Sean told me, adding that he understands that the subscription model better fits some games. Read on for more information on the future of EVE Online, DUST 514, EVE-VR, and CCP's first foray into mobile gaming.
E3 2013: DUST 514 and EVE's virtual reality demo
To an outsider, CCP Games' focus on EVE Online's player panel, comics, incoming television series about player adventures, and museum induction show just how much the company works to earn its players' respect, which might sound weird for studio running a cutthroat PvP sandbox. But I've always felt as if I made stronger personal attachments through high-stakes PvP than through most other gaming activities. I don't play EVE or its console cousin DUST 514, but after stopping by the CCP booth for my interview and hands-on at E3 yesterday, I feel as if I should be doing more than reading and writing about it.
In the EVE VR cockpit: CCP's space dogfighting demo for Oculus Rift
As I strapped into my faux-fighter, thanks to CCP's EVE VR Oculus Rift demo, nothing could've prepared me for the large-scale space battle to come. Controlling my ship was surprisingly easy with the Xbox 360 controller. The shoulder buttons handle yaw, but the left analog stick was effective at dictating ship orientation on its own. Looking toward enemy ships and focusing on them for a few moments would lock missiles. In movies, lining up a ship and opening fire looks fairly easy; in EVE VR, this is a difficult feat for a newbie such as myself. I've always entertained the idea that, should my Joystiq career come to a premature end, I could always fall back on being a space fighter pilot – you know, that old chestnut. After my performance in EVE VR, however, I'll have to rethink that strategy. At least I wasn't wearing a red shirt.
Hands-on with EVR, a spaceship dogfighting game demo built for Oculus Rift
We've seen plenty of demos showcasing the Oculus Rift, but actual gameplay experience with the VR headset has been tough to come by. We first heard about a spaceship dogfighting game called EVR being built for the Oculus Rift by game studio CCP a couple months ago. And, today at E3 we finally got to put a dev unit to its intended use playing the game. As we noted before, it's a Wing Commander-style game featuring 3v3 gameplay in open space and amongst asteroid field. Upon donning the Oculus Rift and a pair of Razer Kraken headphones, we found ourselves sitting in the cockpit of our very own starfighter. Looking around, we could see the sides of the launch tube, our digital hands manning the flight controls, and looking down revealed our legs and even the popped collar of our flight jacket. In previous Rift demos, we couldn't see our digital avatar, but being able to do so in EVR really added to the immersiveness of the experience.%Gallery-191144%
EVE Evolved: Hands-on with EVE's virtual reality demo
As EVE Online's tenth anniversary Fanfest slowly got underway, the press were led into a small upstairs room with chairs lined up and ominous-looking black headsets. The headsets turned out to be expensive prototype devkits of the Oculus Rift, a recently kickstarted PC peripheral that aims to make immersive virtual reality affordable for gamers. VR headsets are traditionally heavy monstrosities costing thousands of pounds and usually have input processing lag that make them unsuitable for high-action gaming, but the Oculus Rift is a light and highly responsive device currently clocking in at a more reasonable $300. We were sat down to take part in a demo of EVR, a new virtual reality multiplayer dogfighter that uses art assets from EVE Online. It was an incredibly immersive experience for those of us unfamiliar with the Oculus Rift, and even members of the press who had used the device seemed impressed with the game. Fanfest attendees were equally excited when a trailer for EVR was shown at the EVE Keynote on Friday, and many attendees got to try the game first hand last night. But what impressed me the most was the story behind the demo's creation and the possibilities that Oculus Rift could potentially open up if support for it were brought to EVE Online. In this week's EVE Evolved, I give my hands-on impressions of EVR, delve into the story behind its creation, and speculate on how Oculus Rift support could revolutionise EVE.
Your car's data protected by 4th Amendment, 18th Amendment still valid while driving
Image via Ludovic Ferre of Privacy Canada Did you really try to stop for that big, red sign or did you miss it and plow right into a bus full of kids clutching their DSs? This is the sort of question that can be answered by some automotive event data recorders, EDRs or black boxes that manufacturers might read later to get more information about crash severity and causes. In one California case, State v. Xinos, that data was used to reconstruct a crash and achieve a vehicular manslaughter conviction, showing that George Constantine Xinos fled the scene of a crime. However, an appellate court later determined that data to be inadmissible: While a person's driving on public roads is observable, that highly precise, digital data is not being exposed to public view or being conveyed to anyone else... We conclude that a motorist's subjective and reasonable expectation of privacy with regard to her or his own vehicle encompasses the digital data held in the vehicle's SDM. So, the vehicular manslaughter conviction was overturned -- but he's still on the hook for failing to stop at the scene of an accident, DUI, and causing an injury while drunk.
