crazykinuxs-musing
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EVE Online contest asks how CCP could make the game more appealing to female gamers
In co-operation with CCP Games, our friends at CrazyKinux's Musing are running an interesting contest. In the latest edition of CrazyKinux's monthly EVE Blog Banter, he's asking players to write blog posts on ideas to make EVE Online more appealing to female gamers. The best ideas will win EVE store credit, with a total of $200 up for grabs. First place will receive $75 worth of store credit to spend on EVE merchandise and second place wins $50 of credit. The next three runner-up entries will win $25 of credit each, giving everyone a total of five chances to win. Entrants have until Monday April 26th to make their thoughts on the issue known. EVE Online is something of an oddity in the MMO scene, with an almost entirely male playerbase. While some MMOs have a roughly 40% female playerbase and others are closer to 16%, less than 5% of EVE Online players are female. With Incarna set to introduce more avenues for social gaming, now might be a good time to start finding out what barriers prevent girls from signing up to EVE. Whatever the reason for EVE's 95% male-dominated playerbase, CCP seem interested in balancing that figure by drawing in more female gamers. If you have an idea that you think would help, enter it in the EVE Blog Banter for a chance to win some EVE swag.
Contest lets EVE Online players get their name in print in E-ON magazine
While Massively's own EVE Online contest is off to a great start this week, we also want to point out something of interest happening on our friend CrazyKinux's site. Have you ever wanted to see your name in print in E-ON, the official EVE Online magazine? Well now is your chance. CrazyKinux is running a contest where EVE players can make their predictions about how the game will change in 2010 or what will happen in New Eden in the next year. If your prediction lands in the top 10 entries, your submission will make it into print in E-ON magazine in January -- plus you'll also receive a free contributor copy of that issue. The contest is called "The Oracle of EVE" and will run through November 30th. It'll be judged by CrazyKinux and E-ON editor Richie Shoemaker (aka Zapatero). Check out the announcement post over at CrazyKinux's Musing which explains in greater detail how you can take part. Obviously they're looking for submissions that are well-written and entertaining, but also concise. Entering is quite simple -- just write your 2010 prediction on your own blog and link to it in the comments below "The Oracle of EVE" announcement post. Good luck to any Massively readers that decide to take a shot at this.
EVE giveaway: Fanfest loot from CrazyKinux's Musing
We all love freebies, and CrazyKinux has a whole pile of them for you. Well, for someone, anyway. He's feeling festive after Canadian Thanksgiving, and has opened up a giveaway of some great EVE Online items from last year's Fanfest.In exchange for promoting his blog and Twitter page this month, CrazyKinux will put your name in a drawing for some great prizes, to be given away after Halloween. He's got some pretty impressive items, including t-shirts, EVE Collectible Card Game packs, and even a couple of one year extended hosting plans. Just give him a mention on your blog, site, or Twitter page, link to it in a comment on his giveaway post, and he'll add your name to the drawing. After Halloween, he'll draw two names, and the winners will share in the pack of goodies.Good luck to all of the EVE fans who enter, and thanks to CrazyKinux for his generosity!
CrazyKinux looking for new pilots to join the pack
No, our old friend CrazyKinux isn't looking for new people to join his corporation. Currently, he's in the middle of overhauling the EVE Blog Pack rolls and is looking for some fresh new EVE Online bloggers to join in. While the blog pack has become a serious force in terms of independent EVE Online community voices, some have fallen silent while others have entered the space. To keep the quality up, he's decided to overhaul the pack to make sure there's lots of top-notch content.If you think you've got what it takes to hang with the Blog Pack, then head on over to CrazyKinux's Musing and drop in a comment with your URL and a note on why you think your site should be allowed to join. CK will look through all entries received by September 1st and make a decision. Also - if you're a pilot who just likes lots of new blogs to read, you should pop by and check out all the great sites already linked in the comments. We think CK's got his work cut out for him with all the great EVE content we've seen out there!
Fan-run EVE contest will let winner interview CCP dev on podcast
EVE Online is a space-based MMO through and through. In the six years since the game went live, EVE's galactic setting of New Eden has expanded to encompass thousands of solar systems, both charted space and far-flung unexplored systems, as the game's subscriber numbers have slowly but steadily grown. The IP is expanding in new directions as well. Novels now add more depth to the game's lore. CCP Games plans to let players step out of their ships and interact as avatars with Walking in Stations, and the devs have stated that they'd like to bring atmospheric flight to the game at some (undetermined) point in the future. And of course they also have a ground pounder FPS set in the EVE universe in the works. It was some of these things on the horizon that got our friend CrazyKinux thinking about the possibilities that may open up for this sci-fi MMO if planetary colonization or terrestrial gameplay are introduced. In fact, he decided to make this the basis of his next EVE Online contest. It's one we think might interest some of Massively's readers, particularly as the contest winner will get to grill interview an EVE developer on the MicroWarpCast podcast.
EVE Community Spotlight: CrazyKinux page two
The EVE blogging community you've brought together is made up of players of all types: industrialists, pirates, militia fighters, even drug dealers. Somehow they all seem to get along. Looking at the EVE forums, people tend to clash all the time. Why isn't this the case with the EVE Blog Pack? I remember watching a TED video of Seth Godin on Tribes, and something he said struck me: people want one thing, they want to be missed. On the EVE forums, one way to do that, one way to get a response is to provoke. On forums that works, and is why we've got trolls. On the EVE Blog Pack that's different. We know a bit more about each other, we're trying to have discussions on what drives our gaming passion: EVE. Getting along is a necessary requirement, otherwise people won't come back to your blog, read and comment. Which is actually one of the requirements of the Pack, to participate in the discussions. Unless you want to be ignored, you'll respect everyone's opinion.
EVE Community Spotlight: CrazyKinux
CrazyKinux is one of the standout players in EVE Online who has contributed to the game in significant ways. He's known as Treenara Mazouk in New Eden, but most players simply call him 'CrazyKinux'. His site, CrazyKinux's Musing, is a popular destination for players curious about EVE Online or looking for info about how to get started, as well as a hub of activity for the EVE player community.Beyond the four years and counting he's been a vocal member of the player community, CrazyKinux has provided commentary on EVE through The Drone Bay podcast and later on MicroWarpCast. The writers at Massively had the good fortune to work with CrazyKinux in the past, with his Have Clone, Will Travel column, but he's since gone on to have a bigger impact on the game. CrazyKinux turned his attention to the EVE community itself, where much of the out-of-game interaction between players had been on forums or on player blogs that often existed in their own microcosm. He linked them together into a cohesive community and the momentum has resulted in hundreds of EVE players writing about their experiences in New Eden, and the most active bloggers participate in regular, intelligent discussions about the game in "EVE Blog Banters". CrazyKinux is one busy man, but Massively recently caught up with him to discuss the community of EVE players he's helped bring together and what it is about the game and its playerbase that motivated him to make this happen.
