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CrazyKinux ends his EVE Blog Pack
If you're an EVE player, you've probably heard of David "CrazyKinux" Perry at some point. Affectionately known as CK for short, CrazyKinux has been instrumental in the development and growth of EVE Online's dedicated blogging and podcasting community. He helped either create or promote the largest parts of that community's online presence, from the Tweet Fleet to the EVE Blog Pack to EVE Blog Banter to several podcast hosting duties and more. But sadly, CK has recently announced his retirement from his blog and presence in the EVE community. According to his final blog post, CK has been hired as the director of development for indie game studio Behaviour Interactive. He says he now will have the time to "play the darn game and read your blogs!" If you're interested in following post-blog CK, his new Twitter is @SocialDave. Best of luck, CK!
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.
Winners of fan-run EVE Online blogging contest announced
If ever there was a person that could be called the cornerstone of EVE Online's blogging community, it would be CrazyKinux. His gargantuan efforts to get the EVE community blogging have been met with continual success. In his monthly "EVE Blog Banter" segment, CrazyKinux presents readers with a topic to blog on and starts off in-depth discussions. On occasion, the EVE Blog Banter becomes a competition with a few prizes provided by CCP. CrazyKinux and other judges peruse submissions to bring us the best of the month's blogging efforts and reward their writers deservedly. Our own contributing editor James Egan and EON Magazine Editor Richie "Zapattero" Shoemaker have been judges in previous contests. The latest edition of the EVE Blog Banter was a bumper contest with prizes for the top ten writers supplied by the EVE merchandise store. A record 56 participants wrote their take on why they love EVE Online and what makes it special for them. Amongst some of the more impressive entries, CrazyKinux whittled his choices down to his top 10 favourite entries. The first prize of $100 to spend in the EVE merchandise store went to "Wench with a Wrench", second place went to "Don't Fear the Mutant", third to "Into the unknown with gun and camera" and fourth to "Sered's Lives". If you're interested in seeing what makes EVE special to a variety of players, the six remaining finalists and the other entries in the contest are certainly worth a read. For a full list of winners and participants, swing by the winner's announcement at CrazyKinux's Musing.
Fan-run contest lets EVE Online players win game merchandise
Our friend and EVE Online fanatic CrazyKinux periodically runs an EVE Blog Banter, where the growing number of bloggers focused on the sci-fi MMO tackle discussion topics. The end result is usually some well thought-out commentary or lively debate about an aspect of the game experience. His latest Blog Banter has a different twist; it's actually a contest where the top ten winners can score merchandise from the official EVE Store. (The prizes: $100 worth for first place, $50 for second place, $25 for third and fourth, fifth through tenth place winners will each get 14 days of EVE time.) Entering is pretty simple. CrazyKinux asks: "What is it that makes this particular virtual world so enticing, so mysterious and so alluring that we keep coming back for more. Why is EVE one of the very few MMOs to see continuous growth in its subscribers? To put it simply: Why do you love EVE Online so much?" Answer this question on your own blog while linking back to CK's contest post in your intro, then let him know about it in his contest post's comments. Be sure to check out the contest rules first, but you've got until January 31st to enter. Winners will be announced on February 5th; the contest will be judged on the merits of quality, structure, approach, and originality. So there you go -- if you're an EVE Online player and a decent writer as well, this could be easy money for you. Good luck to any Massively readers who decide to go for it.
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.
