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EVE Online press conference answers vital questions, transcript inside
After what should have been the celebrated release of the long-awaited Incarna expansion last week, the EVE Online community erupted into flames. The controversy began when players realised that the vanity clothing items in the game's new cash shop were ridiculously overpriced. The $68 monocle became a centerpiece that the media latched onto, in the same way that World of Warcraft made the headlines when Blizzard had the audacity to sell a $25 mount. The story should have ended there as a piece about a crazy Icelandic game company selling virtual clothing for more than real clothing. Unfortunately, some conveniently timed leaks from inside CCP caused this simple issue to escalate to the point of panic, causing in-game riots and a significant number of subscription cancellations. The company's silence on the simple question of whether non-vanity microtransactions would be introduced was seen as an admission that gameplay-affecting items would end up in the cash shop. CCP flew the Council of Stellar Management, EVE's democratically-elected player representative body, out to Iceland for an emergency meeting last week. The result of the meeting was a joint statement between CCP and the CSM addressing all of the major concerns players had. Last night, CCP ran two press conferences over Skype to give EVE fansites and the gaming media a chance to ask additional questions that weren't covered in the official statement. Skip past the cut for our in-depth three-page transcript from the gaming media press conference, including answers to several pressing questions sent in by Massively readers and some great issues raised by other participating members of the press. Comments can be posted on page 3.
EVE Evolved: The day that EVE Online died
I think it's safe to say that this week has been an unmitigated disaster for CCP Games. Following last week's $99 license fee fiasco for third-party developers, CCP Zulu managed to claw back some player support with a segment addressing the issue during the alliance tournament. This week CCP followed up with the release of Incarna 1.0 and its long-awaited captain's quarters. Players logged in to walk around their private rooms and check out the various cosmetic items available for purchase in the new microtransaction store. It didn't take long for people to realise that something was fundamentally wrong with the prices on the Noble Exchange. At around $40 for a basic shirt, $25 for boots, and $70 or more for the fabled monocle, items in the Noble Exchange were priced higher than their-real life counterparts. As players made some noise about the ridiculous prices, an internal CCP newsletter all about the company's microtransaction plans was purportedly leaked. In it, plans to sell ships, ammo, and faction standings for cash were revealed, plans that strictly contradict previous promises on gameplay-affecting microtransactions. Shortly afterward, all hell broke loose as a private internal memo from CCP CEO Hilmar was leaked to the press. In the past few days, I've been contacted by dozens (if not hundreds) of concerned EVE players who are afraid that the game they love is coming to an end. I've even been in contact with an insider who is scared of the risks CCP is taking with the jobs of over 600 employees in four countries, scared enough to leak internal documents and emails. In this week's colossal EVE Evolved, I delve into EVE's latest controversy and shed some light on the biggest community flashpoint since the T20 developer corruption scandal.
EVE Evolved: Emergence in the sandbox
We often hear about the amazing things players get up to in EVE Online, from full-scale political wars and massive heists to collaborative business ventures and high-profile kills. While we can all enjoy these tales of high-powered exploits from afar, they can be difficult to relate to the actual game experience. Most of us will never be the puppet master pulling the strings of alliance warfare or the mastermind of some great theft, but we don't have to be. Smaller examples of emergent and opportunistic gameplay exist all over EVE in the daily play of thousands of individuals. I've always thought of EVE less as a game and more as a giant social sandbox with spaceships -- a story about what people do when left alone in each other's company. Players naturally take on roles for which they have a strong aptitude, crafting completely new gameplay styles for themselves in the process. The entrepreneurs among us spy opportunities never imagined by the game's developers, tech-savvy individuals sell web-services, and artists craft propaganda for recruitment or a war on their enemy's morale. Countless players carve their own game out of the EVE universe, and there's no reason you can't be one of them. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at some of the unique gameplay experiences players have engineered for themselves over the years and the community that makes EVE what it is.
EVE Evolved: Playing casually or just killing time
MMOs are a popular hobby for hardcore and casual players alike. While some people love getting firmly embedded in their favourite MMO every night, a growing number of players prefer to log in occasionally and just kill a few hours at a time. EVE Online is no exception, with a mix of both casual and hardcore players. Taking part in things like alliance warfare, starbase industry or corporate management may require that a player log in every night but most other avenues of gameplay don't. A lot of EVE's gameplay can be picked up for a few hours and set back down with no added responsibility. In fact, player demographic data shows that most players prefer to live in the more casual environment of high security space. So what kind of things can you do if you just fancy playing internet spaceships for a few hours? In this opinion piece, I look at five of my favourite ways to kill a few hours in the name of EVE. What's your favourite way to spend a few hours?
EVE Evolved: Organising your own PvP tournament, part 2
Many tournaments have been started up and run for short periods of time, only for players to begin losing interest. This is a chronic problem as with less ISK from entry fees the prize levels will drop and you'll get less interest. Things that can turn people off entering include not being able to use their favourite size class, entry fees being out of their price range or other competitors being notorious for winning.
EVE Evolved: Organising your own PvP tournament
If you've been following the latest official Alliance Tournament in EVE Online, you've probably been glued to the match videos being posted on Youtube. Every year as I watch the matches, I find myself wishing I'd entered even though my rag-tag group of pilots would probably get knocked out in the qualifying rounds. What you might not know is that the official Alliance Tournament wasn't the first PvP tournament on the block and it's certainly not the only one running. Players have been taking advantage of EVE's open-ended sandbox design to set up their own competitions and arenas for years. They routinely organise successful lotteries, industrial ship destruction derbies, space races, full on PvP tournaments and even poker championships by themselves. Some, such as the BIG lottery, have become long-standing and respected institutions. Organisers of these types of event also have the option of taking a percentage cut for themselves, which can build up to a huge amount of ISK for all the organisation effort they put in.Have you ever wanted to set up your own PvP tournament complete with prizes and your own unique set of rules? Whether you want to start a new popular competition tradition in EVE or just want to make some ISK off the entry fees, events organising is certainly one of EVE's most rewarding freeform professions. In this article, I dish out some handy information on how to organise and set up a trustworthy tournament without putting any of your own ISK on the line.
Further developments in EVE's 'Grand Theft Alliance' drama
[Notify] Drama bomb hits you, wrecking for total damage. var digg_url = 'http://massively.joystiq.com/2009/02/05/further-developments-in-eves-grand-theft-alliance-drama/'; We broke the story late last evening that one of EVE Online's most powerful alliances has finally fallen after years of continual struggle with rival player alliances. While some details surrounding the incident remain hazy, we do have some more information than we did when we published the rumor. Band of Brothers (aka "BoB"), the self-styled villain alliance in the game, have repeatedly professed a desire to control all of EVE's galaxy of New Eden. This motivation driving their collective action has made them the focal point of hatred for much of the community, and BoB wouldn't have it any other way. More enemies equates to a real challenge for them to overcome, and in this respect -- whether you love them or despise them -- Band of Brothers has been a major driver in player warfare since the early days of EVE Online. Despite the thousands of pilots in the game fervently committed to wiping Band of Brothers from the influence map, the alliance has held on. Even though they were forced to sacrifice vast territorial control for a smaller region of consolidated strength, even when on the ropes, they remained impossible to destroy. The irony is that for all their raw military power, the alliance was ultimately cut down from within, with only a few simple clicks of a mouse. It was a bureaucratic snafu from the perspective of Band of Brothers -- a member of the alliance named Haargoth Agamar (a director with Black Nova Corp) being entrusted with too much control -- and a windfall for GoonSwarm, the major alliance rival of BoB.
Massively speaks with Crovan about EVE Alliance PvP Tournament VI Part 2
Beyond being competitors in the tournament, what are some of the ways that players watching the event can get involved with Alliance Tournament VI? Down the road in a future tournament, you could try to become a commentator the way that we have. There's other things as well -- the volunteer program that CCP runs, ISD. They've got people on the field watching the matches and doing coverage live to post on the forums for people who missed the matches. If you want to actually be part of helping produce the alliance tournament, that's an option that's available to you. Also EVE Radio and the EVE-related radio stations do quite a bit. EVE Network News were liveblogging the entire tournament. If you can't listen to the live audio stream you can still read up on it and contribute to the conversation as it's happening. There's also IRC on the Coldfront server which is the semi-official EVE IRC server where all the people hang out. I'm in there a lot of the time, some of the other experts are in there sometimes. You can get a lot of conversation both during, between, and after matches about what's going on. There are a lot of different ways you can get involved, even if you're not flying. Obviously there's no live video feed until the last weekend. But there is live audio, and the videos tend to go up on YouTube pretty quick. I was very impressed with the turnaround.
EVE Online Alliance PvP Tournament VI begins today
The sixth Alliance PvP Tournament in EVE Online kicked off today, with some of the game's most formidable player alliances going head to head in team-based combat. The first qualifying round takes place on January 24th and 25th, from 1500 - 2100 GMT. EVE Online dev CCP Mindstar explained earlier this week how players can tune in to the tournament. The two stages of qualifying rounds, this weekend and next, can be listened to in audio in a few different ways. Players can either listen in-game in the "Alliance Tournament" channel using EVE Voice, or tune in to what's happening via the web at EVE Radio, Split Infinity Radio, or New Eden Radio -- all of which are broadcasting tournament coverage. This Alliance Tournament is the first where the qualifying rounds have been made available in audio, with commentators selected from among the game's top PvP'ers, notably Crovan and Verone -- both of whom have a well-deserved reputation for being knowledgeable about the combat side of the game. A match schedule is also available for those who want to tune in to a particular battle. While the qualifying rounds of Alliance Tournament VI are audio-only, the finals of the tournament will be broadcast live in video, on February 7th and 8th. As an added bonus, that live video broadcast will feature some of the first footage shown from the upcoming Apocrypha expansion.Update: While only the final rounds of the tournament will be streamed live, CCP Games is already making the qualifying rounds footage available on their YouTube page. The player-run EVE Network News is also following the matches, announcing the winners as they're declared, accompanied by audio commentary, and embedding video of the combat as it becomes available.
Massively nominated for E-ON Magazine 2009 Editor's Choice Award
Voting in the 2009 E-ON Magazine Awards kicked off earlier this week, announced both in the current issue of E-ON, the official magazine of EVE Online, and on the game's website. The E-ON awards are a big deal in EVE, as they're a way of honoring standout players, in-game corporations, and alliances for their contributions to the game over the course of the previous year. It's also a chance for EVE's playerbase to look at the list of nominees and inevitably exclaim, "Who the hell is that?" when seeing an unfamiliar name among them. (This is perhaps a testament to how much is going on in relation to EVE's setting of New Eden, both in-game and out.)We certainly hope no one does this when they see Massively listed in a new category established this year -- the E-ON Editor's Choice Award. The Editor's Choice Award nominees were handpicked by the E-ON team to highlight contributions to the game that might have been overlooked otherwise, or simply wouldn't fit into the other established voting categories.
EVE Radio ushers in 2009 with holiday contest
One of the more unique aspects of the EVE Online experience since its beta days is the player-run EVE Radio, an internet radio station which broadcasts 24/7. Over the past few years EVE Radio has catered to a dedicated fan base numbering in the thousands, streaming to between 150 and 500 simultaneous users at any given time. Although they've been steadily growing, there are still a number of EVE Online players who aren't aware of EVE Radio. To that end, the people over at EVE Radio are working to increase their visibility in preparation for a busy 2009. They're making a big push to reach out to new listeners through a contest running from December 15-21, announced on the EVE Online forums. What are they giving away? For starters -- 20 x 500 million ISK instant prizes, 10 x 60-day EVE Time Codes, and 1 Complete Faction Battleship Model set (that's a $500 value!).
