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EVE player runs fiction writing contest with billions in prizes
EVE Online is a game known for its tight-knit community and emergent professions. We've seen players take on the roles of thieves, graphics artists, spies, video editors, drug runners and much more in an effort to make themselves a little ISK. Perhaps most interesting is that good writers can use their talents to make ISK through publications like EON magazine and EVE Tribune. While EON is a glossy printed magazine and EVE Tribune enjoys a purely online format, both pay volunteer writers with ISK for their articles and stories. EON in particular has always had a regular fiction segment that showcases some of EVE's best fiction writers. In the first of what he hopes to be an annual event, an EVE player by the name of Silver Night has decided to give back to the community with an EVE fiction-writing contest. The first place prize of a rare faction battleship plus 300 million ISK's worth of fittings will go to the best piece of fiction submitted. Two second place prizes of unfitted navy issue battleships are available for the second and third best pieces. With an additional four navy issue cruiser prizes for the next best four pieces, that's seven chances to win something. The competition runs until March 21st and players can submit their entries via the competition thread on the official EVE events forum.
EVE Online PvP Tournament champ on tactics and player-politics
EVE Online is a game where there are essentially two tiers to guilds, corporations and groups of corporations that join together to form larger and more powerful alliances. Given how integral alliance warfare is to gameplay, EVE Online's annual Alliance PvP Tournament is a major event each year, watched by thousands of New Eden's pilots. The sixth annual Alliance PvP Tournament for EVE Online was one of the most exciting to date. Combatants employed clever ship setups and tactics, the commentary was excellent, and there was even a bit of drama thrown into the mix in the form of a player assassination during the tournament. In the end it was the Pandemic Legion alliance that reigned supreme and a permanent monument to their victory has been set up in the Amamake solar system, where the Pandemic Legion corporation Sniggerdly started out as pirates. EVE Tribune writer Miyamoto Isoruku recently had a chance to interview the leader of Pandemic Legion, Shamis Orzoz. They discuss a wide range of topics, ranging from the tactics used in Alliance PvP Tournament VI to Orzoz's views on player-politics and the state of alliance warfare in New Eden. For more on how Pandemic Legion took the crown as EVE's top alliance in the tournament, have a look at "The Champions: An Interview with Shamis Orzoz" at EVE Tribune.
EVE Online's player-run sites need your help
The sci-fi game EVE Online is a title that many players clearly feel passionate about. So much so that 2008 saw a record number of player blogs focused on the game. But beyond the blogging community, there are three standout websites that feature the writing of EVE's players, and pay their writers for those contributions with EVE's virtual currency, Inter Stellar Kredits (ISK): EVE Tribune offers no-holds barred commentary on the game and the player culture surrounding it, with notable coverage of EVE's politics and alliance struggles. EVE Tribune is also the home of Silicon Buddha's Fly Reckless podcast. EVE-Mag is a relative newcomer to covering EVE Online but in that time has distinguished itself as a diverse site that covers the entire scope of the game experience, and doesn't flinch away from controversy. EVE Network News is another notable site covering the game, with well-rounded coverage of the various facets of EVE. ENN is also the home of the Titan Weekly podcast. While each site has their own approach to covering the game and largely appeals to the same slice of MMO gamers, the dynamic between the three has been decidedly friendly. EVE Tribune is really the pioneer in coverage of the game beyond the official EVE Online site, but EVE-Mag and ENN threw their hats into the ring in 2008 and have drawn in a significant number of readers in the short time they've been running. But if these sites are to continue through 2009, they'll need a little help from their readers -- EVE's players.
A look at virtual banking in EVE Online
EVE Online is set apart from most MMOs out there in that players find ways to establish and run large financial ventures within the game. What's interesting is that although such initiatives aren't developer-supported, players still put together banks, IPOs, and other types of investments peripherally to EVE and its game mechanics. The sandbox nature of the game paired with EVE's API allow for ventures of this sort. Dynasty Banking is one choice that players have that's been turning heads of late, but EBANK is the focus of a recent EVE-Tribune piece. EBANK has accrued over one trillion ISK and over 2750 customers, making it -- according to their 2007-2008 annual report -- "the largest financial entity ever seen in EVE." EVE Tribune had a chance to interview EBANK's LaVista Vista (real name: Charlie Eriksen), who is also a newly re-elected delegate of EVE's player representative body, the Council of Stellar Management. The EVE Tribune piece written by FinnAgain kicks off with one hell of a caveat in the form of a direct quote from one of their staff writers, but it's a good way to begin, particularly given the problems that have been seen in the past with banks in EVE Online. The interview focuses on the policies and safeguards in place to keep any individual working at EBANK from absconding with vast amounts of player-invested ISK, but LaVista Vista also discusses how EBANK puts all that isk to use, and their future plans to establish a stock exchange. If you're interested in the economic side of an MMO, the EBANK interview at EVE Tribune is a good look at what players can accomplish on their own within a virtual economy.
Mercs and their role in EVE's industrial warfare
Much of what's written about EVE Online focuses on the darker aspects of the game. It's not surprising, as those topics are often the ones most interesting to players and non-players alike, but EVE has a very deep industrial side to it as well. It's a side that gets much less fanfare; R&D (invention), manufacturing, trading, and investment are all possible within the game and occur in tandem with EVE's more violent pursuits. Most every ship, after all, has been manufactured and sold (or re-sold) by another player. Those who engage in EVE's industry on a serious level often come into conflict with rival corporations and alliances in wars played out on the market, which sometimes spill into formal war declarations and combat. But if you're not interested in or inept at PvP, what are EVE's industrialists to do? While an industrialist may not be well-versed in the art of war, he or she can play to their own strength: financial influence. EVE has a number of merc corps who are willing to solve problems, be it through armed escorts in hostile space or simply obliterating your opposition... assuming you can meet their price. Benilopax, of Warp Drive Active: Industry podcast fame and an E-ON contributor, relates his experience with contracting mercenaries to solve such problems, in what he refers to as 'the dark side of industrialism'. "There is a growing use of mercenaries by industrial entities to either take out the competition or keep them from easily making a profit," Benilopax writes for EVE Tribune. If you're interested in knowing a bit more about this side of the game, start with Benilopax's article (and A-Team reference) to see what it's like to deal with mercenaries in EVE Online.
A 200 billion isk theft in EVE Online
Corp theft is a daily occurrence in EVE Online. Unlike most MMOs, stealing from other players or organizations in EVE is permissible, assuming that normal in-game methods were employed to pull it off. Simply stated, corp theft in EVE involves becoming a member of the corp and then stealing from the target corporation's hangar(s). Once a thief has access to assets, they can literally clean the corporation out to whatever extent they are able to, depending on their level of granted access. Sometimes corp theft is premeditated, other times it's a crime of opportunity. There are players who approach these heists as a profession, others may do so out of revenge. Regardless of the reasons behind theft in EVE, it's a part of the game and does help establish New Eden's setting as being a harsh, corporation-dominated galaxy where deception is a style of play. Most corp thefts that this writer is aware of inflict minor damage, often a few billion isk in losses. Generally this isn't enough to cause serious harm to any solid corporation's future, and the only real impact on the corp is emo rage and a few pages of forum drama, and the offender's name being added to Fitz VonHeise's list "The Thieves of EVE" which should be required reading for corp CEOs and Directors who are involved in recruiting players.
Analogy explains PvP basics in EVE Online
PvP in EVE Online can take a while to become effective at, and there are a number of factors a player must consider -- both in terms of ship fittings and tactics used -- when engaging opponents. Speed, range, damage types, active tanking vs. passive tanking, when to engage and when to evade, are but a few things that need to be taken into account. Given this complexity, there are players in the game who've recognized that there's a real need for PvP instruction in the game and offer services to that end. Agony Unleashed stands as EVE's premier PvP school, regularly offering courses that show players how to use a given type of ship to its deadliest potential. Baka Lakadaka, of Agony Unleashed, has written a piece for EVE Tribune called "A Tale of Three Waterpistols" that could be useful to a newer player trying to get a handle on PvP in EVE. Check out his article for a look at how tracking, speed, and optimal range are interrelated in EVE, through the easily-understood analogy between children (of different sizes) shooting waterpistols at one another, and the relative strengths and limitations of different ship types.
EVE's spies and metagamers
EVE Online is one of the few MMOs where players in guilds (corporations and alliances) have some valid concerns about spies from rival groups infiltrating their ranks. The concept of being a spy or saboteur is a profession of sorts that arose in the game. There aren't any game mechanics that necessarily enable spying or make it into a viable profession, nor are there any rules that prohibit most of these activities. Wes from EVE Tribune recently wrote a piece called "Metagaming", dealing with how espionage can impact rival corporations and alliances in EVE. Wes asks, "Why is everyone so paranoid about spies and metagaming?" then goes on to explain how espionage in EVE works, categorizing spies by their modus operandi:
A closer look at illegal drug manufacturing in EVE
The freedom to pursue a life of crime or establish criminal enterprises in EVE Online is one of the more interesting aspects of the game. One of those paths a player can take is being a drug dealer. Perhaps the closest approximation to this aspect of EVE Online is the classic game DopeWars, although EVE brings this type of gameplay to a far more interactive level, with a real social aspect to the dealing side. However, these drugs -- known as "boosters" for how they augment certain abilities -- aren't simply bought from NPCs and then resold at a markup. Like virtually all of the items in EVE, boosters are manufactured by players with an industrial bent. The boosters are then ultimately distributed by those who enjoy smuggling and dealing. Kirith Kodachi established much of the basic info about boosters in his recent article for EVE Tribune, "EVE's Little Pick-Me-Ups." Now he's written a follow-up article that explains a bit about how these illicit substances are manufactured. In Kodachi's "Boosters Part 2: The Secrets of the Drug Cartels" he walks the reader through the complex stages of booster production, from gas cloud harvesting and reactions to the use of drug labs. Check out Kodachi's article for a look at what's involved with establishing yourself in EVE's illegal drug trade.
Drugs aren't bad in EVE, m'kay?
One of the interesting features of EVE Online is that it has a drug trade in which players are actively engaged. Rather than merely being an illegal commodity, drugs -- called boosters -- enhance the performance of EVE's pilots, albeit with some potential side effects. To understand boosters though, we'll need to look into the game's setting a bit first. The thing to remember is that as a player, you're a capsuleer. You're not standing on the bridge of your ship barking orders at subordinates. Rather, you're floating inside a metallic capsule deep within your ship. Your mind is interfaced with the ship you pilot via neural implants, thus your vessel is an extension of your body and its senses; you regulate the ship's activities merely by thinking about them. Not all people in EVE's setting of New Eden have the raw potential to become a capsuleer, making your character one of the elite. However, when faced with others of your caliber in combat, every possible edge you can gain over rival capsuleers helps. That's where boosters come in... they're your edge. Boosters augment aspects of your mental processes and thus provide certain bonuses when piloting your ship.
