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Titan proliferation in EVE Online
EVE Online has an ever-growing arsenal of ships and weapons available to players. The numerous choices this offers pilots is one of the game's strengths, but is also linked to a growing problem in the game: the arms race. Capital ships, the largest and most powerful ships in the game, have become commonplace. Small (even one-man) corporations in EVE are now easily able to obtain them. Taking this a step further, supercapital ships (motherships and titans) were once a rarity in the game, something that required a year of effort to produce at an astronomical cost, for someone who spent a corresponding amount of time acquiring the skills to fly effectively. Now titans, perhaps EVE's nearest equivalent to the Death Star (only with logistics capabilities as well), are ubiquitous in the large 0.0 alliances, and some are even privately owned. So what happens if the game continues at this pace? Havohej (<---) from EVE Mag, also from The Defias Blog, points out just how numerous titans have become in EVE, and notes that even non-territorial alliances like Star Fraction are employing titans. In the case of Star Fraction, to what end is unknown, and it should be interesting to see how they put their Erebus to use. Read Havohej's "One Titan Too Many?" for a breakdown of alliance titan ownership, and let him know if you feel titans are a problem in the game, and to what extent.
The political machinations of EVE Online
Game journalist and EVE Online player Jim Rossignol has been coming to grips with the idea of conflict in EVE, in a series of articles written for Eurogamer. Rossignol began by looking at "the basic principles of killing people" and progressing to the large scale conflicts between alliances. This week, Rossignol goes a step further by looking at the politics at the heart of much of the large-scale conflict in EVE Online, and how despite all the freedom the developers give players, it was inevitable that power blocs of players would be at each other's throats. "Players plus resources, plus more players, equals conflict. That's the basic mathematics that powers EVE Online. And it's been working for over five years now," Rossignol says.
EVE Community Spotlight: Jade Constantine
Jade Constantine is a veteran player of EVE Online, long known for having a forceful personality and a flair for writing. As the CEO of Jericho Fraction and the head of The Star Fraction alliance, Jade has become a pioneer in EVE roleplay, upholding ideologies of freedom that run counter to some of the very systems that define the game. Along the way, Jade has made some enemies, but clearly some allies as well, having garnered the most votes in the Council of Stellar Management (CSM) election. As Chairman of the CSM, Jade Constantine is a magnet for controversy, but as an elected delegate, is also in a unique position to deal directly with CCP Games and potentially change EVE. Massively recently spoke with Jade on the state of roleplaying in EVE Online, the challenges that the CSM faces, and what it's like to be under the magnifying glass.
