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EVE Spotlight: Mercenary Coalition's Seleene
EVE Spotlight is a new bi-weekly feature in which we interview prominent members of EVE Online's player community or development team. Every two weeks, we'll be shining the spotlight on a player or developer who has a significant impact on EVE to highlight the efforts of EVE's most influential people. It's said that PvP is the force that drives EVE Online, forging demand in the markets through destruction of assets and adding much of the unique political conflict that lies at the heart of EVE's gameplay. If war is EVE's driving force, then mercenaries are its swiftest vehicles. Contract killers by profession, mercenary corporations will take up arms against anyone for the right price. No mercenary group in EVE has ever been as feared and admired as Mercenary Coalition. Famed for being perhaps the single most destructive influence in EVE, MC has turned the tides of wars and shattered entire regions and alliances through brute force. At the alliance's highest point, the mere mention of its name was often enough to postpone war. The group officially disbanded in 2008 following a drawn-out war with Band of Brothers alliance in Delve. Late last year, Mercenary Coalition made a comeback with the announcement by founder Seleene that the group was looking for new members and contracts. Although the future now seems less than certain for the infamous alliance, MC's founder Seleene has certainly had a long and colourful history in the game -- first as a player and then later as a developer for CCP Games. Under the name CCP Abathur, Seleene worked on EVE for over three years before eventually leaving the company on good terms. Having been both an EVE developer and an avid EVE player, he now has a rare perspective on the game and its development. In this EVE Spotlight, I talk to Seleene about his career as the head of EVE's biggest mercenary outfit and his career as an EVE game designer.
EVE Evolved: The top ten EVE videos of all time
Whether you like EVE Online or hate it, I think everyone can agree that it's a visually stunning game. Combined with the enthralling PvP experiences to be had in the game, it's not surprising that the game lends itself well to making some excellent videos. Films of EVE gameplay have been around since EVE began and large fleets now routinely bring a camera specialist pilot in a cloaked covert ops frigate to film their action. With the release of the premium client and the proliferation of good video editing software, the quality of EVE videos has improved significantly over the past few years.In this article, I run down my list of the top ten EVE videos of all time.
PotBS devlog discusses the art of town creation
There's a lot more to building a town in a game than just plotting out the buildings and filling in key NPCs. You can leave it at that (and it's unfortunate when that's the case), but to stop it from feeling like a ghost town, certain steps can be taken to build up the ambiance of a locale. The latest devlog available at the Pirates of the Burning Sea website is penned by the game's technical artist Xenobia, and focuses on the process of breathing life into the many port towns in the Caribbean.Some of the curious little events you might notice in PotBS's towns could probably be attributed to Xenobia. A woman kicking and screaming while being taken away over the shoulder of a pirate, drunks in various stages of consciousness -- things like this are of no consequence and will keep going in the background regardless of whatever else is happening, yet they greatly enhance the feeling that you're in an actual town. Visit the devlog to see what goes on behind the scenes -- including how it all looks in the Maya software -- when bringing a game-town to life.
Pirates of the Caribbean's Blackjack contest
As this post over at FileFront points out, you have until January 6th to try for an 8GB iPod Touch, one of which will be offered every day until the contest runs out. How can this be? Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean Online is offering an iPod Touch each day to the person who has won the most Blackjack games. To play, visit either King's Arm in Tortuga, or the Rowdy Rooster in Port Royal.Blackjack for an iPod? Isn't that gambling? Regardless, the 'Aces Need Faces' contest ends soon, so if you're feeling lucky, get on over there and start playing.
Tales from the Pirates of the Burning Sea endgame press tour
We at Massively have been watching the Pirates of the Burning Sea beta for quite a while, but this week, Sony emailed us with an offer to go where we'd never gone before: the endgame. So yesterday morning, I strapped on my cutlass, adjusted my tricorner, and logged in and joined the "FLS Leisure Tours" group to check out a press tour of the Pirates open beta.While lots of people have gone through the early game a few times already (and you can right now in the open beta), I was very interested to see what FLS had in store for us at later levels. Read on to see where the folks from Flying Labs teleported us to, and just a taste of what players can expect to see in the PotBS endgame.%Gallery-11461%
