ccp-zulu
Latest
EVE Online senior producer stepping down
Big changes are in the works for EVE Online's management team, as senior producer Arnar "CCP Zulu" Gylfason is stepping down. In a brief blog post on the game's official website, Zulu describes EVE's past 18 months as "an incredibly intense time" filled with "quite a few harsh lessons." Taking over for Zulu is Jon "CCP Unifex" Lander, who has been playing EVE since 2005 and heading up CCP's Carbon technology team since 2009. Lander spends his introductory post outlining the challenges in the offing for CCP's sci-fi sandbox, and he also mentions that the dev team currently numbers close to 200 people. In a nutshell, it looks like EVE is heading back to basics, as Lander says that the team "will be concentrating on those features we already have in the game after eight years of development." Finally, all capsuleers who have an active subscription on December 31st will have their character names and images launched into space aboard a high-altitude balloon (yes, really). Head to the official website for more.
Returning EVE players receive discount as part of CCP apology
Last week CCP Games proved that it's still an indie studio at heart when CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson issued a formal letter of apology to the entire EVE Online community. In the letter, he admitted that development had been purposefully shifted away from the in-space features players wanted. He went on to take full responsibility for the ensuing drama surrounding the forced early release of Incarna and the fumbled cash shop introduction. Hilmar then laid out plans to turn EVE's development around and set it back in a direction that current players will appreciate. Today CCP continued show its commitment to this new development direction with a special reactivation offer for returning players. Most account-holders whose subscriptions lapsed during or before the Summer drama have been sent an email offering a special rate of $4.95 US for 30 days of subscription time. While reactivation offers like these are commonplace, this offer made a point of CCP's new-found direction and contained this concise quote from EVE's senior producer Arnar Gylfason: "A significant part of that plan is the immediate refocusing of all the EVE development teams on EVE's core gameplay: spaceships." [Source: Reactivation discount email]
CCP Games CEO issues letter of apology to EVE Online players
Just over three months ago, fans of EVE Online looked on in disbelief as the game they loved faced its biggest crisis of confidence since 2007's T20 developer scandal. The long-awaited Incarna expansion was pushed live with no multiplayer environments and only one race of captain's quarters. Players were forced to use the feature every time they docked, and it seemed that its only purpose was as a display case for overpriced cash-shop clothing. While players debated the controversial cash shop prices, a leaked company newsletter titled "Greed is Good" and a leaked memo from CCP Games CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson threw additional fuel on the flames. In a letter to the EVE Online community today, Hilmar delivered a humble apology for everything that happened. "The estrangement from CCP that many of you have been feeling of late is my fault, and for that I am truly sorry," he began. "In short, my zeal for pushing EVE to her true potential made me lose sight of doing the simple things right. I was impatient when I should have been cautious, defiant when I should have been conciliatory and arrogant when I should have been humble." The letter goes on to tackle everything from the removal of ship spinning and the release of the captain's quarters as a full expansion to CCP's plans for the future. In an accompanying devblog, CCP Zulu provided an impressive list of in-space features aimed for the winter development period. The list includes the long-awaited hybrid weapon balance changes, assault ship bonus reworks, capital ship rebalancing, and even iteration on faction warfare.
CCP to EVE players: We've heard you, unprecedented development refocusing in the works
Significant change is afoot in EVE Online, and no, we're not just talking about the latest clothing item on the Noble Exchange or additional captain's quarters built on top of Incarna's foundation. A brief blog post on the official website indicates that CCP has taken the firestorm of criticism from long-time players over the last several months to heart. While it's not quite a mea culpa, CCP Zulu does say that the company has been engaging in an "extensive and intense introspection and revitalization. The result of this is a refocusing and reprioritization on a scale unheard of within our company." How extensive (and how intense)? That remains to be seen, of course, but the post points to the recent ship-spinning update and also goes a step further. "We are listening to you, we have heard you, and plans are already in motion," Zulu writes.
EVE Evolved: The evolution of microtransactions
Two weeks ago, the escalating drama in EVE Online saw me drained of my normal enthusiasm as I contemplated the very real possibility that my time in the game I love was coming to an end. While the forums were filled with the most vocal and angry players, discussions with veteran players featured mainly disappointment and a distinct sadness. For those few days spent in limbo waiting for the results of the emergency CSM meeting, I and many of my in-game friends remained a hair's breadth from giving up on EVE entirely. It was a delicate situation based more on perception and poor communication than intent or fact, and I think CCP pulled things back well with formal statements from both itself and the CSM in addition to an in-depth follow-up press conference. One of the big points to come out of the press conference was that while CCP and the CSM are both confident that none of the future microtransaction plans are game-breaking, the company did not restrict itself to vanity goods such as Incarna clothing. While the CSM was convinced that CCP planned only to produce pure vanity goods, CCP Zulu was careful not to rule out gameplay-affecting microtransactions altogether. Both CCP and the CSM also talked about "game-breaking" sales rather than using a clearer term like "gameplay-affecting" or "non-vanity." It's reasonable then to assume that in the future we might eventually get non-vanity goods that do interact with gameplay but aren't game-breaking in terms of balance, mechanics or interaction with the in-game economy. In this week's EVE Evolved, I show exactly why options like selling ships would be game-breaking and then let my imagination run wild as I speculate on possible non-vanity microtransactions for the far future that shouldn't disrupt gameplay.
CCP responds to monoclegate, reaches consensus with players
This has been a difficult week for EVE Online developer CCP Games, with massive controversy hitting the media surrounding what should have been a momentous expansion release. The first stage of the eagerly awaited Incarna expansion went live this month, bringing with it the new captain's quarters. Unfortunately, simple complaints over some very overpriced microtransactions soon escalated into outright panic and even in-game riots with the release of an internal company newsletter and subsequent internal email casting doubt on the game's vanity-only microtransaction policy and its development direction in general. A devblog released in response to the issue only served to make things worse, so CCP opted to fly the game's democratically elected Council of Stellar Management to Iceland for a series of emergency meetings to get a handle on the situation. Those meetings were concluded yesterday, and both the CCP and CSM made statements today to clarify the decisions reached. During the meeting, the CSM negotiated on behalf of the playerbase to hammer out an agreement on EVE's microtransaction policy, overheating issues with the captain's quarters, and other recent hot topics. Skip past the cut to watch the video accompanying the statement, and head over to the EVE devblog to read the official statements. If you have any further complaints or issues relating to the recent controversy, please mail them to brendan@massively.com or leave them in a comment and I'll do my best to ask the CSM delegates or pose your questions to CCP at Tuesday's upcoming press conference.
CCP issues brief mea culpa, EVE CSM to meet with devs
It seems as if an olive branch has been extended in the escalating conflict between CCP and hardcore fans of the company's EVE Online MMORPG. Arnar Hrafn Gylfason, otherwise known as CCP Zulu, has issued an apologetic blog post as a followup to the controversial piece he penned last Friday. Zulu chalks up the confrontational tone of the previous post to the stresses surrounding CCP's recent data leaks and also advises fans that the company is flying the Council of Stellar Management to Iceland for meetings on June 30th and July 1st. More importantly for players chaffed by CCP's assumed about-face regarding game-altering microtransactions, Zulu finally answers the burning question regarding whether or not EVE Online will eventually see pay-to-win cash shop items. "There are not and never have been plans to sell 'gold ammo' for Aurum," Zulu writes, alluding to fan reactions to the Fearless newsletter leak. While CCP certainly isn't out of the woods yet with regard to this public relations nightmare, the fact that the company is acknowledging a serious breach of customer trust, coupled with the "no gold ammo" quote, seems to be having a calming effect on the community as it waits for details to emerge from next week's emergency CSM summit.
EVE Online controversy erupts in protests
Over the past few days, our inboxes here at Massively have been positively overflowing with tips and comments from readers about the ongoing turmoil in EVE Online. It all began with the Incarna update, which added an item shop to the long-running sci-fi sandbox. Players began to voice their concerns over the bizarrely high prices of items in the shop, with one particular item reaching an insane $68 US. Before this hullabaloo had the chance to so much as come to a simmer, an internal newsletter from CCP was leaked to the internet. The document outlined the introduction of microtransactions into EVE and mentioned that at some point, ships, ammunition, and so forth may be available for purchase with real-world currency. This naturally sent players into even more of a frenzy. The whole ordeal came to a head yesterday when CCP Zulu attempted to douse the flames by addressing the issues directly in a dev diary. The play backfired, however, as players took issue with the dev blog's tone and attitude toward the upset players. Not long after that, an internal CCP email was leaked explaining the reasoning behind the controversial blog post, which only added fuel to the flames. The result of this blazing hellstorm of controversy? Riots, of course. Players have gathered en masse at Rens, Jita, and Amarr to show their displeasure. As of the time of this writing, the protests are still going strong and show few signs of stopping. What will come of these protests, though? Hopefully we'll be finding that out soon enough. Be sure to stick with Massively in the coming days as our resident EVE expert will be covering the topic in his column this Sunday while we await response from CCP Zulu. Until then, be sure to go check out Brendan's appearance on EVE Radio for an in-depth discussion of the issues at hand.
'We hear you loud and clear': CCP clarifies third-party application licensing fees
What should be a week of rejoicing following EVE Online's Incarna expansion going live has been soured by controversy over seemingly high-priced microtransactions and debate over fees associated with third-party application licensing. Today, CCP has come out to address the second point and clarify its position. CCP Guard admits that the company didn't do the best job in explaining how third parties can charge a real-world money fee for their services apart from in-game currency, and he reposts an illuminating transcript of an interview with CCP Zulu regarding the licensing. The problem came in the form of $99 licensing fees to use this new service, a charge that EVE players felt was extremely high. Apparently CCP agrees and will be looking into changing it to a "token charge" that will make the contract between CCP and the third party binding without it being a financial obstacle. You can read the full explanation over at EVE Online, and while you're at it, you can snag yourself the expansion on Steam for $10.
EVE Evolved: Third-party development
When EVE Online was first released in 2003, it was a primitive beast from a small indie studio operating out of a tiny office in Reykjavik, Iceland. Although EVE has been expanded over the years, not all of that development has come from creator CCP Games. EVE players routinely step in to fill gaps in the game's functionality through the development of third-party applications, websites and tools. Early apps like the EVEMon skill planner were very limited in what information they could access about a player's character, but with the introduction of the EVE API system, a huge wealth of information became available. Since then, we've seen a resurgence of third-party app and tool development, producing impressive apps like Capsuleer and Aura for the iPhone. We've also seen some incredibly useful websites like the ICSC jump planner suite, gambling site SOMER.blink and the Dotlan EVE maps with regularly updating statistics. Most app developers work on the projects in their spare time, and until now they've relied on donations or advertising revenue to keep up with server costs or keep development worth the time invested. As EVE is CCP's intellectual property, it's illegal for anyone to make money from it without the company's permission. This week, CCP released the first draft of a contract that would allow developers to monetise their apps, but the proposal was not received well by the EVE community. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at third-party app development and what's wrong with the proposed deal.
EVE dev blog talks increased system specs, Incarna performance
Performance is always a concern when it comes to MMORPGs, and EVE Online is no different. The game has traditionally run quite well on older hardware despite graphical upgrades and thousands of simultaneous users sharing the same virtual space. In the latest EVE dev blog, CCP Zulu addresses the impact that the upcoming Incarna expansion is likely to have on client performance, and to make a long story short, CCP is upping the game's minimum and recommended hardware configurations. Zulu says that the change is mostly directed at users with lower-end Nvidia 6000 or 7000 series graphics cards who are trying to run multiple EVE clients on a single machine (a common practice due to the number of alt accounts and the fact that only one character per account can actively skill-train). "We therefore decided to temporarily add the option to not load the Incarna interiors while still retaining full access to all options and menus. This allows us to accommodate users with old and gnarly hardware [... and] also develop for those with top-of-the-line gaming computers," Zulu explains. Check out the blog entry, and the system specs, on the official EVE website.
CCP bringing vanity item store, new currency to EVE
If you've ever dreamed of a stripper pole for your captain's quarters or a monocle for your captain, CCP's latest dev blog aims to make your wildest wishes come true. And no, we're not kidding. CCP Zulu breaks the news about the forthcoming EVE Online vanity item store, which will sell a wide variety of incidentals ranging from clothing to accessories to custom ship paint jobs. Of particular interest is the creation of a new EVE currency, Aurum, which Zulu says is acquired when you break up PLEX. "Each PLEX gives you a bunch of Aurum that you can spend in the virtual goods store. If you don't want to spend Aurum on these vanity items, you can always wait for someone else to do so and then buy it off them for ISK. [...] Items bought in the virtual goods store will be transferable between characters, just like PLEX is today," he explains. Zulu also points out that the item shop is for vanity gear only, and you'll want to head to the official EVE Online website for all the details.
EVE captain's quarters coming June 21st, CCP shows off new video
The times they are a-changin' in EVE Online, and CCP has officially set a date for the first salvo in a planned update campaign that will remake the face of the long-running sci-fi sandbox title. Incarna, CCP's integration of 3-D avatars into the game's ship-based environment, has been hinted at for so long that it's somewhat shocking to see an actual date bandied about. That date is June 21st, and it will bring about the official deployment of Incarna's first phase to EVE's live server. CCP Zulu has all the details in a new EVE dev blog, and there's also a new video clip featuring an extensive tour inside a prototype captain's quarters zone as well as voiceover commentary. "This is only the first step of many that continues EVE Online's progress towards the ultimate, immersive science fiction world. It unlocks a whole new experience for those already contributing to EVE's social and political fabric and provides a fresh beginning for those curious about becoming part of the deep universe that holds it," Zulu explains. View the video after the cut and head to the official EVE website for more details.
Ask the EVE developers any question you want
Back in 2008, EVE Online developer Arnar "CCP Zulu" Gylfason started a forum thread in which players could ask him literally any question about EVE and development at CCP Games. The response was overwhelmingly positive, with Zulu answering over a hundred questions on topics ranging from nullsec warfare to ship balance. As part of an ongoing effort to communicate more with the EVE playerbase, the devs at CCP have decided to revive this old habit with a brand new Q&A thread. If you have a burning question on anything related to EVE Online, you can post it in the question forum thread or on the official EVE facebook page. Questions will be posed to a think-tank of developers consisting of senior producer CCP Zulu, lead game designer CCP Hammerhead, producer CCP TomB, senior programmer CCP Tuxford, community developer CCP Guard and senior game masters GM Spiral and GM Lelouch.
Massively interviews EVE senior producer Arnar Gylfason on Incarna, PvE and more
Some fantastic news came out of this year's EVE Online Fanfest. CCP Soundwave's talk on Incursion provided some insight into past and possible future development of EVE's often-neglected group PvE activities. We also got a first look at the captain's quarters coming this summer as a first massive step toward full-blown avatar-based interaction with Incarna. Finally, CCP presented the company's vision for the future of EVE -- a video showing the potential interaction between Dust514's ground combat, Incarna's station environments and EVE Online's typical space-based PvP. In his keynote speech, EVE senior producer Arnar "CCP Zulu" Gylfason brought together all the new information that had been released at Fanfest over the last year. We caught up with Arnar at the EVE Fanfest to ask some followup questions to his speech. In an EVE Spotlight article last week, he answered questions on the role of live events in future expansions and other topics. In this second interview, we asked Arnar about incursions, the future of PvE, captain's quarters, the new player experience, Incarna gameplay, and more. Skip past the cut to read our full interview with Arnar Glyfason, a man in whose accent the word "awesome" sounds seriously awesome.
EVE Spotlight: An interview with CCP Zulu
EVE Spotlight is a new bi-weekly feature in which we interview prominent members of EVE Online's player community or development team. Twice each month, 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 almost an unwritten rule of game development that someone from quality assurance should never be promoted into a game design role. Game testing and QA are said to be so fundamentally different to design that it's argued the roles require incompatible skillsets. Arnar "CCP Zulu" Gylfason has definitely proven that this isn't the case, successfully migrating from QA to game design and finally being promoted to senior producer on EVE Online. Taking over from CCP T0rfifrans, Arnar has become a very public figure for CCP in the EVE community. Older players will remember Arnar as CCP Zulupark, that horrible guy who nerfed their carriers back in 2007. Alternatively, you may remember a fantastic forum thread from 2008 in which he personally answered countless player questions on game design and balance issues. Since becoming senior producer on EVE, Arnar has been a strong advocate of this kind of heavy communication with players. Through devblogs, interviews and interactions with the Council of Stellar Management, he's helped to fill the information vacuum players have become accustomed to. We caught up with EVE senior producer Arnar "CCP Zulu" Gylfason several weeks ago at the EVE Fanfest. In this EVE Spotlight, I ask him about communication with players, the role of live events in future expansions, and other topics.
EVE Online Fanfest 2011 roundup: Day 2
It's day two of CCP's enormous party at the top of the world, and Massively is right here to find out what the future holds for EVE Online. In yesterday's day 1 roundup, we covered a fantastic presentation on Incursion by CCP Soundwave, an enlightening question-and-answer session with EVE's Council of Stellar Management, and the hilarious (but absolutely not work-safe) alliance leader panel. Today has been similarly packed with activity. We've seen some great presentations on what's to come in the summer expansion, and the keynote speech discussed some very exciting developments due to hit EVE in the near future. Highlights of today included a video of Incarna's "captain's quarters" that we'll be getting as part of the summer expansion, details of massive server upgrades heading to Tranquility, and details of some awesome quality-of-life changes coming soon thanks to Team Best Friends Forever. There was so much awesome information to share that we unfortunately had to miss the chessboxing match to get it out in a timely manner. We missed Icelandic game developers punching each other in the face to write this up, so I hope you find it interesting! Read on for a roundup of what happened today at the EVE Fanfest, along with detailed explanations of a few personal highlights from today's festivities and what we can expect to come later.
EON Magazine issue 22 tackles Incarna, surviving the EVE fanfest and more
These days it seems like every MMO has some form of microtransaction system or merchandising deal. It's clear that players don't seem to mind spending a little extra on their MMO hobbies now and then, whether it's for an in-game item to cut out some of the grind or a geeky T-shirt to show off to friends. Several online games even have their own dedicated magazines, and EVE Online is no exception. Published four times per year, EON magazine by MMM Publishing provides guides, interviews, sneak peeks at upcoming expansions, fan-written chronicles, and big news from across New Eden. Issue 22 of EON popped through my letter-box a few days ago, and I've spent most of today thoroughly absorbed in its pages. This quarter's mag focuses on the Sansha incursions happening across EVE and the upcoming Incarna expansion with its long-awaited walking-in-space feature. Also in this edition is a featured look at the rise and fall of the Band of Brothers alliance, a guide to surviving your first time at the annual Fanfest in Iceland, and all the usual features. This issue will be the first officially released under the name EON -- the previous name of the magazine being E-ON. Skip past the cut for a roundup of what you'll find in EON magazine issue 22 and my impressions of its content.
Massively's EVE CSM interview: Incarna and nullsec PvP
In part one of our interview with EVE Online's player-elected Council of Stellar Management, we asked council member Deirdra Vaal about EVE Gate, the upcoming forum revamp, CCP's microtransaction policy and other topics discussed at the December CSM summit. In three meeting sessions, CCP and the CSM tackled some hard-hitting issues, the biggest of which were Incarna and nullsec PvP. Most of the details on Incarna are currently locked under NDA, but that didn't stop us from asking the CSM about it. Nullsec PvP has also been a hot topic recently with the revelation that levels of PvP have actually been declining since the Dominion expansion. Dominion was intended to open up nullsec for smaller entities, but we still see EVE's political landscape dominated by massive coalitions of alliances spanning several regions. Massively: The CSM expressed significant concerns about the Incarna development plans it had access to. Does the CSM think that CCP is heading in the wrong direction with Incarna? Deirdra Vaal: We feel that the approach taken to Incarna is the wrong one, and we emphasised this to CCP. However, CCPs general idea to set Incarna as an "off the grid" environment where we go for shady deals is something the CSM is reasonably happy with. It's just that so far we haven't really been shown any compelling gameplay. So we think they might be heading in the wrong direction, if they are lazy about it. They might also be heading in the right direction, but so far we haven't seen compelling gameplay that would support this assumption. Skip past the cut for the rest of our interview with EVE's CSM on Incarna, nullsec PvP and the future of EVE.
EVE Online dropping support for old CPUs
An inevitable consequence of EVE Online's periodic graphical upgrades is that support for old graphics cards and computers has to be dropped. The last major change to EVE's system requirements removed support for graphics cards lower than a Shader Model 2.0 standard. A very small number of players were affected by the change, and the dropping of support for old shader models gave CCP the freedom they needed to keep EVE's graphics above par. When tomorrow's Incursion 1.10 patch goes live, EVE's minimum system requirements will see another increase as support for Pentium 3, Athlon XP and older CPUs will be withdrawn. The decision to withdraw support for these old processors comes as a result of internal testing on the expansion codebase. Some of the new third-party libraries being used in the patch were found to be causing a crash when starting the client on systems with CPUs that that don't support the SSE2 instruction set. The likely culprit is the new APEX PhysX library set, a crucial part of the Incarna clothing simulation process, which was recently updated to an SSE2 standard. CCP estimates that this change will affect less than 0.3% of users, meaning just over 1,000 players will need to upgrade their systems if they wish to continue playing. Unsupported processors date back to the summer of 2003 or earlier, making most of the affected systems older than EVE itself. With the revelation of just how old those processors are, the response from players has been generally neutral. CCP Zulu apologised on the forum for the extremely short notice of the announcement on tomorrow's change, stating that he was bringing players this news as it happened.
