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The New York Times finds EVE Online intriguing
The New York Times published an article on EVE Online this morning. NYT writer Seth Schiesel focused on EVE's growth and emphasis on player freedom.Hilmar Petursson (CCP's CEO) told Schiesel in a phone interview that there are "basically two schools of thought for operating an online community. There is the theme-park approach and the sandbox approach. Most games are like Disneyland, for instance, which is a carefully constructed experience where you stand in line to be entertained." He said that CCP takes the sandbox approach, creating a world where players are free to define their own experiences.The article also describes the current political climate in EVE Online's worth, including the Band of Brothers blueprints scandal and other things. If you're already an EVE player, you won't find anything new in the article, but if you're not, it's bound to be an eyebrow-raising read.
Richard Bartle, Jessica Mulligan impart industry wisdom
There are few (if any) names more prestigious in the culture of online games development than those of Richard Bartle and Jessica Mulligan. Bartle was one of the original creators of MUDs (out of which MMORPGs were born), and is a leading theorist on the subject. Mulligan is also an experienced developer and consultant in the field. Both of them spoke at the 2007 EVE Online Fanfest, and Ten Ton Hammer pulled them aside for an interview.It would be impossible to list here all the interesting points they made in the two-page interview, of course, but topics worth highlighting included investor behavior and the problems the American industry faces with regards to finding and utilizing creative talent. If you're interested in the business side of the industry, it's worth a read.Both Bartle and Mulligan had a lot of praise for CCP and EVE Online. For example, Mulligan essentially said the future belongs to games like EVE that take chances and serve a medium-sized, more niche-like player-base, and Bartle suggested that CCP's next game could do very well.
Massively's Top 5 Sci-Fi MMOs
Orcs and Elves are all well and good, but some of us are more attracted to a mythical future than to a mythical past. Sci-Fi is trendy again, in case you hadn't heard. From Tabula Rasa to Star Trek Online (we hope), the future belongs to, well ... the future. But what about the past of the future? Sorry; this is getting more verbally confusing than a Voyager time paradox episode. Let's put it this way: click through the jump to see Massively's top 5 Sci-Fi MMOs to date!Can you think of any tragic omissions? To paraphrase a character from pop culture, "Science Fiction is neither Science nor Fiction. Discuss!"
EVE Online: New patch coming tomorrow for both Mac and Linux game clients
Any new EVE Online players using the Mac and Linux clients survive the two week trial? I hope so because the newly-minted Mac and Linux clients prevented many new capsuleers from even finishing the tutorial; however, it worked great for some others. Reading the EVE forums during this craze, I couldn't help but grimace at the debilitating problems new and old players using the clients were having. I experienced random disconnecting while playing on a MacBook Pro that made for a trying experience when rampaging through the belts in my cheap paper-thin frigate. My shallow hull, where'd it go again?The good news is both Mac and Linux clients will be patched during scheduled downtime tomorrow, November 27th. This patch will not change the current Windows clients in anyway or patch some secret in-game hacks only Mac and Linux users can profit from, although that would be nice as I'm a bit burnt out on the ISK farm and I think my capacitor has had enough that it jettisoned itself from my ship. These patches are specifically engineered to improve performance and fix a few client specific bugs. If you are using the Linux client, the client should automatically download and install a patch for the TransGaming components. Players using the Mac client will need to download and apply a different client patch -- the hard way. This patch will be uploaded onto the EVE Online website during tomorrow's maintenance. I included the full patch notes after the jump:
New Trinity trailer makes Sci-Fi geeks gasp in awe [Updated]
CCP just released this two-minute trailer for EVE Online's upcoming Trinity expansion. It's a longer and cooler trailer than the one that was shown at the Fanfest in Reykjavik. Trinity is adding a lot of things, but one of the most significant is a major graphics update, and that's what this trailer focuses on.The new shader effects are very impressive, especially when they're exhibited with such epic music. It looks like EVE is reclaiming its crown as the best-looking MMO on the market. While it's easier to make spaceships and planets look realistic and amazing than it is to make humanoids look convincing, the new EVE visuals are still awesome.Assuming nothing goes wrong, Trinity will go live next week.[EDIT: GameTrailers has posted the trailer in HD. Commence drooling.]
The Digital Continuum: Space-tripping with EVE Online
I'm sitting in a space station in EVE Online at this very moment. I've been doing this lately, because I find myself quite addicted to much of the music in-game. Between the amazing audio and dazzling scenery I don't think I've accomplished much in the grand view of my EVE career. For many a year I've purchased and played countless MMO for lesser reasons than audio and visuals. Hell, I once I bought a post-apocalyptic car combat MMO simply because of the want to believe it would be something different; something executed well. So yes, I have made some unwise purchases in the past.The first thing I did was read much (all) of the text regarding the four factions and their subsequent races available for play. It's very likely that this little endeavor absorbed a good hour of my time and this is all before I even began creating my character. Once I had entered the aforementioned creation-of-character screen I was met with a very nice surprise that would be followed up with a somewhat disheartening revelation. You see the character creator is fairly deep and allows to you do much in the way of adding that nice personal touch. Then after you've gotten your digital-self just right, it throws all your hard work onto your profile page and all you ever see are a couple thumbnail-sized pictures of all that effort. At this point you either feel like crying or murdering the person who allowed this raw deal. Granted, CCP has already announced a planned update that will allow everyone's characters to walk around space stations, but until this happens (sometime in the next year or two, I'm guessing) all you're ever going to get is some rather small pictures.Then again many would argue that your EVE Online character's appearance doesn't matter too much in the first place. Your ship is what you're staring at ninety-nine-point-nine percent of the time. So for those of you out there who roll females and use the, "I'd rather look at the backside of a girl than a guy." excuse; that doesn't fly here. Trust me on this, I know it from personal experience.
The Escapist explains how your guild can avoid a "failure cascade"
So you're the leader of a guild in your game of choice. All is well at first; everybody's having fun. Then, one or two people get upset about something someone said, or the schedule for a raid, or someone's failure to pay the guild hall maintenance fee. You try to contain it, but all hell breaks loose. Each player's departure leads to another's. Three weeks later, just you and two people from your office are still in the guild.The Escapist calls this a "failure cascade" in a new article. The author of the article uses EVE Online as an example as he explains what a failure cascade is, where the term came from, and what kinds of guilds can be immune. The article is particularly interesting because it illustrates how EVE Online's open PvP combat can exacerbate the problem and lead to mass departures from the game.
CCP launches official Trinity website
CCP launched the website for EVE Online's Trinity expansion today. It's a sleekly designed website with a well produced promo-video (including clips of the shiny new graphics), video interviews with a few dev team members, a feature list, and screenshots and wallpapers. And of course it has EVE's usual dark, intelligentsia-aimed Sci-Fi motif going on.None of the information is new if you've been following the news super closely, but hardcore EVE fans will undoubtedly want to check it out anyway, and if you haven't been keeping up with Trinity news, it's a good place to get the low down on what CCP will be doing in the expansion.
EVE Online passes the 200k subscription mark
CCP announced earlier that EVE Online has surpassed the 200,000 subscription count, (a number CCP has been flirting with for many months now) which does not include more than 45,000 trial accounts in effect. I'm not sure how many trial accounts were active six months ago, but given the release of the Mac and Linux clients there a lot of new capsules floating out there in space. Not to diminish this accomplishment, it's important to note that these are subscriptions and not unique subscribers. CCP has been pushing "The Power of 2" heavily on their current playerbase and hundreds if not thousands have several subscriptions. I also believe CCP could have already hit their ultimate goal to have a bigger subscription base than Iceland's population, 300k, if they had retuned the newbie experience. Free game client; free expansions; decent rookie help channel; all this ease-to -accessibility is fantastic, but it still isn't enough, and I'm sure CCP has some telling numbers on how many players didn't get past the tutorial. CCP is addressing a small part of this problem in 2008 and beyond with a planned in-game EVE-pedia, but I am a bit surprised they haven't emphasized more focus on improving the newbie experience aside from the newbie tutorial revamp, which could be a lot better. EVE may not be the behemoth WoW is, but EVE has proven to keep a slow steady growth since it launched in 2003, which normally isn't the case for most MMOGs. The last true pinnacle point in overall subscriptions occurred in early 2006 when EVE reached 100,000 subscriptions. The players drive this game. The players are the content. I'm looking forward to the day when EVE actually breaks 300k unique subscribers.
EVE Fan Fest 2007 videos - Make your weekend an EVE-flix one
How would you best describe the EVE Online 2007 Fan Fest? I'd say it was filled with players that talked about ships, consumed copious amounts of alcohol alongside the developers, drooled over the Trinity II expansion, drank more alcohol, some pew-pew and a few bruised hairy man boobs egos afterwards, and it all went down in Iceland. I'll sum it up as a frozen mixture of freakishly-EVE debauchery. I'm still bummed, no "mozom" Fan Fest action for me this year; not that I would want my corporation to obtain proof I mingled with some hostiles, and later use said evidence to black mail me as a spy unless I paid a lofty 25 billion space-bux fine. Thankfully, for those of us not in attendance or those wanting to relive the panel discussions, CCP came through on their earlier promise to feature full-length videos from this year's EVE Online Fan Fest. Currently, 12 videos are up for viewing, and length times vary, some go for 20 minutes and others that last a little longer than 60 minutes. It doesn't cost a dime to watch them either. If you are too lazy to click over and to see the EVE-TV guide, I have you covered with the line-up below. If you would rather read coverage from the Fan Fest, I recently updated the ultimate EVE Online Fan Fest link wrap-up with a few more links. Day 1: EVE History; Oveur on Trinity Expansion; Hilmar on World Domination; CCP Panel, Dev Q&A Session Day 2: Council of Stellar Management; Alliance Panel Discussion; Dr EyjoG on EVE's economics; Ambulation Info Day 3: Tuxford on the development and history behind the in-game ability Heat; How to PvP like an expert with Eris Discordia; Pann gives tips on running an EVE fansite; Tony G discusses his work on the EVE Novel
Terra Nova discusses the 'culture of mistrust' in EVE Online
At the academic blog Terra Nova, commentator Nate Combs has a lengthy look at the inherent 'culture of mistrust' that exists in EVE Online. Due to the game's somewhat harsh environment (compared with most MMOGs), it's in the best interests of a given player to distrust others ... and yet most of the news out of the game is discussion of the well-organized groups acting in concert towards a common end. Combs explores why the hostile nature of the game combines with game mechanics (like alt characters) to create a 'common path' for the EVE Player.Some professional PvPers may start out as foot soldiers in an alliance but along the way acquire a second hat. For example, some may develop an arrangement with their organization where they still work on its behalf but may also engage in activities for their own (and associate) profit and interest. Thus they may start to attack enemy shipping - or shipping of friends of enemies - far removed from their alliance areas of concern. They may do it for a cocktail of reasons: a desire for a lifestyle of "pew pew", for profit and distinction for uberness within their group under the guise of economic warfare. Unfortunately, there are cases where such far afield dalliances have lead to political trouble for the parent alliances. Birds do come home to roost.This article is just the latest in a series, with others covering EVE's 'information game', the consequences of rare materials, and the 'problem' of neutral parties in-game.
Paper explains EVE's quasi-democratic council in extreme detail
If you had any doubt at all that EVE Online is the thinking man's MMO, you won't any longer. CCP has released a 20 page paper in PDF format describing the new Council of Stellar Management, and you know you're in for something good when the paper starts off with the social theories of the Greek philosopher Aristotle.This is one of the times when it's particularly clear just how bizarre and interesting it is to be writing about virtual societies. This is the stuff of cyberpunk novels and Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes. CCP has produced something like the first draft of a constitution (with notes) for a representative government, with references to John Locke's social contract theory and everything else you'd expect from such a document. No doubt EVE's scheming political players are already looking through the document for loopholes and potential abuses. It may not be long before EVE players are having debates about campaign finance reform and separation of powers.Richard Bartle doesn't think this will work. Whether it works or not, though, it'll be damned interesting. At the very least, it will be more fodder for discussion relating to Hardcore Casual's EVE Challenge.[Via MMORPG]
The first EVE Online quarterly economic newsletter has some interesting facts
The one world server in EVE Online is pivotal to the monstrous and dynamic economy that only enhances EVE Online's appeal. Players in nearly every system engage in a tug-of-war with different drains and faucets to get the most out of their investment, that being time, and look to increase their fortunes. With such a complex dynamic (player versus player) economy that is integral to the overall well being of EVE's universe, CCP needed an economy care-taker, and hired Dr. "Eyjo" Guðmundsson, formerly Dean of the Faculty of Business and Science at the University of Akureyri, Iceland, to lead up the Research and Statistics group. Dr. "Eyjo" Guðmundsson is more or less known as the "EVE Economist." One of Dr. "Eyjo" Guðmundsson responsibilities is to evaluate, scrutinize, parse the EVE'economy and its inhabitants, and report back the team's findings in a quarterly economic newsletter. The overall purpose from this public data-mine is to inform pilots about the status of the in-game economy from a behind-the-scenes look and glean the information therein. The first in a series, dubbed the 3rd quarter 2007 economic newsletter, covers EVE demographics, macroeconomics, price levels, economic and market snap shots. [.PDF link] The graphs and charts alone make it worth downloading for any EVE player. There are a few glaring erroneous parameters that were used for some calculations such as including inactive accounts as pointed out in this discussion thread, but overall, this information is fantastic and with the right feedback will only get better. Some highlights from Q3 include:
The EVE Challenge
Hardcore Casual has thrown down the gauntlet, and challenged all comers to prove something interesting: that EVE Online hasn't yet solved our MMO problems. That's a strange thing to prove, but we here at Massively love nothing more than a challenge, so here goes.HC's point is that in EVE, you can pretty much do anything the way you want to, anywhere at any time. EVE is limitless in terms of both progression and size-- skills can be leveled for months and years, and even if all the skills are maxed out (they won't be, because CCP keeps adding new ones), there's always more ISK to be made. And because the game is so big and mostly empty space, everyone can play on one world, and there's no need for the sharding that other games must do to keep their servers up.However, as much as I love EVE, it is not a perfect MMO.
Massively's Massive Giveaways: EVE Online part 4
We've been asked about guild structuring in EVE, so we thought we'd take this chance to touch upon one that aspect of the game for those who haven't ever gotten a chance to play. Corps (or Corporations) are the EVE Online equivalent of guilds that you would find in many fantasy-based games. When you start out, you are automatically placed into an NPC controlled Corporation along with everyone else in your race, and that is just fine for a while. Eventually, though, you'll want some friends to play with, and you'll need to start looking around on the forums or in-game for a Corp. Now, there are lots of Corps, but finding the right one for you will depend on how you like to play. As such, we can only really recommend one Corp for everyone new to EVE -- EVE University. It's a player-run Corporation staffed with old-timers and newcomers alike, all dedicated to teaching new EVE players the ropes. They'll hook you up with great information and help, so long as you're willing to put some time and effort in to making yourself a better player. That said, this time we're giving away the last of our EVE Online 100-day time cards. Those of you used to the game will enjoy 100 paid-in-full days of running around with your Corp, with our compliments. For those new to the game, we suggest you get a hold of EVE University for lots of help and great, solid information on getting used to life in EVE. By now you should know the drill; 18+, U.S. residents only, blah blah official rules and so on. So new player or veteran alike -- leave a comment by tomorrow at 4:15 PM, and you could be the one lucky person who wins this time card![EDIT] - This contest is closed. We will be announcing a winner shortly. Thanks!
CCP CEO attributes EVE's success to playerbase
Traveling to scenic Reykjavik, Iceland to report on EVE Fanfest 2007, Gamasutra's Tom Kim sat down with CCP CEO Hilmar Pétursson to pick his brain and find out what magic pixie dust his team has used to sustain EVE Online, a game that is not an immediately obvious model for success in the MMO sphere. For his part, Pétursson attributes the game's appeal to its emergent gameplay; the world of EVE is largely a construction of its playerbase. While they don't actually create content in the same sense that you would in something like Second Life, the systems within the game itself like the thriving economy, inter-corps warfare, and the ever-evolving lore are all made possible by player decisions and interactions.Pétursson also discusses the future of EVE, including the new Council of Stellar Management, which will be a seven-man body elected by the playerbase to represent player concerns in the implementation of updates to the game's systems. He also expounds on the ways in which CCP is adapting to meet the new technologies of the day, including the accommodating GPU-melting events like a 500-ship fleet battle. From the way he describes their development focus, it seems like the CCP crew are more than capable of sustaining the growth that has made them something of an industry curiosity.
Massively's Massive Giveaways: EVE Online part 3
I admit it. I don't tend to go into low-sec because the last time I wandered there, I was instantly destroyed. Luckily, I'd insured my ship, but I haven't made the same mistake again. Once I get a better ship, though -- it's on! Now some of you have no idea what I just said, so let me explain. If you like PvP, EVE Online is definitely a game you should check out if you're not playing it already. You will never know when or where you're going to get attacked, if your ship will make it through, if you'll have to warp out, or for that matter -- if you're heading into an ambush any time you move around. Some Corps have even gone so far as to declare all alliances broken, and proclaim that anyone who crosses into their space will immediately be killed. Dangerous? Sure. Fun? Absolutely! In the spirit of helping more people enjoy getting their PvP on, we're offering up a third 100-day time card for EVE Online. For those of you who absolutely love PvP, nothing could be better! (Well, okay, a big ship would be better, but we don't have that kind of ISK floating around or we would have bigger ships.) All you have to do to have a chance to win the time card is to leave your comment between now and tomorrow at 2:15 PM Eastern (11/14), be 18+, a U.S. resident, and otherwise agree to the official rules. Of course, if you'd skip off podding us in our wee little ships when we fly through your space, we'd appreciate that too.
Massively's Massive Giveaways: EVE Online part 2
For the second part of today's EVE Online themed giveaways, we wanted to cover another of the many things that you can do in EVE. As such, let me talk a bit about mining. This is something that everyone from lowest levels to highest levels can be involved in -- and for a new player to EVE, it's one of the easiest ways to make enough ISK to get you out of the starter ship. We've actually written up a guide to jetcanning for the new player to the EVE universe, and we're sure that our elder players can tell you about having to fight to defend themselves while mining harder to get minerals in low-sec space.To help you get some mining time in, we're offering another EVE Online 100-day time card. While yes, you must be 18+, a U.S. resident, and everything else covered by the official rules, you certainly can't beat free game time. Just leave a comment here before 12:15 PM tomorrow (11/14) and you're automatically entered!
WarCry's "War on the Impossible" part 4 details EVE's Trinity expansion
The folks at CCP are nothing if not ambitious. They're more willing to take risks and try new things with EVE Online than a lot of other developers are with their respective games. So far it's paid off; EVE has a very large and passionate fan base. So large and passionate, in fact, that they annually hold a huge Fanfest in Reykjavik.We provided a list of all the best coverage of the event, but one item on the list stands out enough to warrant a plug of its own. WarCry has been rolling out a series of articles on EVE Online as coverage for this year's conference. All together it's called "The War on the Impossible" after CCP's new slogan. Part IV of this series was just launched. This time the focus is on the Trinity expansion, which includes a graphical overhaul, a revised voice chat system, and many new or tweaked gameplay elements.In case you missed the earlier articles; Part I was an introduction to CCP's big moves and plans for the game. Part II was about the panel debate between Richard Bartle and Jessica Mulligan on CCP's plans to democratize the world of EVE, and Part III described "Ambulation" in detail. The articles aren't purely informative; WarCry weighs the consequences of each change. If you play EVE, you'll find that this series is one of the best summaries of the changes on the horizon. If you don't play EVE, it's exciting reading anyway because of the audacity of some of CCP's plans.
Massively's Massive Giveaways: EVE Online
Our theme game for today's giveaways is a game near and dear to my heart -- CCP's fantastic game, EVE Online. If you haven't tried EVE, I can only say that you're missing out if you are a space fan. Of course, flying around is not all that this game has to offer you -- by a long shot. For example, I'm admittedly a bit of a tradeskill freak, so I created a Minmatar Industrialist who spends her days either running missions or happily creating and selling lots of little things while I wait to find a good Corp who will take me in. Of course, building things is just one of many things you can do in EVE, but we'll touch upon some others as the day progresses. For now, however we're offering up the first prize for today; a 100-day EVE Online timecard! This means you can save your ISK for bigger and better things, and instead pick up some free time courtesy of your friends here at Massively. All you have to do to be entered to win is to leave a comment below before 10:15 AM tomorrow (11/14) with your favorite Sci-fi space-based TV show. Of course, you must also be 18+, a resident of the U.S., and otherwise able to comply with the official rules. While I cannot win, I have to say my personal favorite is Babylon 5; I loved to watch the characters either ascend or descend over time. How about you?
