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AGDC09: EVE's Nathan Richardsson on the Dominion expansion and beyond
Massively was on the ground at the Game Developers Conference 2009 in Austin this week, and had a chance to sit down with Nathan "Oveur" Richardsson, Executive Producer of EVE Online. We discussed EVE's winter expansion, Dominion, and the new dimensions to the sci-fi MMO's setting that CCP Games hopes to introduce. We also learned a bit more about the company's plans to expand EVE into other platforms, namely through the COSMOS social network which will tie in with the game from Dominion onward.
Redefining MMOs: The Shooter Invasion
The MMO industry is always changing, and if we're going to stay ahead of the curve, we need to re-evaluate some of our views and ingrained notions from time to time. The Redefining MMOs series at Massively is our look at the state of massively multiplayer online games as it is today, and where we see it going. This week we're going to look at how shooters have invaded the MMO space, give you a run-down of some promising MMO shooters on the horizon, and finally tackle the question of whether or not they should be covered here at Massively. Something we're seeing more and more is a blurring of the lines between formerly distinct game genres -- this is especially true of shooters and MMOs. There are a number of shooters on the horizon that fit the bill as MMOs (although not RPGs), but such games are a radical departure from the DikuMUD pedigree shared by most MMORPG titles we cover at Massively. These shooter-MMO hybrids may have quests, levels, and classes, but they cast few illusions about being true RPGs. They're shooters through and through, but have persistent settings or are massively multiplayer -- traits which catch our attention.
A look at EVE Online's new planet art
With the upcoming Dominion expansion, EVE's planets are receiving some much needed graphical love. While they don't look bad, they just don't look like the rest of the graphically updated universe anymore. But, CCP has seen the problem, and will be updating all of their planets to bring an artistic focus back on them -- especially as they will be the settings of DUST 514's battles.As the Dominion expansion has hit the test server, one of the testers made a video showcasing some of the artistic upgrades. CCP certainly has made some beautiful worlds and awesome atmospheric effects, and you can catch it all in Flamewave357's YouTube video. Click continue reading to check out the video after the jump![Via MMORPG.com]
Breaking the chains of Sovereignty in EVE Online's Dominion expansion
We recently mentioned that the next expansion for EVE Online is called Dominion, and will focus on revamping the sovereignty game mechanics -- arguably one of the most crucial aspects of the game for the most hardcore players. So why, then, is sovereignty so important to the game's players? EVE Online is a game where everything takes place in a single setting, the New Eden galaxy comprised of thousands of solar systems. While a large percentage of the game's playerbase remains in high security space controlled by NPC factions, for others it's 0.0 space (aka nullsec) where the real action is. In a nutshell, 0.0 is a lawless frontier where the rarest ores and minerals, the highest bounty NPCs, the most lucrative exploration content (in known space) is found. Of course, these regions are the most hotly contested territories in EVE Online and those resources found within are a driver for the continual conflict that engulfs New Eden.
EVE Online announces Dominion expansion, 'Walking in Stations' renamed Incarna
CCP Games has announced their 11th free expansion for EVE Online, called "Dominion." As the name suggests, the winter expansion focuses on territories and player control over them. We're told that the Dominion expansion focuses on conquering and holding space, and will feature a reworking of the sovereignty system of territorial control for player alliances. We don't have any further details on the sovereignty revamp yet, but according to CCP the changes have been made with subscriber feedback in mind, particularly through the player-elected Council of Stellar Management. Given that CCP Games is tying more of EVE Online's gameplay into the planets of the New Eden galaxy, the next step they're taking with the Trinity graphics engine is to add more detail to these planets (and presumably moons).
DUST 514 details revealed, gameplay intertwines with EVE Online
A recent interview from German gaming blog Gamona with CCP Games CEO Hilmar Pétursson is likely going to turn a few heads in the MMO gaming realm -- it reveals a few savory details about the recently revealed spin-off of EVE Online, titled DUST 514. It sounds like they're trying something groundbreaking with this new title -- it'll be a console MMOFPS with real-time strategy elements, in which mercenary players take job contracts from EVE Online players.Considering the constant power struggle between EVE's player alliances (that's space-talk for "guilds"), there'll be no shortage of odd jobs available for DUST 514's hired guns. For more information on how these two games will interact, you can check out the full video interview after the jump.
More DUST 514 info revealed in video interview with CCP Games CEO
The DUST 514 announcement from CCP Games pretty much lit up the internet during Gamescom. In case you missed it, the creators of the space-based MMO EVE Online announced that DUST 514 is a console MMO that combines a first person shooter with elements of a real time strategy game. Console gamers will play as mercenaries in DUST 514, hired guns that conquer territories, cities, even entire planets for the EVE Online players who employ them. These are the very same planets found in EVE Online. The ever-shifting solar system borders between player alliance (guild) territories in EVE means there will be an endless supply of lucrative contracts, and presumably military hardware, rolling in for DUST mercs. To simply call this intertwining of two separate MMOs "ambitious" would be an understatement. This is really new ground in the industry, and no one's certain how this is going to work out. Many are skeptical. Quite a number of people wonder about what DUST 514 is going to mean for MMOs and for FPS games. Can a console MMO really integrate with EVE Online? Will EVE players accept that gamers who've never flown a single day in their New Eden galaxy will be able to affect their control over solar systems? There are so many questions. Fortunately, a video interview with CCP Games CEO Hilmar Pétursson at Gamona sheds a little more light on the game and its integration with EVE Online. Stick with us after the jump for a video embed of Hilmar discussing DUST 514.
EVE Evolved: DUST in the wind
A few weeks ago, we here at Massively were speculating on what the big announcement CCP Games were planning was. After they filed a trademark on a logo for something called "DUST 514", we could only guess that it was the promised EVE Online themed first person shooter. In an email with one of my regular column readers before the announcement, I suggested off-hand that it would be awesome if it were a new EVE FPS that linked in with 0.0 sovereignty. I didn't seriously think that's what they had planned. In fact, I only suggested it as a sort of idealised wish -- a hint at what heights I thought EVE could reach a decade from now.When the announcement finally went out and I was right, my jaw hit the floor. Reception of the news has virtually polarised the EVE community, with only a small few viewing the idea with a calm, cautious optimism. Most seem either in firm support of the idea or dead set against it, with many arguments erupting around the claim that Dust will let console gamers decide the fate of EVE alliances. And yet despite all the talk of DUST 514 since the announcement, few people have speculated on what the game-play might actually be like and how it might integrate with EVE Online.In this wish-filled article, I lay out the facts we know so far about DUST 514 and then go on to speculate on what the game-play might be like.
The Daily Grind: Will you be trying out DUST 514?
With the announcement out of GamesCom a couple of days ago, EVE Online players have been buzzing. The new project revealed by CCP, DUST 514, seems like one of the most ambitious things we've heard in some time. Not only are CCP intending to build a completely new MMO strictly for the console, but they're tying that MMO into their other property. Unbalancing EVE Online could upset a great deal of hardcore followers and result in a very large loss of revenue for their company. That said, if they are able to pull it off, without a doubt we'll be witnessing a fairly large evolution of the genre. Companies will likely stop trying to figure out how to shoehorn extant MMOs on consoles (where they have patching issues thus making it prohibitive) and perhaps look into making separate but complimentary MMOs that can play well together instead. Now having said that, the question is how many MMO players will likely make the jump into an FPS environment on a console to play in the EVE Online IP? As much as I personally tend to suck at FPS games (ask anyone who has played L4D with me, seriously) I really love EVE and have to admit I'm looking forward to playing DUST 514. Truthfully, my little industrial corp really won't likely ever be hiring DUST mercs to protect Sovereign space (we'd have to get some first). But the idea of playing on the planet as a gateway to building connections with a corp and making some ISK sounds like tons of fun. Especially as I have a lot of FPS-fiend friends that I could likely talk into playing with me. What do you think? Do you think MMO players and FPS players can successfully play together? Is there enough crossover? Will FPS players care, or will it be purely about the ISK, with the highest bidder getting the best players? Are you looking forward to (or dreading) the ramifications of DUST 514 when it comes to control in your corp's Sovereign space? Or are you one of the folks like me who is in a corp that doesn't have Sov, and thinks this could be a fun way to potentially make some ISK - and connections - from the couch while enjoying a nice change of pace? For those of you of a more sinister bent, are you already targeting which corps you plan to merc out as a DUST soldier and then screw over? The questions are myriad - so we'd love to hear from you! Will you be checking DUST 514?
One Shots: The dust settles
With yesterday's bombshell announcement about Dust 514 sending shockwaves across the MMOGsphere, we couldn't resist taking a look into the PC MMO it will be tied to: EVE Online. While there are still a lot of questions in terms of just precisely things are going to play out between Dust 514 players and EVE Online players, one thing is for sure - CCP continues to innovate in the MMO space. With that said, today's EVE Online One Shots comes to us from Brian C. who gives us a look at early wormhole exploration. He writes in: This was taken as some corp-mates and I hit up some wormholes just a few days after they were added with the Apocrypha expansion. After using our remote repair gang to weather the storm in a sleeper combat site, we stopped and rested next to some beautiful sleeper ruins while we waited for our salvager to get in place. If I remember correctly, this beautiful blue-green system is a class 3/6 wormhole system, although we had little understanding about their classifications at the time. The gang consists of 5 battleships, 3 Gallente Dominix (foreground, right, and top), 1 Gallente Megathron (center), and 1 Amarr Abaddon (left).If you've gotten a great screenshot from an exploration run - new or old - we'd love to see it! Just email it to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the name of the game, and a brief description. You enjoy the thanks and fame, we'll do the rest.%Gallery-9798%
CCP Games reveals new EVE Online console MMO: DUST 514
CCP Games CEO Hilmar Pétursson delivered a keynote presentation at GDC Europe in Cologne today, and unveiled the project their Shanghai studio has worked on for the last three years: DUST 514, a console MMOFPS set in the EVE Online universe. Massively speculated in the past that CCP's hiring of console developers was in connection with either the EVE Online FPS or the World of Darkness MMO. The timing of the DUST 514 trademark registration led us to believe this would be the game title announced at this week's GDC event. So then, what is DUST 514?
FYI: CCP announces 'Dust 514,' FPS RTS MMO in Eve universe
Eve Online developer CCP has officially announced its next project: Dust 514, a console-based MMO set in the world of Eve. CCP CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson said today during GDC Europe that the game will be a hybrid first-person shooter and real-time strategy game. Gamespot UK notes that the title has been in development for three years at CCP Shanghai. Pétursson did not discuss which consoles would be the first to gather Dust 514. Hints of Dust 514's emergence have been knocking around the online universe since earlier this month. We'll update as we get more information.
Fan-run EVE contest will let winner interview CCP dev on podcast
EVE Online is a space-based MMO through and through. In the six years since the game went live, EVE's galactic setting of New Eden has expanded to encompass thousands of solar systems, both charted space and far-flung unexplored systems, as the game's subscriber numbers have slowly but steadily grown. The IP is expanding in new directions as well. Novels now add more depth to the game's lore. CCP Games plans to let players step out of their ships and interact as avatars with Walking in Stations, and the devs have stated that they'd like to bring atmospheric flight to the game at some (undetermined) point in the future. And of course they also have a ground pounder FPS set in the EVE universe in the works. It was some of these things on the horizon that got our friend CrazyKinux thinking about the possibilities that may open up for this sci-fi MMO if planetary colonization or terrestrial gameplay are introduced. In fact, he decided to make this the basis of his next EVE Online contest. It's one we think might interest some of Massively's readers, particularly as the contest winner will get to grill interview an EVE developer on the MicroWarpCast podcast.
Video interview focuses on emergent gameplay in EVE Online
Part of what's so interesting about video games, and MMOs specifically, is that players often do things the game designers never envisioned. This is especially the case with a sandbox MMO like EVE Online where the developers provide a setting and the players establish their own virtual society of sorts. The topic of emergent gameplay in EVE came up in a recent video interview from the Nordic Game Conference, where our friend Petter Mårtensson from Gamereactor spoke with CCP Games Executive Producer Nathan "Oveur" Richardsson. Their conversation touches upon what the players are doing with wormhole exploration (with around 2500 uncharted solar systems) and CCP's excitement when player alliances clash and create their own stories of conflict. The interview also covers Walking in Stations (avatars), the COSMOS social network that will tie in with EVE, and the company's intent to alter 0.0 space with more tools to build empires and more incentives to get people out there into these lawless regions. Stick with us for a video embed of the Gamereactor interview with CCP's Nathan Richardsson.
EVE Online developer trademarks 'DUST 514'
EVE Online developer CCP Games is set to announce its upcoming project at the swiftly approaching GDC Europe in a little under two weeks. The identity of said project has heretofore been unknown, but a recent trademark filing may have parted the veil -- the company just reserved the title DUST 514, as well as the gas mask-equipped logo you see above.What could be the premise of this new title? Our MMO-lovin' brethren over at Massively have spun a few theories, including the overdue appearance of the oft-rumored World of Darkness MMO, as well as an EVE Online spin-off game (as evidenced by the similar-looking logo, also seen above). Our hypothesis? Given that 514 is the area code for areas in the province of Quebec, we're guessing CCP is working on an MMO about Canadian silt.
CCP Games trademark filing hints at new game: DUST 514
What does "DUST 514" have to do with EVE Online? That's something we're very curious to know at Massively. A recent trademark filing from CCP Games for DUST 514, submitted by Atlanta-based attorney Steven M. Kushner, is described as providing 'entertainment services' and an 'on-line computer game'. If you look at the logo of a gas mask above a striped pattern, it bears more than a passing resemblance to the EVE Online logo. The trademark filing description reads: "The mark consists of a masked face with white sunken eyes and a round opening at the mouth. There are two parallel thick lines on either side of the jaw of the face which are a parallel to a third line which runs across the bottom of the face and dips into a V at the center." Definitely not a coincidence.
