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EVE Evolved: Fanfest 2013 video roundup
Last month saw the huge tenth anniversary EVE Online Fanfest, a three-day convention packed full of exclusive reveals, behind-the-scenes talks, and community events. This year's Fanfest was the biggest one yet, celebrating EVE's tenth anniversary with special guest speakers from the scientific community, the reveal of a new virtual reality dogfighter, DUST 514's launch, and details of the upcoming Odyssey expansion. Massively was there to bring you coverage of the big news as it happened, and CCP streamed some of the key talks and events live to viewers at home. This year's Fanfest sold out so quickly that many people who wanted to go didn't get a chance to, and only a select few talks were shown on the public livestream. With such a packed event schedule, even players in attendance couldn't be there for every interesting talk. Thankfully, CCP recorded over 30 of the most anticipated events and has now uploaded the videos to YouTube. Highlights include the Make EVE Real videos, the EVE keynote, the CCP Presents Keynote, and the talks on how DUST 514 integrates with the EVE economy. In this week's EVE Evolved, I round up all of the EVE Fanfest videos in a handy list.
EVE is Real contests open for voting
EVE is Real has been online for a few weeks now, and CCP is ramping up the publicity machine in order to highlight what it's billing as a "memory museum" for its 8-year old sci-fi sandbox. Yep, EVE Online really has been around since 2003, and that's plenty of time to accumulate tons of images and video footage, some 4,000 examples of which are now viewable on the EVE is Real website. Aside from ogling all the internet spaceships, visitors to the site can also get in on the voting to determine the best of the best when it comes to capturing stills and making movies in New Eden. Users may vote for one image and one video prize each day, and winners will receive one of 20 video cards (for the image category) and one high-end Dell PC (for the video category). Voting runs through September 1st, so lay in a course for the EVE is Real website today!
EVE is Real reaches first content milestone, Aurum gifted to active account holders
A couple of weeks ago we told you about CCP's new EVE is Real web endeavor. The ad campaign essentially asks capsuleers to upload artwork, screenshots, videos, and other player-generated metagame content to a new web portal designed to show off EVE's emergent gameplay. CCP kicked off the campaign by offering in-game incentives based on the number of player uploads, and today the company has sent out a PR blast touting the fact that the first milestone has been reached. Players have uploaded over 1,000 pieces of content, triggering a gift of 1,000 in-game Aurum to every active EVE account (you'll recall that Aurum is the controversial new cash shop currency that surfaced with the Incarna expansion). So what will 1,000 Aurum buy your pod pilot at the Noble Exchange? As of today the pickings are somewhat slim. The only offering in that particular price range is a pair of black men's boots.
EVE Is Real website presents visual record of EVE, hosts launch contests
Two weeks ago, EVE Online developer CCP Games announced a new advertising campaign with a twist. An external marketing company was hired to create a unique virtual museum of EVE artwork, screenshots and videos that would function as a growing visual record of what EVE means to its players. People interested in seeing what EVE is all about could then skim through the site and hopefully get a better impression of what it's like to be part of the EVE community. Players got a head-start in uploading content to the EVE Is Real website last week and we've been eagerly awaiting the website officially going live. Although no official announcement has been made, it appears that the EVE Is Real website has launched. To encourage players to upload their work, the site's creators are running launch contests with some huge prizes. The top 20 images uploaded to the site will win their owners a brand new EVGA GeForce GTX 460 SE graphics card, and the video that gets the most votes will secure its creator an expensive Alienware gaming desktop machine. Submissions end on August the 18th, and the voting phase then takes place between August the 18th and September the 1st. If you've created some nice screenshots, an epic EVE video or even an awesome My Little Pony version of the latest EVE trailer, submit it before August the 18th for your chance to win. In an interesting move, CCP will be rewarding every single EVE player with several thousand of its new microtransaction currency Aurum if the website takes off. A running total is maintained of the number of times images and videos on the site have been shared via Facebook and Twitter, and at certain share levels every single EVE player will be gifted a lump sum of Aurum.
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.
