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Black Friday deal for EVE players: 50% off EON Magazine and ISK Guide
Black Friday is upon us, bringing us countless offers on everything from online games to toasters. MMM Publishing announced an enticing offer today of 50% off issues of EON Magazine, the official magazine of EVE Online. The offer also extends to MMM's other EVE publications: The ISK guide, EVE Strategic Maps and a poster pack. These are all paper-based products that will have to be sent via post, and unfortunately the price reduction doesn't extend to postage. For details on how to get in on this deal, head over to the official EON blog. EON is published quarterly and has recently reaching its 25th issue. The magazine has a professional quality to it, and interestingly the only advertisements you'll see in it are for in-game EVE Online corporations and services. The Industrial Sized Knowledgebase is a professionally laid out print copy of the most comprehensive guide to EVE ever released. A basic version is available for free as a PDF, and the purchased product is an extended reproduction delivered as a colossal ring-bound reference manual. EVE Strategic Maps is an accurate map of New Eden ready to be filled with post-it notes on big finds, wars and travel routes.
EVE Evolved: EVE isn't the only game with PLEX
The past several years have seen a complete revolution in the online gaming market, and with it the MMO industry as we know it. An industry once dominated by monthly subscriptions is now rapidly giving way to games with free-to-play, freemium and hybrid payment models. EVE Online developer CCP Games has repeatedly expressed concern that EVE could go the way of the dinosaurs if it doesn't adapt its business model to this new market. While I'm forced to agree with the general sentiment behind that statement, I don't think the developers at CCP recognise just how far ahead of the curve they've been with their own business model since the introduction of the 30-day Pilot's License EXtension (PLEX). PLEX essentially allow players to pay for an EVE subscription with in-game ISK, and it provides a legitimate way for players to buy ISK in a way that doesn't harm the in-game economy. It's a clever system that undercuts illicit RMT business, generates additional revenue for the company, and has even been used for charity drives, but EVE isn't the only game to use the system. The success of PLEX in EVE has spurred several other MMOs to follow suit over the years, both in the subscription-based and free-to-play arenas. Runes of Magic, TERA, Star Trek Online and even World of Warcraft have borrowed a page from CCP's book in one way or another, and it's paying off for them big time. In this week's EVE Evolved, I put the PLEX system under the microscope to find out exactly what makes it tick, and I look at other MMOs implementing similar systems.
GDC Online 2011: CCP on virtual goods in EVE Online
Remember Monoclegate? CCP sure does, and at GDC this week, the company reflected on some lessons learned from its introduction of virtual goods to EVE Online. Associate Producer Ben Cockerill from CCP games offered a candid look at what the team learned through both player response and market data. While the initial launch of virtual goods in Incarna sparked a fierce objection on the forums and even in-game protests and riots, things have settled down quite a bit, and CCP seems confident that it is headed in the right direction now. Read on for a look at why virtual goods were introduced into EVE Online and what the team has learned so far.
The Lawbringer: What World of Warcraft can learn from other microtransaction models, part 1
Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Mathew McCurley takes you through the world running parallel to the games we love and enjoy, full of rules, regulations, pitfalls and traps. How about you hang out with us as we discuss some of the more esoteric aspects of the games we love to play? Microtransactions are here to stay. We were wary and scared in the beginning -- it was a brave new world, having the gall to ask consumers for a couple of bucks for horse armor. DLC (downloadable content) and microtransactions evolved over time to include better customization, new missions and levels, convenience purchases, and more. The industry began to shape itself around the growing need for better revenue models, as well as conforming to the needs and wants of players while remaining (hopefully) pure in motive. With the huge success of the free-to-play model in the United States and Europe, a feat which many said was not going to go over too well outside of the Asian markets, paying for your game over time instead of up front has become a staple, an afterthought, to gamers. World of Warcraft isn't going true free-to-play any time soon, of course. The subscription model works for WoW in a fairly unique way. The number of global subscriptions for WoW make up such a huge, defined income that removing that income from the table in favor of the "5-percenters," the people who presumably pay for items in-game, would be almost criminal in terms of corporate mismanagement -- unless, of course, you could make more money on those 5-percenters than you do on 11.4 million monthly subscriptions, which seems like a hefty move to make.
Free for All: EVE drama due to bolster waning TV soap schedule
Much was said recently about the latest EVE Online "drama." If you've talked and written about MMORPGs as long as I have, you'd be very rich if you were paid a nickel every time you heard the word. Drama, when applied to the world of MMOs, ends up feeling like a funeral for an insect... more than a little dramatic. As someone who has played EVE a bit off and on (I have a six-year-old account, but only a 10,000,000-SP character), I was more than a little surprised at the response -- but not really surprised. In fact, the recent drama -- hell, any EVE drama -- comes off as rather humorous. The same thing happened when World of Warcraft began selling the infamous sparklepony or when Lord of the Rings Online decided to sell a special skeleton steed in its cash shop (I was lucky enough to get one during the holiday event). Players screamed that they would be canceling, that they would protest in some form or another, and that they would never buy a product from the developer, go anywhere near anyone who shared the same name as any of the developers, or even utter the name of their poor, lost avatars again. Yet, here we are. Every time something like this happens, it happens for a few distinct reasons. Click past the cut and I'll fill you in.
The Lawbringer: Paying for addons and APIs
Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Running parallel to the games we love and enjoy is a world full of rules, regulations, pitfalls and traps. How about you hang out with us as we discuss some of the more esoteric aspects of the games we love to play? Not unlike most topics featured here on The Lawbringer, this one started with a blog post and a subsequent link to said blog post. CCP, the creators of MMO darling EVE Online, recently announced that players and customers could charge for third-party applications, utilities, and websites as long as the creator purchased a license. This is a fairly unprecedented move. CCP is probably the only company who could get away with this right now, but more on that later. This story got my mind spinning about what this means for data feeds all over the MMO world, how Blizzard's free APIs coming out soon will change the way people make apps and utilities for WoW, and some thoughts on for-pay addons. MMOs have spawned an impressive gray market of features, apps, utilities, and services that exist only because players are willing to partake in them. From Eve Online ship "fitting" apps to gold selling, the gray market lives alongside virtual worlds, and it is fascinating to think that these industries only exist because of the success of the genre. Recently, Blizzard previewed its own APIs that it would be releasing for web developers and app creators, providing easy-to-parse information to these development communities. This stuff isn't free, of course, which is interesting amidst the news that CCP would be charging a license fee for for-pay versions of utilities that make use of its APIs.
'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.
Controversy brewing over EVE Online microtransactions
When we first heard that EVE Online was planning to add microtransaction options, players were most concerned with the effect of microtransaction items on gameplay. CCP was quick to reassure players that microtransactions would focus on vanity items for Incarna and no gameplay-affecting items would be released. Fast-forward to today, when the first phase of Incarna finally went live along with the new Noble Exchange cash shop. As promised, the store contained only vanity items for Incarna, starting with a series of alternative clothing options. The one thing we didn't really think of while we worried about microtransactions affecting EVE's gameplay was price. The current prices on items in the Noble Exchange are far above typical microtransaction charges and an order of magnitude higher than expected. Items in the Noble Exchange are bought with a new currency called Aurum, 3500 of which can be created from one 30-day pilot's license (PLEX). With the price of PLEX set at around $19.95 US, players can expect to pay over $20 for a skirt, $25 for a blouse, and more than a whopping $68 for the much-desired ocular implant monocle. In a bizarre twist, many of the clothing options for sale at the Noble Exchange actually cost more than real clothes of the same type. As PLEX can be bought from other players for ISK, however, most players will not be spending their own cash on these items. PLEX prices have already spiked to over 400 million each, putting the price of the monocle at over 1.3 billion ISK. CCP could not provide any more information on the issue, but we expect an issue this hot will prompt an announcement.
EVE Evolved: Emergence in the sandbox
We often hear about the amazing things players get up to in EVE Online, from full-scale political wars and massive heists to collaborative business ventures and high-profile kills. While we can all enjoy these tales of high-powered exploits from afar, they can be difficult to relate to the actual game experience. Most of us will never be the puppet master pulling the strings of alliance warfare or the mastermind of some great theft, but we don't have to be. Smaller examples of emergent and opportunistic gameplay exist all over EVE in the daily play of thousands of individuals. I've always thought of EVE less as a game and more as a giant social sandbox with spaceships -- a story about what people do when left alone in each other's company. Players naturally take on roles for which they have a strong aptitude, crafting completely new gameplay styles for themselves in the process. The entrepreneurs among us spy opportunities never imagined by the game's developers, tech-savvy individuals sell web-services, and artists craft propaganda for recruitment or a war on their enemy's morale. Countless players carve their own game out of the EVE universe, and there's no reason you can't be one of them. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at some of the unique gameplay experiences players have engineered for themselves over the years and the community that makes EVE what it is.
EVE anniversary lottery offers over 40 billion ISK in prizes
Since the beginning of time, or at least the beginning of the EVE Online universe, players have gambled their ISK for a chance to win it big in the BIG lottery. First launching on May 13th 2003, the BIG lottery has sold over 48,000 tickets worth a total of over 613 billion ISK. Each year, a special bumper edition of the game is launched to commemorate the birthday of both EVE Online and the BIG lottery, with CCP donating some awesome prizes. Last year's seventh anniversary lottery included billions of ISK in prizes, including a free year of game time, a battleship model from the EVE store, and more donated by CCP. This year's eighth anniversary lottery has a similarly massive prize fund, with official prizes of 25 billion ISK and 10 billion ISK for the first and second place winners respectively. The EVE Online Hold'em poker league has sponsored two additional prizes of 5 billion ISK and a full year of EVE game time. To top things off, CCP will be giving each of the four winners a $50 gift certificate to be used in the EVE store. Head over to the official forum thread or website for details on how to enter the contest. Tickets must be purchased before Sunday 15th May, and the drawing will occur on Monday the 16th at 2:00 p.m. EDT (18:00 EVE time) in the "BIG Games" in-game chat channel. Good luck to all those who enter!
EVE Online players raise over $44,000 for Japan relief fund
Never let it be said that gamers don't have big hearts. When Japan was hit by an earthquake and the ensuing tsunami, people around the world stepped up to donate to disaster relief programs. Several MMO developers have made substantial donations using profits from their games. NCSoft made a huge donation of 500 million yen (6.3 million USD), and Sony Online Entertainment donated 300 million yen (3.6 million U.S. dollars). SOE, gPotato, Perfect World Entertainment and Hi-Rez studios have all been running schemes to help players donate, ranging from special once-only microtransaction items to just donating a percentage of all cash shop proceeds to charity. EVE Online's developer CCP Games has encouraged donations through their unique PLEX system. Players who couldn't afford to donate cash were encouraged to buy PLEX in-game using ISK and donate them to the relief fund. CCP would then scrap the PLEX items and donate their full purchase value to charity. The scheme has been very successful at raising money in previous disasters, raising over 40,000 USD for the Haitian earthquake fund and roughly a further 20,000 USD for the flooding in Pakistan. In a new devblog, CCP Fallout has released the final results of EVE's charity drive. A total of 2549 PLEX, each worth 17.5 USD, was donated to the scheme by players. CCP will be donating the full value of 44,607.50 USD to the Red Cross in the name the EVE Online community, and will be paying for all of the tax and management costs themselves. EVE players have now donated a total of 108,000 USD through the PLEX for Good scheme. Head over to the devblog for the details of the charity drive and some interesting information on three players who helped make it a success.
Donate EVE ISK to help disaster relief efforts in Japan
When it comes to collecting aid for disaster relief, EVE Online developer CCP Games has a unique way of helping players donate. While many MMOs ask for donations or release limited-edition cash shop items, CCP has managed to devise a way for players to donate in-game currency to help people in the real world. During the relief effort for last year's earthquake in Haiti, CCP began accepting donations of 30-day Pilot's License EXtensions (PLEX) for their full monetary value in game time. With the recent devestation in Japan, CCP has once again asked for the EVE community's help to raise money for relief aid. Each PLEX bought on the in-game market and donated to charity represents 30 days of game time that someone in the world originally paid for with cash but that won't be redeemed into game time. Because of this, CCP can donate the full cash value of that game time to a registered relief charity without taking a big loss. CCP absorbs all management and tax fees to ensure that 100% of the donated game time's value is passed on to registered charities (in this case, the Red Cross). To donate to the relief effort in Japan, EVE players are encouraged to buy PLEX on the open market and contract them to the character "CCP PLEX For Good" before March 31st. As usual, EVE Online's normally permissive rules on scamming have been suspended in relation to the charity drive. Anyone attempting to scam players out of ISK or PLEX using this charity drive will be dealt with harshly. With notable rich players and corporations able to potentially donate thousands of dollars' worth of PLEX, this charity drive is sure to raise a substantial amount of money for disaster-stricken Japan.
The Daily Grind: Have you ever bought gold?
Practically every MMO ever made has some kind of currency-based trade system, and if that currency takes time or effort to acquire, you can bet someone somewhere will pay hard cash to shortcut the process. Although most game EULAs forbid the practice of buying currency for cash, players are often unaware that they could be banned if caught. Websites selling virtual currency are often linked to shady dealings such as harvesting credit card details, key-logging buyers' computers or even just not delivering purchased goods. The effects are often felt in-game too, as methods used to generate currency for sale often include abuse of exploits, farming limited resources using bots, and hacking accounts. Developers of subscription MMOs have fought against the RMT (real money trade) business using a variety of strategies. In late 2009, CCP Games banned 6,200 accounts linked to botting and RMT in one day as part of operation Unholy Rage. RuneScape developer Jagex took an even tougher stance, putting severe restrictions on the movement of gold between players. This week, we heard the news that a leaked client database from an EVE ISK-selling organisation had named hundreds of EVE Online characters as buyers. While many of the characters named were temporary accounts created to receive ISK anonymously, life has been made very hard for all characters named in the leak. So have you ever bought gold, ISK or any other MMO currency? If so, what were your reasons for buying it, and what would you do if your character were suddenly exposed as a buyer or banned? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
EVE ISK buyers outed in database leak
Beware, EVE Online ISK buyers! Big brother is watching you. Actually, the whole internet is watching you too, thanks to an insider leak at the IskBank.com currency-trading site. EVEnews24.com, a fan-run news site dedicated to the goings-on in and around CCP's New Eden, has published a huge list of virtual currency buyers that earned IskBank some $290,000 between April 2010 and March 4th, 2011. As you might expect, there's a colossal discussion thread on the official EVE forums, and CCP has issued a brief comment indicating its awareness of the situation. Thus far there has been no mention of potential action against violators of the the game's EULA, but EVEnews24 has posted some reactions from a few of the formerly anonymous buyers. EVEnews24's anonymous source apparently provided a fairly complete record of IskBank's customer and order database, including names and dates, products purchased, and email and IP addresses. EVEnews24 is withholding the personal information of the affected parties but has published a complete list of in-game character names.
EVE's Industrial Sized Knowledgebase guide gets a makeover
Of all the MMOs on the market today, EVE Online has perhaps one of the steepest learning curves. This is something the game's developer, CCP Games, has been trying to tackle through improved tutorials and updates to the new player experience. While CCP makes progress on that front, the EVE player community has made its own efforts in helping new players by producing helpful guides and tools. Last year, EVE players Laci and Mermalior released the impressive Industrial-Sized Knowledgebase guide, an exhaustive guide to practically everything in EVE. The guide was translated from its popular Hungarian version and released online for free as a PDF download. Good news came last month when the publishers of EON magazine announced that they were teaming up with Laci and Mermalior to produce an updated print version of the guide. The first part of that work is now complete, with the MMM Publishing team having updated the guide with information from the Incursion expansion and given it a huge graphical overhaul. The guide has now been laid out with MMM's signature EVE style, and the PDF now has a very professional navigation system. As promised, the updated guide is available completely for free as a PDF download. A printed version will be available at some point in the future, which will be sold on the EVE store.
EVE Online Industrial-Sized Knowedgebase to be released in print form
Back in August, we brought you the news that an exhaustive Hungarian EVE Online guide had been translated into English and released online for free. The Industrial-Sized Knowledgebase (or ISK for short) represented years of collaborative efforts between players to produce the ultimate all-inclusive strategy guide for EVE Online. The creators of the gargantuan guide have now teamed up with CCP Games and MMM Publishing to bring the entire book up to a professional standard and update it with information on the Incursion expansion. MMM Publishing is the team behind the hugely successful official EVE magazine E-ON. The company's previous collaborations with EVE players and CCP include print copies of EVE Strategic Maps and the EVE Career Guide. A basic version of the new updated ISK guide will be released for free as a downloadable PDF document on February 1st. Following that, the team will then begin work on an extended 500-page premium edition, which will be available for purchase as a digital download or a full print copy some time this spring. The final price and release date have not yet been decided, but as the ISK guide is the closest thing EVE has to a full manual, the print copy is sure to be a popular item.
One Shots: Don't hate - appreciate!
With the release date and pricing announced for DC Universe Online, beta players are busy getting their feedback and bug reports in before the end of testing. Another thing many are doing is snapping tons of great screenshots, as our One Shots mailbox would seem to indicate! Today we have a great image from Isk who captured this recently, and writes in with a very short note to explain: "Here is my DC Universe Online character. Isis was jealous of my outfit, so she sent a couple of mummies to try to take it from me." Are you enjoying super-heroic (or villainous) adventures in your MMO of choice? If so, send in a screenshot of your hero (or villain) doing something awesome to us here at oneshots@massively.com! Be sure you include your name, the name of the game, and a description of what we're seeing. Yours could be the next image we feature here on Massively. %Gallery-85937%
EVE Evolved: The RMT problem
Of all the problems that plague MMOs, RMT (real money trading) is perhaps the most disruptive to normal gameplay. By design, almost every MMO has some form of tradable currency that can be collected through normal gameplay. The time it takes to collect that currency has an inherent value, which varies from player to player as not every player values his free time at the same level. It's inevitable that cash-rich players who value their time highly will often want to shortcut normal gameplay by buying the currency directly for cash. The negative impact of RMT and its associated problems is felt in every popular MMO, and EVE Online is no exception. The direct balance issues inherent in allowing players to buy ISK with cash are just the tip of a very unpleasant iceberg. Players who buy ISK from shady websites and services are the reason that the rest of us have to put up with spam-bots in popular chat channels, rampant account hacking, and macros taking up a disproportionately large cut of EVE's in-game resources and server load. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look into the problems caused by RMT, why macro-farming operations have become so wide-spread, and what CCP has done to combat this growing problem.
EVE Online gambling group robbed of 125 billion ISK and a friend
Much of EVE Online's MMO gameplay is governed by the in-game economy, and whenever you've got large amounts of virtual money (ISK, in EVE's terms) passed around, you're going to have a little theft from time to time. It happened again just recently, when a group of players called Somer.Blink (named after founder Somer), who'd been running some in-game lotteries, had 125 billion ISK worth of cash and items stolen out of one of their in-game safehouses. Like most MMO schemes of this nature, someone had access who shouldn't have, and in this case it was a player called Daquaris. Daq, as his former friends call him, had been a trusted member of an in-game alliance a while ago, and was one of the players responsible for handing out lottery prizes. He decided to end that trust, though -- he grabbed the items and cash out of the group's Jita hangar and split, eventually selling it back to the group for billions of ISK in ransom. Don't worry about Somer.Blink, though -- they're actually pretty blasé about the crime, and say they're more bummed about the lost friend than the lost materials. "Had Daq asked for exactly the things he had stolen, Somer would have given them unflinchingly, without a doubt," says one member of the group. "Blink can always earn more ISK, it's the loss of someone we trusted as a valued part of the business, and a long time friend." Go figure -- in a game mostly about spaceships and spreadsheets, turns out it's the people who matter most.
EVE gambling website SOMER.Blink is the target of 125 billion ISK theft
reddit_url = "http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/11/16/eve-gambling-website-somer-blink-is-the-target-of-125-billion-is/"; reddit_target="gaming"; Tweet It seems like almost every month there's another huge theft or insidious kill in EVE Online, with last month's 30 billion ISK suicide attack and September's record-breaking 850 billion ISK investment scam. In EVE, theft and piracy are part of the game, and players have to make a conscious effort not to put themselves at risk. Trust the wrong person with access to your assets or let your guard down and you might regret it. That lesson was learned the hard way by EVE gambling website SOMER.Blink, as last night it became the target of a 125 billion ISK theft. The thief, Daquaris of Test Alliance Please Ignore, had access to a stash of ISK, PLEX and items as part of his role -- delivering prizes to Blink winners. Most of the prize-distributors for SOMER.Blink are real-life friends of the site's creator Somerset Mahm, a situation that limits the potential for thefts like this. Although Daquaris wasn't a real-life friend of Somer, he was a trusted old friend from a previous alliance. When reached for comment, SOMER.Blink corporation member Andrev Nox had the following to say: "The theft was an eventuality we were prepared for. We certainly didn't expect it from Daq, obviously, but we expected it might happen eventually. The main wallet was regularly cleared to a separate corp's wallet as a 'rainy day' fund. Because of that, Blink is still fully solvent, solid, and functional. Somer has [been], and always will be, an incredibly generous and good friend to all of us. Had Daq asked for exactly the things he had stolen, Somer would have given them unflinchingly, without a doubt. Blink can always earn more ISK, it's the loss of someone we trusted as a valued part of the business, and a long time friend."
