New Eden Banter #2 — Topic announcement: You are the Executive Producer

Every player has opinions about how EVE Online should be run. Most of us mutter them into comms after a bad patch, or rant about them on Discord, Reddit, or even a blog post for the old timer like me!

In this second New Eden Banter, you get to put those opinions on the record.

This month's topic

CCP just handed you the keys to EVE Online. You're the new Executive Producer — full authority over development, technology, marketing, monetization, and community. The only mandate: make EVE thrive. What's your vision? What do you prioritize, what do you cut, and what sacred cow do you slaughter first?

What do you do?

Weekend refit: My Merlin gets teeth and my skill queue a trim

These past few weeks, I've had the focus of a fruit fly on speed. Everything seemed like a shiny new toy. So this weekend, I sat down and took an honest look at what I actually wanted to do over the coming weeks, and also longer term.

On one side, there was PvP. I've been wanting to dabble for a while now, and I had a small collection of Merlins sitting in hangars without a proper fit between them. I knew the ship could brawl. I just hadn't put in the work to make it happen.

Then there was the Hecate I'd recently purchased. I'd started training for it with this idea of testing it as a fast-align, small-cargo hauler — something to replace the Sunesis now that the Catalyst update clipped its wings. A T3 tactical destroyer doing courier work. Admittedly a strange choice, but if the numbers worked, it could make for an interesting story.

And finally, blockade runners. Rixx brought them up during our last recording of The Safe Spot (YouTube | Spotify). He'd mentioned the Amarr Prorator as a solid ship for the job. So I started poking around the intertubes, and that's when I came across the Caldari Crane. Love at first sight. Covert cloak, decent cargo, warps cloaked — everything the Sunesis wishes it could do.

So there I was: a skill queue that looked like a capsuleer suffering from an identity crisis, ships scattered across half a dozen stations, and Merlins without a proper PvP fit. Something had to give. 

I needed to put things in order before this mess became my undoing.

When CCP snubs its most dedicated creator, it's not just his loss — it's ours

First things first: congratulations to every creator who made the EVE Creator Awards shortlist. This is CCP's first crack at a formal recognition program, and the names on that list represent real work, real passion, and real contributions to New Eden. 

Well deserved, all of you!

This post isn't about any of them. It's about a name that's missing.

Earlier today, CCP Games published the finalists for the EVE Creator Awards — eight categories covering streamers, video creators, podcasters, writers, app developers, and more. It's a genuine effort to celebrate what makes this community unique. But when I scrolled through all forty finalists, one absence hit me immediately.

Rixx Javix is nowhere on this list.