Video Games and Sex

This is starting to pop-up everywhere (here, here and here) but I still wanted to share it with you.

A Professor at Savannah College of Art and Design, Daniel Floyd, has summed-up very eloquently the current state of sex in video games, and the whole "controversy" around it. Very well put together.

Enjoy and pass around!

EVE Online Speedlinking for May 26th, 2008

Wow, I take a 3 day break off my Google Reader RSS feed, and a whole bunch of great posts and amazing news happens! Well, I've learned my lesson, from now on I'm never ever leaving the site of my PC. Either that, or I spend some money on buying myself a laptop instead of a 2nd and 3rd VX922 (more on that later).

So here's the news in the past week.

• CSM election results are out!
• CSM: The Results are in
  
• The Council Members
  
• The Votes in numbers
  
• Vice Chairman Steele
• The CSM Assembly Hall - Make your Voices heard!
• In the News:
• CCP Announces Player Council Election Results
• So what is EVE Online's player council all about?
• Delegates for EVE's first council of stellar management announced
• Reflections in a flat - Zapatero on the election results.
  
• "A Life in Three Acts" - A new EVE Chronicle
• Experiences of Empyrean Age on SiSi. (little update) - An update on Empyrean Age
• New Eden's virtual reporters - Massively.com on the ISD.
• Warp Drive Active Episode #37 - A behemoth of a podcast worth every second! A must!!
• EVEcast has got a new look and a new address!
• The possibility of AvA in EVE. - Keith expands upon my earlier FPS EVE post.
  

If EVE Online were a First-Person Shooter...

...it would probably look something close to Gears of War.

These days, when I'm not playing EVE and I need to get a quick fix of adrenaline, I slap in Gears of War in my 360 and start shooting and chopping Locusts like there's no tomorrow. And ever since I first saw trailers for this game, it's always reminded of what EVE Online might look like if an FPS were designed around it.

What I wouldn't give to play through a level based on the Man-Eater chronicle of EON issue #008, or maybe Legionnaire back in issue #001. Gears of War has that dark gritty and horror feel to it that would be the perfect setting for an EVE Online FPS. Don't you think?

And speaking of Gears of War, here's a clip that shows some of the action that we'll get to enjoy when Gears of War 2 comes out this November.


You can download the HD video here if you're interested!

Move out!

Empyrean Age High Quality Teaser Video

Thought you'd enjoy a high quality version of the Empyrean Age teaser which I found here. You can also download the video from here. Enjoy!

EVE Online Speedlinking for May 19th, 2008

Well the big event of the last week has of course been the release of the teaser and mini-site for the up-coming expansion "Empyrean Age" which is due soon. Besides this major news from CCP, the EVE blogging community has been very busy with a number of great posts being published. Here's the one that made the list for me.

• Loads of news about Empyrean Age
• Empyrean Age mini-site
• Features
• Interviews
• The Novel
• Screenshots
• Wallpapers
• CCP Greyscale's blog - Empyrean Age and all that
  
• EVE Bloggers reactions
• Seems CCP pulled off a virtual 9/11
• Empyrean Age on the Horizon
• Empyrean Age bringing Factional Warfare to EVE Online
• You Saw a What Crash into a WHAT?
• Malkalen- Ishukone HQ rammed!
  
• Warp Drive Active
• Recorded Live Dev Blog
• WDA Comic
• The Empyrean Age is born in fire - Massively.com reports
• Singularity Testing started this past Saturday
  
• All 3 EVE Podcast got an episode released this week
• The Drone Bay #10
  
• Warp Drive Active #36
  
• Warp Drive Active: Industry #4
• My kind of EVE Mission - Wilhelm on his latest 5M ISK transport mission!
• Apotheosis Now! - On the gift from CCP commemorating EVE 5th Anniversary
• Massively.com reports on Ambulation
• Video of CCP artist's Ambulation presentation available
• The Daily Grind: How will Ambulation change EVE Online?
• Learn from me and do not do... - Manasi learns an important lesson
• The Serenity of Mining - Votrian is at peace with the Cosmic Universe. Hmmmmmm....
  

Amazing Empyrean Age video

Well, I just got back online after an ISP hick-up which cut me off from the rest of the world for 3 hours - an eternity if you're someone like me. But now I'm getting 6.1Mbps speeds, so I'm not complaining!

OK, back to business. Yesterday afternoon I started listening to the Live Dev Blog on Empyrean Age which was being broadcast in-game. Unfortunately I couldn't go through the whole presentation. I later found out that Winterblink linked a download of it through his new WDA site - all thanks to Ezraniel who recorded the show and got it hosted. So for those like me who missed part of it, this is a blessing.

While listening to the presentation, I was checking my feeds and got words of the new Empyrean Age mini-site through my fellow EVE bloggers (Morphisat and Nuyan - thanks guys!). So I headed to the site and started watching the teaser video. Because of the high requests the video was really choppy. And has been so (even this morning) since then. Fortunately, I found the video on YouTube. So here it is below for your enjoyment!

Oh, and before I go, I wanted to let you know that I've ordered Tony Gonzales' book "The Empyrean Age" which according to Amazon (CDN, USA, UK) I should be getting by the 23rd (funny thing about Amazon is that only the UK site got the title right. Go figure!). Which means I've got to finish Steven Erikson's "Deadhouse Gate" by then. Shouldn't be a problem!

EVE Strategic Maps is on its way!

This morning I got wonderful news that my copy of ESM had shipped and was on its way from across the pond. From what I've been told the pre-orders were very numerous and the guys at MMMPublishing were busy packaging each copy to be sent to their proud owners!

Just to let you know that (finally) your copy(ies) of the long-awaited EVE Strategic Maps has (have) now shipped. Yes, your EVE experience is about to
become a whole lot easier...

When you receive your package you will, we hope, appreciate the reason for the delay - a completely new region coming in the Empyrean Age expansion - Black Rise. EVE Strategic Maps includes this new region, and you are one of the first to have this advance information for an area of New Eden not yet open for business. Use that knowledge wisely...

Suffice to say, thank you for your patience. It is not possible, or realistic at least, to email every buyer individually, hence this 'form' email. Some of you only ordered in the last 48 hours - but for some it is nearly 48 days ago that EVE Strategic Maps became the most eagerly awaited drop from the mailman.

We hope you like it. Serenity Steele has worked tirelessly for many, many months to bring you the ultimate in EVE geography. We applaud his efforts, as will you. Here at MMM Publishing, we are now delighted to bring it to fruition. Now, time to wait for that thud on the door mat...

Cheers

The E-ON / ESM team

Now if Canada Post can do it's job properly and not butcher the package, I'll be ecstatic!!

Three EVE podcast in three days!

This is the week of the EVE Online podcasts it seems! First WDA: Industry #4 came out on Monday, then Warp Drive Active #36 the next day, and finally The Drone Bay #10 yesterday! I'll have the show notes for the Drone Bay in a next post.

So start up iTunes, or head over to VirginWorlds to download the shows!!

Happy listening!

The 10 Sexiest Forum Signatures

OK, so sexy may not be the exact word. Great looking would be more accurate. But that did get your attention right?

Every time I visit the EVE Forums, one of the things I enjoy is looking at the signatures - besides reading the latest thread wars of course. Not everyone uses signatures - hell I'd say most don't - still, I've always thought that it gave some hint as to the kind of player you were or the type of corporation you were in. I've had quite a few myself in the past (see here).

Anyways, I thought I'd show you the ones that I've picked up over the last few months. There listed here in know particular order.

Enjoy!










Sexy eh!

EVE Online Speedlinking for May 13th, 2008

Well, EVE turned 5 years old over the last week. Wow, that's 1,824 days one could have been training a single character. I wonder how many skill points that would be? If anyone can figure that one out, I'd love to know! Anyways, here are the items for the past week.

• Have Clone, Will Travel: Ambulation in the EVE tutorial - My very own article over at Massively.com
• A video of Noah "Hammerhead" Ward - Dates back from the last fan fest
• EVE Skill System Demystified Part 1 and Part 2 - Brendan's excellent piece on the EVE Online Skill System.
• A Survey over at PlayOn on how we create and customize our avatars - With Ambulation coming, I thought this post was appropriate.
• EVE Online Misconceptions - A good article which I've talked about earlier.
• EVE Online Celebrates Five Years With A Surprise - Kotaku on CCP's milestone.
• EVE Info - Just noticed they had updated their site.
• What is this council of stellar management anyway? - CCP Xhagen updates us on the CSM.
• EVE Online Smacktalk: A Primer on How To Do It - Seriously funny piece.
• WarpDriveActive.com goes live! - Blinky's worked hard on this one. Head over to the EVE Forums to let him know what you think!
• The Drone Bay episode #9 got released - But you knew that with your Astrology V skill!
• As well, WDA: Industry episode #4 is finally here - It's been a long time waiting for this one!

Amazing Video of Ambulation Character Creation

The fine folks at TenTonHammer (TTH) have done it again. Earlier this week they released a really cool video of a Comic Con presentation from Ben Mathis, Character Artist at CCP. In the video, Ben goes over the Character Creation process which we'll soon have a chance to play with, when Ambulation comes out - remember that we will all have to redo our character's look when it rolls out.

In the video Ben explains that as they've done with the ships and station with the release of Trinity, they want to move away from cartoony looking avatars and get closer to a realistic and shadowy look. The character creation process looks something like this:

• bloodline
• physique (skinny to fat)
• depending on your weight/height ratio, you will walk differently
• complexion
• facial modifiers (tattoos, scars, make-up, freckles, etc)
• facial hair
• hair styles
• costumes

He goes on to say that avatars will have mood and be allowed to portray facial expression - that depending on your mood your expressions will differ.

He then goes into details about the costumes and interior decor and how professional fashion designers (costumes) and architects (interior decors) worked on Ambulation.

There is a bit of old info, but being able to see CCP's latest work on Ambulation is really amazing.

So head over to TTH and take a look at that video!

/me wipes the drool off my chin...


[see other EVE Online videos]

The Mighty ORE Rorqual in siege mode

A few nights ago PPL members were in a low sec system mining ice. We've established a POS (Player Owned Structure) and have started our mining operation. Before heading out in my trusty (not rusty) Iteron Mark V to haul all that ice, I took some shots of the mighty and impressive Rorqual. Which reminds me, here are 3 videos showing the behemoth going into siege mode, as this one above has.

Have you seen one in transformation?

MMO Blogroll

I've decided on removing all my blogrolls from the sidebar, and instead have them in a post. This way the list is easier to update; it can by commented; you the readers can suggest new blog or cool gaming sites; and finally it makes for better SEO.

The list below is made up of blogs and gaming sites which I follow daily, thanks to Google Reader.

• Ancient Gaming Noob (The)
• Common Sense Gamer (The)
• Cuppytalk
• Deadalus Project (The)
• Destructoid
• Escapist (The)
• GameSetWatch
• Hardcore Casual
• Hudson's Hideout
• Keen and Graev Gaming Blog
• Kill Ten Rats
• Massively
• MMOABC
• MMOCrunch
• MMOG Nation
• MMO Fans
• MMORPG.com
• Mystic Worlds
• OGRank
• Plaguelands
• pΘtshΘt
• Ramblings of a Bildo (The)
• Random Battle
• Rihards Unplugged :: Games
• Scratchpad
• /random
• Van Hemlock
• Virgin Worlds
• WarCry Network
• West Karana
• Xyliana.com

Enjoy!

[LAST EDIT May 11, 2008]

The Drone Bay: Episode 9 - Astrology V Completed

Virgin Worlds Link
EVE Forum Link (please bump!)

Show notes:

Episode 9 is here, and the cards show us that this will be a bit of a long show.

Bring on the Drones:

In the weekly recap, BoB attacks MC in Querious and Period Basis. Crovan's first article goes up on Massively! Also, CK joins the ranks at Massively. Look forward to more from the Drone Bay crew!

The DON'T PANIC topic for this week is fleet interaction, and how to deal with the confusing new boxes and buttons that show up when you join a gang.

Mail gets answered, as usual, and the guys have an mp3 submission!

Tool time returns with EVE Fitting Tool. Don't undock without it!

Back to bloopers this week, and make sure to listen in before the bloopers, after the show, for our first listener segment!

Also, from last week, the video on logical fallacies. A must-read for EVE-O forum dwellers!


Contact Info:

GAX Online Group: The Drone Bay

E-Mail:
dronebay[at]gmail.com (comments/questions for everyone)
crovan[at]eve-mail.net
crazykinux[at]gmail.com
alsedrech[at]gmail.com

Skype: Dronebay

Blogs:
Bitter Old Noob (Crovan)
CrazyKinux's Musing
The Littlest Drone (Alsedrech)

Have Clone, Will Travel - a new EVE column

Earlier today, my first feature was published over at Massively.com. The column, called Have Clone, Will Travel, is of course a play on words on Robert Heinlein's wonderful science fiction novel Have Space Suit - Will Travel. My first article, Ambulation in the EVE tutorial, is about how Ambulation could be used to improve the current EVE Tutorial.

Do not worry, I'll still be posting here on a regular basis, daily if time permits. The fine folks at Massively.com have given me an opportunity I could not refuse. For now, my column will appear weekly, but that may change to bi-weekly if RL gets in the way (summer will soon be upon us here is eastern Canada).

So head over, and let me know your thoughts!

5 Common Misconceptions about EVE Online

The RPG Vault has a great developer interview where they look at the five most common misconceptions people make about EVE Online. Head over and have a look. Here's their lists before you head out:

1. Newbies will never stand a fighting chance against old players
2. EVE is only about combat
3. Mining is the only way to earn money as a rookie
4. You can't enjoy the game if you aren't in a major alliance
5. EVE is not meant for casual players

Here's a few more you could add to the list:

• EVE is just a good looking spreadsheet
• New players can't make a difference
• The EVE Community is a bunch of ruthless hooligan

Can you think of any others?

EVE Online CSM - Have you chosen your candidate?

I've done it! I've cast my vote. I've given a stranger my vote of confidence to bring a level-headed discourse to CCP and improve the game I love so much. I just hope he (or she) stands by his (or her) word.

But I won't tell you who I voted for. I will though, narrow it down for you. You see, I want you to do as I did, and take the time to go through each players profile, read up on his (or her) views and make up your own mind as to who should have the honor of being elected to the 1st ever Council of Stellar Management.

Having gone through the full list of candidates, 14 caught my attention. Of those, I chose one. I'll admit, I'm a little disappointed that I wasn't able to vote for all 9 of the candidates I thought should, in my opinion, make up the CSM. That's what I would have expected. Everyone votes for their 9 candidates and in the end, 9 candidates that (out of the 61 who offered themselves) get to fly to Iceland in June. Doing it that way should have avoided polarized votes, which is likely to happen with the current implementation CCP has chosen. We'll just have to wait for the results now.

Though I won't tell you my choice, I will give you the names of those 14 candidates out of which I made my pick. All of them, had a website, and each showed some effort in trying to convince me that they should get my vote. They took the time to go over their platform and all seemed serious about the CSM. Though EVE is just a game, it's also a hobby in which I invest a good chunk of my time. I'd like whoever will represent me in front of CCP to do it intelligently, convincingly and respectfully. Each of the following candidates convinced me they would.

Here they are, in no particular order:

• Alison Wheeler - Inanna Zuni
• John Richardson - Max Torps
• Brendan Reid - Ben Deridar
  
• Shawn Pilkington - Gritt Pebbledasher
• Paul Mumby - Arduron
• Eva Jobse - Ankhesentapemkah
• Jeremy Jankie - Omber Zombie
• Andrew Cruse - Jade Constantine
• Michael Rasmussen - TornSoul
• Andrew J. Goodwin - Goodwin
• Charlie Erikson - LaVista Vista
• Niall Dologhan - Hardin
• Leanna Jane Evelyn Fulford - Shatana Fulfairas
• Shayne Smart - Serenity Steele

So there you have it. Fourteen dedicated players, who've put considerable thought on the CSM and why they should get our votes. They've done their parts, now its all up to us! Happy voting!

EVE Online Trinity II Screenshot Slideshow

I came across this slideshow browser creator while looking for new templates for my other blogs. I thought I'd use it to share all the Trinity II screenshots I upload to Flickr. So far I've got over 250 screenshots, but that number will rise over time. Just to give you an idea, I've got 1,568 screenshots of Trinity I; EVE's old graphic engine. Yeah, I know, I'm a freak!

Hope you enjoy!

EVE Online Speedlinking for May 5th, 2008

The last week was crazy busy with real life. With the Montreal Canadiens being eliminated by the Philadelphia Flyers last Saturday, I'll now have more time for gaming, EVE and blogging! So here' s the items that caught my attention this past week.

• EVE Fitting Tool - We talked about it in The Drone Bay Podcast #9 (soon to be released)
• Reflection on the state of the economy - Part II! - from CSM candidate, La Vista Vista
• The Hiding of Treasure... - Van Hemlock's great piece on game design and keeping the game excited
• Documentary: History of Video Games - Thanks Xyliana for this video!
• On MMO longevity and MMO second versions - EVE for the next
  
• EON Magazine now has an EON Facebook group - Join us!
• PvP Communication - Phillip "Crovan" Manning's 2nd piece over at Massively.com
• EVE Newbie video - Here's a funny video of someone who really doesn't get EVE
• The Ancient Gaming Noob gets an offer from Goonswarn in "The proposition"
• The Cookie Monster Economy and "Guild Socialism" - via Terra Nova
  

EVE Online Postcard for the week of May 5th, 2008

After 23 jumps I finally got to our new zero-zero home for the next couple of months. On this shot I'm getting ready to jump to our new POS to change ship and get ready for some ice mining. Even though planets were not graphically upgraded during the Trinity update, they still look amazingly great. What CCP will be able to do with the next update is beyond me!