The Few, the Proud, the EVE Blog Pack Members!

They say, be careful what you wish for; you may get it! Oh how true this is with the EVE Blog Pack.

When I started the pack in mid-June of this year, I wanted to get a group of great bloggers together, get them to post regularly, and to comment on each others sites! Just a month later the Pack had past the mid-20s in membership, and the request were still coming in - are still coming in!

The EVE blogging community's response to the EVE Blog Pack has been beyond my wildest dreams. That Blog Pack post has over 60 comments on it as of today, mostly requests to be added and some of my responses to those bloggers. That's just amazing! Thank you all!

The Privilege of Membership, comes with Responsibilities
As the popularity of the Pack grew, more and more bloggers wanted in. But as my initial goal was to foster both quality and quantity, I couldn't simply accept everyone. There are tons of great EVE blogs out there, all of whom deserve to get noticed. Which is why I've got the EVE Player Blogroll (check the side bar also) where I list every player's blog as quickly as I get requests. But for the Pack, I wanted to create this sense of belonging to an elite group of bloggers.

So I've decided to limit the members to 30 blogs for now - with a few conditions though.

Being part of the Pack comes with its responsibilities and obligations. The first and foremost is to blog regularly. Ideally a few times a week, at the very least once. And that is a no easy feat, believe me. Real Life often gets in the way - as it should since remember people, this is just a game - and missing a week is not uncommon. But going beyond the 3 week mark puts a Pack member in a situation of potentially being removed from the Pack.

This has happened to a few members already. Case in point, today I've removed two blogs for lack of activity. To fill in the empty chairs, the two newest members of the EVE Blog Pack will be Roc's Ramblings and Dawn of EVE. Welcome to the both of you!



Taking it One Step further
Now, along with the regular blogging and commenting, I want to ask a bit more of the Pack Members. This is what will make the Blog Pack different from my Players Blogroll.

Here's a list of ToDos that all members should strive to accomplish as part of their duties.

• Blog regularly about EVE Online, a few times a week preferably.
• Comment on Pack members blogs.
• Make a post about the EVE Blog Pack (if you haven't done so yet). Make sure to link to it!
  
• Add each member's blog to your Delicious, BlinkList, Reddit, StumbleUpon and/or Technorati accounts.
• Digg posts that you find useful or interesting.
• When writing a post, try to link to each other posts, bringing the community even closer together.
• Have a blogroll listing all the Blog Pack members.
  

Doing all, or some, of these action items will add value to our individual blogs, and will bring the Pack to a whole new level.

Remember, we're each individually responsible for the success of the Blog Pack. It's up to us to decide what we do with it!

Now get to work people!! ...please... =)

EVE Online Postcard for September 26th, 2008

The rest of the corp and I have again changed region. After making 25 jumps earlier this week, I am now exploring the southeastern sector of The Forge, familiarizing myself with the systems and agents. Our aim is to increase our standing with Lai Dai, so I'm currently working with various security agents of theirs.

The above screenshot was taken during a mission run. I'd never seen this type of station, or if I did, they'd changed looks since Trinity 2. Either case, I loved this viewpoint and took several shots of the station, including this one which shows the whole structure.

Do you still get to see stuff you've never seen before in EVE? Are you still surprised once in a while?

EVE Online Speedlinking for September 26th, 2008

The biggest news item of this last week was of course the System Player Cap put in place during the Empyrean Age patch 1.1 , then nerfed to simply cover Jita, with the added "detour patch". Check out Winterblink's comic on the very issue. Love his stuff!

In the end though, it's just a band-aid solution to a pressing problem, which CCP is well aware of, and trying to find a "working fix", not just something temporary.

In other news...


New Player Blogs:

• Shahirs Journey
• Move along citizen. I'm depleted.
• Jackrabbit Piracy
• Pig in Space
  

EVE Online News:

• One Titan Too Many? The EVE Blog Pack's very own Havohej, discusses the Titan situation over at EVE-Mag.com.
  
• EVE Correspondent - A Pirate's Life for Me - MMORPG.COM's Richard Morris tells the tale of a newbie bucaneer!
• MMO Showdown - Eve Online - Man vs Horse's review of EVE Online.
  
• EVE Ready to Elect New CSM - WarCry reports on the just announced opening procedures for the 2nd CSM elections.
• The State Of The MMO: Pinpointing Your Target - A Gamasutra report on MMO Subscription Models. CCP Games CEO, Hilmar, was part of the panel.
• Eve Online Secondary Markets: Banks - A must read for any EVE Industrialist.
• An Economist on the Virtual Economy - Business Weeks interviews the good Dr.
  

Over at Massively:

• EVE Evolved: Electronic Warfare, part 3 - The 3rd and last part of Nyphur's article series on EW.
• The meaning of life in EVE Online really is 42 (no joke) - Don't forget that towel of yours!
• EVE Online Et tu, brute? - Massively's James Egan reports on our very own Mynxee, about her quest to hunt down every Blog Pack member! Well, not literally.
• Outlaws of EVE Online: Masu'di - Another great player profile by Massively's James Egan.
  

In the EVE Blogosphere:

• Warp Drive Active #169 - On the Jita Player Cap!
• Fly Reckless #10 and #11 were also published this week.
• Surviving a gate camp - Xiphos83 provides some great advice on anyone faced with this dire situation!
• Gateway [Short Story] by Ombeve - A great little piece of fiction!
• Saving your bacon " tips to live by" - Manasi's survival guide!
• Things to do BEFORE you join Factional Warfare - Great piece of advice, and a fun read, from Letrange.
• Both Mynxee and Shae made a visit to one of New Eden's very small and very popular system, better known as Amamake.
• EVE Online Chaos Theory - If you're aroused by quantum mechanics and the LHC, then you'll want to read this!
  

New Tools:

• Macs in EVE - An EVE Online Community for Mac OSX players.

[Note:] I've been doing the Speedlinking posts on Wednesdays for some time now. Today mark the switch back to Fridays. Makes more sense to me to look back at the news from an end-of-week period.

Tortuga Lacrimosa: The best EVE Online trailer ever made!

Somehow, I completely missed this one little gem produced by the very talented EVE filmmaker Dire Lauthris.

The video below is, in my humble opinion, the best EVE Online video to date. I came across the video through a comment at Massively, left by Myrkur which linked to this forum post, dating back to February 10th of this year. Please make sure to visit the EVE Forums to read up on the background of the video.



I also highly recommend that you download the 117Mb video in order to truly appreciate the work done by Dire Lauthris. Sir, you are truly gifted!

Murder, plunder and betrayal in EVE Online

I took a break last night from my usual time spent in EVE, to do some clean-up in my PC game collection, CDs, boxes and game manuals. I tried re-installing a few just for the fun of it, only to realize that many of them just don't look as good as I remember them, or simply can't display well at my current default LCD resolution (1280x1024).

Looking at all the CD cases, I came upon the original case for EVE Online. The original game published by Simon & Schuster Interactive back in 2003. Looking at it I started reading the text on the back and was amazed at what I saw.

Some of what I read still applies today: Explore a vast Universe - Develop your Character - Choose a Profession - Join the Community - Player Driven Economy. All of these can still be used to describe EVE 5 years later.

Then I read the finer text and realized how blunt and gory they were pushing EVE at the time. This isn't a place where you'd expect to find carebears. It sounded a lot more hardcore PvP to me. Listen to this,

"Immerse yourself in the vast virgin territories of EVE where power is the Holy Grail and the ultimate aphrodisiac. Conceive a new life without boundaries, where murder, plunder, betrayal, and delusions of grandeur will lead you to boundless glory or the brink of ruin. The galaxy is yours to control if you have the brains, strength, and cunning to succeed."

Wow! Where are the miners, traders and other industrialists in this description. This sounds very dark and almost suicidal! And talk about the sexual undertone also - immerse, virgin, aphrodisiac, conceive, life! Who wrote this stuff!!!

Thinking about it, I do recall that way back in 2002, before EVE came out, it did give off a kind of ruthless-cutthroat-industrial-hardcore-spacer feel. It was exotic, different & mysterious. The game also seemed simpler back then. Now, it's become so complex, it's beyond anyone's reach to master it all. I can't believe anyone out there masters everything about EVE.

If you want to see the back of that CD case, I've put it up here on my Flickr account.

So how did you get into EVE? Through the CD or a digital download? Direct download of the game, or through the 14-day trial? And have your initial impressions of the game changed since you became a capsuleer?

I'd love to know!

Blog Banter #8: The modern re-make of a game

Welcome, welcome to the 8th installment of Blog Banter, the monthly blogging extravaganza normally headed by bs angel , and for this issue by Terry Bosky of the Game Couch. Blog Banter involves our cozy community of enthusiastic gaming bloggers, a common topic, and a week to post articles pertaining to said topic. The results are quite entertaining and can range from deep insight to ROFLMAO. Any questions about Blog Banter should be directed here. Check out other Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This month's Blog Banter subject is as follows: "Which game would you like to see a modern re-make of and why?" The question was proposed by fellow Banter group member Zath.

So let's see, the re-making a game, that's a big one. Which game to choose from? What to re-make? Modern eh? Allow me to deviate slightly from the question and look at a game that was recently launched. An MMO to be precise. It's an MMO that I had high hopes for, one I had a lot of fun beta testing and covered here on a few times. But it's an MMO that ultimately failed and saw it's server shutdown, it's community disbanded.

This game, this MMO, was SEED.

SEED was a different kind of MMO. One where combat had no place, and where roleplaying was king.

SEED was all about:

• Sci-Fi MMORPG
• Personalized stories
• Social/political gameplay
• Believable NPC's
• 3D comic book graphics

It was not about:

• Combat
• Character classes
• Standard quests

In the MMO genre that's quite an undertaking. It's even more so for a newcomer to the industry. The game was developed by Runestone, a Danish developer about to lunch its first game. And though they had great dreams for SEED, their inexperience in the gaming industry proved too much for their fledgling enterprise.


It's difficulty, and ultimate failure, in becoming a successful MMO had little to do with the game itself. The roleplaying non-combat approach was very much innovative in the MMO genre, and still is today. And with the visual direction they took with cell-shading, this little game had all the elements of a winner. As with many MMOs, they did have trouble with the launch of the game, and it wasn't completely polished when it shipped. But many games today had similar beginnings and yet, were eventually successful. EVE Online being one of those MMOs with a less-than-stellar launch. Not every MMO launches with the roar of a WoW, an AoC or a WAR.

The major obstacle for Runestone, one that resulted in the death of SEED, was its inability to find a publisher and the funding to push the game ahead, as its subscription increased. An important detail in the lifespan of any game, even more so for an MMO which works more like a service than a product, and so which requires more funding in its initial stages.

So to go back to the initial question of this blog banter, what would I change and why, well not much about the game itself. I think that Runestone did a fantastic job in that respect. I just wish that had put as much efforts in finding a publisher willing to appreciate their vision and their leadership in the MMO space. Maybe they did. Or maybe they should have secured such a publisher at the very early stages of the games development. That's the "What".


As for the "Why", well that's simple: a successful cell-shaded Science Fiction MMO with a great lore, where game play would have been focused on roleplaying and not combat. Something that still not available today.

I just wish SEED had had the time to mature and grow to its full potential. We'll just never know.


Blog Banter Participants:

• Lou Chou Loves You: Blade Runner
• Zath!: Sid Meier's Re-Colonization
• XboxOZ360: Eternal Darkness
• Silvercublogger: Paint Me Something Fresh
• Unfettered Blather: Mech my day
• Save in Progress: Earthworm Jim
• MasterKitty's Weblog: Zelda: A Link to the Past
• Game Couch: Tass Times in Tone Town
• Delayed Responsibility: Crossover Triples, Taking You to School
  

43 months of blogging about EVE Online!

Somehow I was sure that this blog's 3rd anniversary was coming up in late November. Well, lo and behold when I realized earlier today that I've been blogging about EVE since February 12, 2005! That's over 3 and a half years of EVE posts. Man, talk about an long trek!

The reason for my confusion is that I've been tracking traffic using StatCounter since November 2005, and so, somehow, thought that next month was going to be the3rd year anniversary. Thus my mix-up.

Anyways, I thought that I'd look back at the last 3 years of babbling about EVE on this blog and see how the traffic has increased.

Titan Weekly #11 is out!

Seems this is the week of podcasts - well except for ours that is.

After WDA #41 and FR #9, Malnor comes running right behind with TW #11! An EVE Podcast bonanza it is!

This episode, though a bit short, contains all the regular segments, with usual rant. Malnor at his best!

Then he drops the bomb!

Working with better-half, Malnor has been working on a half-clone! Congrats to the both of you. If you ever need some advice feel free to give me a call. I've been there.

And no worries, after their arrival, your schedule will change, but you'll still find time for the baby, the girlfriend and EVE! See the proof right here! You do sleep a lot less though!

In EVE We Trust, a video

It's been a while since I posted a fan-made EVE Online video. I recently came across this video from SenorPez. The video was made to showcase ho amazing EVE looks.


I'd say he did a fair job!

EVE Online Speedlinking for September 18th, 2008

Holy Amarrian Empress! Sacré Bleu! Looking at my speedlinking folder you'd think it's been 2 weeks since I last did one. I've got so many links this week it's not even funny! I'm mean 8 new player blogs! Eight, just this past week!

OK, let's step back here, take a deep breath, and dive into another week of EVE Online Speedlinking! Here we go again!

New Player Blogs:

• Sensory Surge
• Finraer's Folly
• Deranged Carebear
  
• The Barking Mad Warehouse
• Defender of the Faith
• Sweet Little Bad Girl
• Dawn of EVE
• Massive Multiplayer PK

New Corporation:

• Hellcats - Mynxee's women-only "pirate" corporation
  

EVE Online News:

• EVE Online: A Look at Factional Warfare - MMORPG.com's article on the state of EVE's latest expansion.
• CCP Announces Agreement with Umbra Software - This should help create a better looking EVE!
• A World Where No Such Road Will Run - A new EVE Chronicle.
  

Over at Massively:

• EVE's alliance warfare the largest virtual conflict ever waged - James reports on "The Great War" article on the history of warfare over the last 2 years.
  
• EVE Evolved: Electronic warfare, Part 2 - Follows up on Part 1. Getting added to the list of Guides.
  
• Keeping yourself alive in EVE with safespots - Massively pimps Manasi's article on safespots. With video.
  

In the EVE Blogosphere:

• Warp Drive Active (comic) #168
  
• Socializing in EvE - Letrange reports on the Montreal EVE Player meet, held this past Saturday!
• Empyrean Age, the Novel: A Review - Sam Guss reviews Tony Gonzales' book over at EVE-Mag.com.
• The Ancient Gaming Noob celebrates 2 years of blogging.
• On training... and The Learning Tree should help maximize your learning queue.
• Music for Mining - So what are you listening to while playing EVE?
• Top Secret - Kirith reports on a stealthy move operation.
• Moobs don't count - Shae Tiann on the recruitment efforts over at the Hellcats.
• Breaking the gate camp - They made a lot of Carebear friends that night!
• EVE and the differences with other MMOs - A good read after my article on the differences between EVE and World of Warcraft.
• The Turning Point - How to take the loss of a ship. Remember the land mines and deal with them.
  

New Tools:

• Capsuleer and EVE Tracker allow you to track your skills in training on an iPhone or iPod touch.
  
• EVE@Phase.org - EVE Flashcards - Being able to quickly recall a ship and it's stats is a must for PvPers. Thanks to Richard George for this one and to Mad Rant for pointing me to it!
  
• The 2d EveMaps v3.54 released by Ombey
• EVE Asset Manager - Thanks to Wensley for the review of this great tool!
• EVE Mail - As reviewed by Wensley.

Fly Safe!

EVE Megathron Battleship Model Slideshow

Thanks to Winterblink for pointing me to this one. The slideshow below is courtesy of Recluse Viramor who just received his new Megathron Battleship Collectible Model. Just thought I'd post the slideshow here while I consider getting one for myself. Maybe as a gift from me to me when I eventually find employment!



It looks sweet or what!

Fly Reckless Episode #9 is available

Seems this is the week where the EVE Podcasts get back to there normal schedule. After WDA, it's Silicon Buddha who's back from his Burning Man holiday, putting together a review of the last 3 weeks of the EVE-Tribune.

The EVE Blog Pack's very own Kirith Kodachi has his two Boosters articles (part 1 and part 2) read and commented by Silicon Buddha during the show.

I always enjoy listening to his show while I'm traveling through New Eden. When I can't read the EVE-Tribune articles because of lack of time, being able to listen to some of them while in game is a blessing! When you've got 20+ jumps to go through, it's nice to make use of that time well.

Capsuleer iPhone Application almost here!

Fellow EVE blogger Roc Wieler and his partner, PyjamaSam, have been stealthily working over the last few weeks on an iPhone application that will let you keep track of your character's skill training.

The application, Capsuleer, was recently submitted to Apple and is currently being reviewed. From the screenshots I've seen, Capsuleer looks beautiful. Which is what I would expect to see with an EVE Online application on my iPod touch.








Now I know that there's another iPhone app available, but I'm excited about Capsuleer because of its features:

• No manual API key entry.
  Adding pilots is as easy as sending an email to your phone.
• Multiple account and multiple pilot one step entry.
  Select all your pilots, or any combination thereof, in one easy step.
• Smart Character application Management.
  If you enter 1 character into the app, the next time you add characters, it will only display your remaining two. If you enter 2 characters initially, the next time you add characters, it will automatically add the third.
• Easy to use, visually pleasing interface.
• Real time countdown timer with end date and time in long format
  (Thursday, September 11, 2008 @ 8:34 AM)
• Color coded timer as visual warning for skill completion
  (yellow = 25% time remaining, red= 10% time remaining)
• Displays Current Skill Points and current ISK total
• Displays EVE Online avatar
• Previous state memory.
  Will load the last character you were viewing.
• Displays skill description of current skill training
• Racial backgrounds per character (can be disabled in options)

Amazing, n'est-ce pas!

While we're waiting for Apple to release the application on the App Store, Roc's been kind enough to provide us with a nice desktop background.

Get it here! Image courtesy of Roc Wieler.

Warp Drive Active is back! Episode #41 is out!

Finally, WDA is back after what must have been the longest hiatus in the show's history. The intro is well done, and though the show is quite long, they do have to play catch up to what they've been up to since Episode #40.

EVE Forums link
VirginWorlds link
iTunes link
EVE-Files link

Great to have you back guys! We missed your hilarious chemistry and quirky intros! And thanks again for the pimp on the EVE Blog Pack and EVE Speedlinking!

At the time of this writing, only the EVE-Files link was available, though I have still included the other links above.

Less than 2 months to EVE Online Fanfest 2008

In less than two months I'll be boarding a plane to start my journey to Reykjavik, the equivalent of Mecca for EVE Online players, hometown of CCP Games. I just checked the EVE Online Fanfest 2008 page to see that there were 52 days left until the beginning of the 3-day conference (at the time of this writing), which means less than 50 days before I leave Montreal.

In effort to control my urge to explode with enthusiasm I've decided to focus my energies in putting together this post on last year's Fanfest.

Here below are links to photos taken during Fanfest 2007 and the personal account of someone who was lucky enough to attend.

Photo Albums of EVE Online Fanfest 2007:

• Hakel Daima's Picasa Album
• Winterblink's Flickr Photo Set
• GamasutraPodcast's Flickr Photo Set
• EVE Online Forum Photo Thread
  

I also highly recommend that you read Winterblink's blog entries of his Fanfest 2007 experience (make sure to start at the bottom of the page) and the article he wrote in EON #010. Both will give you a hint of what I am about to embark on. Me, and a few hundred other EVE fanboys that is!

Oooh, the wait is unbearable!

A login advert for last year's fanfest.

EVE Online Postcard for the week of September 13th, 2008

The mighty Gallente Obelisk is one of those ships which you simply feel the urge to quickly move out of the way when you cross her path. She's got one hell of a big belly and can carry billions worth of ISKs. As such, you'll rarely see one not escorted by a combat squadron. If not, they're just asking for trouble!

EVE Online questions for WoW Players

Earlier last week I received an email from a World of Warcraft player, let's call him Bob, who had bumped into my blog after looking to start playing something different, something new. Bob had a bunch of questions and, as a WoW player, was a bit at a loss at what EVE was. We exchanged a few emails, and I offered to answer his questions via a post, as I thought it would benefit a lot of potential players coming to EVE from other MMOs.

Let's see if this old carebear can shed some light on this dark and cut-throat MMO we call EVE.

So, on to Bob's questions.

I currently play World of Warcraft (since release in '04) and am looking for something different. How would you describe the "health" of the game? Is it going strong?

EVE Online is doing very well. It's one of only a few MMOs out there that has seen its player base continually increase since launch. There are currently between 250k and 300k players in the game, all of which play on ONE server, in one universe. At any given time you can have between 20k and 40k players playing the game at the same time. Which means that there is only one player driven economy, one universe to share between the 250k so players. This is one of the reasons why the EVE community is so active and loud - especially on the EVE Forums.

EVE's expansions are, and have always been, free. There will never be an EVE 2.0. Indeed, CCP has clearly stated that EVE will continue to evolve and improve over time, and could do so for the next 50 years. They don't see an end.

Five years after launch there have been 8 expansions released. Some recent expansions saw the upgrade to the Trinity graphic engine (Trinity) and the creation of a new new-player-friendly PvP game play (Empyrean Age). The next two should be Ambulation (walking avatars) and Midas (market improvements).

So, EVE is not only in good health, it's kicking ass!

Would a new player be able to dive in at this point and have a rewarding experience?

This is a question that I often get asked, and which you often see answered by CCP Devs at various gaming trade show. The short answer is hell yeah!

But let me elaborate a little bit on that. If you allow me to use an analogy I would say that asking that question is like asking if it's worth it to learn a trade in RL, since all the good jobs are taken. It's not because you've been playing the game for 4 years and have 45 million skill points (like yours truly) that you will be able to squash every new player that you cross paths with. I've been podded by months-old players many times. Many corporations (the equivalent of a WoW Guild) will take new players under their wings and help them grow and learn the game. A new player can definitely play an important role in a corporation.

EVE is a bit of a different beast when it comes to classes and levels: it doesn't have any actually. In this game you play what you want, and if you get bored you train new skills and do something else (combat, mining, manufacturing, trading, PvE, PvP, etc.). Skills are purchased and trained in real time and take between 20 minutes to 30-some days depending on their level & rank, which only go up to level 5. There are literally hundreds of skills and usually there's only a 5% efficiency between one level and another. Learned skills allow you to use certain items, which allow you to fly certain ship or to engage in certain activities.

Now, having more skills, and more skill points doesn't make you a better player. Only by playing the game and learning how to actually play the game, can you become an experienced player. And bigger ships don't necessarily make for better players, or better game play. I've seen veterans in cruisers, kick the living shit out of newbies flying battleships, because they didn't know how to use them or equip them.

It's not what you've got that counts, it's how you use it!

You're still with me? If it sounds a bit complicated, don't worry. The 14-day trial and the tutorial will give you plenty of time to grasp the essence of what I've just went over. And there are plenty of players out there who, like me, are more than willing to give new players a hand. So feel free to ask around.

OK, next question.

What websites would you point me towards for getting started.

Over the last 3 years playing the game and building up this blog, I've put together a bunch of list of links and resources to help out new players. Here's where I would start if I were you:

1. Listen and subscribe to The Drone Bay. With Crovan and Alsedrech I've co-hosted a podcast that caters very well to new players and which we've been told, has helped quite a number of new players ease into the game.
2. 10 Posts for the EVE Online Newbie - This is a recent post I've put together that will be very useful to new players!
3. Go over the official F.A.Q.
   
4. EVE New Citizens Q&A - The EVE Forum section dedicated to new players.
5. Ultimate New Player Guide Collection - Also on the Forum, this is the mother of all list.
6. Make sure to join a corporation as soon as you can!
7. Read "Moving From World of Warcraft to Eve Online" over at FastLevelingGuides.com [Many thanks to sjm for pointing out this article to me - Added10/07/2009]

Here are some things to remember when comparing WoW to EVE Online:

• EVE runs on ONE server, and one server only.
• Your ship is your avatar - until Ambulation comes out that is.
• There are no classes in EVE.
• Any race can use any other race's ships and equipment.
• There are no levels, only skill points.
• Skills are learned in real time (RL).
• PvP happens everywhere in EVE, even in "safe" space, just a little less.
  

That should do it for now.

Oh, and before I go, Bob was asking me if there was a way to turned down a mission you've accepted but are unable to finish for various reason. Rest assured Bob, there is. Just go back to the agent who gave you the mission and tell him it's not for you. Your reputation will take a hit, but you can always do the mission later and regain your honor.

So there you have it. Hopefully I've helped Bob in his quest to conquer New Eden. If you've got questions yourself, then please ask in the comments. I'm sure someone out there has the answer and is more than happy to share it with the rest of us.


I'd like everyone to remember this infamous quote I picked up somewhere on the EVE forums...

"EVE is like a sandbox with land mines. Deal with it"

Keep this in mind at all times when playing EVE.

Fly safe!

EVE Online Speedlinking for September 10th, 2008

Another week, another new list of links. It seems that things are picking up now that summer is over. We've got a bunch of new blogs, some great links and great posts by members of the Blog Pack.

Speaking of which, I've been getting a high number of requests from EVE bloggers to join the pack. I wish I could accept everyone of them, but in order to make the cut, a potential pack member has got to post some quality material, regularly. Being the keeper of the gate isn't easy. I just hope folks understand the need for me to keep the threshold high.

OK, that's enough of me blabbing, here are this week's links!

New Player Blogs:

• A Loyal Amarrian
• Diary of a Pod Pilot
• Diary of a Space Jockey
• pΘtshΘt (who also joined the Blog Pack earlier)
  
• Tired Ire
• Jhez
• Drunk in Space

EVE Online News:

• EVE Online: The Politics - Another great article by Mr. Rossignol.
• One small step for man, one giant leap for Eve-kind. - EVE-Stratics brings us more news on Ambulation.
• Eve: Conquests, the EVE Online Board Game? - CCP White Wolf rolls out a new EVE game.
• The Great War - Another great story penned by none other than Mr. Rossignol, again.
  

Over at Massively:

• EVE Online's answer to GPS - James takes a look at the mini-ESM recently made available in-game.
• EVE Evolved: Electronic Warfare, Part 1 - Nyphur's guide to EW. A must read!
• Track EVE skill training on your iPhone - Follow your skill progression on you iPhone or iPod touch! I'm in heaven!
  

In the EVE Blogosphere:

• Dying is Easy - Winged Nazgul on the Zero Punctuation review of EVE. A must read!
• Administrivia - Hellcats' CEO has been keeping herself busy.
• Rogues Drones - Votrian's back with a tale of love and hate, or is it curiosity and dread?
• Good Rifter Pilot and Fight - Flashfresh weaves a fascinating tale of combat.
• First You Wanna Kill Me, Now You Wanna Kiss Me - Another PvP tale.
• A Plague of Black - And another one. Jeez, these PvP-folks are a literary bunch!
• Things I don't like about EVE Online - It's called constructive criticism and it's well worth the read.
• Mining Tips - Short and concise, which makes it a must read for any miner wannabe!
• Odd cycles of non-Information */rant ON - Manasi dreams of Economic Reports, Charts and Quarters...
• Bookmarks - Letrange spreads some great advice on these little coordinate markers called bookmarks!
• Envious - Siting by the gate, sipping a Black Russian, as I scan the content of your ship...
• EVE Pirate Speedlinking - Flashfresh puts a list of buccaneer links! Great idea!
• How Much is That in ISK? - Wilhelm brings up the hefty price of the collectible battleship models.

New Tools:

• EVE-Guides - A treasure trove of EVE Online Guides!

And there you have it!

Oh, before you go, check out the About page. I've got a little video surprise for you!

The Role of Fiction in EVE Online - A 5-Part Video

In late July of this year, Chantal Zuurmond from CCP Games was at Finncon-Animecon 2008 tradeshow where she did a presentation on "The Role of Fiction in EVE Online". The videos were taken by Finnish site eDome and can be found here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and finally Part 5.

Now, I didn't have time yet to go over all 5 videos yet, but I still wanted to share this little find with you. Think of it as a teaser for Fanfest, though a very diluted one.

Below is the first video which should link to the second and so forth (I think the fifth one isn't linked at the end of the 4th video though - just use the above link).

Titan Weekly #10 - Another CK Edition!

OK, so I'm a bit late to the party in posting this one.

Last Friday, Malnor's 10th episode of Titan Weekly was released to the community. Again, yours truly dropped by to voice his opinion and cause trouble. Or try to anyways!

Hopefully I haven't said anything too outrageous or fullish.

So hup over to TW and have a listen. And let us know if you think I had some good ideas, or was just mumbling nonsense! =)

Thanks for having me over Malnor. It's always a lot of fun to dream about the "what ifs" with you.

EVE Online Speedlinking for September 4th, 2008

Another busy week on the EVE news scene. I'm currently working a few interesting posts as I mentioned yesterday. I'll have them ready shortly and will publish them over the next few days. Some will touch on my current skill plans, World of Warcraft and a few more goodies, just to give you a hint.

Some new blogs:

• Sensory Surge
• Yarr Yum
• It's a miner's life for me
• DavezO's Gaming Space
  

EVE Online in the news:

• CCP Economist On EVE Online's 'Pure Capitalist' Market - the EVE economy at the center of it all!
• Dyack: EVE’s better than WoW - even other developers recognize the qualities of EVE.
• Empyrean Age video interview - Tony Gonzalez, EVE Online's Lead Writer, and Scott Holden, Lead Content Creator provide additional details on what's coming up for New Eden.
• PAX 2008: Exhibition Room - EVE Online - The Escapist's Jonathan Steinhauer gets sucked into EVE Online. Another noob!
• Building a Better Virtual World Through Democracy - The guys over at 1UP.com interview and ever entertaining Jade Constantine.
• EVE Online: Empyrean Age Interview - Strategy Informer's interviews Dr. Eyjolfur Gudmundsson, the Lead Economist at CCP Games.
• EVE Online: The Politics - Euro Gamer's Jim Rossignol on the politics of EVE.
• EVE Online Collectible Battleship Models are coming! - You know you'll want one!
  

Over at Massively this past week:

• The 10 Commandments of EVE - Thou shall play EVE, Thou shall...
  
• EVE Visual Guide: The Birth of New Eden - The story of EVE in all its beauty.
  
• EVE Fanfest PvP Tournament rules announced with video demo - This one's going to be real fun!
  
• EVE Online interview discusses players determining storyline - A Split Infinity Radio intervew.
  
• EVE Evolved: Money for nothing - Nyphur on how to make money in EVE

In the EVE Blogosphere:

• Gaining Experience in EVE Online - One noobs view of the skill system
• Road Block - Travelers be warned!
• A POS goes bye bye - Going, going, gone!
• Separation of Developer and Community - Winterblink's rant on Dev Haters.
• Massive Gatecamp - Manasi's not going to get a lot of love out of this one!
• Eulogy - EVE Newb loses something precious.
• New Stuff - The EVE Warrior is optimistic about the future!
  

New Tools:

• EVE Strategic Mini-Maps used in game! (minimap.eve-maps.com while in game)
• EVE Miner Tool - Know thy output!
  

From CCP:

• Empyrean Age 1.1 Patch Notes
• EVE Chronicle: And to live in peace
• Great EVE Resources - A great forum thread with lots of helpful links
  

New EVE Corp:

• Syrkos Technologies
  

Zero Punctuation's EVE Online Review

The last two days have been very hectic while I work various game related job hunting tasks. I've got two posts I had 2 posts I wanted to release earlier today (August Review and Speedlinking), but reality kicked in and those will just have to wait until tomorrow.

In the mean time I wanted to share this video review - more rant than review actually - of EVE Online. I became aware of this "most interesting of" review after a few friends pointed me to the latest Zero Punctuation video review. This time around Yahtzee gave EVE a look and prior to committing seppuku, put the above review together. Highly enjoyable, as always!

Enjoy and fly safe!!

EVE Online Postcard for the week of September 1st, 2008

The Amarr Providence is one of the most impressive ship ever designed by CCP. It's got that Amarr look to it, that just says "we are God's chosen, move or be annihilated".

Though the Providence is a freighter, she bestows so much power and awe you just wish you could put a few guns on her and get her in the fight. Anyways, I would!

So what are your favorite looking ships?