Friday, July 31, 2009

Friday Video: TRON, then and now!


When TRON first came out I was 11. My dad had just bought our first PC, an Apple IIe with two 5.25" floppy disk drives. No mouse, no GUI, no Internet, no web. TRON and WarGames were the first two movies to open my imagination to the networked world, as well as to video gaming, virtual worlds and a plethora of other computer-based concepts.

With the recent release of the trailer for TRON Legacy, I just couldn't pass the opportunity to share my excitement with all of you! Here are three videos. First the TRON Legacy trailer, next a similar lightbike scene from the original TRON, and last but not least, the TRON Legacy Comic Con 2009 promo video.

Enjoy!


TRON Legacy Trailer



TRON Lightbike Scene



TRON Legacy Comic Con 2009

Thursday, July 30, 2009

You realize you play EVE Online too much when...


Inspired by a recent thread I read over the EVE Online Forums recently, I thought I'd come up with my take on the "you play too much EVE" list. I know that there's a plethora of these lists out there, but I thought I'd come up with one of my own, one that's true in my case, or has happened to me in the past.

You know you play EVE too much when...
  1. You refer to your kids as your clones.
  2. You keep click'n dragging screenshots and videos to move around and get a better point of view.
  3. You keep confusing emails and eve-mails in conversations with co-workers.
  4. Instead of saying goodbye to friends you tell them to "Fly Safe".
  5. You've had nightmares about not having a skill in training.
  6. Your Flickr accounts gets flagged because you've got way to much EVE screenshots as opposed to photos.
  7. Your largest group of friends on Facebook are all capsuleers.
  8. You...
How about you?

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

EVE Blog Banter #10: It's just a game!


Welcome to the tenth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed here. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!
This month's banter leans a little, OK a lot, on the academic side. It comes to us from xiphos83 of A Misguided Adventurer, who asks the following: " Victor Davis Hanson argues that western culture, comprising of ideals such as freedom, debate, capitalism, and consensual government, are what make western society so successful at waging war. These ideologies create a warrior who's direct participation in government, ability to think freely, and desire to remain free, fights harder and is willing to suffer more than his conscripted foe. Though a military must remain a structured oligarchy to fight a war effectively, why in a world where military conflict is as familiar as breathing are there so few alliances that embrace these ideologies when governing their members?"

Now, first I must apologize. This Banter went live on Monday, which makes me two days late. I could come up with lots of crazy excuses, but the reality is we've been getting such a lousy weather these past few weeks that whenever we get a few dry and sunny evenings we tend to spend them outside. Which is what happened on Monday and Tuesday earlier this week. That may or may not explain why we've gotten so few entries in this month's Banter. Then again, it is the summer holidays.

Anyways, lets get to business!

If I understand Xiphos83's question, we're being asked "why aren't Alliances true oligarchies made up off individual somewhat-democratic corporations that defend and protect their interest through a dictatorial structure?" I remember reading a book a few years ago entitled "The Last Ship", in which early in the book the captain of a nuclear destroyer explains that it takes a dictatorship (the military) to defend a democracy. But how do we apply this to EVE?



The answer is two fold I believe.

First their are as many possible structure for alliances as there are for corporations. And anyone who has been playing EVE long enough to be in a few corps will attest that each has its own command structure. Some are military-based, while others have a more open chain of command, if they have any. If we were to take my corporation, Phoenix Labs has an open military structure and in a communistic approach to it's wealth. That is, each member has a rank and is promoted according to performance and dedication, and each members earnings is given back to the corp. We're only allowed to keep about 2M ISKs. Now Alliances are a different type of monster and can be, and in most cases are, very difficult beasts to control, for a simple reason actually. Which brings me to my second point.

EVE Online is a game. And as in any game, weather RPG, board game, CCG, and others, is played first and foremost for fun (well except for a few wako cases). Fun, not duty. Not responsibilities. And as long as being part of a corporation, or to an alliance provides those rush of endorphins, then that's that all that will be needed to allow these gaming groups to prosper and thrive. In real life, in my professional responsibilities, the consequences of failing a task may in some cases result in my being fired, which has very real consequences. Something that just isn't the case in EVE.

Because, in the end, EVE is just a game. It's just Internet spaceships!

EVE Online: The Butterfly Effect

Yesterday afternoon, I received an encrypted email from CCP Games with information and an attached video. I was privileged to see their latest promotional video. I couldn't mention this to any of you since there was an embargo until 11:45am today.

But now I can!!



As you can see, it's a different approach that they're using, and I think it does a great job at highlighting the differences between EVE and most other MMOs.

So, is this the right approach to market EVE? What do yo think?

[YouTube video]
[Facebook page]
[CCP Games page]

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

6 Winners in the First EVE Blog Banter Contest!


In what proved to be a very successful writing competition with 45 entries in total, James, Richard and I have narrowed it down to half a dozen articles. And though the final count should have been 3 winners and one honorable mention (4 in all), I just couldn't bare the thought of dropping 2 out of our 6 top picks. And so 2 additional contestants will receive some "special" EVE loot from me directly.

Now enough talk, here are the winners:

  1. Sweet Little Bad Girl, "Who is Nibbling at My House?"
  2. Into the unknown with gun and camera. "The Hokey Cokey"
  3. A Mule in EVE, "He who giveth, also taketh away?"
  4. Miners with Fangs. "It's the Scotch"
  5. A Merry Life and a Short One. "Why Won't You Die?"
  6. A Sebiestor Scholar, "Slaves"

Let me reiterate how difficult though fun it was to go over each and everyone's article, and choose these winners. Each and every article had something interesting to bring forth, some were dead serious, some a lighter read, some in-character, and some were even making fun of our whole EVE Blogging efforts (you know who you are!).

For the top 4 winners, Shae, ChainTrap, Manasi and Dee, congratulations! You've done us proud and have showed the breadth and high quality material that comes out of the EVE Blogging Community. Now if you're curious to see what you've won, just head back to the list of prizes here. Then please email me your full mailing so that we can get you those prizes! The same goes for the last 2, Hallan and Zargyl!

I'd like to thank everyone who participated in this last EVE Blog Banter, and look forward to your participation in the next one, which will be our 1oth! The subject matter will definitely get your thinking cap going!

Fly Safe!

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

EVE Online Postcard for Tuesday July 7th, 2009


Treenara, my character, is Gallente. Pure Gallente. She's actually my second character. My first, Saoundra Meezo, was Amarrian. I have to be honest with you guys, I chose my characters solely based on their races' ships. And the Amarr have always had, in my opinion, the best looking ships in New Eden.

The Providence is one such ship. It gives me goose bumps whenever I cross path with one. There's something majestic about this behemoth that gets my geeky nerdy side all excited! The shot above does that every time!

What's your favorite looking ship?