Why EVE Online’s economy feels more real than most MMOs (REVISED)

Here's what makes EVE Online's economy different: destruction isn't a failure state—it's demand.

When a fleet of battleships explodes in null-sec space, that's not just content for a killboard. It's an industrial signal. 

Somewhere, a manufacturer needs to replace those hulls. A miner needs to harvest more ore. A hauler needs to move materials across hostile space. A trader sees opportunity in the price spike.

Most MMOs fake their economies the way movie sets fake cities—the storefronts look real until you try to open a door. EVE does the opposite. It builds a system where players are the economy, and then it designs that economy to consume what it produces. Loss drives replacement; replacement drives industry; industry drives logistics; logistics drives trade; trade funds the next round of chaos.

Rinse and repeat.

That's the hook in Economics Explained's “The Economy of EVE Online” video I'm sharing below. Though it's a tad outdated, it still captures this fundamental insight: EVE turns players into producers, movers, traders, and destroyers—because the economy only works if people do all of it.

This article unpacks why EVE's economy feels surprisingly real, even to people who study real economies for a living. I'll keep it as simple as possible.

My first Cormorant: a practical PvE-to-PvP guide for first-time pilots

After running Level 1 missions along the Enforcer career path over the last few weeks*, I was awarded a ship I’d never personally flown before: the Cormorant. And it came with a SKIN. Sweet!

This was perfect timing because I’ve been sitting on SKINs for ages thinking “cool cool… how do I actually use these?” But couldn't figure it out! Turns out: this was the push I needed. And I had two AIs to guide me through the process of getting it on this new ship.

This post is basically my “new ship, new chapter” brain-dump. 

Making a living in EVE Online: Part 1 — Quick wins and survival habits (REVISED)

(Latest Revision - January 30, 2026)

Most new pilots hit the same moment: you finally have some ISK, you lose a ship, and suddenly you're doing mental math at every undock. This post is here to break that cycle. The goal isn't to get filthy rich on week one. Though THAT would be fun. Right?

The goal is simpler—and way more important: you learn to stop being broke forever.

That means you learn a couple of income loops that are predictable, and you adopt a few survival habits that keep your wallet alive even when your ship goes BOOM!!

Because it will.

For All Mankind Season 5 and the long promise of Mars colonization

The Season 5 teaser for For All Mankind was released earlier this week, and it reminded me why I keep coming back to this series.

At this point, the show isn’t really “alt-history space race” anymore. It’s closer to “what happens when space stops being a stunt and becomes a system.” The Moon base era, the push toward Mars, the slow shift from exploration to infrastructure — that’s the part I’ve been enjoying most, and it feels like Season 5 is going to lean into it even more so. That teaser definitely teases us about it!

Le Grand Mort: A Beautiful, unsettling journey between two worlds

I started reading Le Grand Mort years ago—back in 2016 or 2017—after picking up the first two volumes at the Montréal book fair (Le Salon du livre de Montréal). It was one of those “this looks gorgeous, I need this on my shelf” impulse buys… and honestly, it was a good one.

Then life did what life does. I kept collecting the series in the background, and Volume 8 eventually made its way into my stack around the COVID era… and then just sat there, unread, quietly judging me from the bookshelf.

This past Christmas break, I finally fixed that. I went back to the very start and read the whole thing series properly—from Volume 1 to the very last volume—so I could experience the story the way it’s meant to unfold, not as scattered memories separated by years.

(Warning: some spoilers ahead!)

And yeah: it was absolutely worth the reset.

A practical guide to staying current in EVE Online: Podcasts & Streamers

EVE Online podcasts and streamers that keep you up to date

If you want to stay in the know about what’s happening in New Eden—the shifting geopolitics, wars and alliances, the economy and trade meta, and the steady stream of “wait… when did that become a thing?” tips and tricks—having a few solid podcasts and shows in your rotation makes a big difference. They’re the easiest way to get both the headlines and the context, whether you fly every day or you’re coming back after a break.

This post is a curated list of currently active EVE Online podcasts, shows, and creators. Each entry includes what they cover, who it’s best for, and where to listen or watch—so you can find the right “keep me current” feed without digging around.

This list is a work in progress. It’s what I’ve been able to find and verify over the last few weeks, across audio podcasts and Twitch/YouTube shows. If you know other great EVE podcasts, shows, or creators—especially niche ones (wormholes, industry, abyssal deadspace , factional warfare, markets, exploration, etc.)—please share them in the comments and I’ll expand the list.

Crovan rebooted "The Drone Bay" and I’m weirdly emotional about it 🥹

I had one of those “wait… what year is it?!” moments this week: I discovered that my old podcast co-host, Crovan, has brought The Drone Bay back… on YouTube.

The Drone Bay... The Drone WHAT?!!!

Originally, The Drone Bay was one of the early EVE podcasts way back in spring 2008, and seeing it resurface in 2024 hit me right in the nostalgia module.

Resonance gives off cinematic sci-fi vibes and a whisper of mystery

 

That gameplay trailer for Resonance absolutely stopped my YouTube scroll.

There’s this immediate “okay, I need to know what this is” vibe: a lone alien explorer following a signal into the ruins of a dead (robotic) civilization… and then—because of course—waking up something colossal that really wasn’t asking to be disturbed. 

The tone feels quiet, mysterious, and big in that “ancient machines + lonely planet” kind of way.

The atmosphere is gorgeous. The visuals absolutely attention-grabbing.

Making a living in EVE Online: a blueprint series for earning ISK

EVE Online has this weird superpower: you can log in with a rusty frigate and no clue what “transversal” means… and still end up building a living. And do so fairly quickly.

Not a questline living. Not a “the game hands you gold for showing up” living (though there's a bit of that of course).

But a real one.

New Eden is one of the only game worlds where “making money” isn’t a side activity. It’s a whole ecosystem. You can be a scavenger, a prospector, a courier, a trader, an industrialist, a pirate, a soldier-for-hire… and the economy actually has room for all of it because other players create the demand (and the chaos).

Crazy, eh? I know!

That’s the hook for this series. I’m putting together a practical, blueprint-style set of posts that maps out the major ways capsuleers make ISK—from the stuff you can start doing today, to the systems that feel like you accidentally enrolled in an MBA program run by space criminals. 

No fluff. No “top 10 secrets.” No pretending there’s one “best” way. 

Just a ladder you can climb.

After Hours, Episode 3 (2016): Rixx Javix and I talk EVE Online, EVE blog banters, and community weirdness

The above is "After Hours Podcast – Episode 3", and it’s a nearly-decade-old (May 2016) chat between the infamous pirate Rixx Javix, and myself — looking back on the “golden age” of EVE blogging and how that whole scene shaped a lot of us.

I came across that old episode while researching for an upcoming project on EVE Online podcasts, past and present (more on that later).

The Time Masters: the weird, beautiful French sci-fi I’m finally revisiting

I first saw Time Masters (Les Maîtres du temps) in my early teen years, and it grabbed my attention immediately.

Not simply because of the visuals, or the title, but because it was different. Very different...

It looked nothing like the cartoons I’d grown up with on TV or in theaters. This was before I’d even stumbled into Akira, Nausicaä or Robotech—back when “animation” mostly meant one familiar lane: Disney, Warner Bros. or Hanna-Barbera. And then this showed up, looking like it came from a completely different universe.

So this past Christmas, I did what any reasonable middle-aged guy does when nostalgia starts tugging at his sleeve: I put it on my wish list. A few days ago, it finally landed in my hands. I wasn’t sure what I’d find. Was the magic just nostalgia doing its thing? Or was the film really as special as I remembered?

Either way, I hit play.

I wasn’t disappointed.

A beautiful Blender tribute to Homeworld intro: the Taiidan fleet arrives

Some games don’t just start — they announce themselves.

This sub-minute Blender tribute to the Homeworld opening sequence absolutely nails that feeling. The quiet dread. The impossible scale. That slow, inevitable moment when the Taiidan fleet drops out of hyperspace and you know things are about to go very wrong.

For me, this hits straight in the nostalgia cortex. Homeworld was one of the first PC games I played after jumping ship from Macs in the late ’90s, and that opening — paired with Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber — never really left my head. It wasn’t bombastic. It was solemn. Operatic. Like space history unfolding in real time.

This tribute gets why that intro worked. It’s not about flashy dogfights or camera gymnastics. It’s about weight. Fleets that feel ancient. An empire arriving not in a rush, but with absolute confidence. You don’t need dialogue when the music and motion already tell the story.

Huge props to Venture Pictures for capturing the soul of it so cleanly. 

This feels like a quiet reminder of why that original reveal mattered so damn much.

The joy of figuring it out: what the Merlin taught me about EVE Online

One of the things I’m genuinely enjoying right now is rediscovering how much of EVE Online lives outside the actual game play.

What?!! I hear you say. Bear with me a second...

In EVE, skills matter, obviously — but they’re only part of the equation. The real learning happens in the fit and in how a ship is meant to be flown. Lately, that’s been my trusty Merlin, and figuring out how to lean fully into its brawler nature instead of fighting it. Short-range blasters, afterburner over speed tricks, scram and web to keep fights close, and a solid shield buffer so it can sit in the pocket and trade blows. I’m training into the guns and support skills that make that setup work, and paying attention to why each module belongs there.

That process — reading, testing, undocking, exploding, tweaking — is where the fun is.

Seriously! That might sound like a chore to some, but it's allowing me to learn the game nice and slow. At my own rhythm.

In EVE, your ship doesn’t reach its potential just because your skills say it should. It does when the fit makes sense and you fly it the way it was designed to be flown. Now go back, and read that last sentence once again, cause it says a lot about the game.

I’m pulling all of this together into a more detailed post soon, in which I'll be digging into the Merlin itself, the modules and fittings I’m training toward, and how brawler and kiter tactics actually play out once you’re on grid.

But for now, I'm heading out 12 jumps, getting myself a new skill in order to use my new Tech II blasters!

Fly safe!

Avatar: Fire and Ash — stunning to look at, but falls flat (★★★☆☆)

Let’s get the rating out of the way first, because it frames everything else.

If Avatar was a 4.5/5, and Avatar: The Way of Water landed at a solid 4/5, then Avatar: Fire and Ash sits at a 3/5 for me.

That doesn’t mean it’s bad.

It does mean it didn’t stick with me.

And notably, my two teenagers were even more disappointed than I was. These are kids who watched the first film over and over again, and who happily went to see the second Avatar film twice on IMAX (they were much too young to see the first in theatres). 

This time, walking out of the theater, the reaction was basically: “Yeah… that was fine.” 

Which, for Avatar, feels telling.

**Warning: spoilers ahead!**