The Safe Spot — Episode 16: Rixx Javix's 18 Years in EVE Online

Rixx's been flying around New Eden for 18 years, so this episode turned into a look back at how he got here and why he still undocks. We also get into my recent hauling adventures, the things EVE keeps teaching us, and a few ideas we’re saving for another day.

If we had six months to make EVE Online better, where would we start?

A few days ago, I asked a fairly simple question on r/Eve:

“You’ve been given 6 months to "fix" EVE. What are your top 3 priorities?”

These could be mechanics, balance problems, old systems in need of reworking, new-player issues, economic problems, PvP, PvE, industry, sovereignty, Faction Warfare, whatever.

The only real constraint was that I wanted people to choose three. Not twenty. Not an entire imaginary expansion roadmap. Just three things.

Predictably, some of the responses were jokes. Some wanted Hilmar gone. Others wanted multiboxing restricted, Local removed (would be interesting to remove it in null sec for sure), citadels changed, nullsec shaken up, ships made cheaper, or Fenris to stop spending time on anything that wasn’t EVE.

But buried among those shorter answers were some genuinely thoughtful responses.

Players wrote detailed proposals about resource distribution, sovereignty, PvE, exploration, structures, force projection, industry, small-gang warfare, new-player retention and even how information itself works inside EVE.

I also shared the question privately with a longtime EVE player whose opinion I trust. His answers went in some very different directions—dynamic space weather, huge asteroid belts, mineable comets, shifting resource availability, abandoned structures that could be captured rather than destroyed, and wrecks that salvagers could actually hunt down.

Once I stopped looking at the individual fixes and started looking at why people wanted them, something interesting happened.

The dozens of suggestions started collapsing into three much larger ideas.

The Safe Spot — Episode 14: The AI Debate

The messy line between AI-assisted and AI-generated

AI can turn an ordinary conversation into a minefield remarkably quickly—and EVE Online is no exception. Rixx and I wade into the debate from our sometimes differing perspectives, beginning with “AI slop” and the increasingly blurry line between AI-generated content and work that remains human-led but AI-assisted.

We discuss how we each use (or deliberately avoid) these tools in our creative and professional lives. Taste, experience, judgment, fact-checking and accountability don’t magically appear with a good prompt, but does every use of AI deserve to be thrown into the same bucket?

The Safe Spot — Episode 10: "Black Rise Regional News"

Ten episodes! 10!!

I honestly can't believe we've hit double digits. Most podcast series — EVE or otherwise — never make it past the first handful before fading out, so the fact that Rixx and I are still here, still recording, and still having an absolute blast feels like a milestone worth celebrating. 

And we're not slowing down. No siree, Bob! 

We've got so much more in store.

So, in this episode we welcome Black Rise Regional News — let's call him "Burn" short for BRRN — to The Safe Spot. Burn is a Caldari faction warfare pilot, UCN director, and the creator behind one of EVE's most unique written content projects: a regional newspaper covering the wars, politics, and shenanigans of Black Rise and surrounding space. 

Rixx and I dig into how Burn went from flu-ridden backlog gamer to militia diplomat and propagandist-in-chief, and I listen in while the two of them swap faction warfare war stories along the way. 

I mostly listened and took notes on this one — these two had a lot to talk about!

Speedlinking New Eden — June 7th, 2026

The week New Eden held its breath.

That's the only way I can describe it. Seven days, almost no major announcements, no lore bombs, no surprise developer streams — and yet the whole EVE ecosystem felt coiled, tense, pointed at one fixed date: Tuesday, June 9th, 11:00 UTC. 

The Cradle of War expansion drops in less than 48 hours and the pre-launch machinery ran full-tilt this past week: expansion notes published early, a developer roundtable posted to YouTube, and the Mastery Pack sale running down to its last hours.

Oh, and NoizyGamer quietly dropped some of the most interesting player-retention data of the year. We'll get to that in a minute.

Let's jump right in.

The Safe Spot — Episode 9: "Featuring Oz"

Hey everyone, we're back after what felt like forever. I got pulled into the Habs' Stanley Cup run (no shame, that was a hell of a series for our Montreal Canadiens), and we finally sat down for episode 9 with our very first official guest: Oz. 

Both Rixx and I were genuinely stoked about opening the format up to guests, and even more so that Oz agreed to be the first one through the door. I came in with way too many questions lined up like a checklist, and Rixx, true to form, just rolled with the conversation in full Buccaneer bravado. 

Very different styles, yet somehow it worked. 

The Safe Spot — Episode 8: "Our EVE Fanfest 2026 reaction"

This one's our reaction episode to EVE Fanfest 2026, which wrapped up the day before we recorded. Rixx and I sat down Sunday evening to talk through everything — the Polaris Award he picked up while not even being in Iceland, the Cradle of War reveal, the Google DeepMind sit-down, where Vanguard and Frontier are headed, and a pile of asides along the way. 

It's a long one, but a good one. 

Pour something cold (or hot, in Rixx's case) and dig in.😂

Speedlinking New Eden & more - The May 17th, 2026 edition

Back in the heydays of this EVE blog, I used to do this thing called the "Speedlinking New Eden", which was a weekly wrap-up of EVE Online news, and then some. So with the excitement around the Fenris Creations rebrand, the Google DeepMind announcement and EVE Fanfest 2026 wrapping up, I thought I'd rekindle this initiative. 

Fanfest week. Three days of keynotes, reveals, and blood donations (yes, literally). Fenris Creations came out swinging with a three-expansion arc, a new extraction shooter playtest, a survival sandbox reset, and enough coverage to keep you scrolling for a week. 

Let's go.

What DeepMind's partnership could actually mean for EVE's future

Earlier this week I wrote about the Google DeepMind and Fenris Creations partnership and came away cautiously excited. So I took Friday off from work to make sure I could watch the LIVE broadcast from the Harpa Concert Hall. Then earlier today, Hilmar and DeepMind's Adrian Bolton took the Fanfest stage for 'The Infinite Game' session, and I walked away with considerably less. 

The above video was added on Fenris Creations channel on May 25th, 2026. I thought I'd add it here for full context.

Like a lot of those who listened in, I came away fairly empty-handed from that conversation. Not disappointed, but very much hungry for more. As in a lot more. Yes, yes, there was lots of framing, lots of "excitement" about the partnership's potential, about AI lifting the popularity of games like Chess and Go, but very little about what it actually means for the game we play. 

So I thought I could give it a try myself and dive into how I'm hoping DeepMind's research could realistically be applied and leveraged in EVE. Basically trying to add the substance that was missing from their talk. Trying to imagine what that near future could be.

I'm probably going to be way off mark, then again maybe not. We'll see.

But I thought I could give it a try. 

Here goes nothing...

What's ahead in this post:

• NPCs that actually adapt to how you fly — not harder stats, different behaviour
• An AI-powered NPE in Exordium that keeps rookies alive past the two-hour quit window and hands them off to real player run corporations
• Dynamic universe events that respond to what players are doing, not what a designer scripted
• Behind-the-scenes economic modeling that could make balance patches less painful
• The stuff I think people are overhyping — and why TiDi probably isn't going anywhere

It's a long read, but if you care about where New Eden is headed, you'll want to stick around.
So grab a coffee, tea or a cold one, and let's dive in.

From CCP to Fenris Creations: EVE Online enters the Age of AI

 

What a time to be an EVE player!

When the news dropped Wednesday last week, I wanted to sit down and start writing immediately. CCP Games rebranding as Fenris Creations. Entering a research partnership with Google DeepMind. Damn!! But the hot take is rarely the right take. So I shut up, read everything I could find, and gave myself a few days to let it settle.

It's been nearly a week since the news dropped, and this is where I'm at three days before Fanfest starts: I'm excited. And I'm eager to learn more when DeepMind founder Adrian Bolton takes the stage alongside Hilmar at Fanfest later this week, even though I won't be there in person.

I've also been following EVE's development since the late nineties, which means I know how to be excited and skeptical at the same time. I've had practice.

So buckle up folks, cause Kansas is going bye-bye, as this is going to be a "DeepDive" into the biggest EVE news in years. Pun very much intended!

The Safe Spot — Episode 7: "Pearl Abyss & Fanfest"

Big news this episode — Pearl Abyss is selling CCP Games back to its own leadership team, and Rixx and I break down what that means for EVE Online, Frontier, and Vanguard. 

We also look ahead to Fanfest 2026 (which neither of us is attending this year, don't judge), swap some FanFest war stories from years past, geek out over the EVE Faction Warfare Yearbook, touch on the brand-new Capsuleer Days event, and Rixx shares a couple of PvP encounters that remind us all why you check local and never fly what you can't afford to lose.