Dune: Part Two - Official Trailer 2 and detail breakdown

A magnificent trailer, followed by Quinn's detailed breakdown below.

Looking back at 2008, the year of possibilities!

Life has mysterious ways of presenting opportunities to you. Sometimes you're going with the flow gaining speed and momentum to get you where you want to go. Sometimes it's as if you're fighting up a raging river in early spring.

In late March of last year I hit a speed bump in my professional career and found myself with a lot more time on my hands. Ever the optimistic, I leveraged this opportunity to turn this humble little EVE Online Blog and make it the best EVE blog on the Intertubes! The rest as they say, is history!

Let's review the year together and recap the major milestone for this capsuleer blogger.

From 2005 through 2007:

• 61,569 visitors
• 89,582 pageviews

In 2008 alone this blog received:

• 135,688 visitors
• 206,217 pageviews
• 1147 comments
• 506 Daily Average of RSS subscribers (in the last month)
  

I'm literally floored when I look at the above statistics. Who could have foreseen such results! A lot of work went into achieving these results, and though a lot of that work was done alone, I could not have reached these heights without the help of others.



A podcaster is born

In an effort to get more involved and give back to the EVE community, in early February of last year I jumped at the opportunity to make a fool of myself along with two other EVE players. A new EVE-focused podcast was thus born: The Drone Bay! With the talented and very knowledgeable Crovan as host and editor, and Alsedrech and I as his faithful companions, we embarked on this amazing adventure.

At the time, Warp Drive Active was the only running EVE Online podcast, and we saw an opportunity to fill a niche that was void at the time: helping new and veteran players alike. At the time of this writing we've done 17 shows, and though we've done only one since early December, the show isn't dead yet (far from), and we're planning on getting back together to continue the adventure.

During the summer months I also had the chance to participate on various other podcast as well, which allowed me to share my passion for EVE and feed my ego ('cause it needs to be fed regularly these days! :p). With short appearances on a few Titan Weekly shows, as well as guest appearances on The Addicted Gamer, Massively Speaking and Aeropodcast, I was becoming more comfortable with the medium and was ready to start my very own show.

So, in early October I got together with YoMma, a stranger at the time really & a new EVE blogger, and started Micro Warp Cast. The show got off to an amazing start and was well received by the community. Unfortunately, RL got in the way and though we've recorded a show some time after my return from Fanfest in mid-November, I still have not had the time to finish-up the editing. The good news is that I'm almost done editing show #4 and YoMma and I are about to record show #5.

Look for more shows in the very near future!


An EVE Blogging Community is born

A lot of the success of this blog is result of hard work on my part. Hard and constant work finding new EVE blogs, adding them up on the EVE Blogroll, commenting on a lot of them (as much as I can) and trying to build strong relationships with all these great folks. It's also about monitoring hundreds of other gaming blogs, setting up Google Alerts on EVE related terms, and trying to link to interesting news about the game we play.

But that's just one part of this whole adventure.

All this effort on my part would go to waste if the EVE Blogging Community was not what it is. I might be the spark that lights the fire up, but if was not fueled and fed by the other bloggers out there, that fire would soon die. These are the folks from the EVE Blog Pack, from the EVE Blog Banter initiative, as well as the friends we have over at Massively, James and Brendan.

Thanks to all of you for making this possible!



Major Highlights of 2008

Looking back at 2008, there are some major events that helped this blog become what it is, and helped this blogger along the way. Here they are in chronological order:

• January & February 2008
• I take a month-long break from EVE and blogging
  
• CrazyKinux's Musing achieves the 100,000 pageviews mark
  
• The pilot episode of The Drone Bay podcast goes live
• March 2008
  
• The Drone Bay gets mentioned over at Massively
• I finally meet Zapatero, Editor of EON magazine, while in London
• May 2008
  
• My first of 3 Massively articles gets published
• June 2008
  
• The EVE Blog Pack is born
• Guest appearance over at Massively Speaking and Aeropodcast
• July 2008
  
• My first article gets published in EON #012, title Mining Evolved
• August and September 2008
  
• Having a big heart, I post a helpful article for newbies and for WoW players!
• The EVE Blog Pack members get some homework
  
• October 2008
• The EVE Blogging Community hits the 100 blogs mark
• The first episode of Micro Warp Cast goes live
• The EVE Blog Banter #1 is published and gets some link-love from Massively
• November 2008
  
• The first of many EVE Fanfest article get published (more of Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 and more)
• December 2008
  
• The year comes to an end

I don't know what 2009 holds for me and EVE Online, but if 2008 is any indication, it'll be a hell of a blast! I had an amazing time blogging, podcasting and writing about EVE during the last year. It allowed me to become friends from people all around the world, some of whom I had a chance to meet, and some I hope to meet at Fanfest '09.



Thanks for being there, really

Though many of you deserve to be thanked for the help and support you've provided me over the years, some rise to the top, and I'd like to mention them here.

Thanks to Crovan and Alsedrech for being great Drone Bay co-hosts, thanks to Zapatero for giving me the opportunity (twice) to be part of the EON adventure, thanks to Krystalle, Mike, Shawn, James and Brendan from Massively for all your support and the opportunity you gave me, thanks to Brent from VirginWorlds, thanks to Winterblink for the example you set, thanks to Ned, Misty & Valerie from CCP for your support, as well as all the other Devs for making EVE possible, thanks YoMma for the patience you've shown and the great MWC co-host you are, thanks to SeriousSally and Smakalicious for your link love, thanks to the EVE Blog Pack members, as well as the EVE Blogging Community, for without your continued support all this would not have been as fun as it is!

And finally, thanks to all of you for dropping by, leaving your comments, sending emails and simply enjoying this blog.

Here's to 2009!

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
  

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!!

Blog Banter #7: Quality over quantity any day of the week

Welcome, welcome to the 7th 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!

From CrazyKinux (that's me!): Does every game need to be a grade-A blockbuster title? Would you be willing to play more average games or should every game shoot for the 10.0 rating?

My quick and dirty answer to the first question would be no, give me quality over quantity any day of the week, and twice on Sunday. And these days, blockbuster does not necessarily mean a great gaming experience. Two things are most valuable to me, money (obviously), but most of all time!

The former is easily explained. At $60 a game, I better enjoy what I give in exchange for my blood, sweat and tears. But it's the latter that's really at the heart of my answer. I'm a gamer, I'm a husband, I'm a dad (and definitely not in that order, yes dear I know!!) , and if there's one thing I don't have too much of it's time. So please Mr Publisher/Developer, don't waste it. I have a long term memory and will remember if you try to feed me crap.

Lets take this from a different point of view. Take 10 seconds to go and check your game collection, PC, console, handheld, whatever! OK, you're back? Good. Now, how many of those games have you finished? Far from all of them right? So let me ask you this, would you have preferred having had bought less of them, if the ones you did get were so great you couldn't put down the controller or remove you hand from the k/b? If you had finished all of those. Probably right? I mean, what was so great about that next game that made you put down the one you were playing?

At 60 bucks a pop, I'd rather get a gourmet dinner then a buffet. I'd rather savor each digital byte, then to force feed myself tons of polygons and pixels. So please, lets add some variety to the diet here!

So quality over quantity , and that means originality over pre-digested oatmeal.

To answer that second question, no I'd rather you take your time and aim for something original, tasteful. I'd love to be surprised Mr. Developer, which these days rarely happens. I'm not necessarily asking for a perfect 10, but lets have some diversity.

__________________________________________________

Blog Banter Participants: Zath!, Delayed Responsibility, Silvercublogger, weblog.probablynot.com, Crazy Kinux, Gamer-Unit, Unfettered Blather, MasterKitty, XboxOZ360, Omnivangelist, Lou Chou Loves You, Game Couch

EVE Online reviewed in GFW latest issue

It's not every day that an MMORPG which is about to turn 5 years old get a review in a mainstream gaming magazine. Well EVE did just that in the March issue (#016) of Games for Windows -The Official Magazine. In the Updates section (on page 83) they review Trinity an 8 out of 10 score. On the plus side they mention that visual update that came with the patch is simply gorgeous and that there's new content. On the down side, they complain (with reason) that the agent missions need an overhaul. Couldn't agree more with this review. Unfortunately, they mess-up the DirectX version saying that the overhaul bring DX10, though in reality, Trinity is DX9.

As well, they review a a series of PCs as part of an Ultimate Gaming Machine competition, and one of these PC, the one from Commodore Gaming, has an EVE Online skin.

Quite cool to see EVE still getting some press after all these years! Guess CCP's hard work over the years is paying off.