iGame Radio

CCP and Bigfoot Networks will be presenting the Killer 2100 Plexplosion event throughout September. Participants can win prizes every day, including 30 PLEX, 30 T-Shirts and two Killer 2100 network cards. In order to participate you need to “Like” both the EVE Online and Bigfoot Networks’ Facebook pages. Two prizes will be awarded daily and winners will be announced on Facebook (presumably both EVE Online and Bigfoot Networks’ Facebook pages).

You can also participate to increase your chances of winning by visiting the CCP booth at PAX and signing up for the event.

CCP has launched the 13th expansion to EVE Online. Tyrannis opens up new avenues of player control within the MMOG with Planetary Interaction, which allows players to scan the surfaces of planets and place structures on them to develop planetary resources and profit from what they reap. EVE Online promises well over 65,000 planets for discovery. On June 8th, seeding of planetary command centers will commence, which will allow players to gather, process, and export natural resources and refined goods.

EVE Gate is the new web frontend and social networking platform for EVE Online, allowing access to in-game mail and other features. Available through any web browser, EVE Gate will give players the ability to manage their mail, calendar, contacts, corporations, and alliances without having to enter the game.

Both EVE Gate and Planetary Interaction are seen by CCP as the first step of a process to encourage players into greater interaction and community building, especially from outside the game client itself. CCP intends to provide more options for accessing the game API, for example, so players can continue to develop EVE-related programs.

CCP, developers of EVE Online, have announced that Tyrannis, their upcoming expansion, will be delayed one week to May 26th. A devblog post on the EVE Online site discussed the delay in some detail:

In our regression testing, we have identified scalability issues with the Planetary Interaction feature, which led to code refactoring that then needed further testing before being launched to Tranquility. Planetary Interaction is a unique feature in the sense that it is available to almost all players in the game providing opportunity for manufacturing for the masses, so ensuring that it runs smoothly on our cluster is of great importance to all.

The seeding of Planetary Command Centers, which is the feature that will allow players to create new planets, has been pushed back to June 8th. EVE Gate will also be released on May 26th, with its web access to EVE Mail, Calendar and revamped contacts, both in-game and on the web.

EVE Online also wanted to make sure that all players had ample opportunity to review the Planetary Command Center features, as it represents a huge addition to the MMORPG gameplay mechanics.

The trailer, at least. We’re less than two weeks away from the 13th expansion to the futuristic Sci-Fi MMOG that requires you to die to live. The potential for this expansion is enormous, including EVE Gate, which allows for communication, management, and social engagement of EVE Online through the web even when you are not in-game. There’s a lot of you can do with an iPad with this tool.

Anyway, enjoy the trailer, and count the days till the launch!

EVE Online, CCP’s space-opera MMO, has updated Dominion, their latest expansion, to version 1.1. This update redesigns all Mothership-class vessels into Supercarriers, which command the Minmatar fighter bombers in frontline conflicts. This update also includes a voice modulator called Voicefonts which will allow players to alter their voice, raising or lowering it, even switching genders to match their avatar state. Additional fixes and improvements are outlined in the EVE Online updates page.

EVE Online: Dominion was launched today, making this the 12th expansion for the free sci-fi based MMOG. New features in the game included sovereignty changes that intend to catalyze player relationships into closer conflict, doing away with the entrenched siege battles.

“Our goal for EVE is to maximize human interaction and then leverage it to make a more meaningful, interesting game,” said EVE’s Lead Game Designer, Noah Ward. “Dominion was designed to give players more tools to mold their experience with better means of communication and extra rounds of ammunition. Undoubtedly, the compelling intrigue we’ve seen in EVE will never end as pilots fight to bend the universe to their will.”

New features include unprecedented alliance control over territory, allowing them to change things to suit their goals and playstyles, the re-engineering of many ship classes, a new in-game browser and mail system, and some major graphic improvements to various planets, moons, and stars. More info can be found at the EVE features page.

The volunteer manager for EVE Online reported today a compromise last weekend to the Interstellar Services Department, EVE Online’s volunteer program, leading to the theft of some volunteer program data and specific info about some volunteers. EVE stressed that the theft in no way affected their online operations or any player or customer data.

From the EVE Online Dev Blog:

All players, particularly those who are or have been in the EVE Online volunteer program, should be aware that any e-mails sent from the @eve-crc.net domain are bogus and have been sent from someone pretending to be an official representative of CCP.

We are taking this issue extremely seriously and have launched a full investigation. In the meantime, to be on the safe side, we have shut down all ISD servers and services to protect our volunteers and the integrity of the program and are now working diligently toward strengthening and improving our practices and policies pertaining to the volunteer program to ensure its ongoing success and valuable contribution to the EVE Online experience.

ETA: Heard back from developer Paul Hutson. The iPhone app will cost $2, starting low to catch as many people into the game as possible. The browser portion is a subscription model which only charges after level 10. Pricing schemes of 1 month $3.99, 3 months $10.99, 6 months $19.99 and 1 year $37.99. They’ve also got a special offer of a lifetime subscription for $99.99 right now, too. Oh, and I’ll be doing an interview with Paul soon, so look for that in an upcoming podcast!

I heard about this before but haven’t had a chance to look it over in detail. A MMOG game for web browser and iPhone, specifically targeting the EVE Online and such-like crowd. The game is called Outer Empires, and the browser side just went live yesterday. The iPhone/iPod Touch version was submitted to Apple around the 15th, so it may be a few more days before we get access to it.

From the site:

“Outer Empires is a new-born galaxy, just waiting for players to begin building history by colonising planets, exploring the far reaches of space and forming powerful cadres of miners, traders and pirates,” says Iron Will Studio lead designer Paul Hutson.

Sounds like a cool game, and you don’t need to be sitting in front of your computer to do it. Okay, EVE Online, the gauntlet has been thrown. It’s your turn now. ;-)

EVE Online just posted this cool vid about their universe.



I don’t know that I agree that the “Butterfly Effect” = the “Sandbox”. Say rather that the Sandbox can lead to the Butterfly Effect. But the Sandbox just means your ability to play within a universe without scripting or pre-laid story determining your moves.

Though this actually occurred back in June, information is only just beginning to become public about the extent of the massive bank fraud perpetrated on the largest bank within EVE Online, EBank. Apparently one gamer, Ricdic, who was the bank’s CEO, decided that he needed a down payment on a house in this world (as well as some cash for medical bills), so embezzled about 200 billion ISK (EVE Online in-game currency), and exchanged it for about $5000 in real-world cash.

Now, interestingly enough, the embezzlement isn’t the real problem…even though when the news broke in the game it caused a huge run on the bank and a major crippling in trust in the bank with the bank’s members. No, the real problem was that he exchanged the ISK for cash. This is actually a violation of the game’s EULA. Ricdic, who’s real-world name is currently unknown, has been booted from the game as a result.

EVE Online is a MMOG pitching giant corporations against each other, so I suppose it’s no big surprise to see something like this happen. There’s a fascinating write-up in Massive regarding the impact this has had in-game, and how the players are reacting to it. You can also see how bank executives are dealing with this in the game’s forums.