Massively

Whether you love EVE Online or hate it, there's one thing people tend to agree on - it makes for some great screenshots. EVE has a history of players producing some amazing videos, screenshots, artwork and fiction. YouTube is filled with intense PvP action videos and over four hundred players write the stories of their travels on personal blogs. People have even created some incredible papercraft ship models. Because we all love eye candy, screenshots from EVE even make a regular appearance in Krystalle's daily MMO screenshot column "One Shots".

EVE's Official magazine EON runs a regular feature called "Postcards from the Edge" where players write in with a screenshot and a short story about it. As a tribute to EON, who I wrote for before coming to Massively, this week and next I present galleries full of postcards from my own travels in EVE. They're all high-resolution shots suitable to be used as widescreen backgrounds, feel free to save them out from your browser to get them at full resolution.

In the early 70's, some clever chap programmed a pile of circuits to create a primitive game we all know as Pong. Fast-forward some forty years down the line and we're now battling Orcs in Azeroth and flying spaceships in the far-reaches of another galaxy. An entire games industry has erupted from those first simple arcade systems, with people designing and programming games for kids and adults alike. In the 90's, the first generation of kids that grew up with those early game systems became the ones making them and a virtual renaissance in game design ensued. Those kids that grew up wishing they could make their own games started to realise their dreams and the games industry as we know it came forth. More recently, the people that grew up with early MMOs have begun to hit the games industry and we're seeing a rebirth of the genre.

In this article, I look at the games industry explosion and how it relates to the generations growing up with games. I ask whether the MMO genre is headed for its own great gaming renaissance and take a speculative look ahead at the future for MMOs and the games industry as a whole.

Some time ago, I looked at the different graphical updates EVE Online has received over the years and what was to come. The ship graphics were renovated years ago with the Trinity expansion and much of the rest of the game was left looking dated in comparison. The Apocrypha expansion picked up on the upgrades where Trinity left off, with re-developments of asteroid graphics and most of the game's special effects. Future updates were planned, with promises of bringing new life to planets and everything else that hasn't been improved. With the Dominion expansion on the horizon, it now seems that those promises are being fulfilled. We've seen new planet graphics and even shiny new starfields on the test server but are there other parts of the game that could benefit more from a graphical overhaul?

In this short opinion piece, I take a quick look at the graphical overhauls that are coming with the Dominion expansion and ask which other aspects of EVE's graphics are long overdue for an upgrade.

The term "corporation" in EVE Online is something of a misnomer. While a corp can be run as a full-on business entity, most are just like guilds or clans in other MMOs. It's a group of pilots that join together under one banner for mutual benefit, organised operations or even just to have some nice people to chat to while you mine. For those that can't find a good player-run corporation that's compatible with their aims and goals, there are a few options. One option is to stay in one of the many NPC-run corps but perhaps the most interesting choice is to start your own corp. With the upcoming 11% tax being applied to NPC corps, some of the people currently in those corps may even want to start their own one-man corps to evade the tax.

Running your own corporation provides you with additional tools like corporate hangers and the ability to set up starbases or declare war on other corps. It also opens the opportunity to recruit like-minded individuals and friends into your group so you can work together on anything from mining and mission-running to full-on PvP and piracy. EVE is one of those games that really starts to take off once you start working together with people. Starting your own corp can, however, be a daunting task that carries with it responsibilities and risks.

For all those that have ever wanted to run their own corporation, in this article I explain how to the process of starting a corp, recruiting and keeping the corp secure against threats. I also go into detail on some of the corp operations you can hope to enjoy with friends.

If you play EVE Online or follow its news, you've probably heard of the Council of Stellar Management (or CSM for short). They're a democratically elected group of players that volunteer a lot of free time to help the developers improve EVE. The CSM's job is outlined in the official summary document as "to represent society interests to CCP". They act as an intermediary between CCP's development team and the EVE players but what do they actually do and have they made a positive impact on the game? I initially researched the CSM one month after the institution's inception when it was much too early to tell. With three six-month terms completed and a fourth about to start, there's now enough information to take a real conclusive look at how well the system works.

Join me as I examine the creation of the CSM, how it works and what it's actually achieved since its inception.

Back in July, we started our Redefining MMOs series of articles to explore how the MMO genre has been redefined during the current generation of games and where it's headed in the next. Each of us here at Massively contributed our own unique perspectives on various topics, from those first articles on the terminology we use to refer to MMOs and the importance of lore to the latest article where developers weighed in with their opinions. Developers from several major MMO development studios discussed the term "MMO", what they think it means now and whether it's time for a new word. It's been an exciting series of articles for us to write and we hope you've enjoyed reading it.

Many of you have already been inspired to comment on the articles and discuss your views on each topic. Your comments have given us a great deal of cause for thought and before we wrap up this popular series, we'd love to hear more of your thoughts. If you've ever wanted to get your opinions on the MMO genre in the spotlight, this is your chance. Simply write your own Redefining MMOs article on your own blog or website and drop the link in the comments. We'll announce our favourite reader submission next week and give them pride of place in next week's final wrap-up article.

Skip past the cut for our full submission guidelines.