James Egan
Shanghai, China - http://www.massively.com/bloggers/james-egan
James has been wandering the earth and lost in Asia for some time now. But somewhere along the way, he re-discovered his love for gaming. His home is wherever his laptop is and- more often than not- it’s running iTunes and EVE Online. He is a huge fan of comics, animation, and all things sci-fi. In those respects, he’s not so different from how he was at age 14... and he's quite proud of that.
He can be reached at james AT massively DOT com.
by James Egan 
Nov 6th 2009 (17 hours ago)
EVE
CCP
CCP Games Chief Marketing Officer Ryan S. Dancey recently spoke with
Gamasutra's Christian Nutt about the state of
EVE Online and what makes the sci-fi title unique.
EVE has traits that many MMOs don't, such as
player governance, a dynamic virtual economy, and slow but continual subscription growth. CCP does face problems in tandem with that growth however, namely from
RMT operations. There is also the issue of balancing developer control over aspects of the game's economy (mission rewards, salvage and loot drops, ISK sinks) with the ideal of allowing
EVE's economy to be as player-driven as possible, explains Dancey.
Among other things discussed in the interview, Gamasutra asks how
White Wolf has changed following the
merger with CCP Games nearly three years ago. Dancey tells Gamasutra:
"It's just an imprint... White Wolf used to have a fairly large staff. It doesn't anymore. It's focusing primarily on the World of Darkness RPG products. It's not doing some of the things it used to do; board games and other card games and things. The focus of the company [CCP] is on making MMOs and our legacy table top business is a legacy business." by James Egan Nov 6th 2009 (22 hours ago)
Those following the news surrounding development of sci-fi MMO
Black Prophecy from
Reakktor Media know there's been a significant hurdle to this title seeing the light of day -- the issue of insolvency. When parent company 10Tacle filed for insolvency, this adversely impacted subsidiary
Reakktor Media and threatened continued development of
Black Prophecy, which Reakktor
addressed in an interview with Massively in April.
It was announced today that their restructuring plan has been successful, and that their insolvency plan saved the jobs of all 36 employees at the company. Even better,
Black Prophecy is on track for a release next year, according to the press statement released by the
HERMANN law firm which oversaw the insolvency proceedings.
by James Egan Nov 5th 2009 (1 day ago)
EVE
CCP
EVE Online creators
CCP Games are taking a different approach to promoting the game with a new website. All players in
EVE's setting of New Eden are "capsuleers" -- starship pilots who have attained immortality through cloning technology.
CCP's "Get a Clone" site invites you to
"Clone yourself. Not the way you are, but the way you want to be." The site belongs to
Duvolle Laboratories, one of
EVE Online's NPC corporations, and provides an in-character introduction to some of the basic career paths a pilot can explore in the game.
But first, Duvolle Labs asks you five questions that pin down how morally flexible you are (as a game character). Would you rather build or tear down? Would you risk your life for money or glory? Is success is measured by profits or progress? Your responses to five questions Duvolle Laboratories asks places you in one of four broad career paths - military, exploration, business, or industry.
by James Egan Nov 4th 2009 (2 days ago)
EVE
CCP
A number of
EVE Online fans who've needed their podcast fix have been tuning in to
Planet Risk in recent months, a great mix of music and commentary from players who spend most of their
EVE time exploring the uncharted expanses of wormhole space. Planet Risk is a live show that airs on
Split Infinity Radio on Wednesdays; hosts
Luminus Aardokay and
Quivering Palm make Planet Risk
available as a podcast afterwards and we recommend you check it out if you haven't already. Today's show should be interesting as they will host a debate between four candidates for
EVE's next
Council of Stellar Management, the player-elected body that represents the wishes of the subscribers when dealing with
CCP and how
EVE Online is evolving.
We mentioned last week that the
4th CSM candidates have been announced but not everyone in the running had their positions on issues fleshed out in time for the CCP announcement. Since that day, more
info about the 49 candidates is becoming available (thanks for pointing this out
Darth Sith). Today's debate on Planet Risk will have CSM candidates
TeaDaze (known to many for his commentary during the Alliance Tournament),
Song Li (from the Missions Collide podcast),
Helen Highwater and
Mike Azariah.
by James Egan Nov 2nd 2009 (4 days ago)
Earthrise creators
Masthead Studios have already made clear that their forthcoming title will be a far future sandbox MMO, a post-apocalyptic setting where PvP will be a major aspect of gameplay. What hasn't been as clear is exactly how the extensive crafting process they've discussed in the past will actually work out in normal gameplay. Certainly we've heard a great deal about
customization of crafted goods and the potential to become well-known for your own variations on items, but we never had a real overview of those game mechanics. That is, until now.
Masthead aims to dispel any confusion surrounding
Earthrise's crafting system in a two-part series of blog posts that kicked off today as part of their
Question of the Week offering to the community. "
The Crafting Process", part one of two, poses the theoretical example of a player -- let's call him "Tim" -- who clearly hates Burzun mutants. Enough so that Tim wishes to craft an assault rifle specifically tailored for killing this particular type of mutant. Masthead Studios walks the reader through the skills required to create such a weapon, the components that must be gathered, and how Tim will be able to extract needed resources from those materials.
by James Egan Nov 2nd 2009 (4 days ago)
STO
Cryptic
We recently mentioned that
Star Trek Online fans would get a chance to
play through a demo of the game at Eurogamer Expo last week. One of the first reports we've read about the
Star Trek Online demo comes from
Oli Welsh at Eurogamer who was uniquely positioned to check out the game (it was their Expo after all.) Welsh begins by writing,
"Trekkies can put one fear to rest right now: Star Trek Online feels just like Star Trek." Although this might assuage
a bit of the apprehension some gamers have about trying yet another Star Trek game, Welsh is up front about the fact that the demo he played through was a contained single player experience. It's too soon to say what gameplay will feel like when hundreds of other players are thrown into the mix.
He writes about the demo's transitions between locations via warp jumps, keyboard navigation of star ships (standard WASD, with additional throttle control), and the pacing of ship combat. Welsh also walks the reader from the bridge of a Federation vessel down to the surface of a planet where Klingon opponents await. Fans of the game should read
Eurogamer's hands on with Star Trek Online and may also be interested in the
video footage of STO gameplay from Limited Edition, shot at this year's Eurogamer Expo (starting at 02:40. They've also captured gameplay of
Global Agenda as well.) We've got a video embed of that for you after the jump.
by James Egan Oct 31st 2009 (6 days ago)
The sci-fi MMO
Black Prophecy from developer
Reakktor Media still has a few significant
hurdles to clear before release, but it's looking to be an interesting title from the
gameplay footage we've seen thus far. As they continue to develop
Black Prophecy and seek a publisher to help them expand their reach into multiple markets,
Reakktor Media has been updating the community on the game's status.
They've just released their
eighth Black Prophecy newsletter that hits on the media coverage they've received in the last month (along with the latest art assets), a look into
the game's art direction, and the "
Pimp My Ship!" that's happening on the official forums. Also, if you're curious about what will differentiate this game from other sci-fi MMOs currently on the market, be sure to have a look through
Massively's Black Prophecy coverage.
by James Egan Oct 31st 2009 (6 days ago)
EVE
CCP
The roster of candidates for the 4th
Council of Stellar Management (CSM) in
EVE Online has been announced. According to
CCP Games developer Pétur Jóhannes Óskarsson (aka
CCP Xhagen), 60 members of the playerbase submitted applications, with 49 players accepted after CCP's screening process. (Players must hold valid passports to attend the CSM summit in Reykjavik, and those with EULA violations are ineligible to run.) From this pool of 49, there will ultimately be nine elected delegates and five alternates who can step in when needed.
Although Xhagen didn't break down candidate stats by nationality, there is a substantial number of U.S. players running for the 4th CSM as in past elections. This time around there are candidates from Latvia, Serbia, and Barbados as well. The ages of candidates range from 21 to 54, and only one female candidate is in the running this term which Xhagen notes is a decrease from the previous election. (He also indicates that only 3.9% of
EVE's subscribers are female.)
by James Egan Oct 30th 2009 (7 days ago)
Opinions on
PlayStation Home seem to differ -- it doesn't have the kind of flexibility and user created content that's made
Second Life successful, but it does provide social spaces and content linked to the games and other media we enjoy. For others, like writers at our parent site Joystiq, it's a brave new virtual world where the
fine art of Quincying can thrive.
Now that
PlayStation Home has gained some traction with its
install base and users are making
microtransaction purchases, does Sony intend to develop the marketplace further? Not immediately, according to
PlayStation Home's Pete Edwards.
Edge Online quotes Edwards, speaking at the London Games Conference this week:
"It's been a long road. We've proved there is a market out there and we've got a lot of people that spend a lot of time in [Home]. It's not a priority right now but there is a business model there."
[Via
G4tv's The Feed]
by James Egan Oct 30th 2009 (7 days ago)
EVE
The settings of
Darkfall and
EVE Online are worlds apart, but there
is some common ground between the titles. PvP combat permeates both sandbox games, and given a potentially hostile environment when starting out, it's always good to have a helping hand.
EVE Online players have training corps like
EVE University to show them the ropes in what can sometimes be a brutal game.
Darkfall now has an analog of
EVE University called "
NEW" which Syncaine recently
pointed out on his blog, Hardcore Casual. NEW is short for "Newborn on Agon", a North American server clan that provides training in most any facet of the game for those willing to learn.
Although
Darkfall can be harsh to newer players, NEW provides a (comparatively) safe environment where players can spend 30 days learning what interests them, or developing the skills to succeed in the game once it's time to move on. The clan is politically neutral and owns the city of Hammerdale, contributing to NEW's potential to become a haven for new players. Also, some of
Darkfall's
major alliances support the idea of NEW which could be beneficial in the long run.
It's great to see things like this happen in sandbox MMOs, and hopefully
Darkfall will continue to see its players establish lasting institutions in the game.
