Filed under: EVE Online

If ever there was a person that could be called the cornerstone of EVE Online's blogging community, it would be CrazyKinux. His gargantuan efforts to get the EVE community blogging have been met with continual success. In his monthly "EVE Blog Banter" segment, CrazyKinux presents readers with a topic to blog on and starts off in-depth discussions. On occasion, the EVE Blog Banter becomes a competition with a few prizes provided by CCP. CrazyKinux and other judges peruse submissions to bring us the best of the month's blogging efforts and reward their writers deservedly. Our own contributing editor James Egan and EON Magazine Editor Richie "Zapattero" Shoemaker have been judges in previous contests.

The latest edition of the EVE Blog Banter was a bumper contest with prizes for the top ten writers supplied by the EVE merchandise store. A record 56 participants wrote their take on why they love EVE Online and what makes it special for them. Amongst some of the more impressive entries, CrazyKinux whittled his choices down to his top 10 favourite entries. The first prize of $100 to spend in the EVE merchandise store went to "Wench with a Wrench", second place went to "Don't Fear the Mutant", third to "Into the unknown with gun and camera" and fourth to "Sered's Lives". If you're interested in seeing what makes EVE special to a variety of players, the six remaining finalists and the other entries in the contest are certainly worth a read. For a full list of winners and participants, swing by the winner's announcement at CrazyKinux's Musing.

Whether you play EVE Online or not, the chances are you've read a lot about the harsh, cut-throat universe of New Eden. Alliances routinely clash over territorial disputes, spies work to destroy organisations from the inside and death is an inevitability. While dying in most MMOs means respawning at some far-away camp and having to repair your gear, death in EVE is a somewhat more vicious affair. When your ship is destroyed, whether it's by NPCs in a particularly tough mission or pirates hunting in a low security system, it's gone for good. While insurance will provide a sum of ISK to help with the loss, you'll need to re-buy a new ship and all the equipment that went on it. This would be like having to buy a new set of armour every time you die in World of Warcraft; a scary notion.

For the denizens of New Eden, losing a ship is a strictly in-game financial loss but for those that don't play EVE the scale of those losses can be hard to grasp. Jump On Contact tackled this issue head-on recently with a handy chart showing the rough value of EVE ships in both ISK (the in-game currency) and US Dollars. The prices show the sheer scale of the losses incurred in large battles and are based on a player buying game time codes for cash to be sold in-game for ISK. A fully geared battleship, one of the most common types of ship for players to own in the game, comes out as being worth approximately $10 US Dollars. Most ships fall somewhere between $1 and $13 but perhaps most shocking is the price of a fleet-ready titan, which is estimated at $7600. The next time you hear about a titan being killed or a fleet of capital ships being wiped out, perhaps this chart can help show the sheer scale of that loss.

One of the biggest differences between EVE Online and most other MMOs is the lack of a humanoid avatar. Even when you're docked up in a station, you can't leave your ship and walk around. The detailed avatars we create on starting the game are not so much avatars as passport photos; seen only as little square mug shots in chat channels and the official forums. In their never-ending quest to make EVE the definitive Sci-Fi simulation, this is something the game's developers CCP have always endeavoured to change. The introduction of a full body avatar feature, code-named "Walking in Stations", "Ambulation" and now known as "Incarna", has been undeniably the most anticipated feature since EVE went live. It's been in development since 2006 but has proven a much larger task than CCP originally anticipated. With the expansion tentatively slated for winter this year, new information on it is still harder to find than a sober Icelandic game developer.

In this week's EVE Evolved, I take a look at Incarna's development so far and why it hasn't been released yet.

In the sandbox of New Eden, rival alliances vie for control of vast swathes of star systems. The lawless nullsec regions of the EVE Online universe are home to violent alliances of all sizes and fleets with hundreds of ships clash on a daily basis. The political machinations of nullsec have produced many stories of wars fought over territory, stations conquered and fleets dismantled by force. Over the years, each story has become part of the game's living history. Recently, a new chapter in that history began as the nullsec sovereignty system governing territorial warfare received a complete overhaul in the Dominion expansion. The transition period has been rough on some alliances as a new sovereignty system requires new ways of thinking. Some alliances are falling, new ones are being forged to fill the power vacuum and the race is on for people to adapt to the new sovereignty system.

As we've been watching the EVE galaxy performing its Darwinian reshuffle, it came to our surprise that GoonSwarm, the game's biggest territorial alliance, had been disbanded. In the early hours of Wednesday 3rd February 2010, GoonSwarm CEO "karttoon" kicked almost every corp from the alliance, effectively disbanding it. There's more to this story than meets the eye and in this investigative piece, I delve into the thick of it to discover just what's going on with this troubled alliance.

With the recent updates to planet surface textures in preparation for Dust 514, there are even more breathtaking views to be found in EVE Online than ever before. When you couple it with the interesting ships that can be found in New Eden, like this Amarrian ship, you can see why many pilots like to take screenshots while playing EVE Online and send them in to us.

Today's excellent One Shots comes to us from electrobix, who writes: I was just coming out of warp near a planet and was struck at the beauty of the new planets. The sun rising over the planet was amazing with the storm on the dark side of the world. It was a stark contrast to the strong lines and technical metal covering of my Prophecy Battle Cruiser.

MMOs from big to small, we love to see them all! Send in your favorite screenshots to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the name of the game, and a description. Please make sure your image is at least 1024 px wide, and has no visible UI elements. We'll post the best of them here on One Shots and give you the credit.

Last week, I took a look at a few of the biggest Caldari and Minmatar trade hubs in EVE Online and how to best put them to use. I examined the phenomenon that is Jita and how Motsu persists as a trade hub due to the presence of mission-runners. I went on to look at Hek and Rens, trade hubs which service the two most populated Minmatar regions and provide a handy trade route for pilots to make a profit on. This week, I complete the picture with a look at four of the biggest Gallente and Amarr trade hubs.

Knowing all of the major trading stations can be of benefit to any pilot, whether you're just looking for a good deal on a new ship or trying to forge profitable trade routes. For traders, listing products in an alternate hub needn't take much extra time or effort. With good trade skills, you can adjust market orders remotely from several jumps away. You can make a short autopilot route that goes close enough to each station you're trading in and adjust your prices frequently.

In this final part of a two-part series on EVE's biggest trade hubs, I look at the biggest Amarr and Gallente trade hubs, what can be found there and how to use them to your advantage as a trader.

In a move that will no doubt perplex, flummox and befuddle many media commentators and technology columnists who erroneously believed that Second Life was a Web 2.0 social networking tool, Linden Lab has acquired social networking site, Avatars United (and developers of same, Enemy Unknown AB). This also has the side-effect of shooting down any semblance of Wallace Linden's identity piece last week being an overture of a conversation, instead making it look like the usual introduction to a Linden Lab fait accompli.

We've written about Avatars United on a couple of previous occasions, but never really had much call to get involved ourselves. The social networking tool includes a large number of MMOGs and non-game virtual environments, being best known for it's strong application support of open-ended space-based MMOG, EVE Online.

The EVE Online-focused Planet Risk Show returned this week after a planned holiday hiatus. For those who've never heard of Planet Risk, it's a live weekly Split Infinity Radio program that's also released as a podcast. Planet Risk differs from most EVE podcasts in that it's largely focused on wormhole colonization, which only became possible after the Apocrypha expansion was released, allowing players to pull back the curtain of known space and head into uncharted expanses. Hosts Luminus Aardokay and Quivering Palm spend most of their EVE time in wormhole space, so they're fast becoming experts on the subject. Indeed, they broadcast The Planet Risk Show from within their colonized wormhole system, which is a rather unique one in the game.

Their home is one of the most hostile types of wormholes in New Eden -- a Class 6 -- where the Sleeper NPCs are especially deadly. The ship setups and tactics used against the Sleepers in such a solar system differ greatly from how it's done in lower class wormholes. They explain some of the tricks that allow them to overcome the Sleepers in their Class 6 wormhole this week in Episode 13 -- right around the 1 hour 11 second mark. It's a good listen, particularly as there isn't a great deal of information available on such high level encounters in the game.

The devastating January 12 earthquake which struck the Republic of Haiti claimed many lives, and has left even more people homeless. It's a terrible situation, but at the very least there are numerous aid efforts underway, and some companies in the MMO industry are finding ways to help as well. CCP Games now ranks among them, with their PLEX Aid for Haiti initiative. The company is offering a way for the EVE Online playerbase to get involved and help with donations.

Here is the message from Hilmar Veigar Pétursson, CEO of CCP Games, in its entirety:

Our friend and EVE Online fanatic CrazyKinux periodically runs an EVE Blog Banter, where the growing number of bloggers focused on the sci-fi MMO tackle discussion topics. The end result is usually some well thought-out commentary or lively debate about an aspect of the game experience. His latest Blog Banter has a different twist; it's actually a contest where the top ten winners can score merchandise from the official EVE Store. (The prizes: $100 worth for first place, $50 for second place, $25 for third and fourth, fifth through tenth place winners will each get 14 days of EVE time.)

Entering is pretty simple. CrazyKinux asks: "What is it that makes this particular virtual world so enticing, so mysterious and so alluring that we keep coming back for more. Why is EVE one of the very few MMOs to see continuous growth in its subscribers? To put it simply: Why do you love EVE Online so much?" Answer this question on your own blog while linking back to CK's contest post in your intro, then let him know about it in his contest post's comments. Be sure to check out the contest rules first, but you've got until January 31st to enter. Winners will be announced on February 5th; the contest will be judged on the merits of quality, structure, approach, and originality.

So there you go -- if you're an EVE Online player and a decent writer as well, this could be easy money for you. Good luck to any Massively readers who decide to go for it.

EVE Online's latest expansion, Dominion, brought sweeping changes to how alliances claim and hold space, and more recently revamped capital ship warfare. However, there has been a downside of late in terms of server stability and lag. Twitter is pretty much aflame with players lamenting the server issues, not to mention the forums, and it's something CCP Games needs to address right away.

To that end, CCP is looking to the playerbase for help with "Mass Testing" on Wednesday, to determine the source of lag in large fleet battles. The devs will be looking into the problems widely reported with medium and large scale fleet combat and will need at least 50 pilots, though if 200 or more showed up this would be even better, says CCP Tanis. Players interested in helping out should hop on the Singularity test server on Wednesday, January 27, at 17:00 UTC. Mass Testing participants should join the "MassTesting" channel in-game on the test server as well. All EVE pilots who want to get involved should see CCP Navigator's announcement for more info about tomorrow's fleet combat tests and the discussion in a related forum thread.

The setting of EVE Online is a vast galactic sandbox called New Eden, with thousands of charted solar systems and thousands more hidden in uncharted space. The title's developer CCP Games provides the expansive setting and PvE content, but beyond this it's up to the players to define what the game can really be. Although there are plenty of opportunities to take risks in the game with commensurate rewards, a large percentage of the game's playerbase are content to remain in high security space where there are less dangers. Many of these players spend their time mining in asteroid belts and ice fields, which most would admit can be a semi-AFK playstyle. After all, the process of mining is rote: lock asteroids, fire up your mining lasers, and some cycles later you've harvested ore that can be sold outright or used in manufacturing.

That zen-like calm punctuated by the gentle hum of mining lasers was shaken up for many high sec dwellers earlier this month though, when the player-run event Hulkageddon II tore through the mining ship hulls of over 1000 players. The core idea of Hulkageddon II, as with the original event, was to destroy as many mining vessels as possible over the course of a week... a goal that many players pursued with reckless abandon. Indeed, there were numerous prizes awarded and 'achievements' that players racked up over the course of Hulkageddon II. Ultimately, the event injected some much-needed risk into the game -- whether some players wanted it or not -- in places where miners once felt they were untouchable by EVE's criminal population. Of course, a player-run event that pitted players eager to rack up kills against those who would prefer to avoid conflict has proven controversial.

The man behind Hulkageddon II is Helicity Boson, a pirate who flies with The Python Cartel, though he was helped in large part by fellow player Garmon (aka El'Tar) and generous donations from other players. Massively caught up with Helicity to discuss his motivations behind running Hulkageddon II, his views on the game in general, and why some EVE players might be wound up just a bit too tightly.

EVE Online developer CCP Games typically has a presence at major industry events like the upcoming Game Developers Conference, but the session that's caught our attention so far isn't a presentation from the devs -- it's actually from a member of the EVE community. That GDC 2010 speaker is Alexander Gianturco -- better known to most EVE Online players as Goonswarm's spymaster, The Mittani. Others may know the infamous player as the "Sins of the Solar Spymaster" EVE columnist at Ten Ton Hammer. Gianturco will give a lecture at GDC 2010 titled "Uniquely Ruthless: The Espionage Metagame of EVE Online" that will give an insider's perspective on the political machinations possible in the game's sandbox of New Eden.

His talk will hit on topics like the disbanding of the Band of Brothers alliance, how the espionage metagame has changed over time, and of course the myriad aspects of EVE's sandbox that allow players to even engage in such pursuits. The session description for Uniquely Ruthless: The Espionage Metagame of EVE Online states that Gianturco's presentation should be of general interest to anyone with a love of spies and their stories.

A natural consequence of EVE Online's sandbox style market system is that eventually the players will form trade hubs around the most heavily used areas. Before the four empires began gearing up for war, the main trade hub of New Eden was in Yulai, the CONCORD headquarters system with super-highway stargates into the heart of each empire's space. When the super-highways were dismantled, Yulai became more difficult to get to and its popularity as a trade hub dissolved. It was eventually superceded by Jita, a Caldari system in The Forge region. But while Jita is EVE's biggest and most notable trade hub, it's not the only one by a long shot. Smaller hubs have always tended to erupt around centres of population and activity such as popular mission-running systems or the borders of warzones. Understandably, it's traders who reap the largest benefit from knowing all the best trade hubs. Trading in multiple regions can reduce the risk of competition and increase the volume of their sales.

In this two-part series, I look at some of EVE's biggest trade hubs, what can be found there and how to use them to your advantage as a trader. In today's first part I look at a few of the biggest Caldari and Minmatar trade hubs.

While some are headed to space in Star Trek Online this weekend, the war for sov rages on in various parts of EVE Online. What it doesn't have in avatar combat (yet) it more than makes up for in sandbox play, putting players in total control over their own character's destiny. This gorgeous EVE Online screenshot comes to us today from Andrew, who writes in to explain what's going on for those who may not be familiar: The release of Dominion has seen a lot of freighter convoys hauling infrastructure to nullsec (player controlled space). In this shot we have a gaggle of freighters approaching a Titan, which will use it's Jump Portal Generator to send them to the far reaches of the galaxy.

From large to small, we love to see MMOs of all styles and sizes. If you'd like to show off your favorite game and give others a glimpse into one of the things you think makes it cool, why not send in a One Shots image? All you have to do is email it to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the name of the game, and a description of what we're seeing. We'll post it out here and give you the credit for sending it in. Couldn't be easier!