While it may not have green grasslands, lush landscapes and picturesque waterfalls like fantasy-based MMOs, there's little doubt that the spacescapes of EVE Online are any less lovely to look at. After all, how many of us looked up at the stars and thought how cool it would be to make our homes there. While cold and unforgiving at times, EVE Online can be a place that takes your breath away too. Just ask today's contributor, CJ, who writes in: Many times in EVE, I find myself just captivated at the pure delight at the visuals thrown at me. Especially, the nebulas and corresponding planets and stars. This One Shot shows my character, Lucrait, in his newly acquired ship, the Catalyst, shortly after he lost his pride and joy, a Merlin. Gladly though, he was able to look past that unfortunate event and enjoy one of the thousands of New Eden systems.

If you've been thinking about sending in a screen, there's no time like the present to contribute. Just mail those to us at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name and the game it's from. Descriptions are welcome, as are short tales if you're so inclined! We'll post it up and give you the credit for taking the great screenshot.

Agent missions are one of EVE Online's most popular pastimes. While EVE is most often lauded for its open-ended gameplay, player-determined markets and PvP action, a significant portion of the game's players use missions as their primary income source. There is something comforting about missions that seems to draw players in. For many, running missions and upgrading their ship with the ISK becomes the focus of their achievements and their primary measure of progress. The ability of mission-running to provide a direct translation of effort into a stable ISK income offers us a reassuringly linear work-to-reward scheme in a relatively risk-free environment. Missions and exploration are EVE's primary PvE experiences and new missions are released with each major expansion to help keep the game fresh for casual players. There are even several epic mission arcs planned for the future, long sequences of storyboarded missions much like the quest chains you might find in other MMOs.

In this multi-part guide, I will thoroughly examine the profession of mission-running, from the basics to ship fittings and finally some tips and tricks for maximising your performance. In this first part of the guide, I look at the basics of mission-running from mission types and rewards to agent standings and how to find the best agent for you.

Maybe it's just us, but the drone hives we keep seeing are getting even more wicked-looking; giant, dark, amorphous structures looming in the depths of space. However, along with today's gorgeous EVE Online screenshot, we also have a tremendously cool short story to go with it from Ryl'avin Redwense! As it's a bit long, we'll be placing part of it behind the cut rather than editing it. If you'd like to send in a short story of your own to go with your screenshot, email it to us at oneshots [AT] massively [DOT] com. Now, on with today's excellent EVE Online tale from our very talented reader!

Many of EVE Online's most prolific marketeers use courier contracts to collect together items from their region-wide buy orders but that's not all they can be used for. Courier contracts were originally intended as a way to pay another player to haul items for you securely using a standard collateral deal but if you know how, they can also be used for theft. Over the years, players have found ways to use courier contracts for profiteering, gambling, and even corporate theft. In EVE's Machiavellian universe, anything you can get away with is fair game. This includes twisting an innocuous game mechanic like courier contracts into a tool for theft and piracy.

In this short article, I examine some of the more creative ways pilots have used courier contracts to steal and plunder their way to the top.

The beauty of EVE Online is - we feel - the danger of it. The most basic of operations can suddenly turn deadly if you're not properly armed - or ready to run for it. It's that danger that we love; the unpredictability - the empires and fortunes that can (and do) change on a word. Today's One Shots comes to us from regular contributor CJ, who is known in EVE Online as Lucia. CJ writes in: Sometimes, we stumble across things we'd rather wish we hadn't in EVE. Good thing to know when it's better to run from a fight than see if you can rack up a couple of million ISK in buying new parts for your ship.

If you're part of a free-form role-playing world, we want to know what life is like for you there. Send in a screenshot of your MMO intrigues - or celebrations - to oneshots AT massively DOT com! Be sure to add your name, the name of the game, and a brief description. Yours might be next.

Many pilots have spent hours in New Eden, mining, exploring, missioning, ratting, PvPing - and enjoying the soundtrack all the while. For fans of electronica, EVE Online's music ranges from calm downtempo to trance-like. At other times, it soars to the fore with a more techno or EBM feel, just in time to get your blood moving. So far as sci-fi MMO soundtracks go, EVE Online's soundtrack is a favorite of several folks here at Massively - which is saying something when one considers how tedious many MMO soundtracks get after hours of playing!

For those of you who, like us, really love the music of EVE Online. CCP has some good news. They have patrnered together with RealX to release the soundtrack for New Eden to the iTunes store so everyone can get their hands on it. Individual tracks are the typical iTunes $ .99 each, with the entire 11-song first edition of the soundtrack for a non-discounted $10.89. Still, it warms our ratting hearts to see this soundtrack out there. We can't wait until the entire soundtrack is available too - maybe at a discount?

EVE Online's in-game economy has been the subject of intense study over the years. The markets of EVE react very effectively to accomplish goals with the same economic laws that apply to many real-life marketplaces. The game's developers CCP even hired a professional economist to analyse the in-game economy, advise them on problem issues and deliver interesting quarterly reports. The driving force behind EVE's markets is often assumed to be basic supply and demand but this isn't always the most potent component. In the hyper-capitalistic universe of New Eden, all bets are off and the only rules are those players enforce themselves with an iron fist. Cartels, market manipulation and theft run rife in EVE, with far-reaching consequences.

In this succinct article, I examine the hidden forces pushing and pulling EVE's markets and show that EVE's economic sandbox comes complete with quicksand and land mines.

One of the things I consistently hear as an EVE Online player is others talking about how much they like the look of certain ships. Personally, while I fly Minmatar ships, I admit I really dig the look of certain Gallente ships, which I'll likely train to fly just for looks (and for fun). Today's One Shots from Jonathan C shows off an Amarr ship in EVE Online that he's fond of, although maybe not too fond of: This is my Retribution, firing pulse lasers after the Apocrypha graphics changes. Nothing much else to say about it other than I think it's a pretty ship. Shame it's only got 1 mid-slot and a useless utility high.

Do you have a favorite mode of transport in your home MMO? Perhaps you're just fond of how cool your avatar looks kitted out with gear? Whatever your MMO, whatever your reason, we want your screenshots! Email them to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the name of the game, and a short description. We'll post them out here and give you the credit.

As someone who is only recently back to the skies of New Eden, I can totally relate to Phyara Nexar's feeling of wonder in terms of the first time being a part of a large group operation in EVE Online. It's truly one of those moments that really makes the game fun. But enough about my take on it - here's what Phyara Nexar of the "Out-of-Space" corp in the Guardian Federation alliance had to say about this image, and the experience: This is a screenshot from my first huge fleet battle. We were on our way to the rally point for a battle between the Northern Coalition (we, the good guys) and Triumvirate/White Noise (the meanies ;) ), waiting for the Fleet Commander to give the order to jump through the gate.

Too bad I wasn't able to participate in the fight later on, as the solar system was just too full of players. I saw 750+ players out there in local chat, but my grid wasn't loading, so I was stuck for hours while the others were fighting against each other and against the enormous lag. Later the node crashed at least 2 times due to the mass of players. The fight was in E-7U8U in the Venal Region. I hope you enjoy this screenshot. I like it very much because of the lights and all those ships, waiting to get to the battle.

If you've caught a really awesome image from your favorite game, we want to see it! Just email it to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the name of the game, and a description. We'll post it out here and let everyone know all about your experience.

Dr. Eyjólfur Guðmundsson from CCP has released another quarterly EVE Online economic newsletters, this time for the 1st quarter of 2009. Despite the quarterly name this is the first report since the one for Q1 2008. This time the PDF weighs in at 48 pages of editorial, graphs and images. The first graph in the document show the number of active paying accounts that the game has had from launch up until March 2009, ending shortly before the point at which CCP announced they have passed 300,000 subscribers. Interestingly although the graph shows strong growth from November 2008 onwards, which is when CCP released the Quantum Rise expansion, the actual numbers before that showed a slight decline in subscriptions that is not addressed in the commentary.

There is also an extensive analysis of skill points, with the difference in the number of points in each skill point group for each race showing correlation between the race of the character and the skills trained. Interestingly Gallente characters tend to have more points in drone skills, while Caldari characters have the highest missile skills. This seems to indicate that players are following their racial ship choices for their skill training, which is not something that the game enforces. There's a lot more information in the report itself, including detail on ship prices over time, Tech 3 production for the first month and mineral trading.

You can read the full document at the dev blog, and follow the comments from players on the EVE Online forums.

In the early years of the MMO genre, developers and game masters routinely ran special once-only events to immerse the playerbase in a game's storyline. Storytelling has always been one of EVE Online's strongest features and in the early days of EVE developers showed a significant commitment to immersive events. These events unfortunately became plagued with difficulties and inadequacies, leading to the eventual shut-down of events altogether. Of course EVE isn't the only game hit by these issues, it forms part of what I consider to be a very disappointing trend. In recent years, many MMOs have opted to replace authored events with predictable seasonal festivals or have even eliminated events altogether. EVE's storyline is now simply a collection of stories and the news items tell tales of in-game events which never actually happened. In my opinion, this was one of the biggest mistakes the game's developers CCP Games have ever made.

In this article, I grapple with the problems EVE's events have had and find potential solutions in some unlikely places.

The fun thing about jumping in EVE Online - or maybe not so fun if you don't have your clone updated/are in a jump clone - is never knowing what you're jumping into. It could be a peaceful system with nothing going on, you could be about to get hammered on the other side of the gate. Today's One Shots sent in to us by CJ shows off one of these gates players tend to run into. CJ writes: I'm sure you get tons of one shots from the EVE Online community constantly, but one thing I haven't seen on the site are probably the one thing every EVE player is going to use more than even space stations: stargates. Good thing they are quite a wonder to look at.

Have you been exploring parts of your favorite game that we haven't seen here? All games are welcome, all images too! Send us combat, static shots, landscapes (spacescapes?) you name it, to oneshots AT massively DOT com. Some information like your name, guild/corp, server, and a description of what's going on in the screenshot is awesome too. We'll post it up here and give you credit.

The aggression mechanics are something that every pilot in EVE Online should learn about. This is a set of rules that determines who you can attack in high security space, who can attack you and whether you can dock or use a stargate. Knowing them inside and out can mean the difference between losing your ship and keeping it in one piece, even if you have no intent of getting into a PvP situation. Nevertheless, it's a part of the game that a lot of players don't take the time to properly acquaint themselves with.

In this technical article, I give some important tips that will improve your survival. Can you afford not to learn about EVE's aggression mechanics?

The latest dev blog for EVE Online is from CCP Diagoras and contains some numbers and information about ship losses through PvP over the last year from April 2008 to April 2009. Firstly there are some very specific subscriber numbers. At the end of April 2008 the game had 234,314 active paying accounts, which had grown to 299,064 by the end of April 2009, which fits nicely with their statement a few days later that the game had passed 300,000 paying subscribers. Using these numbers and the number of ship losses which involved another player attacking he comes up with the information that in April 2008 there were 0.61 ship losses per subscriber in that month. By April 2009 this had raised to 0.67.

The blog then follows up with a series of graphs that show more specific PvP ship losses per month. Some interesting highlights include how dreadnaught losses fluctuate over time compared to the number of each capital ship type destroyed per month which reflects the pattern of big battles over that time, and the numbers of Battleships and Interceptors destroyed which show the preference players have for Caldari and Gallente ships.

Although the most popular MMOs of today are in the fantasy genre, a niche within the MMO market has always existed for sci-fi games. For quite some time, EVE Online has dominated this niche with a steadily growing playerbase that has now exceeded 300,000 paying subscribers. It's been noted that releases in the fantasy market tend not to affect EVE Online, showing that it's not directly competing with games in the fantasy market. Perhaps the target markets of sci-fi and fantasy MMOs have very little overlap or perhaps the gameplay in EVE is unique enough that no real alternatives exist. Whatever the reason, EVE has been blessed with a relative lack of competition since its release in 2003. But with four major sci-fi MMOs on the horizon, could the game's creators CCP be in for a rough ride?

In this speculative opinion piece, I examine how EVE reacted to competition in the past and suggest how it may react to the next wave of sci-fi MMOs to hit the market.