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There are many criminals in EVE Online, but some push their chosen profession to a whole different level, sometimes even at the expense of their fellow outlaws. Being an outlaw in EVE Online's setting of New Eden isn't just about prowess in combat. For some, the pull of New Eden's underworld is all about the social fabric of the game... and how to exploit it. Deception is their greatest weapon, and paired with the endless opportunities for social engineering in EVE, that weapon can be put to devastating use. Among all of the conmen and scam artists in New Eden, there's one name that conjures up more rage and misery than most others: Miz Cenuij.

From the earliest days of New Eden, Miz was on the path to becoming a major antagonist in EVE. While some players love him, most just love to hate him, and he wouldn't have it any other way. Over time, Miz has become one of New Eden's most notorious thieves and hell raisers, an evil celebrity of sorts. His manipulations have triggered alliance wars, brought him numerous threats from other pilots, thousands of confirmed kills, and raked in a fantastic amount of wealth in the process. His preferred modus operandi in EVE is the long con, but since he learned to convert his wealth into influence over others, he's found that corruption and practiced deception make a formidable combination. As if a counter to restlessness, his apparent goal of keeping New Eden set in motion, if not set ablaze, has ensured that Miz Cenuij lives on a steady diet of tears and rage.

Massively caught up with Miz Cenuij, who told us what motivates him to engage in activities that oppose the interests of so many other citizens of New Eden, and why he enjoys igniting controversy in EVE.

CCP Games announced that two EVE Online machinima have made the list of nominees for awards at Machinima Filmfest 2008: "Clear Skies" and "Havoc." The Machinima Festival is one of the major machinima events held annually. The full day event will take place on November 1st in New York City.

Clear Skies is an imaginative blend of EVE Online's galactic backdrop with Half-Life 2 character models, and is a Best Long Format nominee. Much of the film takes place within ship and station interiors, and represents two years of hard work by its creator, Ian Chisholm, as well as Richie Powles and John Guthrie. Clear Skies has been well-received by the EVE Community, with the announcement thread garnering 50 pages of praise and climbing.

Havoc is a newer machinima, nominated for Best Sound Design, Best Short Format, and Best Voice Acting. Havoc was created by Anil Kamath (Sound Design and Music), Chris Newcombe (Visual Design and Editing), and voiced by Sarah Murray. Like Clear Skies, Havoc is proving to be quite popular with the EVE playerbase, but holds appeal for a more general audience as well. The film is short, clocking in at one minute in length, but in that time nicely juxtaposes the grit of New Eden's setting with gorgeous visuals filmed within EVE. Like Clear Skies, Havoc is well worth a look. Video embeds of both machinima are found below the cut:

Roughly 1400 EVE Online players took part in the E-ON Alliance Survey in February of this year, organized by E-ON's Editor, Zapatero. "The survey was conducted to research the nature of alliances, 0.0 conflict and the capabilities of alliances or coalitions to ever mount a serious challenge to the entirety of 0.0 space," Zapatero writes. While those results provided a grounding for a few E-ON articles, they've otherwise remained inert on Zapatero's hard drive since then. Since the survey was created with anonymity in mind, there is no revealing information about any particular alliance and thus no harm in releasing the information for everyone to see. Zapatero's prepared the results as a pdf summary report as well as a spreadsheet (files hosted by Chribba.)

The questions asked were fairly comprehensive, ranging from individual motivations to play as part of an alliance to collective achievements and failings (and everything in between). Though the alliance map and the motivations driving its constant shifts will change over time, Zapatero's provided an interesting look at how EVE's alliance players approach the game. Check out his "New editions, old additions" post over at the EVE Online site for more background on this project and its aims.

Players in EVE Online pursue a wide variety of professions or careers, but are not locked into any given role at character creation. This flexibility allows a character to change their play style over time, or to capitalize on niches no one else has filled. This is the case with Dylon Xavier, an enterprising Caldari pilot with Ascendant Strategies, Inc.

ISD Magnus Balteus reports that Xavier "has decided to try something different; create a product that is both time and resource consuming to build, and offer it for auction to the alliance that has the funds and space to deploy it." The niche item in this case is an Outpost Platform. When launched, it will create a space station for an alliance that can handle the minimum 20 billion isk bid on his auctions. This substantial pricetag includes a freighter for transporting the Outpost Platform and materials, and turns what is normally a time-consuming collective effort into a (comparatively) rapid-deployment. He's also willing to have Chribba, perhaps EVE's most trusted player, broker the transactions, mitigating the risk involved with such large amounts of currency. With the neverending ebb and flow of territorial control in New Eden, and if alliances continue to express interest in Xavier's venture, he may well have created a new and lucrative profession in EVE Online

Trust is a rare commodity in EVE Online. Many players are drawn to the game by the fact that almost any form of deceit, betrayal, and outright treachery is allowed in EVE. Not all players head down this path, of course, but plenty do. This element of risk is what makes the game exciting, but even those who are wary of the online personas of some EVE players may still find themselves getting backstabbed and robbed, or worse. Many in EVE have learned to profit from the misfortunes of others. However, this social environment has created certain opportunities for individuals who are able to establish their credibility over time, and through great effort.

Among the most trustworthy in EVE Online is Chribba, a player who's very active in the community and provides a number of services to EVE fans, free of charge. Helped by Chribba's efforts, EVE Online has expanded into a game where players become auteurs, creating videos and sharing their in-game pursuits with others, either for their own glory or their organization's propaganda. Of course, his contributions don't end there, as most everyone in the EVE community knows. Massively recently caught up with Chribba and asked him to share a bit about what he does for the EVE player base, and why he does it.

Clear Skies is a groundbreaking machinima produced by Ian Chisholm, which takes place entirely within the galactic setting of EVE Online, known as New Eden. Any attempt to lump Clear Skies in with your run-of-the-mill machinima would be a disservice to the scope of the work; the film clocks in at just under 40 minutes and was a labor of love for two years in the lives of its creators.

Clear Skies follows a trio of down-and-out misfits who've seen no end of bad luck. John Rourke is the obstinate captain of the Clear Skies, a Tempest class battleship manufactured by the downtrodden Minmatar race of New Eden. Rourke's attitude toward his hazardous chosen lifestyle is cavalier, although this does not sit well with his friends among the crew. Solomon Burke is the pessimistic ship's engineer, while Charlie Fodder -- a gunner with an ironic name -- does his best to keep the crew alive. Typical of life in New Eden, Fodder is doomed to remain a rather busy man.