mynxee posts

EVE Online is as much a setting as it is a massively multiplayer online game. EVE's galaxy of New Eden spans thousands of charted solar systems, with thousands more waiting to be discovered in the uncharted frontiers reachable only through wormholes. For all the myriad opportunities New Eden offers players to explore and create, there are just as many risks. The dangers that other pilots can pose also provide memorable stories that few other MMOs can match. The outlaws of EVE Online halt the calming lull of mining lasers, inject some thrills into otherwise routine trade runs, and disrupt the rote completion of mission objectives. More often than not, encounters with New Eden's pirates will leave you with a pounding heart and surge of adrenaline to go along with the flaming wreckage of your ship, if not a one-way trip back to the cloning facility. They create that fear of what threats lie on the other side of the next star gate and ultimately set the tone for New Eden. But even among these criminals there are a few whose accomplishments truly stand out.

The capsuleer called Mynxee is a well-known pirate in New Eden's underworld. Hers is a name remembered well by the many victims who've met their end under rapid fire from her autocannons. She is the founder and CEO of Hellcats, an all-women pirate corporation in EVE Online, and a central figure in EVE's criminal society. Outside of New Eden, Mynxee has built up quite a following through her Life in Low Sec blog and is one of EVE's more active pilots on Twitter as well. If there is such an individual in New Eden that can be viewed as its pirate king, Mynxee is undoubtedly its queen. She first caught Massively's attention years ago with her flashy red dress (size -10), but she's since become a pivotal figure in New Eden, popular with players from all walks of life in EVE.

Massively recently spoke with Mynxee about the allure of being an outlaw, and how she has expanded the scope of her piracy -- bringing it out of the shadows of low security space and into the light, where players feel they are safest.

The Dominion expansion for EVE Online will arrive tomorrow, December 1st, after a lengthy downtime of roughly 19 hours (02:00 GMT/UTC to 21:00 GMT/UTC). Access to the EVE website and forums will be down for much of this time, as will the EVE API, but CCP Games has compiled a tome of Dominion patch notes to occupy at least some of that time. There's also a player discussion of the Dominion features and changes on the game's forums with some clarification on details from the CCP devs.

If reading through the full patch notes (10,000 words and climbing with updates) isn't really your thing, a few of the EVE bloggers have discussed the highlights of what's new in this expansion. Mynxee covers the good, the bad, and the comical in Dominion on her Life in Low Sec blog. We also recommend checking out Casiella's take on the Dominion patch notes over at the Ecliptic Rift blog. Casiella discusses the myriad features that haven't gotten much attention so far: voice fonts added to EVE Voice in chat channels; the in-game jukebox now using MP3s with playlist support; and how player actions for the Caldari race via factional warfare now impact the rival Gallente storyline missions.

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.)

Hellcats is well known to many EVE Online players as the game's only all-women pirate corp. They're holding an in-game event this Saturday, October 24th -- The Hellcats Pub Party -- which sounds like it'll be a good time for all. Hellcats CEO and EVE underworld celebrity Mynxee had this to say about the event: "This party is intended to express our appreciation of fans and friends plus give folks the chance to hang out, share stories, wave e-peens, and get to know each other. I promise to drink much wine and act outrageous while giving away all sorts of goodies."

Those "goodies" will include pirate faction cruisers, pirate faction and officer modules, rigged ships, forum sigs and blog banner art, and InterStellar Kredit giveaways in 50 and 100 million ISK chunks. (Plus, Hellcats corpses... don't ask.) If any EVE players have donations they'd like to add to the prize drawings, you can contract them in-game to Mynxee with the description "Hellcats Pub Party Donation". She'll credit all donors for their contributions during the giveaways.

We just came across a great podcast the other day that's focused on all things sci-fi: Galactic Watercooler. Although it's not a gaming podcast, their latest episode (#176) is all about EVE Online. The GWC hosts are apparently really into playing EVE and they talk about the game's setting of New Eden in the context of David Weber's Honorverse series of military sci-fi novels, drawing parallels between the two in terms of strategy and technology. They also discuss the things they've seen and done in their time in the game, from their first steps into (and fleeing from) PvP to a run-in with a virtual prostitute. (You're free to do many things in EVE's sandbox... but that is probably not one of them.)

The hosts are given a hand in relating what they've gotten from the game experience in EVE Online by two notable players. Ian Chisholm, the creator of the award-winning Clear Skies machinima and its excellent follow-up, explains how he tells his own stories in the game visually. He also discusses what drives him to invest so much of his time and effort into the projects, and the technical challenges in making Clear Skies a reality. A fantastic interview.

Mynxee of the Life in Low Sec blog is a prominent member of the EVE Online community, but like many others who share her passion for both playing the game and blogging about the experience, she has a tendency to 'violence boats'. Lots of them. In light of this fact, she found herself in a bit of a dilemma: Should friends made in the online space, who share the same passion for the game, be off-limits when she's hunting for targets in EVE?

She posed this question to her fellow capsuleers (and bloggers); carebears and pirates alike responded in kind. In fact, the comments read like a Who's Who of the EVE blogging community. While a few felt killing their friends should be off limits, the consensus was that anything that comes into their sites is fair game. After all, killing other pilots in acts of piracy -- or just for some PvP -- isn't usually personal, although victims may feel otherwise. Do you kill your friends who happen to be in other corps or alliances on an NBSI basis*, or would that be crossing a line for you in EVE?

* For those who are newer to EVE Online, NBSI means "Not Blue, Shoot It" -- in EVE you can set standings for different player corps and alliances. If a corp is set to red, they're fair game for anyone in your own corporation/alliance. If they're set to blue, you don't (or shouldn't) fire upon them.