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Voting for EVE Online's highly-anticipated Council of Stellar Management has begun. This long-in-the-works experiment in player participation will be running through the 19th of the month. From the huge number of initial applications the field has been reduced down to a group of 64 candidates.

The EVE site's voting page offers the candidate's in-game portrait and a link to their personal site, so you can get a sense of what their position is like. The developers and designers at CCP are obviously very hopeful about this experiment in player/publisher relationships, and we'll keep you abreast of details as they become available.

Anyone willing to share who they're voting for, and why?

Most of the AAA subscription MMOs are set in the fantasy genre. Many of the in-development titles are set in the fantasy genre. The most popular massive game in the US is a fantasy title. So when is the industry going to get over this hangup on orcs and elves? Is there even an MMO industry without the fantasy setting? Those are the questions asked by Oli Welsh today at the GamesIndustry.biz site. Welsh returns to the conclusion many have reached when examining buzz, marketing, sales figures, and new games: players are just as 'risk-adverse' as publishers are when it comes to new game settings.

As we at Massively have done in the past, the author goes on to hope for a future with a little more bravery in tackling genre tropes. He lauds Cryptic's adherence to the four-color comic book world, and offers high hopes for 'real life' titles like All Points Bulletin or The Agency. Ultimately, he says, it may just be the case that a developer needs to take the Diku-mud style of game perfected by SOE and Blizzard and transpose that sensibility to another genre. Though Tabula Rasa and the modern incarnation of Star Wars Galaxies approaches that style, there really isn't a good, working "EverQuest with lasers" out there. Perhaps the likes of Red 5 or Carbine will ride up on an armored hoverbike to offers us a new and (possibly) better way.

Something that's always bothered me about EVE Online's skill system is how often it's misunderstood by new and potential players. A few common myths and misconceptions surrounding the skill system are responsible for putting a lot of potential players off signing up. In this final part of the guide, I debunk two classic myths about the EVE skill system and go on to show you how to get the most out of your skill training time.

Myths debunked #1 - New players can't compete with old ones:
A common thought among new new EVE players and people thinking of signing up is that new players can't compete with old ones. In a world where open PvP reigns supreme, it does sound reasonable to assume that a new player in his lowly frigate has no chance of competing against a three year old veteran player in his tech 2 fitted battleship. This common mistake is usually caused by people misunderstanding how EVE's PvP works. In other MMOs, a lot of emphasis is put on the individual player's gear and abilities. You wouldn't invite a level 20 character along on your level 70 raid in World of Warcraft because they'd be useless. This doesn't really translate into EVE at all.

Read on to see this myth get busted along with another common misunderstanding people have with EVE's skill system.

Most MMOs, among them the popular favorites World of Warcraft and Everquest, employ a level-based character progression system where your player accumulates levels during play. Killing enemies and completing quests reward the player with experience points toward their next level. As the player's level increases, they gain access to better skills and equipment. Alternative systems of accumulating points in various skills have been used successfully in games like Ultima Online and Runescape. These systems still share the familiar idea of your character progressing in their abilities by practicing.

The result is that players who put in more effort reap more reward as their time and effort spent playing their character directly translates into increased power. These tried and tested systems are what players have come to expect from MMOs today. CCP's EVE Online uses a different training system that doesn't reward players with increased abilities for playing the game. Given the MMO genre's tendency toward level-based character progression, it's not surprising that EVE's unique skill system seems foreign and inaccessible to a lot of MMO gamers. In part 1 of this article, I demystify the seemingly complex EVE skill system.

Read on for a condensed breakdown of the system for the typical MMO gamer.

Some of us at Massively just can't seem to get enough info about the upcoming sci-fi MMO Earthrise. Hitting their forums regularly and following the recent surge of Masthead Studios interviews surrounding the title still leaves this blogger hoping for something more. But it seems those unspoken wishes have been granted -- Masthead Studios has released their first monthly Earthrise newsletter and will continue to churn out newsletters right up until it's time for launch.

The May '08 newsletter showcases a section of hyperlinks to Masthead Studios' media coverage over the past two months. This issue also features Community Corner, a recap of the major news and topics found on the official site's forums offered up by Moll, Earthrise's Community Manager. In addition, there's a statement by Atanas Atanasov, CEO of Masthead Studios, as well as some obligatory new Earthrise screenshots.

On February 20th 2008, EVE Online's economist Dr Eyjo published his fourth quarter economic newsletter for 2007. The newsletter discussed issues ranging from deflation to what ships players use and methods for estimating the total production of Eve. Among the pages of the economic newsletter was a small section commenting on the purchases of shuttles relative to tritanium prices and the ensuing discussion seemed to focus on this. In his more recent devblog, Dr Eyjo informed pilots that following a recent patch, the infinite NPC supply of shuttles was being removed from the market in order to alleviate what he calls "an artificial price cap of 3.6 ISK per unit".

It's no secret that shuttles and tritanium prices are linked. The effect that the supply of shuttles on the market has had on tritanium prices is a well-known and well-documented phenomenon that was even included in the second economist dev-blog back in September of 2007. If prices of tritanium ever increase above 3.6 per unit due to the laws of supply and demand in action, it becomes profitable to buy shuttles at 9000 ISK per unit and refine them into tritanium for sale or industry. The fact that there are people with perfect refine skills willing to do this for profit means that the price of tritanium can never rise any more than fractionally above 3.6 per unit before the shuttle-refiners push it back down.

Read on for a breakdown of the controversy and to find out how this change has affected the EVE markets.

In-game advertising is a touchy subject to most players, but it's becoming an inevitable reality. With the increasingly-high costs of game production, developers need to seek other means of revenue besides the trusty subscription fee from players. This is where the in-game ads come in. It's a way for game companies to harmlessly offset production cost inflation.

Wait, did we say harmlessly?

The truth of the matter is, the majority of players are skeptical on the effectiveness and necessity of in-game ads. They're distracting and need to be tailored for a specific target-market in order to be even halfway believable. For instance, you can't have a Coke ad in World of Warcraft. Actually, any billboard ad would just not work in a fantasy setting. So for this reason, are we going to see an influx (even more) of sci-fi MMOs created for the sole purpose of including in-game advertising?

New details about the sci-fi themed MMO Earthrise have emerged, thanks to MMOCrunch's recent interview with Atanas Atanasov, the CEO of Masthead Studios.

Gameplay in Earthrise is chiefly skill-based and Atanasov explained in detail the limitations of the skill system, or more accurately -- the lack of limitations. The game mechanics will not limit the skills available to a player character, regardless of faction chosen. However, many skills will only come into play through the use of equipment that utilizes them.

As a skill-intensive game, Earthrise will not rank characters by level. A character's gameplay options are kept in check by their physical attributes (Physique and Intellect) and their genetic code. Gene modification is available at a cost and will allow players to tweak their potential, opening up new possibilities. This is in keeping with Earthrise's system of character customization, which they've stated is largely free of class restrictions.

If a game doesn't grip the player after the first fifteen minutes, he is lost forever. At least, that's the theory according to Jumpgate Evolution producer Scott Brown. Kotaku recently took a look at JGE's first fifteen minutes, and reported on their impressions in a brief, though somewhat insightful piece about this pivotal aspect of NetDevil's sci-fi MMO in-progress.

While their writer's comparisons with World of Warcraft seemed a bit forced (is it really fair to compare NetDevil's small team with the multi-billion dollar Irvine, CA juggernaut?), his impressions of the first few missions are pretty interesting. It seems like their efforts to craft a game that appeals to sci-fi aficionados scared off by EVE Online's uncompromising complexity may be bearing fruit. We hope to see more hands-on looks on the title as it continues to crawl its way through the development process.

Watching the final season of the new Battlestar Galactica the other night, and getting only a taste of the amazing, chaotic, shaky-cam ship-to-ship action left us wanting more. But even better than a full episode devoted to space combat would be an MMO based in that world. How would that work, you ask? We're glad you did! Keep in mind that this article assumes basic knowledge of the show universe and its characters. If you haven't seen it, get thee to a torrent, or a rental store immediately!

First, consider some of the great two-sided rivalries in MMOs: Horde vs. Alliance; AFS vs. the Bane; Humanity vs. Hell -- Mankind vs. the Cylons fits right in. In fact, since the show itself manages to portray both sides as sympathetic, there isn't too much storyline massaging to be done; the universe of Galactica is nicely morally ambiguous. All that really matters is survival.

There's a pretty even split here on the team when you ask everyone what their favorite genre is. A goodly portion of us really love paladins, shamans, thieves, and shadow knights. The worlds of fantasy are their stomping ground and they absolutely love nothing more than questing, raiding, and adventuring along in a more mystical world. The other chunk of the team seems to love the cold hard clank of metal on metal, dogfights in space, alien menace, cybernetics and laser beams. The sci-fi world of mankind is their home, lands that span galaxies, in worlds we can only dream of traveling to. Of course, there are also those who love other genres, which are equally as interesting, if a little less widely-written for, like games based on historical lands, or the occasional zombie horror MMO.

This morning we thought we'd ask you which genre really appeals to you. Are there any particular genres that you'll follow more closely than others just to see the new titles coming out for it? Or do you tend to genre hop, enjoying them all pretty equally?

As we noted when we named PlanetSide our #3 Sci-Fi MMO to date, it's good to see the "MMO" try on some new (i.e., non-RPG) clothes now and again. That's why we've been keeping a close eye on Webzen's MMOFPS Huxley. Updates on Huxley have been coming in a trickle in recent months. Videos have been released now and again, and we knew it was in closed beta, but Webzen hasn't said much to the public lately. Good news: the silence was broken by an article at IGN the other day!

The basic info is all there: two persistent cities supporting up to 5,000 players in a post-apocalyptic Earth setting, instanced battles with hundreds of players, and differences between the PC and XBox 360 versions of the game. There are also several new screenshots and videos. The game looks a lot like Unreal Tournament 3. Not a surprise, since it's a first-person-shooter running on Unreal Engine 3.

According to the article, the PC version of Huxley will launch States-side before year's end, with the 360 version following about six months later.

[Via XBox 360 Fanboy]

Have you ever read the Surfer Girl Reviews Star Wars blog? Despite the name, she usually has nothing to say about the Galaxy Far, Far Away. Instead, she regularly drops deep insider tidbits about the gaming industry. Secrets Man Was Not Meant to Know type stuff. If she's a scammer, she's good enough to fool some of the best in the business. One of the men behind the curtain at the well respected site Gamasutra, Simon Carless, regularly deconstructs her posts on the GameSetWatch blog. She generally passes his sniff test.

So why do I mention her here? Because early today she dropped a possible bombshell on all of us who have been really hoping BioWare's MMO-in-development is Knights of the Old Republic Online. Says the Girl: "Next year's Star Wars MMO, not being developed by BioWare or Sony Online Entertainment, will launch simultaneously for PC and consoles alongside the debut of the first Star Wars TV series in fall 2009, of which the storylines of the game will tie into. Those Artistic Lucases already have a second online title planned that I've heard has nothing to do with Star Wars."

Jigga-wha? If this is true and the next Star Wars MMO isn't from BioWare or SOE, who is making it? Does this mean that BioWare isn't making KOTORO? I can't imagine that come 2010 or 2011 there will be three Star Wars based online games around. Anyone have a guess as to what's going on here?

Is there room in the genre for things that don't fit in the normal schema of MMO games? There have often been problems plaguing Sci-Fi style MMOs throughout the years, be it the fact that they are too vast, or can't live up to the IP that they are built on, allowing the fantasy genre to reign supreme (with exceptions to the rule of course). For the most part players seem to 'get' the games built around fantasy easier, with the play style just making a lot more sense. I know from the players I have spoken to, it's just easier for them to run around and hit things with swords, than to be flying around in star fighters and raiding entire planets.

It begs to question if that will always be the case, and certainly looking at the line up for big MMOs over the next year it certainly looks that way. With FunCom's Age of Conan, and EA Mythic's Warhammer Online, both fit into that fantasy style, and work alongside games like LotRO and WoW with a metric buttload of back-story and lore (though obviously LotRO takes the cake on that aspect.)

What is it that causes this then? Is it the lore, or the swords, or perhaps the fact that fantasy is just more interesting to people than science fiction? Let's try to break it down...

We just began discussion earlier this month on a horror-flavoured MMO, Requiem: Bloodymare. As sci-fi, pirates, and tales of the undead begin to fill in where once only fantasy dared to tread, we're starting to see more and more new games stray from the norms of the MMO genre. Today's announcement of a new post-apocalyptic game, then, shouldn't come as too much of a surprise.

Joining the in-the-works title Fallen Earth in the Mad Maxian genre, Earthrise is a title being developed by the Bulgarian studio Masthead. The game is to be set after a third world war, which finds our planet more-or-less a wasteland. Our species is on its way to the conclusion of all Darwinian evolution, but a few brave souls are fighting on to keep the light of civilization burning. A corporate-run government has created a semi-utopia, populated by clones of citizenry stored in massive genetic databases. Not all is well, of course - the government is fascist, keeping tight control over the meager resources available to the fledgling society. Rival factions are fighting for control of the hearts and minds of the cloned populace, and players will get to choose who they throw their influence behind.

Also, as you can see in the above screenshot, there looks to be monsters. Not sure how they fit in, but perhaps they're mutants left in the wake of the world war? The press release from the Masthead Studios indicates they're very keen on exploring PvP and market-based gameplay as well as tradition PVE gaming.

Do you think this is going to work out? Post-apocalyptic gaming is a very different animal from your standard fantasy fair. Another doomed niche product, or a breath of fresh air for the genre?

[Via Warcry]