Whilst I’m sure the tech-heads amongst the EVE playerbase will be gushing all over the latest dev blog, which delves into the technical underpinnings fo the new COSMOS social networking system, for th rest of us its pretty boring. The most interesting information is in the diagram.
ooh a flowchart of what makes COSMOS work
My biggest worries regarding this are as follows:
- Its using Microsoft’s .NET technology, when it would probably be far cheaper and more versatile if it used PHP and MySQL. However I realise that MSSQL is the database that the game runs on and using .NET technology makes it easier to work with the data they already have.
- There is Blogging Software mentioned. This worries me the most. What about those of us who already have blogs? Will we be able to easily integrate COSMOS data into our existing blogs? Will we even be able to access it? What about services like PodLogs and GameScribe, which were started by players for players? Would it not be better to show them some love rather than develope a rival service?
This is all beside the point as yet again there is very little information regarding functionality and usability in this blog about COSMOS. The majority of EVE players and future users of the system are simply not interested in how it works at this level, what we want to know is what in fact it will do once it is all up and running.
Some questions I have:
- Will I be able to get my EVE-mail forwarded to another email account?
- Will there be out of game chat/voice access?
- Will I be able to change my skills/orders?
- Will I be able to issue and accept contracts?
- Is the introduction of COSMOS going to include an upgraded in game browser?
- Will Players be able to develope their own applications and utilities (web-based and otherwise) with access to the COSMOS API?
Tell us how COSMOS will benefit us and improve our ability to interact with EVE, not how the various magic boxes talk to each other. Personally I don’t care, as long as it works and is useful.
Till next time, good hunting and don’t let the reds get you down.
PS: Did CCP not even consider using Google Wave? Looks like it has potential.
