More Fanfest posts incoming, watch this space.

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The first item of the day was Dr Eyjo’s presentation comparing The economy of the Chinese server, Serenity (SE), with its larger and more estabished counterpart, Tranquility (TQ). He compared alot of statisics and showed us alot of graphs but the basice point of the excercise was to demonstrate that even though the two servers are completely independent of each other, the same patterns are emegring.

For instance, the busiest system in the game, Jita (pronounced Yeetah), developed naturally as a trade hub on TQ without any interference or engineering from CCP. It just happened. Jita is also the main trade hub on SE, though the reason behind that may be Chinese players reading he forums and playing on TQ and assuming that Jita was supposed to be the trade hub. Not realising that it didn’t have to be.

Interestingly, Pilots on SE are more combat focussed than those on TQ. This may be due to the younger demographic (25-30 as opposed to TQ’s 30-35) but is also indicative of the cultural differences between the two servers. Something I found interesting was that players on SE have set up a safe haven in 0.0 space where anyone can go and rat without fear of piracy. Its controlled and patrolled by players so that newer pilots can get a chance to experience 0.0 without fear of being ganked. A good idea and something which we players should look at for TQ if we want to encourage more players into 0.0.

I also went to both the Walking In Stations talks (I like how even the dev’s say it with a smirk or sneer as if they hate the name as much as I do. Its Ambulation for fuck’s sake) but I’ll be writing about that in a different post after I’ve had a shot of the demo.

Whisper trys to control two teams of CCP employees. I'm told its like trying to herd cats.

The last event of the day was the 2nd Annual Dev Quiz presented by Whisper and featuring teams from QA (Quality Assurance) and the GMs (Game Masters). It had a longer title than that but I’m damned if I can remember it all. It mentioned something about whimsy and elephants. Oh god, how I laughed. These CCP employees are all nuts I tell you. The final round was an Audiosurf contest on a track specially written for the competition by CCP’s own resident musician. The track will be available for download from the EVE website so you can compare your scores to those of the two teams, I’ll post a link when one becomes available.

In the evening my wife and I parted ways to go do our own things. I went looking for a decent pub with good music and found The Dubliner. A nice little Irish pub with friendly staff and a good atmosphere. The evening did not start well, with a shouty Irishman thrashing a guitar and yelling into a mic, I was just thinking that I would finish my drink and go on to somewhere else when he removed himself from the stage and another gentleman took his place.

Oh Yeah, The Girl Can Sing...

10 minutes into his set a girl wearing an EVE Fanfest pass strikes up a conversation with the singer and he hands her the mic. I’m thinking ‘oh dear, someone fancies themselves a bit’ when suddenly a wall of sound grabs me by the heart and lifts me to somewhere else. When she finished her set I went for a cigarette and bumped into her outside. She see’s that I too play EVE and we get chatting. As a result I spend the evening in the company of a few pilots from Romanian Renegades and No Joy. Thanks to you all for a great night out, especially the girl with the voice who’s name was Harry or possibly Harí (I apologise for the spelling but its an Icelandic name and that’s the closest approximation I could come up with.)

If your reading this Harí (sp?) drop me a line with your in-game name as I’ve forgotten it (lost in a beery fog I’m afraid). If all else fails I can probably find you through the No Joy lads who I’ll be joining in Syndicate at some point in the future.

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In other news I was apparently sitting not more than 20 feet from CrazyKinux earlier and neither of us was any the wiser. I’m taking a short hiatus from the revelry and heading back to meet up with him later.

Fanfest is much as I remember it from last year except this year we have the benefit of knowing people and actually having different people to talk to. Last year we got a bit sick of each other’s company and were too shy to approach anyone else (aw bless). We also didn’t really drink very much last year and I’d forgotten the beneficial effects of alcohol as a social lubricant. If anyone reading this is at fanfest, don’t be shy. Today I am wearing a blue hoodie, urban pattern combat trousers and chunky boots with silver flame details on the toes. I don’t bite

Going to head back to the venue now and will post more later. Bree beckons

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I’ll be off to the Pre-Fanfest Pub Crawl this evening after having dinner with more new friends. So If your in Reykjavik this evening and are looking for a good time just follow the trail of bodies and destruction that 350 EVE players will undoubtedly leave in their wake. It kicks off officially at 2pm (so they’ve already started) at the bar of the Nordica Hilton in Reykjavik and who knows where it will go from there.

Driving a car on the ‘other’ (I got told off for saying ‘the wrong’) side of the road has been an experience and I find myself getting used to it just as we’re about to take the car back. Oh well, I’ll definitely be doing more driving next time, it makes getting around so much easier.

We went to The Blue Lagoon yesterday and had a whale of a time swimming outdoors in November in opaque water that in some spots was as hot as a bath. The water is actually waste water from a nearby geothermal powerplant which is filtered, cooled slightly, and then pumped into a large natural depression in the rock that has been sealed with some sort of sealant. A creation of the mad genius that only the Icelandic are capable of. This being November it was raining (we got soaked between the car and the building), extremely windy (though I was told it was only a stiff breeze by Icelandic standards), and about 3°C (not taking wind chill into account), but I hardly noticed as I bobbed about in the mineral enriched (and extremely blue) water.

I’m glad we decided to come for longer this year, its been well worth it.

PS: CrazyKinux: If you’re reading this and you have internet where you are you can either get me on Google Talk or MSN (MSN name: mandrill-at-thiswebsite’s.url) if not I’ll try and find you after registration tomorrow.

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Welcome to the first installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed here. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This month’s topic comes to us from PsycheDiver: Ambulation: What are your hopes for your avatar and new functionality of stations?

Going for a Stroll Through EVE

Firstly, I want to put it on the record that CCP’s, admittedly working, title for the expansion which lets you get out of your ship, ‘Walking in Stations’ is awful and I will always refer to it as Ambulation. Unless they come up with something better of course, but at the moment I don’t see that happening.

Secondly, I realise that the theme of this post is supposed to focus on the new functionality of the Ambulation avatar and the stations we’ll be able to walk about in but I sincerely believe that Ambulation is so much more than a 3D body and spaces to move it around in. To that end I’ve widened the scope of this post to include some of the things which I believe Ambulation make possible and the more ephemeral ways in which EVE as a game will be changed by it.

Ambulation opens a whole new world of possibilities for player interaction in EVE, and as it is this interaction which drives the game, EVE is going to change in many unpredictable ways. Whilst CCP have ruled out (for the moment at least) any kind of combat based PvP outside of your ship, the possibility for boarding actions and station assaults with real troops instead of simply pounding it from space is worth mentioning. I go into more detail regarding this subject in a previous post. Lets just take it as read that I predict that one day (Soon™) this sort of visceral and fast paced avatar based PvP will make an appearance.

If You Build It, They Will Come.

Concept art of an Amarr station interior

First of all, architecture. We already know that each of the four races of EVE, Gallente, Caldari, Minmatar and Amarr, have their own individual aesthetics. The Amarr are all golden arches, quasi-religious iconography and ostentation. The Caldari are sleekly efficient, angular and business-like. The Gallente are more into organic curves and sweeping, almost art nouveau, lines and the Minmatar have a more ad hoc, held-together-with-string-and-chewing-gum, style. I’m hoping that the internal spaces of each race’s stations continue these distinct styles, and from what I’ve been seeing and hearing of Ambulation to date, CCP don’t plan to disappoint.

So we’re going to be able to tell which race the station we’re in owes its allegiance to from its architecture, but I’d like to go a step further. I’d like to be able to tell which station I’m in from visual cues in the environment around me and not the UI. To begin with this might not seem all that feasible, but we’re forgetting that a large part of the environment in ambulation will (I hope) be determined by the players. Corporation offices, shops, bars, and gambling dens have been mentioned, each owned and run by a player or players, who I hope will be allowed to put their own distinctive mark on their property. If all shop fronts are the same how are you going to be able to tell where you can get your ammo? So as the public, mall-like, spaces of the stations gain residents they will develop their own individual character and atmosphere. I know that this isn’t an out of the box feature and is rather something which will emerge over time, but the fact that it is able to emerge is something that should be designed into Ambulation from the get go.

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An interview with CCP’s Arend Stuhrmann, Associate Producer of EVE Online.

Nothing here that EVE veterans will not already know, though I do find it interesting at the care he takes giving the reason’s for the existence of the CSM. No mention is made of the blueprint scandal of a couple of years ago which I believe to have played a large part in the adoption of the CSM.

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I’m blogging this whilst I wait in a 20 minute queue to get on to my server, and I’m on the side of Order, I hate to think what the queues are like for destruction players. The queues are a minor niggle though and are seriously worth it for what I believe to be a near perfect MMO.

EVE has its scale, scope and depth. Warcraft has its PvE and grind (some people like that, takes al sorts I suppose). WAR is just that; War. Unbridled, unfettered, unending war. and let me tell you its bloody good fun and I haven’t even reached the endgame yet. I’ve not even touched the PvE stuff really (and I can’t go back to the lower level stuff now, not on an open RvR server, I’ll be doing it with an alt though.) the PvP is just soo good.

GOA have yet to get their act together with regards to Realm pages on the website (we were told we’d have them last week but still no joy.) and they really need to completely re-work their website. So despite GOA’s continued ineptitude, I’m enjoying WAR immensely.

War may be hell, but its more fun that way

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I remember when first reading the Otherland quadrilogy by Tad Williams that it would make a great, if difficult, project for an MMO developer. I’ll be watching this one closely.

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All I have to say about this is: “About bloody time!”

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Yeah, trust a lawyer to give unbiased advice. Its money in the bank for them either way.

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