As someone who was there, but not part of the process it interesting to get a participant’s view of the proceedings and interactions between the CSM and CCP. It would be nice to have a CCP perspective on this, but I doubt we’re going to get that, beyond a dev blog of “Yes the CSM were here and the discussions were productive and useful.” This is all well and good from a PR perspective but as with any democratic process it can only really work if both parties involved are as open as possible about what they got from it and what was achived.

Currently we only get the meeting minutes and public opinions of the CSM (and neutral observers) about how the discussions went. We don’t really know CCP’s opinion of the proceedings. “Understanding is a three edged sword: Your side, my side, and the truth.” to pull an appropriate quote from Babylon 5 , and it would seem we’re only getting one side of that, without the other there’s no way to get to the truth.

Ankh also has a post up with her opinion of proceedings

M out

I don’t know if this categorisation is preserved in this re-release of the full list (right click/save as) of EVE blogs (with the broken ones removed but inactive ones retained for completeness and archiving purposes), so I’ve prepared OPML lists of each of the categories. I’ve also shared the folders I put them in in Google Reader as pages of their own, with their own feeds so you can simply subscribe to the feed for a category if you want.

• Fiction and In Character Blogs. (Google share)
• General EVE Blogs. (Google Share)
• Player Journals (not in character). (Google Share)
• Pictures, Screenshots and Fan Art. (Google Share)
• News. (Google Share)
• Podcasts. (Google Share)
• Racing. (Google Share)
• Resources. (Google Share)
• EVE related GameScribe Blogs. (Google Share)
• Podlogs. (Google Share)
• Non-English. (Google Share)
• Inactive. (Google Share)
• Unknown. (Google Share)

The categories should be fairly self-explanatory and logical. with the following meriting some explanation IMO.

• The inactive category holds blogs which still exist on the internet but have not been updated for 2 months or more.
• The Unknown category mainly holds new blogs from the Gamescribe and Podlogs services which haven’t yet had a post added to them or have so few posts that its hard to categorise them. These will be filtered into other categories as time progresses.
• There will be blogs which appear in more than one category. This is to be expected.
• The Fiction/In Character category is for blogs which have fiction  or in character posts as the majority of their content. Rule of thumb: if there are posts on a blog which have an [OOC] tag (signifying an out of character post) then it goes in this category as tagging a post as OOC usually means that the rest are IC. Does that make sense?

I’m looking into setting up a central site which will automate the whole tedious process of cataloging the ever growing mob of EVE blogs. Including aggregated category feeds, receiving pings from registered blogs when they’re updated and allowing users to register their blog and have it included automatically in the OPML files. This is originally what the EVE Directory Project started out as, but I had trouble finding a decent ready made script to do all these things. Looks like I’m going to be coding one from scratch, so it might take a while and not work properly.

I’m a crap coder, I’ve had professional PHP scripters look at working code I’ve produced and laugh out loud in disbelief. I’ve been told that code that I have churned out is inefficient, highly unstable and not supposed to work (but it does, after a fashion), so any help or advice that anyone can offer in this regard would be most welcome. I’m also incredibly slow and can’t get my head around OOP with PHP.

If there are any blogs you’d like to see added, or that you think have been miscategorised, let me know in the comments or tweet @mandrill. I hope to be updating these lists on a relatively (monthly or thereabouts) regular basis until I get the aggregation automation system up and running (so for the foreseeable future I’ll be doing it manually)

Till next time, good hunting and don’t let the reds get you down.

The list is quite extensive and I’ll probably give it a page all its own rather than add it to my sidebar, it could cause some kind of rift in the space-time continuum its so big.

1. Adventures of Birdog Freelance Privateer (The)
2. Adventures of Eirellle (The)
3. Alia Xi – The Caldari Piratess - Closed for Business
4. Ancient Gaming Noob (The)
5. Ardwulf’s Lair
6. Articulated Sky
   
7. Badass in space!
8. Baling Wire and Girders
9. Barking Mad Warehouse (The)
10. Bastards (The) – VB Sarge
11. Bitter Old Noob
12. Biomassed, Perplexed and Langour
13. Blackheart Pirate
14. Blogging from inside the Pod
15. Broadside
    
16. Caldari Navy Ibis <- Out of date
17. Carpe Pod
18. Chimps in Space
19. Congo Free State
20. CrazyKinux’s Musing
21. DavezO’s Gaming Space
22. Dawn of EVE
23. DeafPlasma’s EVE Musings
24. Death’s Sweetest Kiss
25. Defender of the Faith
26. Defias Blog (The)
27. Dense Veldspar
28. Deranged Carebear
29. Derekest Blog
30. Diary of a Pod Pilot
31. Diary of a Space Jockey
32. Diving into PsycheDiver’s Psyche
33. Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap – 7734
    
34. Down by Law
35. Drawing Aggro <- Out of date
36. Drunk in Space
37. Ecliptic Rift
38. Eden Explored
39. Epic Misadventures
40. EVE Carebear
    
41. EVE Chick
42. EVE Guru <– New
43. EVE Life
44. EVE Inline
    
45. EVE is broken
46. EVE Network News
47. EVE Newb
48. EVEolutions
    
49. EVE Online – A Ghost Blog <– New
50. EVE Online Pictures
51. EVE Online Pirates
52. EVE Online Portal (The) <– New
53. EVE Online Trader
54. EVE-Blogs
55. EVE-Pirate
56. EVE-Sweden
57. EVE-Yarr <– New
58. EVE’s Weekend Warrior
59. Everyday EvE
60. Fighting Broke
61. Finraer’s Folly
62. Fistful of ISK (A)
63. Flashresh – A Pirate
64. FTLOL Corp
65. Ground Zero
66. Hammer’s EVE
67. Hardcore Casual
68. Hooking My Claws in the Void
69. House Theodoulos (The)
70. Helicity
71. I am a Camera (Drone)
72. I am Keith Neilson <– New
73. I May Find Peace Within The Emptiness
74. Idle Chatter
75. Imperius Blackhearts’ Blog
76. Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah
77. Ironfleet Towing & Salvage
78. It’s a miner’s life for me
79. It’s all in the Reflexes
80. Ivy League & EVE University
81. Jackrabbit Piracy
82. JamesS Journal (The)
83. Jhez
84. Jinarre’s New Eden
85. Just a Girl in her Thorax – Outdated
86. Joc: The Space Bandito
    
87. Kane Rizzel – A Pirate’s Perspective
88. Katzukov Industries <– New
89. Khaled Urduni
90. Kraesslers Coyotes
91. Kyle Langdon’s Journeys in EVE
92. Lady in Space
93. Letrange’s EVE Blog
94. Life in Low Sec
95. Littlest Drone (The) <- Out of date
96. Loyal Amarrian (A)
97. Mac’s in EVE
98. Mad Rant
99. Massive Multiplayer PK
100. Maugrim McFiriba’s EVE Online Journal
101. Max Torps’ Blog
102. Merry Life and a Short One (A)
103. Misguided Adventurer (A)
     
104. Miners with Fangs
105. Mordant Core
     
106. Morphisat’s Blog
107. Move along citizen. I’m depleted.
108. Mule in EVE (A)
109. Musings
110. Nerrollus the Geek
111. New Edener (The) <– New
112. Nursultan’s Pirate Blag
113. Nuyan’s Hangout
114. Old Player – New Pirate
115. Ombeve
116. One Man And His Ship
117. Odd Pod Out - Closed for Business
118. ofDanes
119. Orias: The Life Of.
120. Our EvE
121. Oz’s House of Evil Dead
122. Paradise Engineering
123. Pig in Space
124. Pirate Kaya (The)
     
125. Pirate’s Pirate (The)
126. pjharvey
127. PNTS EVE-Blog
128. Pocket Pairs & Pod Pilots
     
129. Pod Cast!
130. postings from the edge
131. pΘtshΘt
132. Protosolus
133. Punishment
134. Ralpha Dogs (The)
135. Ramblings of a Bastard
136. Rantings of a Carebear - Closed for Business
137. Red Eye Express: Touring the Eve universe (The)
138. Rifter Drifter <– New (Used to be Wensley)
139. Ripe Lacunae <– New
140. Roc’s Ramblings
141. Sarah Conna Chronicles - Closed for Business
142. Scratchpad :: EVE Online
143. Semper EVE
144. Sensory Surge
145. Serenity Steele’s Directive Perspicacity
146. Shahirs Journey - Closed for Business
147. Spaceship by Numbers
148. Suddenly Blogging – Confessions of a Ninja Salvager
149. Surviving within the Void
150. Sweet Little Bad Girl
     
151. Tales of a Third Rate Trit Trader
152. There will be pew…
153. Tiger’s Space Journeys
154. Tinfoil Hats and Pirate Banter
155. Titan Weekly
156. Tired Ire
157. Travels of Black Claw (The)
158. Triffons Biography
159. Tuskers Public Relations (The) <– New
160. Uninvited But Not Unloved
161. Vernon’s Bite <– New
162. Van Hemlock :: EVE Online
163. Vive Virtual
164. Votrian’s EVE Blog
165. Wandering Druid of Tranquility (The)
166. Warp to Ari <- Out of date
167. What The?! Yoink! *POOF*
168. Winterblink: EVE
169. Wizard of Duke Street (The)
170. Wotlankor – Warpdrive Initiated
171. Wreck Count
172. Yaarrrk Side (The)
173. Yarr Yum
174. Your Money or Your Life
175. X For Blog
176. X1376′s Space Odyssey
177. Zen and the Art of Internet Spaceship Maintenance
     
178. Zero Kelvin
179. /random

There are a few of these that I already read, and as for the rest I’ll be sure to add them to my feed reader.

Ga’len has also updated his OPML feed of EVE blogs, which you can get from here, and it now stands at a massive 226 blogs. Wow!

I wonder if there would be a way to automate keeping the list up to date… thoughts anyone?

Hopefully the first of many, wierd news from the world of video games.

I find myslef wondering what the hell that koala game is about. It looks like baseball for Australian furries.

More at http://verticalslice.tumblr.com/

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.

Ok if I’m reading this right, This device could potentially transmit a signal now, in fifteen minutes time, and fifteen minutes ago and they could all be recieved half an hour ago. I’m no physicist but thats time travel in my book.

It also seems that the signal could be ‘tuned’ to only be receivable at a specific time in a specific location, untappable communication anyone?

This is some wild shit right here, if it pans out.

What section 11 of the Chrome EULA says, basically, is that anything you post to the internet through Chrome; Google has a right to use it, edit it, repackage it, distribute it and genrally fuck about with it as much as they like and don’t have to credit you, pay you, or even acknowledge that it came from you.

For instance, if this post to my blog was made through Chrome, Google would have every right to re-use it, claim they wrote it, edit it to better reflect their interests, and they wouldn’t have to do anything for me in return.

Google has dropped tha ball on this one. Spread the word so that they see the error of their wayward ways and change the EULA.

It’ll probably fizzle out in a couple of weeks but for now I’m all raring to go with it. I’m toying with the idea of producing some photo’s for it. Taken around the town I live in and photoshopped appropriately. I’d do some drawings but I’m not a good enough artist more’s the pity

Let me know what you think and tell your friends if you like it. I’ve got a good feeling ’bout this one (for the moment at least).

(Note: clicking on the ‘read more’ link will lead you to what looks like a broken page, this is due to the embedded music player, everything still works as it should its just the layout thats screwy. WordPress can’t handle the <object> and <embed> tags. If anyone has any suggestions for fixing this feel free to let me know in the comments)

Trent Reznor has finally left interzone, after describing them as ‘greedy assholes’ and encouraging fans to steal his music during his last tour. The Nine Inch nails have released part of their new instrumental album Ghosts I-IV for free through their website and for a nominal payment of $5 (US Dollars, which is £2.50 in my money) you can download the whole thing DRM free. The popularity of this move was demonstrated when the NIN website went down due to high traffic over the weekend.

Ghosts I-IV is also the first offering from a fairly big name I’ve seen to carry a creative commons license. Released under an Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike license, you can basically do whatever you want with it as long as you credit the creator, don’t sell it and do it under the same license. This brings up some interesting possibilities, especially as you can order a version of the album which includes all the tracks in multi-track format encouraging remixes and sampling (its $75 though, or I would have ordered that one). I look forward to hearing some fan remixes in the future, let me know if you’re planning any and I’ll promote them here (if I deem them worthy of course )

This is indicative of a growing trend in the music industry as more artists become disillusioned with the traditional music industry and release their work online. With the recent controversy over the RIAA not passing on money made from suing those who copied music to the artists, whose interests they claim to be representing, I can only see this as being another nail in the coffin of a dying industry. The men in suits have lined their pockets for long enough and the artists are taking control.

Good on you Mr Reznor, I salute you.

Here is a selection of tracks from Ghosts to whet your appetite: