EVE Online is heading into its Second Decade with renewed vigour and a new development strategy. At the CSM Summit in December, Executive Producer CCP Unifex and Development Director CCP Seagull explained how future development and expansions will be broader in scope than recent "collections of features" stating that CCP "want to create something more inspirational, that players aspire to play."
With the return of Live Events such as the Battle for Caldari Prime, clearly the prime fiction of EVE is back in favour as part of this new thematic approach to expansions. However, EVE's story is very much a tale of two playstyles, with an entirely player-driven narrative unfolding daily in parallel to the reinvigorated backstory. Often, they do not mix well. How can these two disparate elements be united or at least comfortably co-exist in a single sandbox universe?
You may be shocked to find out that I'm probably going to take a completely different stance on this than many of my fellow Banterers may be taking. I don't happen to agree with the basic premise of the statement above, that this is a dual play-style issue and that they are "disparate" at all. Hogwash.
You can't have a sandbox unless someone builds a sandbox. And every once in awhile little Timmy, Jimmy, and Gloria are boring little brats that only sit in their own corners building the same crap every day. Sometimes it is funny to introduce some Fire Ants into the sand. Gets the kids moving again, y'know?
You should take a moment to read this amazing post called "The Unexpected Journey" that perfectly highlights the exact type and style of Live Events we need more of in Eve.
Go on, I'll wait.
"More inspirational, that players aspire to play"
I'll take a wild guess here and say that people that play Eve are most likely Science Fiction fans of one sort or another. Call me crazy, but I bettcha I'm right. We need more science fiction in Eve. More wonder. More mystery. More unexplained, "Holy God we actually do live in a real universe!!" moments. ( That moment when the Bear wanders into your suburban utopia and reminds you that you actually used to be in the Food chain!)
These, along with events like the Battle for Caldari Prime, will continue to inspire the player base and leak out into the real world. Spreading love of Eve to all peoples.
I don't have a lot to say on this Blog Banter because I already feel like I wrote the perfect response to it with the Unexpected Journey way back in August of last year. ( yikes!! )
The great thing about these types of "mystery" events is they don't take a lot of effort, time or commitment to implement. Also, and I think this is important, they give the employees of CCP something fun to do every so often. That is also good for morale by the way.
Here are some free idears:
• The Visitor
One day in Jita an enormous vessel appears outside of the trading station, it is ginormous and easily dwarfs the station and everything else around it. It just sits there and slowly spins for several ( TZ crossing!! ) hours. Every so often it emits a deep bass howl ( encourages people to have sound turned on!! ) but that's about it. It eventually disappears as mysteriously as it appeared. Social media explodes! Did you see that?! WTF!? Whoa.
• INFECTED
For a short period of time all ships coming to Empire space from Null have 'something' attached to their ships! This could be so awesome, a large red bulbous thing that pulsates and emits a faint blue light lol. Think HP Lovecraft. They eventually die and fall off but wtf?!
• Space Octopus!!
Pick a station somewhere, there are plenty of systems with to many stations!! And eat it with a Giant Space Octopus!! ( Or Space Goat, turtle, whatever) Let the eating take some time with lots of debris and useless shooting of guns and whatnots. Just think about how much fun that could be!
Has anyone else read any science fiction around here? There are literally a gazillion ideas that would rock New Eden, be fun, create mystery and inspiration, drive interest in the public and make Eve something even more special than it is right now. And isn't that what we all want?
I know I do. Go Eve. Go Space Octopus!
For more banters on this subject visit this link.