all busy on all fronts

It’s a busy time across the various international E·ON offices at the moment. Hastings (Editorial HQ) is now quiet after a busy run up to the recent deadline of E·ON #011, whilst the London Bureau (General HQ and Global Distribution Center) is preparing itself to receive the many thousands of printed magazines as they arrived from the printers down in Portsmouth (yay, go Pompey). Meanwhile, over in Pennsylvania (a kind of summer retreat), thoughts are turning to the player meets happening at the weekend (in London and Philadelphia). I’ll blog about those little get-togethers later this week, in the meantime you may just be happy to hear that I’ve updated the site to show the latest cover and what’s in store in the latest magazine as the Envelope Stuffing dept at the London office prepares for the final push. I’ve introduced a Back Issues section as well, which I’ll flesh out over the coming weeks.

the politics of fun

After mulling over, asking questions about and writing a few words on CCP’s plans to “re-imagine” the old Council of Stellar Management, I’m still rather undecided about whether it’s going end up as something new and wonderful, or whether it’s just a Trinitised version of CSM Classic. Aside from the fact that council members will be voted for by the community rather than by CCP and that meetings will also be convened in Iceland, fundamentally there is little that differentiates what will be in 2008 from what was in 2003. Or is there?

The voting process itself is a difference of course, one that was originally seeded as a move towards what might have been be the first virtual world democracy. More recently the term “democracy” has fallen foul of ambition and the New (virtual) World Order that was prophesied as being a first for MMOdom a year ago barely survives as a buzzword. Even so, despite the reservations that some might have, the fun has already started. Some of the names that have put themselves forward – respected veterans Hardin and Omber Zombie among them – bode well for the future of the CSM. Even if the processes that may facilitate their elevation to public service is flawed, even if CCP’s motivation for resurrecting the CSM was deliberately skewed as some have suggested, it’’s difficult not to see this whole process as ending up as anything but fun to watch and commentate on. If a “fun” part of EVE is all the new CSM ends up being, that’s good enough for me.

missing the action

It appears the EVE TV crew has returned from the broadcast of the 5th Alliance Tournament, after what was by all accounts a successful two weeks of camera-poking fun, culminating in what was without doubt the most exciting final in tournament history. Despite missing most of the broadcast due to family and football commitments, I did manage to tune in for the very last match and witness the tense showdown between Ev0ke and Triumvirate.

Witnessing a classic final leads me to think I may have missed a classic tournament, and whilst I’ve tried to catch up on what was missed by way of the replays that have been posted online, there seems something altogether more magical in watching everything progress live. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great that the matches are online (I was there during the 4th Tournament helping to upload and organize the replays), but I’m sure that there are some who missed the live stream because, like me, they had “better things to do”, with hopes that viewing the replays would make amends. I’ve since come to realize that EVE TV coverage of gang warfare between alliances is, like football, a dish best served live. They say you only fully realize what you’ve missed when it’s gone and that is the exact case here.

On the plus side, Pompey being in the semi-final of the FA Cup is not something I would have wanted to miss either. I only hope Tournament VI doesn’t clash with any of Portsmouth’s Champions League matches come next season. (Chance would be a fine thing.)