updates and changes

After letting things fall into wrack and ruin on this blog for far too long, I’ve at last managed to update a few things about the place. I’ve put up details of the latest issue (which is about to be sent out), updated the back issues accordingly, added a few names to the About Us section and gone over the advertising side of things.

It’s worth pointing out here that whilst fundamentals of advertising in EON won’t be changing, those keen to promote themselves or others should be aware that there has been a clamp down on ads that go to CCP for inclusion as splash screens: Basically, there can be no hyper-linking or any mention of a URL in these ads in future, even if the service being promoted is for a service that is purely in-game. It’s a move that is unfortunate but totally understandable. On the one hand some sites have started realising the commercial potential for EON ads (a 250,000 captive audience is a good market, especially if the ad cost nothing to air), and pimping out of game services that CCP have no control over – especially commercial ones, is not something this service was ever intended for. On the other hand these sites potentially take people away from playing EVE, which is never a good thing.

Basically, while we are happy to publish ads in the magazine for anything and everything related to EVE, until further notice only ads specific to alliances, corporations and in-game services offered directly by players will be allowed to air as splash screens. Websites and third-party applications may of course advertise with EON, but their ads will only be accepted for inclusion in print. I’m sure there are grey areas, so if anyone has any questions, feel free to get in touch.

lost in translation

It’s not often on the EVE forums that you find a thread that is both entertaining and informative, but the person behind EVE character jna has provided one, purely, he protests, out of an act of scholarly “nerd rage”.

Being someone who clearly managed to stay awake during his latin classes, and someone who has enjoyed delving headlong into the language upon which the Western world was built, jna was mildly irked enough by EVE corp and alliances who had adopted cool-sounding latin names (because lingua latina is very cool in EVE, of course) that he’s been compelled to disassemble them, showing them up to be the poor auto-online translations that most of them are. Of Morsus Mihi, a distinguished and revered EVE alliance, he argues that instead of meaning ‘Bite Me’; “sort-of means “A Bite. To Me.”“

Of course it’s no massive blow to collective alliance ego that Atrum Tempestas Foedus should actually be Foedus Atrum Tempestatis, and thankfully no-one has taken jna’s pedantry as any kind of slur, but a few have reverted to defendus modus role-playus (I hope I got that right) to excuse their lack of scholarly latin insight with the ‘fact’ that New Eden is many light years distant from the present and that precise latin usage has changed somewhat in the years since humanity’s final migration to the stars. Good recovery, say I.

Anyway, it’s a great read, one that will help you to feel slightly smug about yourself for having chosen a name in English (or Klingon, etc) that was guided helpfully by one of those spell-checker things… or that you’re not a member of the alliance now called ‘Little Mist’. Now, if you’ll excuse me I have to play Europa Universalis Rome… which in actual fact I do, although I can’t help wondering if the name is spot on, given that it’s just series of geographic locations. jna…? You there?

the 1.0 experiment, anyone?

Many I’m sure have fond memories of the “0.0 Experiment” by EVE player Innominate Nightmare (I must resist the full-caps version of his name as I have a headache this morning): It was, over the course of a few months, the consistently lively journal of an unknown character as he tried to explore the murky backwaters of civilized space, gradually making himself more well-known by shining his indomitable wit into the gloom and discovering it’s even murkier out there than some of us had suspected. If you missed his superbly-crafted musings, I suggest you go and read through them over the course of a few days (it’s a fine coffee-break read if nothing else). Among the dozens of diary entries there is much to learn about how 0.0 space works, how much of the time it just doesn’t, and, whilst many of the alliances mentioned within are no longer active, the activities of their successors are much the same.

So I was wondering, since there has been a recent “official” tribute to the works of the dearly-departed Inno, whether it was time for someone to become properly inspired by his endeavors: Not to jump in a shuttle and go exploring nullsec – since it’s kinda been done already and unlikely to be done much better – but rather for someone to sit in a station and try to earn a few billion by trading, fleecing, begging and betting. The “1.0 Experiment“, if you will. Just a thought.

surveying monkey

I recently started up a discussion with regard to the possibility, desirability and consequences of one single power being able to dominate EVE, or, rather, the lawless expanse known as 0.0 space. Rather pleasingly there have been some very interesting responses so far, but now that the chat seems to be drying up, now seems as good a time as any to get more opinion – this time about what players think of their own alliances and how they operate.

Rather than collect this extra info via a discussion (far too unwieldy given the nebulous subject matter), I’ve put together a survey that I hope will bring about a good number of responses over the course of the next few days. The final grand aim is to help us come up with a cracking article for the next issue. Should the survey prove successful, I’m sure more will follow. In fact, I’m starting to think that I should have arranged for the Awards to have been voted for through the same site. Maybe next year.