award winners announced (again)

Since most people have now received their copies of EON#011 I will just list the winners of the recent EON Awards, as voted for by the EVE community back in February. These were of course the second annual awards, and, as with last year, the Goons have collectively won the lion’s share. Some have complained that they have done so due to sheer weight of numbers rather than out of merit, which is certainly half true – logically so, given these are decided by a public vote and GoonSwarm are the largest player-entity in the game. That said, the number of total votes cast was significantly lower than the GoonSwarm membership, so it wouldn’t have taken much effort at all to have rolled them over. Congratulations to the Goons I say for mobilizing their drones. And congratulations too for their achievements during 2007. The bees done good. Also a few hearty slaps on the back at last for Verone, who wins his first award after having so many nominations across both years, and to Chribba, who is EVE’s pin-up boy for the second year in a row.

• Forum Warrior: HIPPOKING
• Corp / Alliance site: WWW.GOONFLEET.COM
• Filmmaker of the Year: STAHLREGEN
• Fiction Writer of the Year: VERONE
• Guide Writer of the Year: AGONY UNLEASHED
• Community Service Award: EVEMON
• Fansite: WWW.EVE-FILES.COM
• Leader / CEO of the Year: SESFAN QU’LAH
• Most Promising Newcomer: PANDEMIC LEGION
• Alliance of the Year: GOONSWARM
• Corporation of the Year: GOONFLEET
• Player of the Year: KIATOLON
• EVE Idol: CHRIBBA

Congratulations and thanks again to all the winners for making EVE just about the most interesting and engrossing alternate reality in existence, as well to all the nominees, plus all those who voted online, offered nominations in Iceland and attended the Award meets in Philadelphia and London (what an international bunch we all are).

As for the laser-etched trophies, they are currently being made up and as soon as they arrive in the office, I will be contacting the winners in-game to get their details so we can mail the things out. They are impressive things to behold (and damn heavy too). Before next year we need to think up a name for them. Given that they have a little EVE guy sitting in a pre-Trinity pod, maybe we should call them the Adams? EVE… Adam… geddit? Ok, bad idea.

Final note: The awards procedure will change a bit more drastically for the third awards, but I’ll reveal that another time. For now, let’s allow the winners bask in their well-deserved glory!

after the meet

After a suitably greasy lunch and a strong cup of tea I can now claim to feeling at least part human after the EVE player meet in Philadelphia yesterday.

I would hazard a guess that there were 50 people who came along, some sticking around only until I bumbled my way through reading aloud the EON Award winners, others only appearing afterwards. Not as impressive a turnout as the London meet perhaps, which had well over 100 attendees, but a great crowd nonetheless.

I have to give out massive thanks to Nicoli Voldkif who dutifully drove me all the way to and from Harrisburg (I have no memory of the return journey, though I gather I was fully asleep for most of it), also to Xeserox from Eden Underground Radio who traipsed from New Jersey and left only with a drunken interview of me swearing loudly and talking only small ammounts of sense. I’d also like to mention Manasi, who squeezed every bit of life out of his notebook to get EVE running at 7fps and thus managed to have a mining op going during the meet, making him the only player to leave the pub with more money than he went in with.

Congratulations, of course, to the winners, whom I will be contacting in-game soon so we can get the awards mailed out – a process that may take a month or two, since we’re still waiting for the trophies to be made up. I shall of course be thinking ahead to the nominations for the 2009 awards, which may be decided by a secret council (of trusted EON contributors) which will hopefully convene around Fanfest time… giving me plenty of time to defeat this hangover.

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.

let primary voting commence

From the EVE Player News Center:

The voting page for the E-ON Awards is now up. For anyone who doesn’t know what the awards are all about, just think of them like you would any collective backslap, except the nominees were all suggested by the players rather than some obscure academy council. Bear in mind that whilst we call them the 2008 awards, you are voting for the best corps, alliances, sites and personalities from last year.

Voting will stay open until March 2nd (midnight GMT) with the winners announced on April 5th at two player meets, one in London the other in Philadelphia. Results will of course be published in the next issue of the magazine and the winners will, should they desire it, receive one of these really very gorgeous laser-etched trophies. Here’s a reminder of who won first time around.

Good luck to the nominees – and please vote safe.

The E·ON hype train rumbles on. Next stop… who knows :)