blatant name-checking

24 hours after returning from Fanfest (the MMM “Pub Team” like to drag things out for a few extra days), I find myself somewhat refreshed and reinvigorated, as I always do after coming back from the annual EVE pilgrimage in Iceland

As ever it was great to meet the real faces behind the pretend names who I’ve come to rely on to help me with the magazine: CrazyKinux has become a close ally and it was great to catch up with the Blog Pack leader as he launched himself from one presentation to the next like some fevered journalist (he was probably the busiest guy in the building). Yoshito Sanders was another EON stalwart it was good to be reacquainted with, who at least seemed more alert than when I last saw him, crashed out on the EON sofas at Fanfest last year. Fellow fictioneer The Cosmopolite offered a hand in friendship, which I was happy to shake, and, In fact, over the course of the three-day EVE extravaganza (of which I lazily attended two) it was a bumper year for name-checking: Alienhand, LaVista Vista, and Reiisha… just a few of the many legends I spoke with.

Sadly not everyone could come to the party, and given the 250,000 players who might have turned up, it’s probably a good thing they didn’t (although I suspect the economy would have embraced such a delegation). Notable absentees include the elusive Winterblink. Likewise Urban Mongral’s non-bounding about looking for his podcasting other-half also made the halls seem a little emptier …although my bar tab was lighter as a consequence. Thankfully there was an off-the-leash Midnighter happy to pick up the slack. An abiding memory of Fanfest V will be a vision of him, drenched in RoXoR love and cheap beer, clutching the neck of a smashed guitar. I trust he managed to get it back through customs.

It wasn’t the most hedonistic Fanfest, nor the busiest – American attendees seemed particularly thin on the ground, but from an EON perspective, it was among the very best. Aside from catching up with contributors, there was some big announcements – all of which are by now well known, but need careful pondering. For the next month, that’s pretty much what I’ll be doing.

if we don’t fight, they’ll kill us both

Sadly there hasn’t been much news from CCP on when or where the next Alliance Tournament will appear. I’m reminded of asking since it was this time last year that we headed over to Iceland to prepare for and broadcast the fourth of EVE’s inter-Alliance PvP contests (this was back when EVE TV was kicking its hooves in the tiny MMM stable).

Being a rather large and expensive logistical exercise, it’s not one I myself am keen to be involved in again, although I remember it with great fondness… as do the hundreds who took part and the thousands who watched it live. For the sake of that and for continuity though, I’m curious as to whether November’s Super Ultimate Eve Online Mining Tournament of Awesomeness is a welcome re-imagining of the Fanfest PvP Tournament, a financially necessary re-branding of the bi-annual telethon, or a conjugation of both?

Whatever the future of the Alliance Tournament, I do hope it continues in some form. Even if it means getting all the alliance leaders into a bear-pit and arming them with lirpas. (Daa-da dah dah da-dah…)

the crystal method

Welcome to the first entry in probably the 37th blog site I’ve started. This one should persist beyond a few weeks though, because whereas the others would meander dangerously into pointless obscurity, this one has a purpose in life – to inform and excite and generally spread the word of EVE, E·ON and other allied space-fictions.

To rush through the TLA-infested introductions; EVE is an MMO computer game made by CCP, E·ON is a magazine produced by MMM based on EVE, Zapatero is a character in EVE who edits E·ON for MMM (with lots of help from CCP), and I, RJS (Richie Shoemaker), have an AKA in EVE called Zapatero. Phew, I hope that clears things up. If not, over the course of a few weeks (at least), it will become like crystal. F’sure. Maybe.