Right now in Reykjavik CCP Quant and CCP FoxFour are in the middle of a presentation, and they are showing a new CREST endpoint, which returns aggregate statistic data for your characters. For example, you will now be able to see how much damage your toon dealt last year, and how that compares to a year before! Of course this applies to a range of possible metrics, including, but not limited to:
number of ships built
number of BPOs researched
number of pod kills in wormhole space
number of characters typed in chat
number of stargate jumps in high security space
damage your character dealt with projectile weapons
number of times your toon was tackled
many, many more
Ready to see how you did in 2014?
Just open this page and follow instructions: https://pozniak.pl/yearly-stats (by the way this app is mobile device friendly).
Feel free to check Bellatroix and Aaeriele projects as well. They have pretty graphs!
A few weeks before Fanfest 2015, CCP FoxFour asked on forums if there are any third party devs who would be willing to work on a “secret project”. Few familiar faces turned up, and after some time three web apps have been built:
Unfortunately due to RL I was only able to work on my prototype app for several hours, but it has the core functionality of showing the most interesting statistics in a readable way 😉
Now speaking about the technical details, this new endpoint will be available as authenticated CREST, which means you have to use SSO mechanism first to obtain a Bearer Token (see this news item about authenticated CREST for reference). Only then it is possible to access these new endpoint on the CREST API server. Data itself is returned as a JSON object, so using it in JavaScript and PHP is trivial.
As usual, CCP releases a lot of information regarding the next expansion for EVE Online at Fanfest: the big annual event in Iceland, where players can meet devs in person.
Those of you who actually managed to go to the Fanfest, know the information below already. Those who are not so lucky (including myself) might want to read this post about changes to criminal mechanics. Bear in mind that nothing is “set in stone” and is subject to change. To sum up the proposed flag changes:
Players will see all aggro timers and will know when it’s safe to log off
Remote assisting will now give 60 second no jump/no dock timer. It will keep resetting until assist is stopped.
Reduce performance issues
New “suspect” flag
Minor crimes. Anyone can shoot you without penalty.
Flipping a can for example
Anyone assisting a suspect becomes a suspect
Criminal Flag
Just like current GCC
Killing someone makes you a criminal
Concord will now instantly destroy your ship instead of spawning multiple CONCORD vessels
CCP has not yet considered delays of CONCORD response in high sec related to security status
CCP is considering warp scrambling the offender first, then instant destruction of the ship after X seconds
Sec Status
Security status for ship killing will only bring character to -5
Pod killing will bring ss further down to -10
Killing someone with positive ss will decrease your ss
Killing someone with a negative ss will give bonus to your ss
Possible to trade in criminal tags to CONCORD for ss increase.
It will be possible to kill a -5 character without penalty in low sec
Killmails
Adding more information to battle reports including remote assistance
More data in the EVE API
Killmails for self destructing
Killmails for reinforcing structures
DUST – EVE link
Yesterday CCP has also presented a keynote about DUST 514. One of the important things is the ability to make orbital strikes by EVE Online players, which will affect DUST players. DUST bunnies are not defenseless though, there will be surface batteries capable of blowing up ships in orbit as well.
Feel free to visit the forum thread about DUST 514 keynote, which has been started by CCP Navigator. Before you do, however, I really recommend you these two videos:
PS. Real time SD stream from Fanfest is available here: http://fanfest.eveonline.com/en/stream/free. You can also buy a HD stream access for as much as 1 PLEX. This will grant you two Quafe 2012 t-shirts for your avatars and a limited edition ship: Iteron Mark IV Quafe Edition.
I am neither a psychology nor sociology professional. I am merely an observer, but I try to keep a close watch as much on myself as on others. Most players agree, that massive multiplayer games are addictive (this is one of the bases on which online games business is built). Two main factors account for the addictive effect:
it takes time to achieve goals in the game,
people socialize and form online friendships in the game,
It’s the second factor, which dominates for most people. Leaving a game is hard not because of the game itself, but because it will most likely sever the connection with the people one was playing with.
This is one of the reasons CCP and other online game developers strongly encourage people to join player-owned corporations and other kinds of groups. Some players who know about this psychological effect of MMO games try to limit their engagement with other players, to limit the amount of time spent in the game.
I was at this stage once, only doing skillchanges, PI production and manufacturing in EVE, talking to my old colleagues, but not actively playing with them.
At some point I have started my own blog, which was a natural place to write about my hobbies, including EVE Online. This introduced me to a yet another part of the EVE community, a bit more loosely connected than inside a corporation, but at a somewhat higher level. You most likely have heard about Chribba, haven’t you? Is he known for things he did in game? The answer is NO. He is famous because of his online tools he have developed and actively maintains, performing an excellent service for the playerbase. You have probably also heard about an individual called Somerset Mahm, who is currently maintaining one of the biggest flash lottos in EVE (this service is known as “SOMERblink“). Again, he is not famous for his in-game deeds, but rather for his out-of-game service. This is what is known as emergent gameplay.
Emergent gameplay refers to complex situations in video games, board games, or table top role-playing games that emerge from the interaction of relatively simple game mechanics.
More recently game designers have attempted to encourage emergent play by providing tools to players such as placing web browsers within the game engine (such as in EVE Online, The Matrix Online), providing XML integration tools and programming languages (Second Life [and EVE API]), […]
Emergent gameplay is often called as “metagaming“, but for the sake of accuracy, metagaming is a broader term, including emergent gameplay, but also strategies and tactics based on understanding of game mechanics and/or real life knowledge and experience, rather than in-character knowledge.
Blogging is a bit less pronounced than performing services for the playerbase, but is also a part of the emergent gameplay experience. Initiatives like #tweetfleet on Twitter, EVE News 24, Blog banter or EVE blog pack are just a few examples of how blogging enriches emergent games such as EVE Online, performing a service both to the community, but to the developer as well.
So, how “social” adds to all this?
Pretty social graph!
Socializing is anything that introduces human interaction: be it PVP, discussing on the forums or writing your own blog.
Blogging, metagaming and using social networks creates just one more social ring to the already established “corporation” and “alliance” ones. And this ring will get you in touch with individuals considered celebirties of EVE, but with the CCP employees as well. If you are not on Twitter yet, I really recommend registering an account and adding the #tweetfleet channel to favourites.
Plus, you are more likely to go to the Fanfest. Why? To meet these excellent people in person obviously. Since most bloggers are on #tweetfleet as well, they create an international community. To get in touch, one must attend a global event, and Fanfest is just the most obvious one. Corp level meetings are mostly local (be it in players from the same country or continent at best). I have attended a local meeting of my corp, and actually enjoyed it. Having out of game fun with people I spent a lot of time online, playing EVE, killing stuff and chatting on Teamspeak, was a refreshing experience. It allowed me to get to know their “offline” side better, making even closer friends. Unfortunately, no one from my corp ever went to Fanfest. Being a part of the blogging community, I now have a real reason to actually go to the Fanfest and get to know other excellent bloggers, and CCP devs as well.
Obviously, this is very tempting, but “real life comes first” rule will prevent me from going to Iceland. As much as I’d like to go, my RL obligations (work, family) keep me occupied (and I actually enjoy it; boredom is such a nasty thing!). And it’s worth mentioning, that blogging about a game is just another layer to the addictive quality of online games (I would stop playing, but what happens to my webiste then?).
Limited spare time leads to another fundamental question: “To write about EVE or to play EVE?” But this is a topic for another post.
