Brendan Drain
- Contributing Editor -
A long-time MMO-addict, northern-irish lad Brendan "Nyphur" Drain is a publicly respected member of the EVE Online community, with over six years of playtime under his belt. Brendan is Massively's resident EVE Online expert and writer of the weekly EVE Evolved column, published every Sunday evening. The column covers everything from guides and opinion pieces to commentary on game design and hints on preparing for upcoming expansions.
In addition to the column, Brendan covers EVE Online news, community events, general interest stories, and other posts. When he finds the time in his hectic schedule, he can sometimes be found writing features on game design topics or other MMOs he's playing.
Brendan Drain's Latest Posts
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EVE Evolved: The Battle for Caldari Prime
The empires of EVE Online have long and bloody histories that, until now, have been played out largely through fictional chronicles and in-character news posts. This week saw conflict erupt in-game between two NPC empires in the Battle for Caldari Prime live event. The neutral CONCORD faction has ...
Not So Massively: SimCity is not an MMO
Doubts were cast on SimCity's always-online requirement this week when a player managed to hack the game into playing completely offline despite developers saying it wouldn't be possible. Maxis General Manager Lucy Bradshaw also caught a lot of flack from gamers this week for claiming that the ...
EVE Evolved: End of an EON
This week we heard the disappointing news that EON, the official print magazine for MMO EVE Online, has officially closed down. The quarterly magazine first launched back in 2005 and may have been the first official magazine dedicated to a single MMO. The first edition was packed full of current ...
Guardians of Middle-Earth: A fun game doomed by its business model
The MOBA genre has exploded in recent years, with global giant League of Legends becoming the most actively played video game in the world and competitive tournaments getting more viewers than some televised sports. Today's MOBAs appeal to casual and competitive gamers alike, but until recently ...
Not So Massively: SimCity's launch fiasco, Victory's kickstarter
Fresh from its work on End of Nations, developer Petroglyph launched a Kickstarter campaign this week for its own online RTS Victory. The campaign hit $19,574 in the first five days but has a long way to go to hit its $700,000 target. SimCity's always-online DRM backfired spectacularly as launch ...
EVE Evolved: Do PLEX make EVE pay-to-win?
Several years ago, the subscription model was king and the mere mention of an MMO selling in-game items for cash was almost enough to cause a virtual riot. RMT was the devil, and players who bought swords or spaceships for cash deserved nothing short of a permanent ban. The past decade of ...
Not So Massively: Diablo III's console constroversy and Wrath of Heroes' shutdown
It's been a huge week for MOBAs, with the release of several new characters, a ton of balance changes, and even a game closing down for good. League of Legends announced that it will start officially supporting Mac and released a new Smart Ping system designed to help players work together as a ...
EVE Evolved: Making EVE history
EVE Online has the odd distinction of being one of the only MMOs in which the developers have almost no control over the active storyline. There have been plenty of fiction articles written about the game's backstory, and the NPC factions occasionally butt heads in short news pieces, but none of ...
EVE Online hits 500,000 subscribers, heads into second decade
Most modern MMOs launch to an initial flurry of sales followed by a steady decline in player activity, but sci-fi MMO EVE Online has lived life in reverse. The game initially failed to secure a large number of launch sales but has since grown organically into one of the most successful ...
Not So Massively: Path of Exile events, Diablo III coming to PS4, and huge MOBA updates
Blizzard revealed this week that Diablo III will be coming to both the PlayStation 3 and Sony's new PlayStation 4 console and will be shown off at PAX. Torchlight II developer Runic Games announced that the game will soon be localised to Japanese and Chinese for its upcoming release in Asia; a ...
