michael, StE

There's a tech 1 blueprint original displayed in the Devblog, so it will be player-constructed from basic minerals. The BPO is going to be harder to get hold of than normal - Greyscale says it will be seeded on the market in the ORE corp's null-sec region.

Ankh, I thought you'd left EVE for Puzzle Pirates? What brought you back?

I believe the Damnatus 40k fan-movie takedown was due to a wrinkle in Gothic, erm, German copyright law that would have given the makers rights over the IP.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2007/11/when-fan-art-meets-ip-warhammer-40k-fan-film-slain-by-copyright-snafu.ars

@DrewIW: I believe one reason virtual arenas were dropped as a feature (from Apocrypha) was that the game can't deal with the concept of a virtual asset - to metaquote a dev (Torfi?) during Fanfest09: "Tranquility rejected our game design."

EVE's QENs (Quarterly Economic Newsletters), produced by the game's economist provide (ir)regularly updated graphs. The most recent one confirmed they had exceeded 300,000 active subscribers in September. The number is likely to have increased slightly since then, Dominion having been released in December, and the PCU having stepped up.

http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=707

I've not read anything about their retention %ages recently, so I've no idea how many accounts have been created in the game's lifetime. I do recall seeing some figures a number of years ago, and being surprised at the relatively high retention rates. Naturally, I can't find them now...

"It doesn't matter to me how many users it has; I'd play the game for as long as I have fun regardless."

So say we all. ;)

@Wensbane: the only two forum restrictions are the ones I mentioned - not at all in CAOD (which most sane players stay away from anyway) and not in public threads about Uni wars (they should be left for the diplomatic staff to deal with).

So there's relatively little sacrifice required. ;)

@Clb: the particular example you choose, of them "restricting" your right to post on the forum is the Uni making it a condition of membership that new pilots do not embarrass it on certain public forums and cause it political difficulties.

The Uni is a common target for wardecs. Poasting in EVE's CAOD forum (often described as an open sewer) or commenting ill-advisedly on threads about the Uni's wars is very likely to make things worse, and 1400 members will suffer for it.

Some of the rules the Uni asks its members to follow _are_ quite strict - those regarding times of war, in particular - but there is a reason for them. The Directorship didn't just wake up one morning and decided to rule over corpchat with an iron fist (Kelduum's occasional Sith references notwithstanding).

"I don't understand why so many people join"

Probably because the requirements (summary: "Be polite, don't be evil, don't poast, don't be deliberately stupid, take war seriously, listen to the directors") are far outweighed by the benefits to a new player of a community of enthusiastic, trustworthy individuals eager to help and provide advice. Pilots are expected to out-grow the restrictions and move on. That's not a bad thing.

@Electrobix: Hugs for the WoW players too, okay? :)

@MpDivo: "If scamming should be a part of the EVE universe, there should be some sort of penaltys or real risk that the player should run into. I disagree strongly that with the "Buyer beware" attitude many players take. That attitude doesn't work in the stock market, and it doesn't work in game. You have to have some sort of framework of laws for the market to work properly."

"Was this player even banned? "

No EULA violation, no ban.

The "cost" to Curzon is that the public will ever trust him again in business. He cashed in his notoriety and fame and turned it into a very large pile of ISK.

Of course, that's not really a punishment to this particular player, since he was leaving the game for real (so he says). But if he'd wanted to stay and do this again, he would have to create a fresh character and built up all that social currency again, without anyone publicly connecting his old char back to his previous incarnation.

Given the importance of social networking in EVE, I'd think maintaining the necessary secrecy that would itself need a fair bit of care along with the effort of grinding up the real business dealings necessary to go back to Market Discussions with enough credibility for a fresh heist. There is a "cost" but it is of social equity.

IPO Fraud is essentially a game of wits on the EVE MD subforum. At least three different groups of people seem to compete for attention, credibility and ISK. Players with genuine business deals and the ability to make a good return. Other players with genuine deals, but who lack necessary business skills and will lose all the ISK unintentionally. And the players presenting a good deal but intending to run away with the ISK.

Telling the difference between the three seems to be the key to making money from MD investments. Everyone engaging in it should be aware of risks - the forum is awash with healthy scepticism alongside the wishful thinking. "They may be lying to me" should be just one of the things a player takes into account when investing ISK.

If you're referring to the E-Bank/Ricdic schnannigans, I think his EULA-breaking RMT transactions were unwound and reverted.

E-Bank's real problem is that it was badly run on a variety of levels prior to Ricdic's final stomp on the eject button.

@Humbug, find a helpful player corp as soon as you can.

Consider EVE University (ticker E-UNI): over a thousand painfully cheerful newish players with organised classes, lectures, roams, forums, etc. Players must be pretty white-hat (no scamming, piracy, griefing) while a member or they will be asked to leave (occasionally with prejudice).

There's a lot of experienced people in there, herding the cats, doing good work. Most people find it a positive place to learn the ropes in EVE.

E-UNI is a "charitable" organisation in the midst of all that virtual hypercapitalism. It's quite a special place. :)

(Disclosure: I was a member once upon a time and, like many alumni, love the old girl).