Reporting about Eve for outsiders

I like reading about games I do not play or intend to play, especially after action reports.
I think massively multiplayer online games (MMO) are under-reported to the general gaming public after the initial release. Reviews and articles about these games should deal not only with the gameplay features but also with the community of players: the added value of any game which gives it room to express itself. If two MMO with identical features were released, they would provide different experiences to their players depending on the state of their community.

Hence this article. Its purpose is to provide time-starved journalists or bloggers with a peek at the many sources of information they can rely upon when
- trying to decide if there are news about Eve Online fit to print and, if there are,
- writing the articles.


Eve Online is event-rich due to...
- its features and philosophy (sandbox approach in a single shard),
- its free expansions policy (regularly expanding its scope and depth) and
- the sheer size of its community (300,000+ accounts).


How it does concern non-Eve-playing readers:
Landscape-altering events happen every few months, be they developer-driven (introduction of new mechanics and objects, such as the wormholes), player-driven (space wars, financial news) or a mix of both (the Fanfest convention, player-versus-player tournaments). Newsworthiness is subjective but...

- the stories are exciting on their own
For example, 2009's most significant event in the world of New Eden, in my opinion, was the destruction of the Band of Brothers player alliance after one of its directors turned coat and joined their nemesis, the Goonswarm alliance. The ensuing invasion of "Fortress Delve" by a coalition of thousands of players and the end of this war made for an interesting epic to tell to outsiders, a story of conquest and revenge, loyalty and betrayal, cunning strategies and stupid moves.

- science-fiction talks about us
Science-fiction as a genre allows the exploration of themes and philosophies by addressing the limits of the concepts which define our existence. When the virtual bank Ebank encountered dire straits due to the betrayal of one of its directors, a NY Times article did draw parallels with the real world's bailouts.
In his 2007 book Exodus to the Virtual World: How Online Fun Is Changing Reality, Edward Castronova postulates that gaming design is going to affect public policy to some degree in the future. Whether this prediction comes true or not, an environment like New Eden (the game setting) can provide a basis for stimulating reflexions about the real world.

List of sources
official - First of all, when trying to report about Eve Online, begin the tour with an obvious but mandatory look at the game's homepage and/or Facebook.
The ebbs and flows of the "null sec wars" are summarized in very readable "CORPS" reports on the official forum. These reports are redacted by CCP and aim to be objective. Unfortunately, they are published with as much regularity (that is, not that much) as the Quarterly Economic Newsletter, also compiled by CCP and which reveals some economic data to the playerbase.
For more in-depth information about new features and projects, take a look at the Dev Blogs. Those are used by the developers to communicate their plans and ideas to the players.

blogs - Next stop is "Grand Blog Central", CrazyKinux's Musing. If CK (CrazyKinux) ever stops attending his site, another player might step up to assume its aggregating activities. For the time being, this is an excellent place to get an idea of the current vibe in the community. CK is at his most efficient when he gives a voice (and a link) to other creators of Eve-related content; check his selection of videos to begin with.
CK maintains the Blog Roll, a list of Eve-related blogs you might find useful to understand the range of activities available to the players in the game, from pirate or industrialist to "salvage thief" or explorer.
The Eve Online Portal is another aggregator of Eve-related content, including articles from Massively, a professional blog.
Sins of a Solar Spymaster is a series of articles written for the general gaming public about Eve.

video - The CCP Youtube channel is another place to go to. The videos they make display very little user interface and are generally short and to the point. CCP are very happy with the Butterfly Effect video they released and you can bet they will release other such videos, designed to explain the game to people who do not play it (and entice them into giving it a try).
Some player-made videos are remarkable. There is no shortage of links on the MyEve section of the official forum. Take a look at Clear Skies, for example; old video but good reference.

twitter - If you want to get an instant feel of the community, try the Tweet Fleet and, of course, the tags #eve or #eveonline.


Critical opinion
Everybody is trying to sell something. And how do you know they are lying? Easy, they are posting. For some "forum porn" or the latest dirt, direct yourself to unofficial forums: The Chatsubo (roleplayers), Scrapheap Challenge (griefers and gankers) and Kugutsumen (hackers and spies). Rants can also be found at the Eve Tribune ever week.
If you happen to be French-speaking, the forums are Mondes persistants and Jeux Online. If you speak other languages and would like to point me at the relevant sources, please feel free to comment.