The return of EVE TV

Whether you wish to call it 'The Next Generation', or 'Season 2' (or 3, or 4), or something else entirely (“Rip off! Sell-out!”), EVE TV is going all-out caps and making a return to the screen, and this time the guys behind and in front of the cameras will be bringing you a heck of a load more than just the bi-annual PvP Alliance Tournament.

Now you may be wondering why I'm relaying this news to you and not someone from CCP. Well, as reported in the latest E-ON, EVE TV is now a part of the MMM Publishing empire, who of course produce the aforementioned official EVE mag. For those fearful that EVE TV is going to become a stop-motion version of E-ON, let me reassure you that the aim is for something very different. To begin with at least, the goal is to offer the EVE community a weekly show of news, views and hot dev action, that you can watch at your leisure during moments when access to your favourite game may be limited – during downtime, for instance.

If you're vexed as to why MMM is picking up the tab and not CCP (after all, our EVE-making masters are not adverse to moving into new markets or media, as the EVE Store is ample evidence of), the answer is that, apart from averting the obvious calls to fix EVE before designing new T-shirts and opening a chain of pizzerias (the first of which is slated to open in 2008), it is hoped that under the casual glances of the MMM hierarchy, EVE TV can nurture a more vibrant, professional, inclusive and unbiased view of in-game events than might be possible were CCP given sole charge. EVE TV might not be warts-and-all, but it will be suitably nubbly to keep the CCP propaganda machine from feeling too smug with itself.

Unlike E-ON, which is more of a bridge between the EVErse and the real, EVE TV is going to be much more in the thick of it. Taking leads from a network of contacts and correspondents (and, of course, from the mired mists of the CAOD forum), EVE TV will have reporters filming battles, interviewing alliance leaders, with experts and commentators imparting their dubious wisdom. Back at EVE TV HQ, editing drones will be putting it all together into a weekly show that will feature hard-hitting news, light moments of banter, discussion with special guests and a few things that haven't been thought of yet… and if you have any ideas for what should – or shouldn't – be on the show, or questions regarding the broadcast, we'd like to hear them. Hell, maybe it's about time to light up the EVE TV forums again.

Currently the chaps are banging through ideas, discussing set designs and schedules, and it is hoped that EVE TV will be back on air sometime in June. Before that, the guys will be doing some early scouting for a preview show, so if you're high in the chain of command of whatever organisation you happen to kick about with, and you or your organsation are doing something news-worthy (and no doubt nefarious to boot), you may find an EVEmail in your inbox asking for an interview.

More info will be coming soon, and 'calls to arms' will be appearing in various places in the forums, but for now, some pearls of wisdom:

"No one can be free from bias, however hard they may try to compensate by applying professional standards of objectivity; for objectivity itself, subjectively appraised, must by nature be an unreliable yardstick" – Andrew Boyd

"Self-importance killed more journalists than booze." – some Canadian hack

"It's just a ride." – Bill Hicks