Community Spotlight: Eveoganda

There is perhaps no MMO community which is as creative as any in the world. There are many who write about EVE Online. There are others who create wonderful EVE related art. There are people who do songs about EVE. And it doesn't even there. We also have people who help others in EVE by creating guides and other material. Plus there are people who put together fantastic events for players to participate in and have loads of fun.

Rarely is there someone who does all of these things, much less does them well. Luckily, EVE Online is blessed with one of these rare individuals. Rixx Javix is the man behind Eveoganda, a site that is a blog, a comic, a collection of guides, and much, much more.

Eveoganda is Born

Rixx Javix has been playing EVE for five years now. Always a creative person, Rixx has been writing online since the days before the Internet, back when everything was merely a series of BBs connecting distant people in small communities. By the time he had discovered EVE, he had already been a movie reviewer for one of the first online movie sites and had successful blogs on several other subjects.

However, he did not immediately think to share his experiences in EVE through a blog. Even when he discovered the thriving EVE blog community and became a regular reader, he did not initially consider the possibility of his own. Eventually, a confluence of his struggles as a new player with EVE's complexity, wars in Providence, and his eventual role in a nullsec alliance led him to decide to write his own blog.

He was initially hesitant on committing to it, because he knew he could not simply go in half-hearted. If he was going to do it, he'd have to put all his energy into it. Luckily for the EVE community, one of his other blogs was closing down and he began to feel like he might devote some energy to an EVE-related blog. He gave himself a goal to write every day he logged into EVE; if he played, he blogged. He kept to the challenge, eventually going beyond and writing even on days he did not log in.

For the majority of his first year, Rixx was part of an alliance called Libertas Fidelitas, one of the many Provibloc alliances at the time. He had worked his way up through the ranks, eventually becoming an approved FC and Covert Operations Director. However, he had an unofficial title as Ministry of Propaganda that really got his creative ball rolling.

He would provide propaganda-style posters and wallpapers in support of various wars on his alliance's forums. The reaction was extremely positive and some managed to leak out to various external entities. One piece, called “X Up for Defense”, was even picked up by EON Magazine. This was the genesis for the name of the blog, EVE + Propaganda = Eveoganda.

In the beginning, the blog was mainly about his adventures in EVE, his discoveries as a new player, and the artwork he was doing for the alliance.

Evolution

But Rixx's blog did not remain a simple blog and it was the artwork that started the gradual change. Players found his work so good that many of them began requesting original pieces of art. Many of them were willing to pay in ISK for the privilege of having a signature, poster, or banner made by Rixx. He saw an opportunity to avoid having to do any in-game money making by providing these services to other players and his blog was a platform to promote it.

As the years passed and the blog grew in popularity, his reasons for doing it and the power it started to acquire began to morph as well. He naturally became more and more involved in the larger EVE Community and, eventually, CrazyKinux, the originator of the EVE Blog Pack handed it over to Rixx when he retired.

Along the way, he added many more sections to the blog. There is the 1v1 Comic, of which 60 have been posted as of this blog. Born on the gates of nullsec, when comms chatter while waiting for hostiles to come through, the comic is a humorous look at what ships in EVE might say to each other if they could talk. Considering the nature of EVE, Rixx hopes the well of available humor will never end.

He began making maps when he was in Providence and created a PDF map of the area for his pilots that showed all of the inter-connecting jump bridges, as well as those of their enemies. When he moved to low sec, he realized he needed an easy-to-follow map that would help him conduct roams. He made it available to the public and it's been downloaded over 20000 times already.

Years ago, he created a series called “Gooder EVE” to help fill his love of open debate. The idea was to propose stupid, inane, impossible, but brilliant ideas that would make EVE “gooder”. He has been surprised to find many ideas make themselves into the game in some fashion throughout the years.

Two sections cover popular protests that he was involved in. One called “FRILL SEEKERS” chronicles the temporary loss and eventual recovery of the iconic frills from the Vagabond model. The other, “RJ's Twitter Hats”, is a montage of in-game avatars with silly hats created during the infamous “Summer of Rage”. Each of the avatars was created uniquely for individual players who requested them, some of whom continue to wear them to this day.

Art and EVE

Of course, Rixx is also quite famous for the large amount of EVE-related artwork he produces, as has been mentioned before. He is a professional artist and graphic designer and has found EVE lends itself well to creating fan-based art. What started as a number of pieces for his alliance quickly became popular enough that people were offering to pay him ISK for creating art for their own use.

Rixx has profited quite a lot from this venture, enabling him to play EVE with all his assets paid for by other players. He provides graphic services, in-game alliance logos, blog banners, and much more. At this point, he estimates he has created thousands of pieces of art based on EVE.

Of course, such popularity can frequently mean slipping deadlines. Luckily for him, EVE players have proven far more patient with him than they might with each other inside the game!

Free For Alls

But one of the things Rixx is most known for is his organizing the massively popular Frigate Free For Alls. Back in 2010 he came up with the idea of a DeathRace themed event in-game. He had never organized something like it before and had no real expectations. His corporation at the time, Dissonance, helped raise over 12 billion ISK in prizes from the community. Even though the event is small, it set the stage for bigger things.

Eventually the idea came to Rixx to hold an event geared toward PVPers that many people could participate in easily and without too much potential for risk. The Frigate Free For Alls were born. The events are geared toward younger players and gives them the chance to fight on equal terms with a wide variety of players they may never face in-game or otherwise.

Three have been held in the past 18 months, with another one planned for the near future. The most recent resulted in over 4000 explosions and the anticipation is the next will be even bigger! Rixx and his corp, Stay Frosty, are busy building and fitting 500 of each frigate to hand out during the event for free, so that those who run out or can't bring their own can still play.

About Rixx

Rixx has been playing EVE Online for over five years. He has traveled, fought, and been involved throughout all corners of New Eden. He has fought in many of the largest wars, invaded regions, started alliances, been part of many failures, founded corporations, and caused a few to collapse. About three years ago he discovered low sec and has been a criminal anarchist ever since. His current corporation, Stay Frosty, is what he believes to be the perfect, purest expression of the low sec lifestyle.

Maintaining a balance between his in-game presence and his out-of-game one can be his biggest challenge, as his work on Eveoganda and beyond can have an impact on the corporation in-game. Plus, his very public profile has lead to a reputation in EVE that can make it hard for him to get fights and other difficulties! However, he believes the positives far outweigh the positives.

Out of game, he is a creative marketing professional by trade and a writer by night. He has a wife, four sons, ten cats, and two dogs, all of whom keep him busy and full of energy. He's been gaming since the early days of Dungeons & Dragons. Despite being a life-long gamer, EVE is the one and only MMO he has ever, or probably ever will, play. He was an Adobe Photoshop beta tester and helped to found the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. He's written several movie scripts, one of which was nearly greenlit by MGM, and is currently working on a short film project. He's also helped shepherd hundreds of companies over the year, was once named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year, and is in his regional Advertising Hall of Fame.

Final Thoughts

You can follow much of what Rixx has done at Eveoganda. Some of you may have heard the wonderful parody song he created with Community Spotlight alumnus Sindel Pellion. If you haven't, you can see it here. A portfolio of much of his EVE-related artwork can be found here (warning; prepare to spend quite a long time looking through it!) And you can follow him on the Twitter @RixxJavix.

Rixx has said the EVE community, for all the stories about the negatives, has been filled with compassion, generosity, and good will. The community is a powerful force the frequently erupts into massive amounts of positive energy and support. The friends he's made, the fun he's had, the adventure, the challenges, the humor, and the sheer creative will of the players (and the developers) is a powerful thing that he is humbled to be a part of.

We here at CCP can't help but agree and are thankful we have players as dedicated to EVE as Rixx!