Fanfest & Birthdays! - New Eden Turns Teenager!

Another year has come and gone for New Eden, with today marking the thirteenth anniversary of the release of EVE Online.

For over a decade now, time and time again our community has completely destroyed the assumptions and expectations of what a massively multiplayer game should be. Year on year the pilots who inhabit this incredible universe that we’ve all created together have continued to tread new ground, creating incredible player driver narratives, new challenges for CCP as developers, and some of the largest conflicts, wars and propaganda campaigns ever seen in gaming, along with amazing player created software, spectacular EVE videos and amazing support networks such as Broadcast 4 Reps.

Before we look at Fanfest and the 13^th Anniversary in a little more depth, let’s listen to a few important words from CCP Seagull, Executive Producer for EVE Online as she shares her thoughts on New Eden’s 13^th year!

After watching the latest video blog from CCP Seagull and starting to put together this blog, I also took a look back and charted my own journey with EVE, surprised at what I found and the sheer amount of nostalgia that came back as I retraced that journey and remembered all the events I’ve either been part of or have witnessed as a player in EVE over the last thirteen years.

From the Great Northern War to the blockade of Mara by m0o corp, the Zombies smartbomb attack on Yulai, the Rise and fall of NVA, CFS, Stain Alliance, Ascendant Frontier, Fountain Alliance, Xetic Federation, Curse Alliance, and many more.

The collapse of Band of Brothers, the advance then retreat of Red Alliance, the rise of GoonSwarm and their eventual collapse, only to be reformed again, all of these are stories that were written by the actions and aspirations of pilots in New Eden.

The list really does go on, in no particular order, with the loss of the first titan, affectionately named “Steve”, the rise of the Interstellar Starbase Syndicate, then their execution at the hands of a coalition of angry alliances lead by the Interstellar Alcohol Conglomerate when their neutrality was called into question.

The war for Providence that saw Ushra’Khan ousted from Unity Station in 9UY4-H, the Battle of Asakai, the Bloodbath of B-R5RB, and more recently the battle of M-0EE8 as the Moneybadger Coalition was formed and the collapse of Mercenary Coalition, who also recently reformed and returned to the fold.

These are all stories of political intrigue, conflict, betrayal, teamwork, loyalty and in some instances cluster wide war that have been crafted by the actions and interactions of our community, which form the very fabric of the living work of Science Fiction that is New Eden.

And so we come to 2016, with thirteen years of history behind us, and who knows how many stories yet to be told. Conflict continues to rage across New Eden, with more and more tools placed in the hands of our intrepid pilots each release to assist them with continuing to build their own empires.

From the simple miner who’s happy to spend their time seeking out and harvesting resources to fuel New Eden’s cycle of creation and destruction, to the coalition leader who commands fleets of thousands on a whim, we want to make sure we continue to expand and enhance the opportunities our pilots have to continue to create these amazing stories.

As we showed at Fanfest 2016… here’s a quick rundown of the last year in terms of features and content that have been added to New Eden:

Fanfest 2016

Speaking of both Fanfest and amazing stories, now that the dust has settled and we’ve all recovered from an epic Fanfest 2016, let’s take a look back at some of the highlights of what was an amazing event this year here in Reykjavik.

This year we had more player focused content than ever before at Fanfest, with presentations and roundtables from ExookiZ, Gnaeus Crassus, Steve Ronuken, Makoto Priano, Max Singularity and QuantumDelta to name but a few, who shared their experiences and stories with attendees and those watching from home via the o7 Live Stream.

Cosplay

Of course, presentations weren’t the only thing that our players managed to get up to during Fanfest. With the return of the Fanfest Cosplay Contest this year we saw some of the most creative cosplay yet at an EVE Event, and three lucky winners took home a considerable bounty of prizes.

A huge shout out to Sancta Bassilica, Gomby Roffo and Max Singularity who took away a bounty of prizes this year including PLEX, a GTX 970 video card, signed chronicle artwork and mentions in chronicles that will be written over the course of 2016.

Things got a little hairy in a couple of instances, with Fedos and rebellious Matari on the loose, but thankfully we were able to contain any diplomatic incidents this time around.

Pub Crawl

Each year when Fanfest rolls around, one of the highlights of the event is the annual pubcrawl around downtown Reykjavik. This year was no exception as our pilots rolled out in force across bars in the downtown area after starting out with beer and a Brennivín toast at Harpa.

Once again, as is traditional at Fanfest, pilots were able to raise a glass to interstellar conquest, before heading to the final destination of the night, Iðnó, to finish up the pub crawl with the best dance party this side of The Glittering Dream nightclub in Caille.

Amarr Championships

As well as being incredibly close to the 13^th anniversary of New Eden, Fanfest 2016 played host to one of the most important events in recent backstory, the finals of the Imperial Succession trials – The Amarr Championships.

Lysus lead a team of retainers for house Kor-Azor against Kelon Darklight, fronting his team for house Tash-Murkon. Fanfest saw a bloody best of five that went right down to the wire in the final match, with Kelon Darklight’s team claiming victory.

With the Amarr Championships now concluded, EVE players have yet again left their mark on the very fabric of New Eden, deciding the fate of an Empire and who will lead it for the foreseeable future, with the efforts of Kelon Darklight and his team of retainers securing the ascension of Empress Catiz I to the Golden Throne of the Amarr Empire.

In addition to the entertainment, pub crawl and more player focused content than ever before at Fanfest, we once again hosted the Fanfest Charity Evening, which by popular demand returned to Kolabrautin, the restaurant on the top floor of Harpa. There players and developers alike had the chance to share drinks, dinner and stories from New Eden.

Supporting the Charity Evening this year we had the traditional Fanfest Silent Auction, which contained more than fifty lots this year and raised more than $5,700 as part of the Fanfest 2016 charity drive.

When totaled up with the $10,430 that was raised by the charity evening, this gave us a grand total of more than $16,100 raised for Barnaspítali Hringsins, the Icelandic Children’s Hospital, during Fanfest 2016. We couldn’t be more proud of our players for this contribution to an incredibly worthwhile cause.

The Party on top of the World

I’d really love to try to explain this, but in this case “a picture is worth a thousand words” really is true.

Here’s a few from the Party on top of the World…

Thirteen years…

I remember the release of EVE, and expecting the game to last maybe a year or two. I remember thinking “an incredibly ambitious game made by a group of crazy Vikings from a country I’ve barely heard of… It looks interesting, I’ll play it while it lasts”.

Then I remember two years in thinking “I’m gonna start my own corporation, it looks like this is getting really serious…”

Eight years later and after many visits to Iceland, I boarded a plane in 2012 to come work full time for CCP after being a player, an ISD Volunteer, a CEO, a Fleet Commander, an industrialist, a miner, a PvPer and even a scammer in New Eden.

After thirteen years, EVE has gone from this:

To this:

In all that time, one thing has stayed the same. Always committed, never wavering, always hungry for more. More creation, more destruction, more conflict, more politics, more of a challenge.

Today we don’t just celebrate the thirteenth anniversary of EVE, we celebrate what makes EVE unique, intriguing and what keeps the cycle of creation and destruction flowing that forms the heart of New Eden.

That one thing is our community, who over the last thirteen years have taken EVE from strength to strength with incredible narratives of war, conflict, espionage, political drama and betrayal.

Paradoxically, in 13 years this amazing community has also raised over half a million dollars for charity, founded its own in game charities to assist gamers in need such as Broadcast 4 Reps, Care 4 Kids and The Best of Us, and has shown unbelievable support for each other both in times of need and during real world gatherings when rival pilots come together to share drinks and stories.

Granted, there have been a few ups and downs along the way and the odd bump in the road, but today EVE Online has never been in a stronger position to push forward and break new boundaries, and this is in large part due to the dedication, passion, creativity and tenacity of our community.

With citadels springing up across New Eden, we’re seeing the dawn of a new age of control over the cluster for our community, and there’s still so much more to come.

From everyone here at CCP Games, thank you all sincerely for an incredible thirteen years.

As we roll into year fourteen, and toward the 20^th Anniversary of CCP, here’s to many, many more ahead.

@CCP_Falcon

EVE Universe Community Manager